Posted on 08/17/2026 5:02:09 AM PDT by Red Badger
The Amish are what are known as "plain people" … religious Christians who value tradition over change. They dress modestly, and most don't use technology like cars, computers or phones.
So, what exactly is going on here?
VIDEOS AT LINK..........
Meet Lovina Hershberger Zook, the unlikely 23-year-old social media creator who has amassed some six million followers with her recipes and stories about the Amish.
She comes from one of the most conservative subgroups in the Amish, and grew up speaking a dialect of German known as "Pennsylvania Dutch." She's no longer Amish – she left the faith five years ago. But she maintains many of their traditions at home. She made her dress, and prefers to wear it around the house.
Online, she's known for cooking Amish dishes – simple, practical fare that ranges from the super-traditional to the unconventional, like a coffee soup made with hot milk, instant coffee, sugar, and saltine crackers. Her favorite way to eat it is with cottage cheese and meat.
Sometimes it's what's in a name that matters most. She made us an Amish cheeseburger – that's two pieces of homemade bread slathered with butter and layered with cheese, grilled in a cast-iron pan until golden-brown and gooey. (What the non-Amish call a grilled cheese.)
"I've only had an Amish cheeseburger; I have never had a grilled cheese!" Zook laughed.
And that's the thing: She doesn't always know what she doesn't know – what traditions and what words are ones the "English" (as the Amish call the non-Amish) might not know.
Zook had never used a phone before, and didn't know what a computer was. "Like, I knew people worked on their computers. But I didn't know what a laptop was," she said. "And then I bought a laptop, like, a couple years after I left the Amish. Apparently it's a laptop computer. And now I just call it a computer … Why is it called a computer? That's a weird word. Computer. I don't know why, sometimes I say words and I'm like, 'Why is it called that?'" she laughed.
So, when Zook was growing up Amish, if someone had said to her, You're going to be a social media star, what would that have meant? "Nothing," Zook laughed. "Because I didn't know what social media was. I would've been scared, because I would go, 'What is social media?'"
Zook got her start online talking not just about food, but about the culture she left. Her most-watched video is a tutorial on how Amish women do their hair. It has more than 50 million views on TikTok.
Asked what it was it like growing up Amish, Zook replied, "We just live our life. We're like, 'Ooh, I know there's people who live different lives. I know there's people with electricity. But that's wrong. And so, I'll just, like, stay Amish and I'll live an Amish life.'"
And that meant more than just no electricity. It meant no makeup, no dancing. The list of prohibitions was long. "I didn't smoke; was not allowed for women," she said. "No drinking; that's not allowed for anybody. And no cursing. Absolutely not. You can't even say, 'Oh, my gosh.' That's considered a bad word."
Gosh?!? "You can say, 'Darn it!' or something like that. Like, 'Cheese and crackers!'" Zook said.
And any transgressions came with serious consequences. For example, Zook was told, if she left the Amish, she would go to Hell.
Zook is one of 13 children. Her older brother left before her. When she finished eighth grade, she became a schoolteacher. "I loved being a schoolteacher. That was the best part of my life at that time," she said. "But they were paying me $12 a day, and I was driving eight miles a day with horse-and-buggy. So, the wear-and-tear on the horse-and-buggy wasn't covered by what I was getting paid."
Her father said she was going to have to change careers, because teaching did not pay enough. He told her, "You're gonna work at the saw mill."
The last straw for Zook came when her mother criticized how she dressed for church. "She's like, 'You're gonna have to use a smaller band around your neck because people are gonna start talking.' And in that moment – I didn't say a word, but I was like, I'm so tired of people telling me what to do. And I'm always trying to be perfect. And it is never right. And I was just done. And I was like, okay, this is the moment I start planning."
She planned for two weeks, before escaping while her family slept – which she compared to escaping from prison. "I was like, I have to time this so they're sleeping, like, really deeply when I leave, 'cause the stairs creaked a little, and I had to, like, figure out which stairs creaked," she said. "And the day before, I sneakily oiled all the door hinges so they don't squeak when you open and close them."
Zook says she didn't like living with all of the Amish rules, but she still respects a lot of their ways. And she misses her family: "My siblings, especially, 'cause I was the second oldest and I feel like they always called me Momma #2."
Once she left the Amish, she had to learn all the ways of the "English" world. She stayed with her brother and other family members while she got settled, and five years later she drives. She makes a living making social media. She sells a self-published cookbook. And she's married to an ex-Amish man named Eli.
She says that, rather than believing God will send her to Hell, she is living the life that God wants her to. "Oh, yes. I believe that 100%," she said.
