PHILADELPHIA, USA - Amish communities and other isolated religious colonies are thriving by persuading their children to continue their largely preindustrial ways and remain with their churches, according to a new study.
The Amish, the largest of four ``Old Order'' groups examined, keep more than 75 percent of their children in the fold, according to the study.
Hutterites, the nation's oldest rigidly communal Protestant order, persuade more than 95 percent of their young to remain in the large agricultural communes located mostly in the northwestern United States and western Canada.
``Simply making babies will not ensure growth,'' said Don Kraybill, co-author of the study. ``Children must be persuaded to stay with the church as adults. And the surprise is that they are.''
Results from the 10-year study have been compiled in a book published this month, ``On the Backroad to Heaven'' (Johns Hopkins University Press). It is billed as one of the most extensive studies ever conducted of the Old Order religious groups.
Kraybill, a sociologist at Messiah College in Pennsylvania and co-author Carl F. Bowman, a professor at Bridgewater College in Virginia, spent time living among the groups, attending worship services and working beside them in barns.
The believers they studied were the Amish, Hutterites, Old Order Mennonites and strict Brethren. The first such groups settled in Pennsylvania in the early 1700s. These are traditionalist branches of a broader movement that traces its roots directly back to the Anabaptists of 16th century Europe.
The four Old Order groups make up a fifth of the 550,000 adults in the nation's Anabaptist-related churches; the other four-fifths are Mennonites and Brethren who are largely indistinguishable from the rest of society. Like their cousins the Baptists, both the strict and modern groups baptize only youths and adults. But unlike Baptists, they are committed to pacifism and nonviolence, refusing to serve as police or soldiers.
One reason for the Old Order groups' success in retaining young members is that these religious communities have created an out-of-the-mainstream culture - with distinctive dress, customs and sometimes even language - which is difficult for children to escape.
``It's a real culture shock,'' Kraybill said. ``Leaving is not only hard because they would be so isolated from their parents, friends and family, it's also like a foreign country.''
Except for the Brethren, all the groups studied speak a Germanic dialect for everyday life and in worship services. Except for the Brethren, children are separated from outsiders in private schools, which typically end after eighth grade.
Amish youth must join the church before they can marry. Farmers pass down property to their children only if they remain in the church. In addition, all but the Brethren shun members who leave.
Young people socialized into such a different cultural world ``really have no other option,'' an ex-Amishman was quoted as saying in Kraybill's book.
But to prosper, the Amish, Hutterites, Old Order Mennonites and Brethren have intertwined compromises with restrictions. They allow technology that furthers growth - modern medicine, for example - while prohibiting that which they believe tears the groups apart - television, radios and most telephones.
Sometimes, Kraybill said, those can appear conflicting to outsiders.
``Each group draws a line in the cultural sand, and once drawn, it impacts future decisions,'' the authors wrote. ``Was it electricity, the car, or the telephone that would speed things up and usher worldly influences into the home?''
For example, the Hutterites live in agricultural communes, with only the leaders having contact with outsiders. But they own million-dollar farms using CB radios, telephones and fiber-optic lines to boost productivity.
The Old Order Mennonites allow tractors in the fields, but the machines must have steel wheels so they cannot be used for transportation on roads. The Amish, who have probably the most interaction with outsiders, forbid tractors - possibly to help buttress the last barrier to the outside world, Kraybill said.
The compromises and restrictions have had at least one result: These four groups have almost completely avoided societal maladies such as drug abuse, alcoholism, divorce and child abuse.
``I think in many ways they torment mainstream Americans'' because they seem to thrive without most of the conveniences that mainstream culture relies on, Kraybill said.
``We worry maybe they are really happier than we are or maybe they really are doing better socially and mentally than we are.''