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It's very disturbing the way that they give up their moral responsibility as parents and has really altered my view of "the quiet people".

But it sounds like the parents were discouraging her. They told her she was never to wear jeans again. Try that with your daughter sometime.

Reading the story I was somewhat surprised that the Amish kids were "cop magnets". The reason given was that unguided buggies would run red lights. But I suspect that something else is at play. I wouldn't be surprised if the police are encouraged (maybe even money under the table) to bust the kids if they get out of line. Getting a bad taste of the Yankee world could give Amish teens an incentive to stay with the flock.

Rumspringa makes perfect sense. If they are exposed to the outside world but manage to resist the temptations, they will be better off because they will have known what they were giving up. But if they are to leave the community it's better to find out when they are young rather than after they have joined the church.

I would recommend seeing the film to decide for yourself. I think the people in the movie were authentic, but I don't necessarily believe this is representative of ALL of Ahmish culture.

"Rumspringa makes perfect sense. "

I have to disagree.

I actually used to really admire not just the Ahmish, but also some of the offshoots of these religions or world-views (whatever you want to call it). The parents in this film knew that their 16 and 17 year old boys were involved in pornography and narcotics and they walked away from it as though it was their own rite of passage - as though it were providence - and they, as parent's, could do nothing to combat it. I think that's cowardly and morally wrong.

When I was 16 I did some damn stupid stuff, and I needed to hear about it from my parents. I was lucky that my folks cared enough to cuff me and put me in my place.

My family is predominantly Roman Catholic, but we did have a branch that shot off 2 generations ago and became involved with the Society of Friends. As I was growing up I really admired their "quiet way", the calmness and the communal sense in which they lived. They were also pacifists - true pacifists, not this secular humanist nobler than thou kind of pacifist that we have on the left today.

Today, after 9-11, I no longer admire pacifism in any way, even as a part of a person's genuinely deep moral philosophy. This extends to protecting one's family, whether they be threatened by from the outside or not wishing to talk to your teenage son for driving the buggy while being 3 sheets to the wind.

"If they are exposed to the outside world but manage to resist the temptations, they will be better off"

Teenagers need to be protected from their own stupidity. They take chances anyway and that is natural and normal, but they need guidance. Even if it takes 5 or 10 years for it to sink in.