‘Return to Amish’: What Makes Fannie Schmucker a Fan Favorite?
In the early 2010s, Breaking Amish was a TLC phenomenon that gave an inside look into the lives of former Amish people who leave their communities. After it went off the air in 2014, TLC launched the sequel series Return to Amish to follow some of the original cast members as they seek to return to their communities. In 2023, Return to Amish is back for a seventh season after a two-year hiatus during the pandemic. Among those joining the fray are ex-Amish member Fannie Schmucker.
Fannie Schmucker stars on ‘Return to Amish’
Season 7 of Return to Amish premiered in March 2023 and featured Fannie Schmucker among its cast. Schmucker was born into a particularly strict sect of the Amish community, and the 20-year-old doesn’t hold back when sharing her thoughts on the religion in which she was raised.
“Old Order Amish is a very strict community. You can’t really have or do all that much before you get in trouble,” she said on the show.
Fannie Schmucker is an unconventional member of the Amish community
She went on to speak about how her love life has changed as a result of her decision to leave the religion. “I was baptized into the Amish church. I had a fiancé, and we were in love,” she recalled. “My whole life was mapped out for me. And then a few days ago, I told him about my secret cell phone which we’re not supposed to have in our community.”
She refused to hand over her phone to her fiancé so he could destroy it. He retaliated by reporting her to the leader of their church.
“I wouldn’t do it so he went and told the bishop about it. I thought I love him but…how can I marry someone I don’t trust?” she said. “Now that I got caught with my cell phone, they’re gonna shun me and condemn me to hell.”
“When you’re baptized into the church and you get shunned, you have to confess your sins in front of the whole church, in front of people who might like you and people who hate you,” she continued. “That whole process is humiliating. Then I have to drop to my knees and say that I wanna do better and that I want their forgiveness.”
The church votes on whether she deserves forgiveness or not. If the church votes not to forgive her, she’s shunned from the community.
“Everyone will ignore you, and you have to eat by yourself. By that time you’re just broken inside and you just feel sad. At that point you just don’t care. You just wanna leave,” she said.
Fannie Schmucker is loved by some as a feminist
Fannie Schmucker, the niece of Breaking Amish fixture Mary Schmucker, is quickly earning a reputation as an advocate for women in the face of her shunning from the church. For her, Amish women deserve to express themselves without fear of being judged for the smallest thing.
“I feel that the Amish women can barely do one little thing wrong. We’re expected to be perfect and we’re expected to follow the rules,” she said. “There’s no one that’s going to be able to live perfect. That’s not possible.”
