{"id":29340,"date":"2016-05-18T11:39:32","date_gmt":"2016-05-18T15:39:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/?p=29340"},"modified":"2016-05-18T11:39:32","modified_gmt":"2016-05-18T15:39:32","slug":"for-the-children-of-the-latest-target-protestor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2016\/05\/for-the-children-of-the-latest-target-protestor.html","title":{"rendered":"For the Children of the Latest Target Protestor"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

By now, you\u2019ve probably seen this video of a mother of twelve walking through Target, Bible in hand, loudly condemning Target for its trans-inclusive bathroom policy.<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=JKNM-yiLdL4<\/a>\n

Here are some of the things\u00a0the woman said\u00a0as she walks through the store:<\/p>\n

\u201cMothers, get your children out of this store!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAre you going to let the devil rape your children, America?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRepent, wicked Target\u2026the judgement of God is coming on this nation and Target!\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

According to a blogger who grew up with<\/a> one of the individuals in the video, the woman in the video homeschools her children. I\u2019m not surprised; I grew up in a similarly sized homeschool family myself. While I don\u2019t think my parents would have\u00a0walked through Target loudly condemning their policies for all to hear, there were plenty of occasions when I and my siblings were taken along to protest other issues, including abortion and marriage equality.<\/p>\n

As I watched the video, I felt deeply for the woman\u2019s children. I know what it feels like to be in their shoes, because I\u2019ve been<\/em> in their shoes.<\/p>\n

This mother could have protested Target\u2019s bathroom policies on her own, without her children in tow, but she chose not to. Instead, she chose to bring her children and have them follow her through the store as she spoke of Satan raping children and condemned Target\u2019s actions. She likely brought her children\u00a0because she believed having them there with her would help make her point, or boost her credentials for speaking. Again, I\u2019ve been there. I know those feels. I also know that it is very unlikely that those children\u00a0were given a choice about coming.<\/p>\n

As a child, I usually\u00a0enjoyed being politically involved alongside my parents. It could be awkward sometimes, with the whole family along and obviously on display, but I found political involvement invigorating. The same was not true for all of my siblings. My next-in-age sister hated our political involvement, and would get in trouble with my father for making comments about not wanting to be there. In some sense,\u00a0each of my many siblings has had a different childhood, because each is a different person with different likes and dislikes\u00a0and\u00a0a different temperament. I thought about that, as I watched the video. Which of those children felt invigorated to be there, I wondered\u2014happy to be striking a blow against Satan, perhaps\u2014and which simply wanted to sink through the floor and disappear?<\/p>\n

What would I say to those children, if I could? I think I would tell them that their lives are their own, that their beliefs are their own, that their path is their own. One thing that is often lacking from a fundamentalist childhood is an understanding that you are allowed to make your own decisions and decide for yourself<\/em> who you are. Oh certainly, I was always taught that I had to choose God for myself, that I had to choose to live a Christian life, that I had to choose to follow God\u2019s law. But notice my use of the word \u201chad.\u201d It\u2019s not accidental. There was never another option, not really. It was choose God, or choose damnation, vice, hedonism, life without meaning, and among strangers. And that is not a meaningful choice.<\/p>\n

As I watch my siblings grow, and as I watch other individuals in the homeschool community I grew up in come of age and embark on their adult lives, my hope has always been that they would find the\u00a0freedom to form their own beliefs. I don\u2019t want clones of myself or my journey. Everyone is different and every journey is different. Instead, I want them to\u00a0end up in a place where they are able to own their own lives and make their own decisions. A place where they are more than pawns or foot soldiers. A place where they are their own people. Beyond that, yes, I want them to learn empathy, to love, to show kindness to others, but all of that has to start from a place\u00a0where one is free to make one\u2019s own choices and form one\u2019s own beliefs.<\/p>\n

What would I say to the children of fundamentalism, if I could? I would tell them that they do not belong to their parents or their churches. They belong to themselves<\/em>.\u00a0I would tell them that their\u00a0spiritual journeys are their own, and that a\u00a0God who truly loves and cares for his children is big enough to handle questions, seeking, and pondering. I would tell them that the freedom to ask questions\u2014questions without easy answers\u2014is a beautiful thing. And I would tell them that they matter, that they are more than possessions or appendages of their parents, that they are independent beings who have value as individuals. And that they won\u2019t be children forever.<\/p>\n

To every child who has ever been a pawn: It is my sincere\u00a0hope that you find your own space, and freedom. You are not a possession. You are a person. You matter.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to a blogger who grew up with one of the individuals in the video, the woman in the video homeschools her children. I’m not surprised; I grew up in a similarly sized homeschool family myself. While I don’t think my parents would have walked through Target loudly condemning their policies for all to hear, there were plenty of occasions when I and my siblings were taken along to protest other issues, including abortion and marriage equality.<\/p>\n

