Who are the Amish?

[Karen]

I've never seen any Amish -- however I've seen a great deal of Polygomists that run quite a similar life. I am very interested in the Amish, however I believe that they are romaticized greatly. They are highly inbred as there are so few of them.

There are ten of thousands of them. Your statement may be true within certain individual communities, but it is unwise to make such a blanket statement without citing sources.

Rape and Sexual molestation is quite common from what I've heard -- as if a woman reports a man for anything, she is automatically exiled. Of course this wouldn't be every community -- I'm sure alot of them are good, honest, people. I would love to meet some Amish and talk to them. I enjoyed that reality show -- I forget what it was called. But they had some Amish teenagers competing, it was really cool.

The show was called "Amish in the City" - Amish kids are traditionally given a period of time "off" - into the rest of the world, so they can then consciously decide, with full knowlege, to become officially Amish or not. Choosing the modern way of life, though, often means losing all contact with family and friend who remain "within the Life."