Reality TV Show Penetrates Amish World
July 30, 2004 -- Before reality television invaded her simple world and turned it upside town, Ruth spent her days performing house chores in ankle-length dresses, aprons and bonnets. Will her televised test of faith be a recipe for TV ratings success? Or will it be seen as an unfair exploitation of a devout religious group?
UPN, the TV network responsible for a new Amish reality series, is banking on America's appetite for watching real-life culture clashes, such as occur of Fox's successful series The Simple Life.
Despite criticism, UPN maintains Amish in the City, which premiered this week, will not be demeaning to the Amish or anyone else. Instead, the network says the series will provide a sensitive window into a unique world that most people don't know about.
Ruth, who does not want her last name revealed in an effort to protect her family, is a young Amish woman who took part in the reality series during a unique rite of passage known to those in her small devout community as "rumspringa."
During rumspringa, a Pennsylvania Dutch term that means "running around," the Amish teens are permitted, at age 16 and older, to move away from their homes in order to experiment in the outside world.
At the end of rumspringa, they must decide whether they want to return to their Amish world or stay outside.
Ruth, 20, says her parents would not be pleased if they were able to watch the show. "They would not like this at all," Ruth said."But deep in their heart, I think they're proud of me."
Mose, another Amish community member involved in the UPN program, says the chance to take a glimpse at the non-Amish world has changed him forever. At age 25, Mose has already been baptized, which means he would be cut off from his family completely if he decided not to return to the Amish world. Most Amish people are not baptized until their teens. After their baptism, they are expected to adhere to the strict regulations of the Amish religion.
"I mean, there's no looking back," Mose said. "There is so much the world has to offer, you have to go out there and explore it some more. I have only scratched the surface."
Cameras follow Mose, Ruth (who has not yet been baptized), and three other young Amish people as they move into an ultra-modern Hollywood Hills home with six young "city dwellers" they've never met before.
The cameras capture their reactions to a world they've never seen before, full of expensive stores, TVs and rock music.
Some lawmakers insist that the show exploits the Amish population. Rep. Joe Pitts of Pennsylvania was among 51 lawmakers who signed a letter asking UPN to put an end to the show.
"I think it's degrading, demeaning, and insensitive to a minority religious group," Pitts said. "They don't get involved in politics. Not many of them vote, but I feel like I have an obligation to speak up for them."
Daniel Laikind, the executive producer of Amish in the City, defends the show. "I think when people watch the show, they'll see there was no attempt to make fun of the Amish," said Laikind, who also co-produced the documentary on rumspringa called Devil's Playground. "There's a natural part of the religion where they can explore the outside world, but no one has spent time in a city for that process. And so we found five people who were interested in spending time in a big city in order to make a decision of 'Do I want to be Amish or not?'"
The show's producers said they spent time near Amish communities and got to know some of the sect's members when they were looking for candidates for the reality series.
Members of the Amish religious sect, which has strong populations in rural areas of Pennsylvania, Ohio and other parts of the United States, dress in simple clothes, travel in horse-drawn black buggies and live without electricity. And … they do not watch television.