Growing Up Amish: The Rumspringa Years

393 Pages·2014·3.24 MB·English

by  Stevick

Young Center Books in Anabaptist & Pietist Studies
Donald B. Kraybill, Series Editor
:
Growing
Up
Amish
second edition
The Rumspringa Years
Richard A. Stevick
Johns Hopkins University Press
Baltimore
© 2007, 2014 Johns Hopkins University Press
All rights reserved. Published 2014
Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper
2 4 6 8 9 7 5 3 1
First edition published as Growing Up Amish: The Teenage Years, 2007
Johns Hopkins University Press
2715 North Charles Street
Baltimore, Maryland 21218-4363
www.press.jhu.edu
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Stevick, Richard A., 1939–
Growing up Amish : the Rumspringa years / Richard A. Stevick. — Second edition.
pages cm. — (Young Center books in Anabaptist & Pietist studies)
Earlier edition has subtitle: the teenage years.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-1-4214-1371-6 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN-13: 978-1-4214-1372-3 (electronic)
ISBN-10: 1-4214-1371-X (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 1-4214-1372-8 (electronic)
1. Rumspringa. 2. Amish teenagers—United States—Social life and customs. 3. Amish
teenagers—United States—Social conditions. 4. Amish teenagers—Religious life—United
States. 5. Amish—United States—Social life and customs. 6. Youth—United States—Social
life and customs. I. Title.
E184.M45S75 2014
289.7092—dc23
[B] 2013033889
A catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.
Frontispiece: These teenagers take advantage of their increased freedom to play in a girls’ evening
softball league in Holmes County, Ohio. (Mike Schenk / Wooster (OH) Daily Record)
Special discounts are available for bulk purchases of this book. For more information, please
contact Special Sales at 410-516-6936 or [email protected].
Johns Hopkins University Press uses environmentally friendly book materials, including
recycled text paper that is composed of at least 30 percent post-consumer waste,
whenever possible.
To our grandchildren:
Katherine, Allison, Zahra, Kavitha, Wesley, David,
Wyn, Madelaine, and Brendan
:
This page intentionally left blank
Contents
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xv
Chapter One
Amish Life: Plain but Not So Simple 3
Chapter Two
Religion: Transmitting the Faith 25
Chapter Three
Adolescence: Building an Amish Identity 47
Chapter Four
Schooling: Read’n, Rite’n, ’Rithmatic—
but Shunning Darwin 69
Chapter Five
Parenting: Holding On and Letting Go 89
[ {
viii Contents
Chapter Six
Teen Culture: Working Hard and Having Fun 125
Chapter Seven
Singings: The First Step to Independence 155
Chapter Eight
Rumspringa: Stepping Out and Running About 175
Chapter Nine
Courtship: Looking for Love 211
Chapter Ten
Weddings: High Times in Plain Places 241
Chapter Eleven
The Future: Keeping Faith in a World of Change 275
Epilogue 299
Notes 311
Bibliography 349
Index 361
Preface
If they still take us back after being on television,
they’ll take us back no matter what we do.
—Mose Gingerich, from Amish in the City
When I began this revision of Growing Up Amish in January 2012, a
number of friends expressed surprise that I was working on this
project less than a decade after the original edition came out in early 2007.
“After all,” they asked rhetorically, “what significant changes could occur
among Amish youth in a few years?” Admittedly, much appears to be the
same as it was even a decade ago: children learn to work hard early on, they
complete school by the age of fourteen or fifteen, and a year or two later they
begin their Rumspringa, that brief period of comparative freedom for Amish
youth to date, seek a mate, and explore the outside world before they choose
or reject the Amish faith and culture. Most eventually do join the church,
find a “special friend,” and “settle down” to become the latest generation
to embrace the Amish way, just as their parents, grandparents, and genera-
tions of other forebears did. Yet other things have changed with the Youngie,
as Amish youth are known, in a relatively short time, and this revision will
provide some answers to my friends’ questions.
One of the events that led to this revision was that my editor at Johns
Hopkins University Press, Greg Nicholl, was intrigued by an article that he