Lovina and Eli are expecting their first baby next month. And she's not done yet: "I want a house. I want a garden. I want to farm. I'd like to someday maybe have an Amish restaurant, and an Amish market. Our plans for the future seem very busy, [and] very bright. My life just seems to get better and better and better every day."
Dear FRiends,
We need your continuing support to keep FR funded. Your donations are our sole source of funding. No sugar daddies, no advertisers, no paid memberships, no commercial sales, no gimmicks, no tax subsidies. No spam, no pop-ups, no ad trackers.
If you enjoy using FR and agree it's a worthwhile endeavor, please consider making a contribution today:
Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you,
Jim
“Is it a cult?”
That’s too negative a term. Is the Muslim religion a cult?
I think it is. The Amish keep to themselves and do good work. They don’t try to change other cultures. I’d rather have an Amish neighbor than a Muslim one.
My wife and her friends like to attend an Amish auction in Northern PA. Its majority Amish and not for tourists
I watch their interactions and their behavior closely. The children and teens are not fidgety / don't have twitches, they are calm, they are able to concentrate easily, they speak very quietly, they smile a lot, they are social with each other
I'm sure they Amish have their own problems, but their kids don't have the behavioral maladies that many 21st century children have.
“Is the Muslim religion a cult?”
Like all religions, they have a diversity of groups within the religion that vary from ultra legalistic to very independent. The same is true in Christianity as it is in the Muslim faith. (There are many legalistic Christians here on FR) The Sufi religion within the Muslim faith is not violent at all.
Back in the 1990’s I had the privilege to do hospice for a devout Muslim Dr (surgeon) from Turkey who had no family in the USA. He was never married and had no children.
I spent many hours with him, learning about the Koran. We spent many hours sharing as I would take him to his appointments and care for him as though he was my family.
If you were to measure a person as being Christian by how Christ like his behavior was, he was more like Jesus than most proclaiming Christians. He gave me his Koran before he died and I have it on my bookshelf.
I was very grateful to have met him and call him a friend as it stopped me from stereotyping all Muslims after 911.
One of my favorite jokes was printed and posted on the entry door to an Amish business during Covid. (The refused to require masks.)
The one Amish man asks the other Amish man if he got that Covid disease.
The second Amish man responded, “No, I don’t have a television either!”
We were in Intercourse PA recently. We got some good soft pretzels at Immergut.
Do not like.
Especially do not like that some 6 million people follow social media drivel.
Why then does lovina still imply she’s still “in”?
outen the light. The hurrier i go the more behinder i get.
They are basically normal.
Would benefit from some more heterogeneity in their gene pool. Maybe let some people join the group as pledges.
Their history is one of hard-core persecution back in Europe that really left a mark. They won't ever trust the Real World.
That's not necessarily a bad thing.
As believers they come in several 'flavors' with some of them OKing various concessions to the modern world.
But they are pretty impressive, driving buggies midwinter at 0600 on a dark winding two lane highway, risking their lives to continue being what they are.
They and their horses are hard core, squared-away, persons.
Their horses are not like the average, bummed-out, slacker, American horse. Amish horses are eager to go out and run and pull a buggy.
Wish we could get them to vote. (Amish people AND horses -- you know the Rats would have their animals vote if they could.)
They have lots of kids, like Moose Limbs, only Amish are good people.
They use cash, they hate credit, their carbon footprint is zero.
Libs would love them but for the fact that they believe in the Almighty.
My litmus test for cults are whether one can leave the belief system without coercive repercussions.
By that standard, Amish are not a cult, and Islam and Scientology are cults.
Or at least women who say they’re Amish.
I understand they delivered the margin of R victory in Pennsylvania actually.
I respect the Amish, even if i don’t agree with them.
There was a couple TV series on cable a few years back about that..........
don’t forget Banshee
She sells her recipes. Her videos are labelled, “recipe is in the description”, but they are NOT. Therefore, I don’t watch her videos.
I don’t think they vote.
Depending on the individual community, the Amish practice a works based religion, rather than a faith based religion. Christianity is a faith based religion, while asserting that faith without works is dead. Romans 10:10 states, “For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (KJV) Works are a result of faith in Jesus, not the other way around.
If everything is a "cult" then nothing is a "cult" ... the word has ceased to mean anything.
"We" need to quit labeling organization "cults" for no reason other than disagreeing with them.
I use the term cult when certain factors apply relating to manipulating its members.
1. Deception, dependency, and isolation
2. All the other similar groups are wrong and/or evil
3. Demands an individual relationship with the group
4. Tries to isolate members from all previous friendships and family who are not members of the group
5. Often uses coined names for new members to create a new identity for them.
6. Shuns people and isolates them if they do not adhere to the group rigid norms.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.