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X Amish Atheist

~ fighting dogma from behind the lines…

X Amish Atheist

Tag Archives: amish

TLC’s Breaking Amish: Jeremiah’s Girlfriend, Iva

11 Thursday Oct 2012

Posted by xamishatheist in Breaking Amish

≈ 45 Comments

Tags

amish, Breaking Amish, holmes county ohio, iva, jeremiah, Jeremiah Raber, TLC


Remember that tear-jerking scene in Episode 1 of Breaking Amish, where Jeremiah and his Amish girlfriend break up?

Jeremiah and Iva

Jeremiah and Iva

Image courtesy of TLC

Maybe one reason the two didn’t display much emotion, is simply because they never did love each other. New evidence suggests that this scene is just another staged scene.

A source was kind enough to send me a link to an Iva’s Facebook page. The Iva depicted in the photos on that page appears to be the same Iva shown on Breaking Amish. The source also said that Iva has always lived in Pennsylvania and never in Holmes County, Ohio where the scene was supposedly filmed. On the Facebook page, I found a lot of photos dating back to 2011 in which Iva isn’t dressed Amish. I think it’s reasonable to believe that Iva also left the Amish some time before filming began.

The screenshot below, shows a photo of Iva in New York City. The photo was uploaded to Facebook on December 23, 2011.

Iva in New York City, December 2011

Iva in New York City, December 2011

The images of Iva in addition to anecdotal evidence given by various sources, I believe, is reason to question the authenticity of the relationship between Jeremiah and Iva.

The screenshot below shows more of Iva’s photos:

Iva's Photos

Iva’s Photos

The screenshots above were taken from Iva’s public Facebook page several weeks ago. She has since set her page to private.

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Matt’s Escape from Religion – Guest Post

03 Wednesday Oct 2012

Posted by xamishatheist in Guest Posts

≈ 14 Comments

Tags

amish, atheism, conversion story, Mennonite, religion


The following is a guest post by Matt. Matt grew up in Lancaster County, PA where he was a member of a religious sect similar to the Amish. After being directed to this website by a friend, Matt offered to share the story of his own journey from religious faith to what he describes as mental freedom. It is his hope that those still caught up in similar circumstances will profit by his story and find the courage to deal with their doubts or frustrations in a positive and healthy way.

……………………………………….

      Religion was not a large part of my life as a child. My mother paid it lip service but never laid herself open to the charge of zealotry. She sometimes took my sister and me to Sunday school when I was very young. There they passed out candy, which I found agreeable, and there were games and puzzles and songs to sing. If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands! I was as dedicated as the next child when it came to the clapping.

We had a huge book of Bible stories that was kept on the bottom shelf of our homemade bookcase. It was filled with gloomy pictures of Jesus holding lambs and blessing tragic children clad in strange clothing. From this book I gained a conception of God as being a stern personage with an enormous beard who existed in an eternal state of washed-out pen and ink colors. I was also of the belief that God lived in the attic above the grape arbor belonging to our neighbors, Sadie and Ivan. I was told God could always see me and that seemed like the best vantage point for omniscience.

Later, my sister and I found ourselves living with strangers after our parents’ marriage fell apart. Their names were Todd and Nancy Rolland, and they were what are commonly referred to as Holy Rollers. They started taking us to church on a regular basis, something we had never experienced before. Nancy’s religion pervaded every part of her life. Their house was situated on a beautiful wooded lot and there was always an army of cats hanging around. When one of these felines showed up at the back door with a horrible case of mange, Nancy instantly declared the cat a direct agent of God whom Satan was seeking to destroy by means of a skin condition. She prayed aloud that Satan and his minions would be bound and that the cat should be delivered by the Power of the Blood. It was that kind of a household.

I was 9 at the time and already an avid reader. Books were an avenue of escape for me that nothing could take away. I read everything I could lay my hands on; The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, The Hobbit, The Wind in the Willows, Oliver Twist, A Wrinkle In Time, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Arthur Conan Doyle, Greek mythology, anything with even the faintest trace of science fiction about it—I was a machine. At school I tuned everything and everyone out and pursued my own inner life. Teachers would reprimand me for reading while they were trying to teach us Math or the history of the Leni Lenape Indians, a group of people whom had apparently gone in for living in caves and planting artifacts around the state of Pennsylvania. At home I would crawl into bed at 6:00 pm and sleep until I was forced to get up and go to school in the morning. I think 12 hour sleeping jags reveal a lot about the state of mind I was in at the time. Feeling abandoned and deeply depressed, I was the perfect target for philosophies that trade in promises of unconditional love and future rewards.

One night we were taken to a revival meeting at the Rolland’s church, The Worship Center. In retrospect, the name seems very heavy with 70s sensibilities; Jesus is groovy, man! He was presented as the Friend who never failed; the Light in the darkness; the Answer to all problems.

