I watched a documentary the other day entitled, Devil's Playground. It centered around a few Amish youths when they reached the age of 16. Once all Amish youths reach this age of maturity, according to their church doctrine, they are let loose for an indefinite period of time to experience the world. This time period, called Rumspringa, can last from just a few months to several years. During this span of time, some Amish youths go all out and experiement with drugs, alcohol, sex, etc. The parents do not interfere with this rite of passage, and some still allow their children to live at home during this rite. As is shown in the film, most parents allow their legally underage children to host massive parties on their property during which copius amounts of alcohol is consumed. Some of these parties can have as many as 1,500 kids come in from states all over.
Something that I was unaware of was that children CANNOT be baptized into the church prior to their 16th birthday. This is also the primary reason for the church's break from Europe centuries ago. The Amish believe that infant baptism is wrong. Only an older, mature person can make a choice to belong to the church. Other things that they believe in include - no wedding rings(the men grow a beard to display that they are married), no official churches to congregate in(they meet in each other's homes every other week on Sundays), and NO centralized Amish "organization," to name just a few.
As we all know, most jw kids will end up leading a double life to please their parents and also to partake in the normal growing up period of their teens. I found it quite interesting that even though Amish parents realize what their children are doing once they begin rumspringa, they do not cast them out or disown them for going against the basic tenets of the church. But rather, they understand that they need to get this out of their system and will make the right choice later on. In the film, most of the teens knew that what they were doing was wrong and that they instinctively knew deep down that they would go to hell if they kept up with their debauchery. The film also states that the church has a 90% retention rate among their children. I wish that the Society would publish what the current rate of retention is within the organization today among youths. I imagine it is not quite as high.
To anyone who hasn't seen this documentary, I would recommend it. It even touches on shunning within the church and when the shunning takes place. I will not divulge anything more on that topic. Looking back though, the one fundamental teaching of their church that I found most mind blowing was allowing their children to experience the "world," or going "English," as they put it. I feel that if the witnesses were to do the same thing with their children, there would not be such a hemorage of youth in the organization today. As it is, jw youths have to hide everything they do which only increases the guilt placed on their consciences. If they were allowed to experience the world in a normal way as other young people do, they would probably see the error of their way and return to the faith. But no. Instead, they are prodded to get baptized at the earliest age possible, suppress their natural urges and desires, and to maintain perfect harmony within the organization selling as many books and magazines as possible.
One more item....during courtship, the two courting are allowed to share a room overnight. Try finding a set of jw parents which will allow THAT to happen.