‘Suddenly Amish’ Dallas Man Forced to Flee Amish Community After Just One Week—With an Ax Involved!
A rite of passage for the Amish is rumspringa, an elective period during which Amish teenagers leave their insular communities to see if the modern luxury of air conditioning can sway them from their Amish baptism. The tradition is the focal point of TLC’s mega-hit show, Breaking Amish. But seldom do the English – what the Amish call anyone who isn’t a part of their conservative religious group – venture into one of the church’s settlements.
Flipping the script, TLC brought six outsiders into an Amish community for its new show, Suddenly Amish. One of the participants is from North Texas, and we sat down with him just days after viewers learned he quit the show a week into Amish life.
In perhaps a record-setting time to get banished, Matt Martin, an elementary school librarian from Forney, was chased off the property by his ax-wielding Amish host, James. Martin was kicked off for being divorced, a sin that about a quarter of the American population (and soon Ken Paxton) has committed. He knew his marital status might be a problem for the strict Bible interpreters, but not the kind that would produce a one-man angry mob. The altercation was enough for Martin to give up his dreams of a zipper-less life. Yes, zippers are too advanced technology for the Amish.
Matt Martin, a divorced dad from Forney, Texas, spent a week (or so) living as an Amish man in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, on TLC’s Suddenly Amish. TLC
“I assumed that they wouldn’t be pleased with me being divorced,” he told the Observer. “I didn’t think that it would be as big a deal as it was.”
James, who opened his house to Martin, is a strict Amish man who is being shunned from a different community for secretly obtaining a cell phone. He participated in the show, hoping to gain belonging in a new settlement. Martin cites dealing with James as one of the hardest parts of his week as an Amish man.
“He probably had it out for me,” Martin says. “Especially with ax in hand, it felt like there was no conversation to be had. It felt really immature and really aggressive.”
James pursued Martin with his ax propped on his shoulder, enraged just minutes after hearing the D word.
“He can’t remarry if he joins the Amish church,” James said in a private confessional in the episode. “I don’t know why he’s here. If these Englishers don’t comply, all my effort to be redeemed back into the Amish would be in vain.”
The six outsiders were welcomed to the community to eventually boost the population through procreation. According to the show, the Amish are at record lows, and they’ve rarely converted new members willing to abandon the perks that came with the advent of the lightbulb. Thus, the tight-knit communities are prone to inbreeding and all the accompanying congenital issues.
“We were hoping to expand our bloodlines,” James said to Martin as he prepared to escort him out. “Now we can’t.”
