Honestly, I kind of respect the Amish more than most other Christian groups. I'm sure they have issues with abuse and stuff, which I don't mean to dismiss or diminish, but the same can be said of all the other Christian groups out there, so I'll focus on the differences, for me. I've often wondered about sincerely religious people, if their religion is so overwhelmingly important an affair as they claim it is, why don't they orient their entire lives around following it? From what I have seen and read, the Amish do this much more than most other groups, with the exclusion of monastics and clergy. It doesn't make me believe they have things right, but I can respect people who said "This new technology is not compatible with our religious life," and then proceeded to eschew things like electricity and central heating, with rather limited exceptions. Sticking to their principles, even while being able to see how much easier these technologies make the lives of those around them, takes a lot of commitment.

My major criticism would be similar to how I feel about Orthodox Jewish kids attending private yeshivas in NYC, though. Not only do the kids not have a chance to avoid indoctrination, since they follow their own education plan as soon as they're able to, they don't even get the chance to be exposed to the most benign of secular thought that would permit them to live in secular society, in they so chose. I can't imagine the situation is much different from those yeshivas where the curriculum is so skewed towards religious studies, you had Orthodox kids graduating from private schools that were supposed to provide at least an equivalent to the most fundamental high school education that could barely speak English despite being born and raised here, for example.

And I don't raise that point in a "This is Murica! Speak English or get out!" sort of way. It's sad to me, because even if you have a kid who decides they don't want to stay in the community and follow that religion, their woefully inadequate education makes it much more difficult for them to strike out on their own and be able to find a job, for exrmple, when the only people they can effectively communicate with are members of the group they're actively trying to leave