Amish "hop"?

[Josh]

Yet many of these groups that left the Amish now have their own problems with wild youth or youth doing things that aren’t becoming of Christians, and sometimes have a very difficult time hearing this. I wish they would be more open to recognising that sometimes there is indeed a problem, and it isn’t fixed by being in the “right” church or having the perfect parenting / child discipline.

Ultimately, the groups that eventually slide all the way to the world end up being, well, worldly. It seems like rank hypocrisy to criticise Amish for youth who are involved in drinking, drugs, or fornication when the worldly church groups end up with… open drinking, casual use of marijuana, and casual immorality.

[Josh]

.... my sister in law’s husband grew up an Old Colonist in Mexico. Children weren’t expected to attend church until they were basically youth age.
....

Since the "Old Colony Mennonites" are basically all from groups that immigrated later, out of the Soviet Union, this practice may hark back to the law there, prohibiting the "indocrination" of any non-adult (I do not recall what the exact age was). I don't think that was the practice prior to the revolution.

All Old Colonists migrated after the Revolution? I didn’t know that.

[Neto]

.... my sister in law’s husband grew up an Old Colonist in Mexico. Children weren’t expected to attend church until they were basically youth age.
....

Since the "Old Colony Mennonites" are basically all from groups that immigrated later, out of the Soviet Union, this practice may hark back to the law there, prohibiting the "indocrination" of any non-adult (I do not recall what the exact age was). I don't think that was the practice prior to the revolution.

All Old Colonists migrated after the Revolution? I didn’t know that.

Sorry, I should had thought that through more before posting that. At any rate, I think I stated that a little too strongly, and I could be wrong. I allowed for some exceptions in my statement, but I should have said "It is my impression that MOST (or perhaps only 'many') ....".

In the FaceBook group for Mennonite History and Genealogy of which I am a member, I think I can accurately say that nearly all of those who participate are from the later immigrations, probably predominantly post WWII. Most of the participants are Canadians, some with family background in Mexico or South America, then also some in Germany Then there are also some participants who never left the USSR, and are now either Ukrainian or Russian. So it's possible that the impression I picked up from that group lead me to make an incorrect statement. In contrast, there are very few participants there who, like myself, count back to the late 1800's (1874 - 1890 for my family) for our arrival time in the Americas.

Actually, there was probably a fairly large number of Kleine Gemeinde folks who came during the same period as my own family. My general knowledge of that group is pretty sketchy, because they didn't want any association with MBs, and there were also no KG congregations in our area anyway. (I had classmates at Grace Bible Institute who were from KG background, but I didn't know at that time that it was no longer called Kleine Gemeinde, so I didn't recognize the names like "Evangelical Mennonite" as being of that heritage.) It is my impression that most of them settled in Canada, since there was the promise there for independent children's education. (As my Dad always said, - The ones who had freedom of religious practice as their central concern went to Canada, while those whose priorities were more so in the area of finding a climate similar to that in what is now Ukraine came to the States.)

[Neto]

.... my sister in law’s husband grew up an Old Colonist in Mexico. Children weren’t expected to attend church until they were basically youth age.
....

Since the "Old Colony Mennonites" are basically all from groups that immigrated later, out of the Soviet Union, this practice may hark back to the law there, prohibiting the "indocrination" of any non-adult (I do not recall what the exact age was). I don't think that was the practice prior to the revolution.

All Old Colonists migrated after the Revolution? I didn’t know that.

I posted the question
Roughly what percentage of Kleine Gemeinde people immigrated before the Bolshevist revolution?
on the Mennonite History & Genealogy FB group.

The person who I would consider to be the most knowledgeable on this kind of question replied that they ALL immigrated BEFORE the revolution. So I could not have been more wrong about the KG.

But I realize now that I made another assumption in wording it that way, that is, that ALL of the Old Colony Mennonites come from the Kleine Gemeinde. So I have posted another question there, to confirm that ALL of the Old Colony Mennonites are from KG heritage.

EDIT: Apparently I made ANOTHER incorrect assumption - that the Old Colony came predominantly from the Kleine Gemeinde. (People are saying none did, so waiting on more answers.)

[Josh]

Ok, that makes sense - because when I check on Grandma Online, that family lineage shows up as leaving Ukraine in 1874.

The Holdemans are mostly not of KG origins either. I really don't know what happened to the post-revolution people but they did not end up in Holdeman circles at all, really. Virtually everyone in our circles came over in 1874. (Note that we have very few Old Colonist background people who are members, those who have joined have done so recently, generally speaking.)

[Neto]

Ok, that makes sense - because when I check on Grandma Online, that family lineage shows up as leaving Ukraine in 1874.

The Holdemans are mostly not of KG origins either. I really don't know what happened to the post-revolution people but they did not end up in Holdeman circles at all, really. Virtually everyone in our circles came over in 1874. (Note that we have very few Old Colonist background people who are members, those who have joined have done so recently, generally speaking.)

Yeah, that makes sense, as the groups "we" (my own family and group) refer to as "Old Colony" did apparently all (or as nearly so as can be determined) come over in the early migrations. The confusing part is that my Mom's side of the family is all (or at least nearly so) from the 'Old Colony' in the sense of the Chortitza colony, the first one established in 'New Russia' (now Ukraine), thus called 'the old colony'. But none of my family on that side have any connection to "The Old Colony Mennonites", as in those who emigrated to Canada, and later to Mexico. So while I might have 3rd (and up) cousins who are "Old Colony", that family connection was lost when my Chortitza colony great grandparents left Russia and settled in Kansas. (In fact, one of my great grandpa Wedel's brothers came over later, and there was no contact between the two families until in the early 1970s, long after the brothers had died. Someone from Canada advertised in a weekly Kansas newspaper to which my mom subscribed, my grandma saw it, and wrote them. It wasn't that they intentionally cut ties - all knowledge of the where abouts of the other side of the family was simply lost.)