Not to be outdone with somewhat intellectual sounding movie choices, I recently watched this movie called “the Devil’s Playground.” The following is a decent summary about the movie:

Given the choice, how many young people would endure eighteenth century religious strictures when they could indulge in twenty-first century pleasures? Amish youth are given just such a choice. On turning 16 they are turned loose to experience the outside world until they can decide whether or not to commit to a lifetime within the community. With this freedom comes full-blown teenage mayhem coupled with the profoundest spiritual dilemma - a brutal combination. DEVIL’S PLAYGROUND follows four Amish teens through this experience and is the first film to get inside the Amish community, revolutionizing our understanding of this unique American subculture.

Though I did not find this to be the best documentary I have ever seen, it was a very interesting look into Amish culture.This experience strikes me as very similar to a person from an isolated section of a 3rd world country, who comes the United States to live. Basically you arrive in the United States usually without your parents, to work or go to school, staying with friends or relatives. Many people are quickly overwhelmed with the temptations that are now made available to them (drugs, alcohol, etc) . These experiences scare some people enough to go back to their homeland in search of security and a sense of “belonging.”

It seems to me that that the one of the reasons Amish kids return to the Church might be because they are let loose at a young age to experience potentially bad things without guidance. As the world has become more developed, these “evil” things are more easily obtained and the experiences of the “English” world might be far more intense then ever before. Personally I think that the children are so overwhelmed with the options they have they don’t know what to do (especially growing up in an environment that seems to control their every move). This leads to a high probability of running back home for comfort and security.