It was the first time I can recall actually hearing and understanding the ‘Plan of Salvation’; how Jesus came down from His Throne on High to redeem the human race from their sinful and fallen condition. And I was suddenly struck by the realization that I was included within the Sinner fold under discussion. Had I ever told a lie? Well yeah, I guess so. Had I ever called my sister a name or had a fight at school? Guilty! Had I ever stolen anything? Of that I was innocent, but by then my own sinful condition had been impressed upon me and when the penitent were called forward to receive Jesus as their Savior I was among those who pressed forward.

An earnest young fellow with lapels the size of a coal barge led me through the prayer of repentance and Salvation. Rising from our knees, he clasped me to his breast and hailed me as brother. I was among the Redeemed now. He gave me a powder blue paperback copy of the New Testament and instructed me to read it diligently. And so I became a Christian.

Wishing to know more about my new-found religion, I took that young man’s advice and read from the Bible before going to bed every night. I prayed very sincere prayers for the salvation of those around me. Such was my zeal that I began to preach the Gospel to other students in Mrs. Donna Shay’s fourth grade class in dear old Clay Elementary school. My classmates listened to my harangues with the patient tact of incomprehension and utter disinterest. Alas, I made no converts in those fallow fields!

Due to circumstances I will not bother going into, I was separated from my sister and sent to live with my Uncle Lester and Aunt Mildred. Their church was the polar opposite of The Worship Center. Lester’s family was Mennonite, a stern and legalistic sect of Protestantism not far removed from the Amish. In these circles one did not go about saying the name Jesus aloud. Indeed, they positively cringed when compelled by circumstances to talk about their faith in any capacity whatever. The path to Heaven was apparently paved in equal parts by obedience to arbitrary rules and by refraining from asking any questions. An example:

“Aunt Mildred, doesn’t the Bible say that to call your brother a fool is to be in danger of Hell fire?”

“Of course it does! Didn’t Sam Martin preach that last Sunday?”

“Right…..right…..but then here, in this verse, God says to this man, ‘Thou fool! Tonight thy soul shall be required of thee!’”

“Yes, it does. I’m glad to hear you’ve been paying attention in church.”

“But…but if it’s sinful to call someone a fool, why does God do it? Shouldn’t He be the perfect example of righteousness?  I mean, I don’t understand….”

“You be quiet, Matt! You think you know everything! You think the world owes you a living! You worry more about how lazy you are and not so much about the Bible!”

Clearly this was an unproductive source of reasoned debate. I had many such doubts. The glaring inconsistencies of the Bible came to me under my own steam and as a result of reading the book for myself without the filter of pat rationalizations which are normally employed to sweep them under the carpet. Why would God give a commandment that forbade killing and then go on to repeatedly command the children of Israel to kill? How could you justify sending a plague that decimated an innocent population because their King had taken a census that displeased the Lord (the displeasure arising from reasons I still cannot comprehend)? Wouldn’t true Justice take the life of the King and leave those who had nothing whatever to do with the census unmolested?

How could you justify putting babies and young women to the sword, as God specifically commanded the Israelites to do? What deeply disturbing impulse causes one to take virgin adolescents into slavery, as God commanded to take place? What were these obviously insane rules regarding menstruating women being ‘unclean’, and how had they come to be included in a set of moral codes in any rational system of thinking? Didn’t God create the women to menstruate? And wouldn’t any uncleanness attach to the Creator rather than the hapless Creation who had no say in the design?

I still believed completely. I just assumed that since I was not an adult I was unable to understand, as I did not enjoy the benefit of that ineffable and all-encompassing wisdom that children assume all adults have. And so I ignored my gnawing doubts and continued on the path to Zion.

Then came puberty. My awakened sexual awareness gave me agonies of guilt that can barely be described. The Bible said that to look on a woman to lust after her in your heart was a sin worthy of eternal damnation, and there I was, Lusting in the morning, Lusting in the afternoon, and Lusting double time in the evenings. I prayed abject prayers of repentance; I swore I would change my wicked ways; I pleaded with God to remove this thorn out of my side and deliver me from evil. Then I would go to the orthodontist and return home to frantic masturbatory fantasies about his healthy and amply endowed assistant. It was a vicious cycle of guilt, shame and despair; followed by tears, lamentations, and a genuine fear of burning alive in hell forever.

I was baptized, upon my own request, when I was 16. I hoped that this step would bring me closer to God and make the demands of my religion easier to fulfill. However, I soon discovered that the religion that promises everything and delivers nothing was not to be amplified or enhanced by simple belief and obedience to its commands. Clearly there was still something lacking.

I abandoned the Mennonite church when I was 22; I felt that while Christianity was clearly true (as any fool could see, just look at the creation around you and try to deny it, Atheists!) I had fallen in among people who were blinded by tradition and unexamined religious dogma. I was looking for something more. I wanted the real and living Jesus; I wanted a church that was alive and aware and basking in the peace which passeth all understanding, which portion is promised to His children in the Bible.

Because Lord knows, I certainly did not have this peace! I was still ravaged by guilt and shame and an overwhelming desire to meet debauched and shameless women. I was a wreck of hatred and anger, bitterness and wrath. My vanity was constantly at war with my self-loathing, and while I presented an exterior of self-assurance I was totally lost within. I was of all men most miserable!

