Tag Archives: spiritual abuse

Child abuse prevention in the church is not big government

Back in high school, I used to love Andrée Seu Peterson’s columns. I read her pieces first when our copy of World magazine arrived in the mail every week. She always made me think because she was less conservative than my homeschool textbooks, and I admired her writing style. I’m pretty sure that other homeschoolContinueContinue reading “Child abuse prevention in the church is not big government”

Philosophy and the Box: Thoughts at 3 a.m.

My friend Sam wrote this in her journal earlier this year. Like most college students, we both have existential epiphanies at 3 am during midterms. I talk about the Box a lot. It’s my term for fundamentalism and growing up homeschooled and isolated. My early school years were all in a converted storage closet withContinueContinue reading “Philosophy and the Box: Thoughts at 3 a.m.”

Isn’t this why we don’t send our homeschooled kids to public school?

I was four years old. We were visiting my dad’s childhood home in New York, and we went to the house of an elderly lady who used to be his neighbor. She had a caretaker, a single mom homeschooling her son, who was around my age. My favorite TV show was Barney the Dinosaur, myContinueContinue reading “Isn’t this why we don’t send our homeschooled kids to public school?”

How ‘The Village’ illustrates isolated, fear-based homeschooling

I grew up in the Village. The first time I watched M. Night Shyamalan’s 2004 film, my head hurt and one of my roommates asked me if I was okay. I didn’t have words. Sometimes I find those books, those films that resonate so strongly with my own experience, that the bittersweet rush of knowingContinueContinue reading “How ‘The Village’ illustrates isolated, fear-based homeschooling”

Purity Culture isn’t just a Christian thing

I spent my teenage years immersed in purity culture, in both evangelical and fundamentalist Christian circles. If you were homeschooled, went to youth group, or wore a purity ring, you probably know what I’m talking about. Purity culture was an ideology, a movement complete with books like Dannah Gresh’s Secret Keeper, promoted in concerts by Christian artistsContinueContinue reading “Purity Culture isn’t just a Christian thing”