A Review Series of Anonymous Tip, by Michael Farris<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\nPp. 467-468<\/em><\/p>\nCue the wedding, with just over two hundred in attendance. The church is \u201ctastefully graced with green garlands and cream-colored roses.\u201d Aaron is Peter\u2019s best man, because of course he is. They wear \u201csimple black tuxedos with cream-colored ties and cummerbunds.\u201d On the pastor\u2019s signal, they take their places up front.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is sooo handsome,\u201d June\u00a0Mansfield whispered in her daughter Pam\u2019s ear. Gwen\u2019s sister nodded and smiled.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Was that exchange a bit weird or am I hyper-sensitive?<\/p>\n
And\u00a0now the wedding begins.<\/p>\n
Casey in a pink frilly satin dress, with her hair in ringlets and ribbons, began to walk down the aisle. . . . She scattered a mixture of pink and cream-colored rose petals in the aisle as she made her way to the front of the church.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
So wait. What is the color scheme here?<\/p>\n
Lynn followed about ten paces behind. . . . Her tea-length pink dress was simple, yet elegant.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Pink and cream. It\u2019s pink and cream. Because of course it is.<\/p>\n
Next comes Gwen, on Stan\u2019s arm. She\u2019s wearing an \u201civory-colored satin dress\u201d and is described as \u201cthe prize of Peter Barron\u2019s heart.\u201d Farris tells us that \u201cPeter had never seen anyone so beautiful in all his life\u201d but I\u2019m still stuck on something else\u2014Gwen has only one bridesmaid? Why? Some people like simple weddings, but Peter earlier indicated that they were going to go all-out, do the big fancy wedding thing. Did Gwen request to have only one? Did she want to keep it simple because she already did the big fancy wedding, with Gordon?<\/p>\n
Gwen\u2019s sister Pam is sitting in the church. Why isn\u2019t she a bridesmaid? It\u2019s very common for people to have their sister be their bridesmaid, so common in fact that not doing so generally bears some explaining as to why<\/em>.\u00a0We\u2019ve never been given any reason to think that Gwen doesn\u2019t like Pam. Sure, she didn\u2019t call Pam when Casey was taken away, or when Peter started coming onto her, or, basically, ever, but she did visit Pam that one time when Peter was being an ass and she wanted to get out of town.<\/p>\nI don\u2019t have a problem with Gwen having only one bridesmaid, but since that\u2019s an unconventional choice, it would have been nice to have a sentence or two thrown in humanizing it. As it is, I\u2019m not sure whether it was intentional or whether Farris got to this point and realized he hadn\u2019t introduced any other friends for Gwen, and so gave her only the one bridesmaid. As for Pam, maybe he needed her in the pew so that June could have a female-shaped person to whisper to (though even here, we could have introduced a friend for June).<\/p>\n
It really does appear that Gwen had no friends at all before she met Lynn. It didn\u2019t have to be written this way, even if Farris wanted Lynn to end up Gwen\u2019s closest friend over the course of the book. Gwen could have had some girlfriends she gets together with (she can leave Casey with her parents, after all), maybe coworkers, maybe people she grew up with (it\u2019s not like she\u2019s moved away from her hometown, after all), maybe neighbors or women she met at toddler story time at the library.<\/p>\n
Farris could have told a convincing story of growing distance from these friends as Gwen got to know Peter and began attending his church. This story would have rung very true\u2014as she began to attend an evangelical church, Gwen would have\u00a0adopted a new morality code, and she might have begun to judge her friends\u00a0for\u00a0drinking or for the movies they watched. She would have lost some of her enjoyment in their girls\u2019 night get-togethers, finding them \u201cme-focused.\u201d She would\u00a0have tried evangelizing them, only to have them treat her askance, as though\u00a0she\u2019d joined a cult.<\/p>\n
Gwen\u2019s friends might have organized an intervention, both on the religion front and on the Peter front. Gwen\u00a0would have refused to listen, steeling herself against their\u00a0points. After that, Gwen and her friends would have drifted apart.<\/p>\n
And what about Pam? A straightforward reading of the text suggests that Gwen and Pam weren\u2019t close, but that they weren\u2019t estranged either, but I\u2019ve never been sure whether or not that was intentional on Farris\u2019s part. As Gwen became involved in Peter\u2019s church, at the very least, she would have called Pam to evangelize her. Pam would likely have concluded that her sister had gone off the deep end. Relations between the two (whatever they actually were) would have cooled as Gwen became saddened at Pam\u2019s refusal to accept salvation and as Pam felt\u00a0more and more\u00a0judged.<\/p>\n
Do you know what Farris gained by not telling this story? He got to tell the story of Gwen\u2019s conversion as a story of her being welcomed into the loving arms of a new family and community without having to also explain that Gwen\u2019s conversion wrecked her existing family and community. He didn\u2019t have to let readers know\u00a0that Gwen\u2019s conversion inserted distance and tension into her relationship with her sister Pam, and he didn\u2019t have to show Gwen\u2019s sadness when her existing friend group didn\u2019t understand her newfound religiosity. Instead he could show all happiness and light.<\/p>\n
You can\u2019t be the sort of evangelical Gwen converted to (the sort of evangelical Farris is) and also maintain friendships\u2014solid, close friendships\u2014with non-evangelicals. It\u2019s nearly impossible. Partly this is because Farris\u2019 evangelicalism includes the\u00a0belief that every non-evangelical is going to be tortured for eternity in hell, which makes it mandatory for\u00a0evangelicals to\u00a0share the good news of salvation with non-evangelicals in their lives and dividing the world into saved and unsaved. Partly it\u2019s because Farris\u2019 evangelicalism\u00a0comes with a very strict morality code; innocent human activities too easily\u00a0become worldly, sinful entertainments. Partly it\u2019s because Farris\u2019 evangelicalism is all-encompassing, influencing every action and every thought and\u00a0making cross-religious friendships difficult simply on that basis.<\/p>\n