Click through to read more!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":845,"featured_media":29347,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40,11],"tags":[110],"class_list":["post-29340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-evangelicalism-fundamentalism","category-politics","tag-lgbtq"],"yoast_head":"\nFor the Children of the Latest Target Protestor<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"According to a blogger who grew up with one of the individuals in the video, the woman in the video homeschools her children. I'm not surprised; I grew up in a similarly sized homeschool family myself. While I don't think my parents would have walked through Target loudly condemning their policies for all to hear, there were plenty of occasions when I and my siblings were taken along to protest other issues, including abortion and marriage equality. Click through to read more!\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2016\/05\/for-the-children-of-the-latest-target-protestor.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"For the Children of the Latest Target Protestor\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"According to a blogger who grew up with one of the individuals in the video, the woman in the video homeschools her children. I'm not surprised; I grew up in a similarly sized homeschool family myself. While I don't think my parents would have walked through Target loudly condemning their policies for all to hear, there were plenty of occasions when I and my siblings were taken along to protest other issues, including abortion and marriage equality. Click through to read more!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2016\/05\/for-the-children-of-the-latest-target-protestor.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Love, Joy, Feminism\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-05-18T15:39:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/166\/2016\/05\/christianmom.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"338\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Libby Anne\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Libby Anne\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2016\/05\/for-the-children-of-the-latest-target-protestor.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2016\/05\/for-the-children-of-the-latest-target-protestor.html\",\"name\":\"For the Children of the Latest Target Protestor\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-05-18T15:39:32+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-05-18T15:39:32+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#\/schema\/person\/fae465c1bbb5cbdf26c9e73bfd1b73d2\"},\"description\":\"According to a blogger who grew up with one of the individuals in the video, the woman in the video homeschools her children. I'm not surprised; I grew up in a similarly sized homeschool family myself. While I don't think my parents would have walked through Target loudly condemning their policies for all to hear, there were plenty of occasions when I and my siblings were taken along to protest other issues, including abortion and marriage equality. Click through to read more!\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2016\/05\/for-the-children-of-the-latest-target-protestor.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2016\/05\/for-the-children-of-the-latest-target-protestor.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2016\/05\/for-the-children-of-the-latest-target-protestor.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"For the Children of the Latest Target Protestor\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/\",\"name\":\"Love, Joy, Feminism\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#\/schema\/person\/fae465c1bbb5cbdf26c9e73bfd1b73d2\",\"name\":\"Libby Anne\",\"description\":\"Libby Anne grew up in a large evangelical homeschool family highly involved in the Christian Right. College turned her world upside down, and she is today an atheist, a feminist, and a progressive. She blogs about leaving religion, her experience with the Christian Patriarchy and Quiverfull movements, the detrimental effects of the \\\"purity culture,\\\" the contradictions of conservative politics, and the importance of feminism.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/author\/libby\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"For the Children of the Latest Target Protestor","description":"According to a blogger who grew up with one of the individuals in the video, the woman in the video homeschools her children. I'm not surprised; I grew up in a similarly sized homeschool family myself. While I don't think my parents would have walked through Target loudly condemning their policies for all to hear, there were plenty of occasions when I and my siblings were taken along to protest other issues, including abortion and marriage equality. Click through to read more!","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2016\/05\/for-the-children-of-the-latest-target-protestor.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"For the Children of the Latest Target Protestor","og_description":"According to a blogger who grew up with one of the individuals in the video, the woman in the video homeschools her children. I'm not surprised; I grew up in a similarly sized homeschool family myself. While I don't think my parents would have walked through Target loudly condemning their policies for all to hear, there were plenty of occasions when I and my siblings were taken along to protest other issues, including abortion and marriage equality. Click through to read more!","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2016\/05\/for-the-children-of-the-latest-target-protestor.html","og_site_name":"Love, Joy, Feminism","article_published_time":"2016-05-18T15:39:32+00:00","og_image":[{"width":600,"height":338,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/166\/2016\/05\/christianmom.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Libby Anne","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Libby Anne","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2016\/05\/for-the-children-of-the-latest-target-protestor.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2016\/05\/for-the-children-of-the-latest-target-protestor.html","name":"For the Children of the Latest Target Protestor","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-05-18T15:39:32+00:00","dateModified":"2016-05-18T15:39:32+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#\/schema\/person\/fae465c1bbb5cbdf26c9e73bfd1b73d2"},"description":"According to a blogger who grew up with one of the individuals in the video, the woman in the video homeschools her children. I'm not surprised; I grew up in a similarly sized homeschool family myself. While I don't think my parents would have walked through Target loudly condemning their policies for all to hear, there were plenty of occasions when I and my siblings were taken along to protest other issues, including abortion and marriage equality. Click through to read more!","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2016\/05\/for-the-children-of-the-latest-target-protestor.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2016\/05\/for-the-children-of-the-latest-target-protestor.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2016\/05\/for-the-children-of-the-latest-target-protestor.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"For the Children of the Latest Target Protestor"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/","name":"Love, Joy, Feminism","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#\/schema\/person\/fae465c1bbb5cbdf26c9e73bfd1b73d2","name":"Libby Anne","description":"Libby Anne grew up in a large evangelical homeschool family highly involved in the Christian Right. College turned her world upside down, and she is today an atheist, a feminist, and a progressive. She blogs about leaving religion, her experience with the Christian Patriarchy and Quiverfull movements, the detrimental effects of the \"purity culture,\" the contradictions of conservative politics, and the importance of feminism.","sameAs":["http:\/\/patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/author\/libby"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/845"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29340\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}