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No one was more on guard than the Amish themselves. The twin pressures of their own population growth and suburban sprawl have encroached on their way of life; 40% of the Amish work in jobs unconnected to farming, according to Donald Kraybill, who has written about half a dozen books on Amish social structures. Alert to the influences of the outside or "English" world, the Lancaster County bishops warned their congregations about drugs last fall, writing in an open letter, "Parents, beware the evil changes which your children could or might be going through."
Most Amish teenagers negotiate rumschpringes safely and grow into adulthood newly eager to commit to the strictures of the church. "They see emptiness" in the English world, says Steven Scott, a research assistant who studies Amish adolescents at Elizabethtown College. "The thrills are not really satisfying. The stability in the Amish community looks more worthwhile." But drugs may change all that. How long can stability last if Time Out lets sin in?
--Reported by Edward Barnes and William Dowell/Lancaster County