It had become somewhat undeniable that my prayers were going nowhere. I was unable to produce a single instance in which I felt that any prayer of mine had been unequivocally answered.  I gradually stopped praying, or at least abandoned all but the most perfunctory of prayers. I would debate with Atheists on this dazzling new invention they were calling the Internet, but I had stopped going to church except for funerals and weddings.

These pesky online Atheists kept posing vicious and pernicious misrepresentations of my religion disguised as questions about the illogical nature of my beliefs, and I would huffily promise to pray for their salvation once I was too soundly beaten in the ongoing debate to fool even myself any longer about the shakiness of my assertions and platitudes.

And then I set my foot on the path that led me to where I am today. I decided that, while I was a backslidden and unworthy servant of Christ, I was still a Christian at heart and that surely answers to these questions could be found if only I searched hard enough!

I began reading apologetics; I read C. S .Lewis, my old friend from the Rolland days. I read Josh McDowell; I read James Dobson; I read authors whose names I can no longer remember.

And none of it was helping. Suddenly all the doubts I had muzzled for years came snarling forth into the daylight. How can any god who calls Himself eternally Just and Merciful condemn any of his children to hell? Mercy is the quality of sparing those who deserve punishment from the weight of that punishment. The only people who can be shown mercy are those who do not deserve it. Yet the religion insisted that those who did not deserve it would by no means receive mercy, but should be hurled into the Pit to suffer forever!

Those who repented and obeyed the rules were technically spotless and so disqualified themselves to receive mercy. If you are rewarded for good behavior you are receiving exactly what is merited. The people in hell, who did not deserve mercy and were therefore the only ones who qualified for it, were to be denied mercy. It was totally illogical.

Things must be consistent if they are true. If I told you I had a 2 inch tall elf I kept in my pocket, I think you could be forgiven for disbelieving if none of the Elf Snacks you set out for him were ever eaten. The observable conditions would be inconsistent with my claims.  Logic must not only begin reasonably, it must lead to sensible conclusions. IF there is a 2 inch elf, and IF you put out Elf Snacks, THEN those snacks would be eaten. Any other conclusion shows that either I am lying about the elf or I truly believe it but am daft.

If the Bible is true and Jesus is real, why were His followers not demonstrably happier than everyone else who did not have the benefit of divine protection and the peace that all Christians are promised? Jesus said his followers would raise the dead and heal the sick and cast out devils, all in his name. Why is Stephen Hawking still in a wheelchair, then? Why do hospitals even exist? Why do people continue being blind and deaf and halt and lame? Are Christians unwilling to heal them as their God has commanded them to do?

Which is more likely, I asked myself: that Jesus is real and the Bible is true and yet somehow, in TWO THOUSAND YEARS, it was impossible to demonstrate that any of those Elf Snacks had been eaten? There was no evidence for any of the Bible’s claims. Plenty of assertions and insistence that it’s true but that is not the same thing as evidence.

So was it more reasonable to assume that the whole thing was part wishful thinking, and an even larger measure of Control Mechanisms at work? Would the God of Love, the Christ of mercy and forgiveness, the meek and lowly Jesus, REALLY take the time to instruct His disciples to be sure to pay their taxes?????  At the very least it suggested severe tampering by a Priesthood whom, for 1,500 years, were the only people who could read and write. Everyone else had to just take their word that they were receiving, through the priests, an accurate account of what God’s laws and demands were.

Now there’s a system that could never be abused in the service of self-interest and personal benefit at the expense of the Little Guy!

I was 31 when I finally found the courage to say, “I don’t believe a word of this!”

The relief of no longer forcing my mind to ignore the obvious and inescapable was enormous.

After I got out of the Navy at 35 I went down to Myrtle Beach, SC to visit a friend and unwind. I bought the best marijuana available, smoked up, and stayed high for 2 years. It was wonderfully liberating. Weed frees the mind of all the shackles Society’s conditioning put upon us as children. All that horrible Guilt was fast dissipating. My attention was drawn increasingly inward, rather than constantly focused outward in hopes a promised Messiah would come and fix me. I sought professional help to work through the trauma I experienced as a child. I became aware that there was no one inside my head but me; nobody was judging me, condemning me, damaging me—except for me! The Me that had swallowed all these lies, the Me that had invested belief in a religion that is so shaky that for 2,000 years it has required an army of apologists to explain away its contradictory absurdities and rationalize its savage atrocities and Stone Age ignorance.

Where are the apologists for gravity? Or for the freezing point of water? Where are the defenders of the belief that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west? These things require no apologists because their truth is evident to everyone. If there is really a God, an entity that is separate from and watching over us, surely He would be just as self-evident.

I am the person I am because that is who I am.  I believe the same is true of every other righteous, decent person. It’s not because there is a mystical presence that makes us good; We are Good because We are Good.

