If life in the New World brought prosperity it did not always bring harmony. The Schwenkfelders’ faith was individualistic. Unlike the communal Moravians they did not all live together. When Count Zinzendorf, who was in the process of trying to form a united church, attempted to get the Schwenkfelders to join him they turned him down. At the same time all this individualism brought on problems. During the years of persecution the Schwenkfelders had clung to their faith. Now that they had the freedom to look at their beliefs, disagreements developed. But as years passed what became known as the Society of Schwenkfelders began to come to agreement. By 1782 they had worked out a constitution, and in 1790 the first meeting house was opened in Hosensack.

Over time the little congregation changed. From its roots as a society it evolved in the 19th century, becoming a church at the start of the 20th century. Today the Schwenkfelders have a communion rite that they share with the United Church of Christ. They also have a rite of infant baptism but leave it to the parents to decide if they want to have it done or follow the older tradition of infant dedication and teen-age baptism. Although some Schwenkfelders are conscientious objectors, their intensely individualistic tradition does not forbid military service. Although still a small denomination, today the church numbers about 2,500 members. It is in many ways representative of the rights of all of America’s people. Driven from a society that could not accept them, they found a place of refuge and added to a culture that would.

What characterizes that faith overall is its need to reject the world of its elders. A teenager cannot simply say goodbye to maternal obligations and walk off into her own life. Teenagers must continually prove that they are right, and if they come upon fashionable, widely held dismissals of parental views, they eagerly accept them. It is their democratic responsibility after all: one cannot argue with the market. The market rules in another way as well. Whether all human beings are naturally oriented toward the highest good is an open question. There is, however, ample evidence that human beings have regularly developed cultural and religious superstructures to mirror and offer support for their base economic and material pursuits. No one is quite sure just what a Schwenkfelder is these days, including many of those who call themselves Schwenkfelders.