Given my interest in homeschool reform, I am familiar with many if not most of the entries at the Coalition for Responsible Home Education's Homeschooling's Invisible Children database. This database was started by homeschool alumni concerned about the role homeschooling can play in intensifying and hiding abuse by allowing abusive parents to isolate their children. (I suppose this is where I add the caveat that I am not anti-homeschooling, just pro-accountability.)Anyway, I found the most r … [Read more...]
Jonathan and Alison Schumm Abuse Case Raises Questions
November 25, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Marriage Is Not a Magical Social Cure
October 14, 2015 by Leave a Comment
I recently came upon an article titled "We Can't Let the Family Die," via Ladies Against Feminism. After talking about the decline of marriage rates in the UK, the author, Kathy Gyngell, writes the following: The fact remains that children who grow up with parents who aren't married are more likely to experience the double whammy of fatherlessness and disruption. One in two cohabiting couples splits up before their child's first birthday. Exposed to disinterested boyfriends and multiple carers, … [Read more...]
Mothers are NOT always right
September 1, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Humans of New York has been visiting Iran recently, and this story of a mother and daughter just popped up in my feed:I'm glad this woman's daughter is okay, though I'm bothered by the fact that she seems to care more about the fact that she was right about her daughter's boyfriend being bad news than she does about the fact that her daughter is now safe and no longer in an abusive relationship. It's not so much "I'm glad you're safe and happy now" as it is "I told you so." And can you sa … [Read more...]
Maintaining a Relationship with Difficult Parents
August 5, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Over the years, I have sometimes gotten emails from readers wanting advice on how to deal with controlling and manipulative (if not downright abusive) parents. As my regular readers will know, I have maintained my relationship with my parents in spite of the no good very bad treatment I received from them as I came of age. My parents' actions---their efforts to control and manipulate and guilt me into being the daughter they wanted me to be---were emotionally abusive. Why did I decided to keep … [Read more...]
Evangelical Author Shaunti Feldhahn’s Misleading Work on Marriage and Divorce
July 30, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Ladies Against Feminism recently linked to a Western Journalism article from last year, written by Matt Barber and titled "You May Have Heard That The Divorce Rate In The Church Is 50% . . . Get Ready To Be Shocked." I clicked through because the overall divorce rate isn't 50%, and I've known that for years. Heck, a New York Times article addressed exactly this myth in an article last year as well:Despite hand-wringing about the institution of marriage, marriages in this country are … [Read more...]
When the Perpetrators Matter More than the Victims
May 26, 2015 by Leave a Comment
In March 2002, Jim Bob Duggar found out that his fourteen-year-old son, Josh, was sexually molesting prepubescent girls. Jim Bob did not say anything about this to the authorities until July 2003, even as it continued to happen and the list of victims grew. And in the wake of these revelations, I have been absolutely horrified by the number of people who have said they would not have immediately reported their fourteen-year-old son for molesting prepubescent girls either.I have a … [Read more...]
Why Josh Duggar’s “Teenage Mistakes” Matter
May 26, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Last week it was revealed that Josh Duggar sexually assaulted five girls in two families, some as young as five, when he was a teenager. This took place over the course of a year. Josh's father, Jim Bob, did not report the incidents to law enforcement until 16 months after the initial incident, and even then only did so to a family friend who then failed to file a report. The incidents came to the attention of the authorities in 2006, but by then the statute of limitations had passed. Any c … [Read more...]
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