I have peace such as I couldn’t even imagine when I was bound in the dungeon of organized religion. The love I feel for my brother is no longer stifled by the self- hatred that must inevitably come with rules and laws that make us dirty in our own sight.

I have escaped.

Selah!

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TLC’s Breaking Amish: Episode 4 and Still no Explanations

02 Tuesday Oct 2012

Posted by xamishatheist in Breaking Amish

≈ 47 Comments

Tags

Abe and Rebecca, amish, atheism, Breaking Amish, breaking amish fake, faking Amish, Jeremiah Raber, reality tv, television, TLC


Last night I watched episode 4 of Breaking Amish. I should just stop writing now. At first it was exciting to point out the lies and fakery spewing forth from TLC’s latest farce but as the onslaught continues, writing about it just starts getting depressing.

Some people find it hard to understand why I want to defend the Amish against exploitative shows like Breaking Amish. Am I not an atheist after all? Do I not hate the Amish? Well yes I am an atheist but no I do not hate the Amish. The first eighteen years of my life were spent (sometimes, depending on my mood, I might say “wasted”) as an Amish kid. However, my entire family and almost all of my friends are Amish, and I love them. The Amish culture was a large part of my life and while I do not want that life for myself any longer, I will defend it with all the power of my pen from people wishing to make money by lying or otherwise exploiting them. The Amish, in my opinion, are philosophically misguided (as any religious group is) but as a group, they are the nicest people you will likely encounter.

This episode brings us more pretending. Jeremiah pretends to learn driving again. We know that’s not true. They pretend to have cellphones for the first time. “What is texting?” asks Kate. Yeah, right! The girls pretend to get makeovers for the first time. We have plenty of pictures that proves that just plain false. Oh, look! Here’s Sabrina with her hair down at her non-Mennonite wedding years ago: (source)

Sabrina Wedding Photo

Sabrina Wedding Photo

“We just had our first date last night,” Rebecca proudly tells us after a night out with Abe. Apparently when they started hanging out years ago and conceived a child, they called it something other than “dates”.

A lot of people probably have questions about Rebecca’s teeth, or lack thereof. I don’t know why she had all her teeth pulled, so don’t ask me. I can tell you that the barbaric dentistry that she spoke of could be true. I know that in some of the very conservative Amish communities they really have Amish dentists armed with nothing more than a pair of pliers. Many of the Amish are not too great when it comes to their teeth. I for one, never went to the dentist in all the 18 years that I was Amish. My baby teeth either fell out on their own or I wiggled them out with my fingers (and who says Amish boys don’t cry). We brushed our teeth regularly and that was pretty much it. There were exceptions when things got really bad. I remember my sister going to a dentist for a root canal several times but other than that, I don’t remember any of my family ever visiting a dentist.

My biggest beef with the latest episode is the lack of the promised and long-awaited explanations from TLC. When are they going to explain to us why they claimed that the cast members are leaving the Amish for the first time when in reality they haven’t been Amish for up to fourteen years? When will they explain to us that these kids have encountered plenty of showers, and microwaves before? When will they tell us how photos of Kate appeared on a modelling website years ago? When will they tell us about Abe and Rebecca’s baby? When will they tell us about Sabrina’s non-Mennonite wedding that happened years ago? When will they tell us about Jeremiah’s ex-wife and three kids from years ago? Do they think we’ve forgotten? Why do they keep insulting their viewers’ intelligence?

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TLC’s Breaking Amish: Is Kate Fake too?

18 Tuesday Sep 2012

Posted by xamishatheist in Breaking Amish

≈ 68 Comments

Tags

amish, breaking amish fake, Kate, Kate Stoltzfus, Katie Stoltzfus, TLC Breaking Amish


On Breaking Amish, Kate is portrayed as the bishop’s daughter. Supposedly she has been an Amish girl all her life (except for a brief stint in Florida where she got a DUI) and is just now truly leaving the Amish.

In reality, sources tell me that Kate hasn’t been Amish for years. She has been driving a car, dressing non-Amish, and working in a Ruby Tuesdays in Lebanon, Pennsylvania.

In the mugshot from Kate’s arrest in Florida for DUI, she has her hair down and looks decidedly non-Amish. Luckily for TLC, they came clean about this. You can see the arrest record and mugshot here. This page also shows her full name (Katie Ann Stoltzfus) and her date of birth. I love Florida’s public records policy.

The real shocker came with the discovery (discovered about 24 hours ago) of a modeling photo posted on exploretalent.com in which Kate apparently entered a Best Smile contest. The contest was in August 2010. I guess her aspirations of being a model are real. It might be the only real thing about Breaking Amish.

Kate's Best Smile Entry

Kate’s Best Smile Entry

The photo is from https://www.facebook.com/BreakingAmishTheTruth and the original tip was from Colleen Smiley.

Taking a picture like this, much less posting it to a modelling site would be forbidden by the Amish. We can conclude that she did not just recently leave the Amish.

Interestingly, within hours of this evidence being posted on the Facebook Truth page, the profile and everything was removed from the modelling site. Lucky for you, you can still see the original page in Google’s cache.

