Amish og Rumspringa: En præsentation

Personal interest I think it’s a really interesting subject, because I think that it’s great how two cultures, or two living ways can live so close to each other without any further problems. So it’s possible to be different and It’s great that the Amish people can keep on living like they do, even though the world is changing so much against their religion. And when we watched the movie, The Devil’s Playground I got really inspired, because I think it’s great that the children have a choice. And it gave me a good insight in what Rumspringa is all about. I wouldn’t be able to live like an Amish person myself, or at least not for more than a couple of weeks, so it also kind of surprised me that, they are able to live without electricity, mobilephones, cars and so on. What is Rumspringa? Rumspringa means ‘’to jump around’’ and that is something the Amish teenagers do. When they turn 16, they can go live a normal life, like all the other teenagers in America. They go to partys, get drunk, some of them even try drugs. They kind of need to live a whole teenage life in just a couple of months or years. And the reason why someone just needs a couple months and some need 4-5 years out in the normal everyday, is because they can’t make the choice between joining the Amish church and keep living the normal American life. If they choose to join the Amish church and get baptized, then they can’t leave the Amish community again, and if they choose the American life, then they get shunned from the Amish church. Shunning When you get shunned from the Amish church your family won’t (in most cases) care about you anymore, and they maybe don’t want to see you anymore so that’s a hard choice to make. But it’s actually 90% who choose to go back to live the Amish life. What if you regret? If you regret your decision about leaving Amish, then it’s possible to join the Amish again, you just need to get baptized in the church. But, if you regret that you chose Amish, then you just can’t leave. So you really have to think about what you do. I’ve read a story about a man who left Amish, and he got shunned from the Amish church. He then went out and he got married and he got a child. But 5 years later, he found out that his mom had cancer, so he contacted his family and his mom wanted to meet his wife and child. She only met them once, before she passed away. In this case, the man got to see his family again, but in some cases, the family don’t want to see their child again. So this case kind of had a happy ending. My opinion