Here are Cynthia’s concluding thoughts. (Cynthia is now known as Artemis Stardust.) Rescuing people from cults is not an item to check off of a to-do list. It’s a process. While we worked together on the UnBoxing Project, we learned this through our own exhausted time and money. We didn’t just need to free peopleContinueContinue reading “The UnBoxing Project: How you can help (Cynthia’s thoughts)”
Tag Archives: faith
The UnBoxing Project: Self-care during activism
Disability rights activist Cynthia Barram with her cat Dita in 2014. | Photo: James Sibert Content note: suicidal ideation, self-harm Cynthia Barram was the first friend I met in college who helped me start my own moving out process before helping our other friends leave Christian fundamentalist, Quiverfull households. Here’s her perspective on what happened,ContinueContinue reading “The UnBoxing Project: Self-care during activism”
The UnBoxing Project: Homeschool, the perfect hiding place
I met our friend Shelby Shively while working for the campus newspaper, The Scribe. Shelby was earning a master’s degree in sociology, and she mentioned that the homeschooling population seemed to be understudied in academic literature. Here is her perspective on Christian fundamentalist, Quiverfull children we were helping to leave their abusive households, in herContinueContinue reading “The UnBoxing Project: Homeschool, the perfect hiding place”
The UnBoxing Project: Gissel’s story
Gissel dyed her hair red for the first time during the week after she left home. | Photo: Ashley Kavanaugh In July 2014, Ashley came over to my apartment to visit one Saturday morning. While we were talking, Ashley got a text message from Gissel, one of her friends from the First United Pentecostal ChurchContinueContinue reading “The UnBoxing Project: Gissel’s story”
The UnBoxing Project: Options, not ultimatums
Several friends were part of our network that helped Ashley move out of her parents’ house. This is another person’s part of the story, in their own words. It’s hard when someone you care about is stuck in an abusive environment. It’s worse when you feel like you could and should be helping them toContinueContinue reading “The UnBoxing Project: Options, not ultimatums”
Eleanor Skelton 