UPDATE: 9/18/2012, 4:13 PM EST:

Dear lying spammers. You can give up, now. Your comments will not be approved. Other comments will be approved after I’ve determined that they’re legit.

Someone from PostWorks NY, a production company that worked on Breaking Amish, keeps spamming this blog using multiple names and email addresses in an attempt to have his or her comments posted. I sent their company an email asking them politely to stop whichever employee is making these attacks. I haven’t heard back yet.

Somebody using a proxy server to hide behind is also spamming this blog using multiple names and email addresses.

It seems I’ve stirred up a nest of angry hornets.

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Update on Breaking Amish: The Scandal

14 Friday Sep 2012

Posted by xamishatheist in Breaking Amish

≈ 55 Comments

Tags

amish, Breaking Amish, ex-amish, scandal, TLC


Over the last several days I have found more reasons to believe that Breaking Amish isn’t being upfront and is actually outright deceptive.

Two Facebook pages have popped up recently, dedicated to revealing Breaking Amish’s deceptions:

Breaking Amish the Truth
Breaking Amish the Exposè

Crushable has finally come out with an article that questions the authenticity of the show. Hopefully the lies will be revealed by mainstream media before too many people get false impressions about the Amish.

Below I have some specific information on Abe, Rebecca, Andy, and the two Bens.

Abe and Rebecca

Abe and Rebecca are allegedly a couple, have been for quite some time, and apparently have a child together. The picture below seems to support that allegation (source: https://www.facebook.com/BreakingAmishTheTruth). Click on the image to see the full-size version.

Abe and Rebecca with Child

Abe and Rebecca with Child

This picture of Abe and Rebecca was apparently on his brother Andy’s Facebook profile and it was taken sometime in 2011.

Abe’s Brother Andy

This Facebook profile appears to be Abe’s brother Andy. Below is a screenshot of his public photos as shown on Sept. 11, 2012. Click on the thumbnail to view the full size.

On Breaking Amish, Andy is portrayed as being Amish, he’s not one of the five leaving for New York. In his Facebook photos, however, he doesn’t appear to be Amish (assuming it really is his profile). Some of the photos were uploaded in 2011.

Andy from Breaking Amish?

Andy from Breaking Amish?

The two Bens (Rebeccas Cousins)

On Breaking Amish, two men, both named Ben, are portrayed as Rebecca’s Amish cousins.

I found a Facebook profile for someone that looks like one of the Bens. He also looks like the creepy relative who hid behind the curtains in an upstairs window after Rebecca spoke with the person portraying her grandfather. Here is a screen shot of that guy’s public pictures, taken on Sept. 11, 2012, before he hid or deleted his profile. In these pictures he does not appear to be Amish. Click on the thumbnail to see a full-size version.

Ben from Breaking Amish episode 1?

Ben from Breaking Amish episode 1?

I found a Facebook profile for a guy who appears to be the other Ben. He doesn’t look Amish either. For a quick look, check out the image below:

Ben from Breaking Amish episode 1?

Ben from Breaking Amish episode 1?

We Demand an Apology, TLC

On TLC’s description of Breaking Amish, they say the following;

“Breaking Amish, premiering Sunday, Sept. 9 at 10|9c, provides a never-before-seen look inside the lives of young men and women as they, for the first time, trade horse and buggy with taxi cabs to break out from their respective Amish/Mennonite communities in their pursuit to chase big dreams in the Big Apple. The groundbreaking series features nine hour-long episodes.

Breaking Amish will shed light on many firsts for the cast members. From flying in a plane and wearing jeans, to using a cell phone and electricity, the show will highlight their transition into city culture and the basic amenities that come with it.”

I have bolded and underlined the part which is definitely not true. The rest of it is suspect. Come on TLC! Just admit that you made a mistake. Revise the description on your website, make a public apology, and preface each showing of Breaking Amish with the disclaimer that it is staged and scripted and that it is played by actors who left the Amish some time ago.

Check out my other posts on Breaking Amish:

TLC’s Breaking Amish: The Scandal of Jeremiah Raber
TLC’s Breaking Amish: An Analysis of Episode 1 by a Former Amish
Ex-Amish Unite in Vicious Protests Against TLC’s Breaking Amish

The last couple days this blog has received 3000 to 4000 views per day which is significantly higher than normal. Of course, WordPress promptly puts advertisements on my page. Sorry about having to put up with those. I just wish I’d be the one making money with them.

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Ex-Amish Unite in Vicious Protests Against TLC’s “Breaking Amish”

11 Tuesday Sep 2012

Posted by xamishatheist in Breaking Amish

≈ 24 Comments

Tags

Abe and Rebecca, amish, Breaking Amish, ex-amish, Jeremiah Raber, reality tv, TLC


World War III has broken out on Facebook and it’s between the ex-Amish and fans of TLC’s Breaking Amish. Almost every time a fan comments on the Breaking Amish Facebook page, one or more members of the large ex-Amish community on Facebook retorts with a vicious comment about the show or one of the cast members.

