{"id":14116,"date":"2013-03-26T13:31:56","date_gmt":"2013-03-26T17:31:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/?p=14116"},"modified":"2013-04-06T19:56:16","modified_gmt":"2013-04-06T23:56:16","slug":"the-three-weavers-part-i-introducing-a-morality-tale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2013\/03\/the-three-weavers-part-i-introducing-a-morality-tale.html","title":{"rendered":"The Three Weavers, part I: Introducing a Morality Tale"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

So with her father\u2019s blessing light upon her, she rode away beside the prince; and ever after, all her life was crowned with happiness as it had been written for her in the stars.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As a teenager, my ideas about love and romance were actually influenced just as much by Annie Fellows Johnston\u2019s 1904 purity morality tale,\u00a0The Three Weavers,<\/em>\u00a0as they were by Joshua Harris\u2019\u00a0I Kissed Dating Goodbye<\/em><\/a>. This was brought to mind recently by a series in which blogger Lana of Wide Open Ground<\/a> has been running about her childhood reading. She has already\u00a0talked about Elsie Dinsmore<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0missionary biographies<\/a>, both of which I also read voraciously. In this spirit, and as a young adult who holds very different views than I held as a child, I want to take a few posts to go through and discuss\u00a0The Three Weavers<\/em>. In this introductory post I will provide some background to the story, along with some words on its popularity today.<\/p>\n

Annie Fellows Johnston<\/a>\u00a0is the author of the Little Colonel series<\/a>, which she wrote between 1895 and 1907. (You may be aware of the\u00a0Shirley Temple version<\/a>\u00a0of the first book in this series.) The series centers on a girl named Lloyd Sherman\u2014the granddaughter of a confederate colonel and wealthy plantation owner\u2014growing up in Louisville, Kentucky, in the late nineteenth century. I have to admit, I enjoyed the Little Colonel books more than I did the Elsie Dinsmore books, because while they did include conservative moral lessons, these lessons were less intense and more seamlessly integrated into the books. And unlike Elsie, Lloyd was allowed to have spirit and even a rebellious streak. In other words, Lloyd didn\u2019t read like an abused child.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>In one of the books\u2014The Little Colonel at Boarding School<\/em><\/a>\u2014the mother of one of Lloyd\u2019s friends tells a story called\u00a0The Three Weavers.<\/em>\u00a0This occurs just as Lloyd and her friends are reaching puberty and becoming interested in boys. The story is designed to set the girls off on the right foot when it comes to romantic attachments, and the girls continually refer back to this story through the rest of the books. In other words, this story\u00a0fundamentally\u00a0shapes how they think about and carry out their love lives\u2014just as it did for me.<\/p>\n

While I discovered the story through reading the Little Colonel series, other girls growing up in the patriarchal wing of the Christian homeschooling world<\/a>\u00a0today come upon the story much more directly. Vision Forum, for example,\u00a0sells the story in its own volume and advertises it as a timeless story for fathers and daughters<\/a>. It advertises it as follows:<\/p>\n

In\u00a0The Three Weavers<\/em>, discover a special story about three weavers who each prepare their daughters to weave a mantle perfectly suited for the\u00a0prince. Although all three daughters receive the same task, two of them suffer the consequences of poor choices while only one reaps the benefits of yielding to wise counsel.<\/p>\n

This beautifully-illustrated allegory is a special book for fathers to read to their daughters over and over\u00a0again. Sure to become a favorite in your little girl\u2019s library!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Another company I hadn\u2019t heard of before has republished the book along with a study guide, calling it\u00a0The Three Weavers Plus Companion Guide: A Father\u2019s Guide to Guarding His Daughter\u2019s Purity<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em>Here is the advertising blip:<\/p>\n

Fathers understandably feel awkward discussing purity with their daughters. However, The Three Weavers Plus Companion Guide invites fathers to bravely assume their God given responsibility to protect their daughter s purity for marriage while cultivating a close, loving relationship that will influence future generations.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Though I haven\u2019t read it, the study guide apparently consists of six lessons:<\/p>\n

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