The statistic that 90% of Amish kids choose to join the church is not surprising to me. Religion is something that is a big part of people's lives especially when the faith is a lifestyle as well. Children who grow up Amish have only known the Amish lifestyle. And that is saying more than it sounds. They are taught and raised on the foundation that the lifestyle of the Amish is the way to get into heaven, and that getting into heaven should be all that they work for in life. The lifestyle has to be difficult, as many of the people in the movie openly admitted. But they find it satisfying, as the one man said they just grow used to not having cars and television and such. People typically go with the ideas that they were raised on as children, and that is why 90% of people raised Amish join the church as adults. There are some who find it is not for them, but for the most part it is part of our nature to stick with what we know. I think it is really good that they have a choice in the matter because joining the Amish church is joining the lifestyle, I don't believe it is right for someone else to make that choice for you. Although I do feel bad for the kids in the time of Rumspringa because there is so much pressure on them to join the church from basically everyone they know and love in their lives. 16 is a very rough age for any person. They have a very big life decision to make at this fragile age, but then again so do most "English world" kids. We had to decide where we wanted to go to college, or if we even wanted to, where we would live, what our future career would be, and the list continues. I also feel bad for them since they are forced to leave school after 8th grade. This has to make the decision much less informed because they do not have a lot of the knowledge that comes from higher education, nor are they very capable to obtain in. Overall, I can see that is it tough, but I am glad they have a choice.
Also, the Amish church is not the only Christian church that baptizes later in life opposed to at birth.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
This sounds reasonable, Shannon, so it might be worth considering the flipside: how do we explain that 10% that is able (and desires to) break away from everything that they were raised with?
ReplyDelete