Most Amish kids have cell phones

At least once they turn sixteen, or so I learned from the recent DVD release The Devil’s Playground, a 77-minute award-winning documentary, which I rented at my local Hollywood video. An Amish ritual called “rumspringa” (“running around,” note that the link shows, among other things, Amish youth drinking beer) allows youths to sample the previously forbidden delights of the outside world to their heart’s content. At this age Amish youth start having wild parties (organized by cell phone), premarital sex, and often hard drugs as well. The Amish elders believe that the youth must be allowed to sow their wild oats, if they are ever to become good Amish later. One Amazon.com reviewer wrote:

I was not prepared to see a trailer full of Amish teens drugged up to their eyeballs right on Amish land. The Amish Rumspringa teens careen around and throw such wild parties that people come from all over America to attend. Apparently, it is well known (except by me) that “Amish kids have the best parties.”

Ninety percent of Amish youth later decide to join the church and give up such wanton ways. Never before in history has a higher percentage of the Amish remained in the fold.