Dear Libby,<\/p>\n
The reason I\u2019m emailing is because my husband\u2019s uncle is really into the quiverfull,\u00a0biblical\u00a0patriarchy stuff and I\u2019m really concerned about his daughters. They\u2019re home-schooled, not going to uni and seem to be just waiting at home to get married. I\u2019m pretty worried about them and what options they\u2019ve got for their futures. They live in New Zealand, so the only contact is via facebook at the moment.<\/p>\n
Do\u00a0you think it\u2019s possible to try and challenge them to think through their beliefs, to expose the quiverfull stuff for what it is (exploitative, manipulative distortion of Jesus\u2019 teaching)? How would you do this without getting shut down? Is there any material you would give them? It would be so easy for their father just to cut them off from the internet etc. if he thought I was a bad influence. Is there anything I could do? What could have worked for you if you hadn\u2019t gone to college?\u00a0Obviously as a christian, I would hope that they could get out of this patriarchal movement, get rid of the bathwater, and discover the baby. But even if they reach different conclusions to me, I can\u2019t help thinking it would be better that they had at least arrived at their own beliefs and at least had the opportunity to doubt and grow.<\/p>\n
Any\u00a0ideas?<\/p>\n
Cheers!<\/p>\n
Laura<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n
This is tough. I have taken a while to answer it because I\u2019ve been ruminating on it and just haven\u2019t come up with a good or simple answer. You are absolutely right that your cousins\u2019 father could simply isolate them further if he perceives an outside threat, and you also need to remember that actively trying to challenge their beliefs might serve only to reinforce them, as they\u2019ve been taught that \u201cthe world will hate you\u201d and that \u201cthe world will not understand you.\u201d In other words, opposition is what those girls have been raised to expect.<\/p>\n
When Lewis at Commandments of Men<\/a> had been courting a Quiverfull girl for a number of months, the girl\u2019s father began to see him as a threat to her beliefs, and immediately moved to brainwash and isolate her. He was unfortunately successful in this.<\/p>\n
At the same time, Vyckie of No Longer Quivering<\/a> was persuaded to rethink her beliefs after a long-time email debate with her uncle, in which she tried, and failed, to convert him, and found that he had some pretty good counterarguments to her beliefs. Unlike Lewis\u2019 fiance\u2019s situation, though, Vyckie was a grown woman who ran a Quiverfull newsletter, not a young woman under the close supervision of her father.<\/p>\n
As you can see, it\u2019s complicated.<\/p>\n
As for suggestions, I have two, and both come from my own experience as a Quiverfull daughter who left those beliefs. You see, it wasn\u2019t just college that changed my beliefs, it was people,<\/em> people like you.<\/p>\n
1.<\/strong> It may be that if you got in contact with one of your cousins, she might try to convert you to her beliefs, and you could simply and unthreateningly refute her arguments. You would need to do so in a way that did not come across as you trying to change her beliefs, but simply you explaining why you think her arguments fail.<\/p>\n
Why do I suggest this? Well, what first made me question and rethink my beliefs was my attempt to convert a college friend into a young earth creationist. The thing is, this only worked because he didn\u2019t ever seem like he was actively trying to convince me that evolution was a valid theory and young earth creationism was bunk. Rather, he listened as I laid out my arguments, arguments I thought would easily persuade, and then convincingly explained why my arguments were flawed, but always without judgement. This allowed me to hear new arguments and gave me an environment to consider them.<\/p>\n
Now you know your situation better than I. This sort of thing may be impossible. But perhaps if one of the girls reaches out to you or tries to bring you to believe as she does, this is something to remember. Again, you need to work to not seem like a threat or like you\u2019re trying to deconvert them from their beliefs, because that would both turn your cousin off and perhaps lead her father to further isolate her.<\/p>\n
2.<\/strong> Just be there. Be available. Make sure the girls understand that if they need somebody, you\u2019re someone they can reach out to. This doesn\u2019t have to be a spoken kind of thing, and really probably shouldn\u2019t be. It\u2019s more of an understood sort of thing.<\/p>\n
Growing up, I had several extended relatives I knew my parents disagreed with, but who had always treated me well and respectfully, and not with condemnation. When I began my process of questioning, I was in college and had new friends who were more understanding and open, but if I hadn\u2019t been I might very well have turned to those relatives for support.<\/p>\n
If your cousins know you\u2019re someone who is there for you if they need someone, then if they start having questions or trouble with their father they will come to you, whether for moral support or for actual physical respite. You will never know how valuable just being there <\/em>for them can be.<\/p>\n
I would add one concluding point. Your question is difficult to answer because it\u2019s not as though we\u2019re talking about young adults held against their wills. Rather, we\u2019re talking about young adults who may be just as sold, if not more so, on Quiverfull doctrine and beliefs as their parents. Because, after all, they know nothing else. If the question were simply your young adult cousins being held by their parents against their wills, the answer would be simple. Instead, we\u2019re talking about young adults who serve as their own goalers and proudly wear as armor beliefs that have been made virtually\u00a0impenetrable\u00a0by interwoven dogma.<\/p>\n
I wish I could offer you more suggestions, I really do. If nothing else I\u2019m really glad you care about your cousins, as you clearly do. For additional input, you might want to look at this post<\/a> or check out the (upcoming) answers to these questions<\/a> in the Raised Quiverfull project.<\/p>\n
Does anyone else have any input?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dear Libby, The reason I\u2019m emailing is because my husband\u2019s uncle is really into the quiverfull,\u00a0biblical\u00a0patriarchy stuff and I\u2019m really concerned about his daughters. They\u2019re home-schooled, not going to uni and seem to be just waiting at home to get married. I\u2019m pretty worried about them and what options they\u2019ve got for their futures. They […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":845,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,57],"tags":[129],"class_list":["post-2960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-patriarchy","category-quiverfull","tag-relationships"],"yoast_head":"\n
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