I know all this because I experienced it myself, though in reverse, while leaving Farris\u2019 evangelicalism.\u00a0By making Gwen friendless and giving her\u00a0a sister she never talks to, Farris doesn\u2019t have to show the wreck conversion to evangelicalism would have made of Gwen\u2019s life. And frankly, that\u2019s super convenient for him.<\/p>\n
Having said all this, I\u2019d intended to make this post the last one, to cover all of the remaining pages. However I clearly didn\u2019t realize how much I\u2019d have to say here. I\u2019ll give you one last thing, and then save the very last post for next week.<\/p>\n
The service was simple. The pastor was eloquent. And the vows were recited from memory without flaw. Peter eagerly kissed his bride until June thought she was going to swoon just from watching them.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Okay, it\u2019s not just me, that definitely is<\/em> weird.<\/p>\nThen Peter departed from the script, bent down, scooped Casey up in his arms, and gave her a warm, fatherly hug.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Let\u2019s all pause to remember that at the beginning of this book Casey still had her bio-father, Gordon, who had a drinking problem and ended up veering into stalker territory, but also took her to the park and seemed to actually care about her.<\/p>\n
I wish Casey the best with her step-father, but the poor girl has had one hell<\/em> of a year.<\/p>\nI have a <\/b>Patreon<\/b><\/a>! Please support my writing!<\/b><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Farris could have told a convincing story of growing distance from these friends as Gwen got to know Peter and began attending his church. This story would have rung very true—as she began to attend an evangelical church, Gwen would have adopted a new morality code, and she might have begun to judge her friends for drinking or for the movies they watched.<\/p>\n
Click through to read more!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":845,"featured_media":31568,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[469],"class_list":["post-31557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-anonymous-tip"],"yoast_head":"\n
Anonymous Tip: The (Almost) End<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I wish Casey the best with Peter as her step-father, but the poor girl has had one hell of a year.\" \/>\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\/2017\/01\/anonymous-tip-end.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Anonymous Tip: The (Almost) End\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I wish Casey the best with Peter as her step-father, but the poor girl has had one hell of a year.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2017\/01\/anonymous-tip-end.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Love, Joy, Feminism\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-01-06T12:39:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-01-06T12:39:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/166\/2017\/01\/wedding-cake-1704427_1280.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"512\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\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=\"6 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\/2017\/01\/anonymous-tip-end.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2017\/01\/anonymous-tip-end.html\",\"name\":\"Anonymous Tip: The (Almost) End\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-01-06T12:39:11+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-01-06T12:39:57+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#\/schema\/person\/fae465c1bbb5cbdf26c9e73bfd1b73d2\"},\"description\":\"I wish Casey the best with Peter as her step-father, but the poor girl has had one hell of a year.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2017\/01\/anonymous-tip-end.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2017\/01\/anonymous-tip-end.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2017\/01\/anonymous-tip-end.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Anonymous Tip: The (Almost) End\"}]},{\"@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":"Anonymous Tip: The (Almost) End","description":"I wish Casey the best with Peter as her step-father, but the poor girl has had one hell of a year.","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\/2017\/01\/anonymous-tip-end.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Anonymous Tip: The (Almost) End","og_description":"I wish Casey the best with Peter as her step-father, but the poor girl has had one hell of a year.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2017\/01\/anonymous-tip-end.html","og_site_name":"Love, Joy, Feminism","article_published_time":"2017-01-06T12:39:11+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-01-06T12:39:57+00:00","og_image":[{"width":768,"height":512,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/166\/2017\/01\/wedding-cake-1704427_1280.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Libby Anne","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Libby Anne","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2017\/01\/anonymous-tip-end.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2017\/01\/anonymous-tip-end.html","name":"Anonymous Tip: The (Almost) End","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#website"},"datePublished":"2017-01-06T12:39:11+00:00","dateModified":"2017-01-06T12:39:57+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/#\/schema\/person\/fae465c1bbb5cbdf26c9e73bfd1b73d2"},"description":"I wish Casey the best with Peter as her step-father, but the poor girl has had one hell of a year.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2017\/01\/anonymous-tip-end.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2017\/01\/anonymous-tip-end.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2017\/01\/anonymous-tip-end.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Anonymous Tip: The (Almost) End"}]},{"@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\/31557","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=31557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31557\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}