That’s a WAY higher percentage than any other segment of the church, protestant or catholic.

If they have been forced to live the sheltered amish life until the day of their baptism, they won’t really be making an informed decision.īut here’s the other wild and surprising thing about rumspringa: 80 – 90% of the teenagers return to the church, get baptized, give up their partying ways, and become fully-functioning members of the church. The idea behind rumspringa, then, is that these post-teenagers have to know what their choosing between. In other words, amish children are not really considered part of the church, because they are not considered old enough to make their own conscious choice. It’s a wild and surprising practice, born out of a staunch Anabaptist belief that the Christian life is one that each individual must choose, completely on his or her own. At the end of their rumspringa, the young adults are expected to choose whether or not they will be baptized into the church and become fully amish (theoretically, and normally, for the rest of their lives). Many (not all) of the kids on rumspringa, party like crazy, experimenting with alchohol, tobacco, drugs and sex (along with motorized vehicles, cell phones, non-amish clothing, pop music, and all the other things normal teenagers experience).

But, however I heard about it, I was intrigued enough to buy it and read it!Ī big of backstory: rumspringa is the old older amish practice of allowing their older teenagers (from 16 years-old, for 2 to 5 years) to experience the world. I think it might have been one of those “amazon suggests” things. I can’t remember how I heard about this book. RUMSPRINGA: TO BE OR NOT TO BE AMISH, by tom shachtman

Rumspringa to be or not to be amish