Why? It’s because Breaking Amish appears to be largely staged and scripted and its cast members left the Amish a long time ago. This would be fine if the show was promoted as such but most people have the false assumption that it is real and that these kids are leaving the Amish for the first time.

Here are some comments by ex-Amish people on the Breaking Amish Facebook page: (UPDATE: The Official Breaking Amish fanpage appears to be gone as of Sept. 12, 2012)

“This show is seriously messed up!!! It’s fake as it could ever get!! I helped Abe get out of a rut when he left the Amish got him a job even Andy worked with me a couple days and I helped Andy out with a car…”

“how cute. your show is so damn fake. they havent been amish for years. and yeah i know them and i know when you filmed its not a block from my house. FYI this is rebecca abe and their kid. Rebecca and Abe got together when Rebecca was married to Rufus who both left the amish years ago. Mystery solved, lies exposed fake freaking show. And if you are so shunned why do I see you at your parents house all the time?!”

“I agree with <person above>! I had to dvr the show. Plan on watching it tonight. But after seeing bits and pieces last week on the today show I figured it would be fake. My husband used to be amish and I knew that Abe and Rebecca had not been amish for some time and on the today show they made it sound as if they were just now leaving the amish.”

“That the truth alot of the stuff thay said was not the truth”

“jeremiah is like 32. if he was really living the amish life before this show he would have joined the amish church way back when he was 18 to 20 not 32 and divorced. these shows p**s me off because the only reason they can get away with the lies about the amish and the way they portray them is because true amish ppl wont be watching the show. my husband comes from the amish community and has a wonderful family that I consider my own. I am very protective of the Amish because they have accepted me the way I am and have helped make my life so much better. Every Amish community is diff but the one my husband comes from only shuns u if u join church and then leave. They do this because they feel when u join church u are making a commitment to God to live ur life this way and when u leave after doing this it is like breaking ur promise and lying to God”

“jolene, u dont have 2 feel sorry at all. these adults left on their own. I know some of these youth personally & the whole show is a big fib. its all about the $$$$”

“yea, very hard. but, bahaha, fake as crap..” <referring to Jeremiah separating from his “girlfriend”>

“sorry guys but I think the only thing hard for him in this scene is keeping a straight face. he does have a gf but this is def not her. his gf is english and always has been.” <referring to Jeremiah separating from his “girlfriend”>

“Well guys i hate to BREAK IT to you this is his payed movie girlfriend it is staged .I grew up neighbors to him he left the Amish back in like 04 might have been before even i know his parents and siblings.They are nice and caring people.I grew up Amish to i left when i was 18 my dad is a pastor and i can go and visit then when i please so not all Amish are like what they say they are.”

“And iva isn’t Amish either anymore she left awhile back…
And I don’t miss it myself….”

“Fake! He’s divorced with 3 kids. Hasn’t been Amish for at least 10 yrs!”

“I’ve known him since before he left and the whole thing is scripted. The HYSTERICAL part is people believing Reality TV is real!!!”

“Breaking Amish what a joke Jeremiah has not been Amish for at least 14 years I know this because he was my roommate for a year and a half he has 3 children that he don’t take care of and he claims all he left was a girlfriend. If you want to know who Jeremiah raber really is search public records for Holmes and tuscarawas county Ohio…“

“By the way he hasn’t been Amish for 20 yrs. he was English and married… You ppl are stupid for watching this crap!”

I can’t attest to the accuracy of all the comments above but the ones I’ve listed are just a small portion of the emotionally-laden comments you can find on Facebook and other sites by ex-Amish. There are few things that will cause a lot of ex-Amish to come out of the woodwork, but lying about the Amish is one of them.

UPDATE (Sept. 12, 2012): A new moderated Facebook community page has gone up where people familiar with the show or its cast are posting proof of the show’s deception. See Breaking Amish the Truth

Here’s a recap of what we do know:

Jeremiah is divorced, has 3 kids, and hasn’t been Amish for years.

I also have reason to believe that Abe and Rebecca are dating or married, have a child together, and have not been Amish for a long time. As soon as I can dig up proof of these allegations, I will post it. So far, I’ve found Facebook pages for Andy (Abe’s brother) and the two Bens (cousins of Rebecca). On those pages are pictures which indicate that these guys haven’t been Amish for some time.

Since posting about Breaking Amish, the views for my blog have jumped about 5000% so I guess these revelations are getting out to people. I see no reason to stop digging…

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Blogs by Amish and ex-Amish Writers

11 Tuesday Sep 2012

Posted by xamishatheist in Other, The Amish

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

amish, Amish writers, blogging, ex-amish, ex-Amish writers


If you really want to learn about the Amish and what it’s like to leave the Amish, a great place to start is reading blogs by Amish (some progressive communities allow computers) and ex-Amish writers. On this page I will show a list of some of these blogs. Be sure to favorite the page as I will be adding to the list as time goes on. If you know of a relevant blog that is not listed, please leave a comment with the link and I will add it to the list.

