I have known for a long time about the religious exemption to Social Security.  However, I recently ran across an account of how it all came about.   Here is the story of the struggle between the Amish and the IRS.

http://www.amishnews.com/amisharticles/amishss.htm

I’m a little envious of them, considering that an individual can receive far more retirement income from safe investments such as bonds than he or she can ever expect from social security. Here is an enlightening article on just how bad of an investment social security really is.

http://www.heritage.org/research/socialsecurity/cda98-01.cfm