Amish in Pennsylvania

[Rick Duncan]

--- sandy levinson <slevinson at MAIL.LAW.UTEXAS.EDU>
wrote:
 > There was, incidentally, a very interesting
> documentary last week on
> Cinemax about Amish children and the "liberty" that
> is accorded them after
> then turn 16 and before they affirm membership in
> the Church by accepting
> adult baptism (about 90% do).  No one watching the
> documentary could
> possibly feel that these children have remotely been
> prepared for genuine
> participation in American society.  Some, of course,
> may applaud this, but
> the practical meaning of Yoder is that any genuine
> possiblity of children
> for an autonomous life (as liberals generally define
> autonomy) is being
> sacrified for the good of maintainng the Amish
> community.
>
Hmmm. I'm not sure I understand Sandy's point here. Is
he observing that Amish parents, by sheltering their
children from  "modern" culture, have denied their
children an opportunity to make an autonomous choice
to live in the modern world?

But don't all good parents--both modernists and
traditionalists--shelter their children from ideas and
lifeways they believe are harmful? Do modern secular
parents, who choose not to raise their children in the
Amish culture, deny them an autonomous life by failing
to prepare them to live as the Amish live?

Do liberal parents, who shelter their children from
the "homophobic" boy scouts and from the lifeways of
"fundamentalist Christian" communities, thereby
deprive their children of an autonomous life?

Perhaps children from traditionalist homes should be
sent to modern secular schools and children from
modern liberal homes should be sent to
"fundamentalist" Christian schools to ensure that all
children have the ability to make autonomous choices
to live in the various communiies and lifeways that
exist here in America. Is this the kind of educational
policy Sandy is suggesting?

Cheers, Rick Duncan

PS Is Cinemax planning a documentary concerning the
ability of, say, a number of urban public school
teenagers to live as the Amish do? Now *that* would be
worth seeing!!!!!



=====
"Do you not think an angel rides in the whirlwind and directs the storm."
    --President George W. Bush (quoting John Page)

"When the Round Table is broken every man must follow Galahad or Mordred; middle things are gone."  -C.S. Lewis

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