Please be respectful of these writers. Many of them are not atheist like I am and some of them are beginning writers.

Here they are, not in any particular order:

  • About Amish – by Saloma Furlong
  • Project 365 – by Katie Troyer
  • Pinecraft Sarasota – by Katie Troyer
  • Growing Up Amish – Anna Dee Olson
  • The Literary Party: The Poetic Life and Times of James Schwartz
  • Ex Amish Gal
  • Amish in the City Mose – Mose Gingerich
  • Ira’s Writings – Ira Wagler
  • A Joyful Chaos – Mary Ann Kinsinger
  • Amish Descendant Scholarship Fund
  • Der Reggeboge Freindschaft – Joseph Stalnaker

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TLC’s Breaking Amish: An Analysis of Episode 1 by a Former Amish

10 Monday Sep 2012

Posted by xamishatheist in Breaking Amish

≈ 29 Comments

Tags

amish, Amish out of Order, Breaking Amish, NatGeo, TLC


Okay, so I watched the first episode of TLC’s Breaking Amish last night. I was not impressed and here’s the main reason why; These kids are being portrayed as leaving the Amish for the first time and experiencing the “English” and city life for the first time, and that’s not true. Here’s how I know; I met Jeremiah (one of the main characters on the show) several times about four or five years ago. He was not Amish at the time and hadn’t been for years. He has been driving motor vehicles for years. He seemed like a nice guy the several times I spoke with him but the way he is being portrayed on Breaking Amish, is just not true.

I’ve never met any of the other cast of Breaking Amish so I can’t tell you whether they’re prior life is being accurately portrayed or not.

So, on to the content of the episode… Most members of the cast come off as extremely disrespectful. Jeremiah who was adopted, talks about being “thrown into this Amish crap and it’s not cool.” You’d think he would have some respect and love for his adoptive parents. Abe tells his sister very rudely, to get into the house and help Mom with dinner. The one girl, Rebecca I believe, takes the camera crew right up to her grandfather’s home and then feigns surprise when he’s not happy about it. From my perspective as an ex-Amish person, that was incredibly rude and disrespectful. I live with a handful of other ex-Amish kids, and none of us are ***holes like the kids on that show. All of us left the Amish and live in a fairly large city but none of us would disrespect our friends and family like that. Could it be that these kids were purposely disrespectful in order to anger their Amish friends and family and thereby increase the drama of the show? Either that, or they’re just naturally ***holes.

Not far into the episode, Jeremiah talks about having driven a horse and buggy all his life. Bull****! See my first paragraph.

One of the cast tells us that Amish men fear doing  dishes. That’s not even funny. I know a lot of Amish men who help in the kitchen and the home. Then Rebecca fixes a meal for two of her somewhat demanding male cousins. The Amish may be sexist but these two scenes were obviously staged to point that out in a dramatic manner.

The kids are shown doing chores and working in their “good” clothing. In reality the Amish would wear “everyday” clothing to do those things. In fact, we would get reprimanded if we did chores in our Sunday clothing. Soiling them would force Mom to make new ones.

At one point, one of the male cast members claims that the Amish aren’t allowed to show love. Ridiculous! The Amish may be a little more emotionally reserved than most cultures but there are no rules against showing love.

I saved the best for last: Jeremiah is shown to be living in Holmes County, Ohio, and for the most part, his attire seems to support that (different Amish communities wear different styles of clothing and it’s often easy to tell which area an Amish person is from). As Jeremiah is there on what’s portrayed as his home place in Ohio, the “Bishop’s wife” goes past on a scooter. Now we have a big problem with the show. The “Bishop’s wife is dressed as Lancaster County, Pennsylvania Amish (with the distinctive heart-shaped head covering). Lancaster is where Kate is from and the “Bishop’s wife” looks suspiciously like Kate. There is no sensible explanation for this incongruous scene other than that it was completely staged.

TLC’s Breaking Amish is a lie. If you want to learn about kids leaving the Amish, watch NatGeo’s Amish out of Order. If you don’t want to learn anything, if you want to see made up crap, and if you want to see ridiculous drama, then watch Breaking Amish. But please, please, keep in mind that most of this show is staged and scripted, else you too will be guilty of propagating these falsehoods about Amish culture.

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Natural Law: The Foundation of Morality?

08 Saturday Sep 2012

Posted by xamishatheist in Ethics, My Philosophy

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

amish, ethics, morality, natural law


The other day I asked an Amish friend of mine whether he thinks abortion is morally acceptable. His adamant answer was an unequivocal; No. When asked why, he says it’s unnatural; it doesn’t conform to natural law.

My friend is not the typical close-minded Amish person and his idea is that natural law is based on the physical laws; the laws of nature. He agrees with me that evolution is a natural outcome of biological agents living in a universe with our physical laws. He goes on to assert that the characteristics of evolution, such as the tendency to survive as an individual and to reproduce as a species; is natural law. Abortion, he says, is morally wrong because it does not conform to this natural law. It opposes the natural law of reproduction. He claims that morality is objective and it can be derived from the physical laws in the aforementioned way.

