The Amish question a person’s age before allowing them to enter their church. Christians will know that you are baptized as a baby or toddler and is deemed an important rite of passage. But the Amish do things slightly differently. According to them, being baptized should be done with careful consideration and after much deliberation. It is a choice.
The Amish are not, contrary to popular belief, a cult. This boils down to the fact that the Amish allow members to choose if they want to join, or go out and mingle with the “English”. For this reason, the Amish do not baptize children – they feel that kids can’t make the conscious decision which will rule them for the rest of their life. The majority of Amish people are, in fact, baptized between the ages of 16 and 24.
Everyday Life
“It is very definitely a gray area, in fact, it is nearly black.” In an interview on ' Amish America' , an anonymous Amishman from Lancaster County offered some honest answers about life in the community. It's definitely interesting to hear the thoughts of a person who’s living the Amish life.
“For the most part, (Amish people) are oblivious to and nonchalant about the attention in the media given to us. It is assumed that the information is generally distorted to varying degrees. There is practically no desire amongst the Amish to make sure we only get good press. In other words, we don’t have any highly paid spin doctors.”
Flying the White Flag
The Amish are pacifists, and when it comes to the military, they are bundled into the conscientious objector group. You won’t see them enlisting any time soon.
Much like the Quaker community in Pennsylvania, the Amish are anti-violence. The community is focused on preserving the peaceful way of living they've created for themselves over the years.
Holy Approval
It makes sense that the Amish require quite a lot of time to consider things and make important life decisions; they have adopted a “slow” type of lifestyle, quite unlike our fast-paced technological modern society. Careful deliberation before making a decision is almost ingrained in the Amish psyche, and is often a decision that requires the acknowledgment and acceptance of the entire Amish community.
Dating, obviously, comes first, before getting engaged and then married – but not without the approval of the church and community. In saying that, there usually isn’t much red tape on the path to marriage. Once a man proposes, both he and his wife require the consent of the Amish church.
When “Running Around” Leads to More
In an interesting twist, it seems that this “Rumspringa” isn’t limited to a certain time – it is, in fact, an event that can last as long as the Amish person wishes. When teens are sent out into the world and allowed to experiment, you can imagine that some would be thinking twice about coming back. That’s the naturally curious ones, of course! You can imagine it would be extremely intimidating and difficult to live life so differently – the meeker spirits surely were running home after a couple of weeks.
Interacting with non-Amish people would seem strange, making these kids literal fish out of water. Some do indeed return to the community after a week, but others take the plunge and seem to enjoy the experience. It is not uncommon for some teens to spend years before they realize they want to re-join their family and community.