Rumspringa - Teens Gone Wild!

[DeWayneTN]

Have you heard of this? At the age of 16, kids who have grown up in the Amish lifestyle are given the go-ahead to party like it's 1999 while they decide once and for all if they're going to be a part of the church. I thought it was fascinating when I first heard about this.

The documentary "Devi's Playground" focuses on it, too, following some kids who've chosen to forsake the Amish lifestyle for a season and then return (some don't). They drink like fish, sleep around and do/deal drugs. Can you imagine being the parent of a 16 year-old and standing by to let them sow those seeds, hoping they return and hoping they don't make a choice that's irreversible.

At the end of the documentary, they say that 90% of the kids wind up joining the church after that.

[PastorDaniel]

Yep...some of them was on a reality show like surreal life or something...and they even had a Cold Case episode about it...

The danger is that many are so Naive that they don't understand the danger in what they're doing...some get really hurt...

[crispfin]

My mom saw the documentary and was telling me about it the other day. Interesting...I guess I'll check it out.

[DeWayneTN]

What stood out to me was that 90% of the young people decide to go ahead and join the church after that. That's interesting. What if, at the age of 16, you told your children "you have X months to decide if you want to be a part of this or not" and from that point on, their faith is completely up to them?

[cndlou]

I think it would have been pretty cool to have that choice... I grew up with extremely strict COGOP parents... Today, I don't hold to some of their views but as a teenager it would have been nice to have felt I had a choice... I didn't feel that way until much later in life... Isn't one of the stipulations, if you decide to "stay in the world"... that you no longer have a family...they disband you or something??? I don't know that I would have or do care for that very much....

[crispfin]

What stood out to me was that 90% of the young people decide to go ahead and join the church after that. That's interesting. What if, at the age of 16, you told your children "you have X months to decide if you want to be a part of this or not" and from that point on, their faith is completely up to them?

The 90% really does stand out. I guess if you go full on hedonist for a while the old school life looks mighty attractive.

[DeWayneTN]

Another weird thing is they're not just giving up sex, drugs and rock n roll to get back in, but their cars, electricity, all the modern conveniences. It's like getting in a time machine to the future then deciding to go back and live in the past again or something. They spoke to one Amish adult and he said he still missed his car and his music.

[dolfan]

Weird. But, from this perspective, I can sorta kinda get it --- they haven't been inculcated with pop culture and all that's in it during their whole lives. The transition for them is so much more....stark. It's almost a reverse scared straight approach. Not that I think it is a good idea, and I'm not buying into the numbers yet. But, I can see why the numbers might be much higher for returning to the Amish life than if you put a bunch of evangelical kids from mainstream culture into that lifestyle for a month or whatever. Of course, I don't anyone who's done that in such a methodical way, so it is hard to say what kids we know would do, isn't it?

[DeWayneTN]

According to one website, the act of shunning may have a lot to do with it:

Some 80-90% of Old Order Amish return to the church after rumspringa. This is an unusually high retention rate. Some would argue that this occurs because of the attractive quality of the simple Amish life. However, this is a bit naïve. Some suggest that the retention rate is high because Amish teens are ill-equipped to enter and thrive in the modern world on their own (since they will be ostracized by their family). Shachtman suggests that one strong reason for the high retention rate may be that the decision to join the Amish church is a safe decision – a decision that seems to, at least initially, relief the fears of an unknown future.

Amish youth know very well that joining the church is an irrevocable act having multiple weighty consequences. They may actually join because they seek that irreversibility, because they want to end the stress and ambiguity that will otherwise continue for them in the outside world. By joining, they acquire and affirm an already existing set of values—a hierarchy of values, set by the church but with which they agree—that enables them to eliminate possible confusion about value choices, such as whom to marry, how to worship, where to live, and what degree of independence from parents to exercise. Making the one big decision of returning home and being baptized in the church releases Amish youth from the need to agonize over many other decisions. (268)

http://www.theocentric.com/personal/rea ... ringa.html

[PastorDaniel]

Well...I know that there's been times that I thought I'd like to go back in time and be without all the modern headaches...or...uh...conveniences

I could imagine that it is a HUGE culture shock...I read that some choose NOT to go on rumsprings...it's too scary...

[cndlou]

I think my problem with a little taste would be... clothes and car... I don't think I would want to go back to those drab clothes they wear... They probably wouldn't let me back in cause I would have missed the marrying age by about 20 years...

[Dr. Ron]

This is like my grandchildren who have never tasted or been exposed to processed sugar in any form, no processed meats, flours, etc.
They have grown up on organic foods. If they were allowed a "happy meal", it would likely make them very ill. They would most likely want to return to their tofu.

Although Diane and I grew up in a very stick atmosphere, we still were very much a part of our world,,,,at school, at work, where ever.

So, I can see where these kids would opt for the way of life they came from.

[Steve]

I have seen this documentary, and have done a little study on it. It is important to remember that not ALL Amish communities observe this practice. There is another practice called "bedding" where an engaged couple get to sleep together before marriage, but the male is put in a "body sock" to prevent sexual contact. Not all communities observe this either.

I have been around a lot of Mennonite folks, and I am quite sure none of them do the Rumspringa thing. Most plain folk I know would not condone such activity to the level displayed in the film. Amish and Mennonite communities are pretty much autonomous...kind of like a Baptist congregation. There are some similarities in communities, like plain dress, but the colors allowed, the extent to which modern conveniences are allowed, etc. is decided by the elders of the individual communities.

I also thought the only way the youth were shunned is if they agreed to join the church and THEN went back into the world after making that decision (looketh back from the plow.....literally!). I thought that if they made the decision to leave the community of their own will, they could still have contact with the family.

[pastorables]

, but their cars,

http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=5233432

Check out the horse buggy with the sub-woofers... it's hilarious!

pa