My first response to his argument was that abortion isn’t found in the animal world (and is unnatural in that regard) because it requires advanced technology which non-human animals don’t have. My second criticism was that we engage in a lot of activities which aren’t “natural” but he considers to be moral. Marriage and monogamy, for instance, do not conform to his idea of natural law.

My friend admitted that he would have to rethink his position but he refuses to accept my position; that there is no inherent or objective morality, there is only behavior that we don’t put up with.

What do you think? Is morality a set of objective, non-changing, ultimate-truth, ideals or does it evolve with society?

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The Genius Kid in Amish School

02 Sunday Sep 2012

Posted by xamishatheist in Early Life, The Amish

≈ 28 Comments

Tags

amish, astronomy, education, genius, intelligence, IQ, parochial schools


My first eight years of education, and so far, my only “formal” education has been in an Amish parochial school. How quaint to have been educated in a small one-room Amish schoolhouse with about a dozen other students, you might effuse excitedly. Well screw you! Amish parochial school stunted my intellectual growth and that pisses me off.

When I was a young Amish boy, perhaps eight or nine years old, I was fascinated with the night sky. I looked to the stars and I marveled when comet Hale-Bopp appeared in 1997. I dreamed of becoming an astronomer or an astronaut but of course I knew that I would never become either of those–I was Amish. Sometimes I wished my parents were normal so that my dreams would have a fighting chance of becoming reality.

My Dad, who was a great father despite all the religious crap, gave me one of those little rotating star charts one Christmas. With a cheap pair of binoculars and that star chart, I spent many enjoyable evenings outside, identifying constellations and writing notes about individual stars and planets. I read many astronomy books and taught myself ‘stargazing’ until I was able to find most specific visible stars, several of the brighter nebulas, and of course the Andromeda galaxy and the visible planets.

Academically, I did well in the Amish parochial school compared to the other students. I found the work easy and would work ahead on my material because I found it fun. My Amish teacher didn’t find that amusing and warned me several times not to work ahead of the other students. One day she had enough of it and spanked my offending hand with a ruler. That day I learned that it was important not to take initiative and not to do more than is asked of me.

I was always the nerd in school. As soon as I had an individual lesson finished I would go to the small library along one wall and grab several books to read. Often during my schoolwork I would think of some subject (e.g. radio astronomy) that fascinated me and upon completion of my schoolwork, I would go to the bookshelf and select the “R” encyclopedia. After reading the entry I would go back and select several more encyclopedias so I could read related subjects or more in-depth entries. This behavior was of course not normal and the other Amish students, many of whom had nothing but religious books at home and didn’t particularly like reading, would mock me for it. I became used to the word “bookworm” being used like most people would use “child rapist”.

Many of the Amish in our community liked to hunt. The men were quite competitive about it and always bragged about who shot the deer with the biggest antlers. I felt compassion for the helpless animals and told my fellow classmates that I would never harm an animal. I quickly became used to the word “environmentalist” being used like most people would use “child rapist”. Of course I didn’t like being mocked and after many hours of heart-wrenching rumination, I decided that I would show them and would become a better hunter than any of them. Years later, I actually did.

One day while reading through our encyclopedia set at home, I learned that Jupiter had quite a few moons. I was amazed by this knowledge as I had only been aware of one moon up to that point. Some weeks later I mentioned this fact in passing to my fellow classmates. They informed me none too politely that there is only one moon. It didn’t take long for me to get used to “stargazer” being used like most people would use “child rapist”.

That evening I told my Dad what had happened when I tried to enlighten my classmates. My Dad told me gently that he believed me that Jupiter had more moons and told me that the other students just didn’t know any better. It wasn’t very consoling, I wanted my friends to like me, not my Dad. To me, the concept of intellectual superiority was alien. I was told that I was “good at school” and “good with numbers”. Nobody told me that I was smart. Nobody helped me understand why I was so different or how my weirdness would help me later in life.

I stopped gazing up at the night sky and I put away my star charts and astronomy books, thinking wrongly that it was something that only weird people do. I stopped reading so much, tried harder to fit in, and withdrew into myself, intellectually. To this day I would rather sit silent than correct, even a friend, a factual error that he or she has made. It is a tactic I learned in Amish school to appear normal.

I can’t help but think that if my parents had been a normal family and had provided me with the education that I needed and desired, I would be doing great things by now. I like the idea of freedom when it comes to the educational system. I fear that if primary education is restricted to only state-run or heavily regulated schools, we could end up with a propaganda problem down the road. But Christ! Being intellectually stunted in a religious school just doesn’t feel fair to me.

Many years after leaving the Amish, I discovered a webpage with an experimental high-range I.Q. test designed by a psychologist and research scientist. I decided to try the test and after working through the number sequence problems, I submitted my answers. A day or so later, I received my score report. According to the associated statistical report for that test my score equates (at least theoretically) to an I.Q. a little higher than 160 (s.d. 16). To the ***holes who mocked me in Amish school–take that! Now if only I could get over it.

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