Was Hana Williams Just a Casualty in the Quiverfull Culture War? Establishing the Landscape of Dehumanization in Missionary Adoption

Today, we may hear a verdict in the Williams Trial, determining the fate of Larry and Carri Williams of Scagit County, Washington. 

The jury must make a host of decisions about the nature of the harm suffered by the two children they adopted from Ethiopia – Immanuel and Hana. Among other considerations, they must determine beyond reasonable doubt whether Hana was sixteen or thirteen, the degree of the abuse/neglect that the children suffered, whether the parents did so in ignorance, and whether their actions directly caused Hana's death in May 2011. This previous post briefly explores the background in greater detail.

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What to do with the CNP? (It's not the CNP exactly but rather the growing fringe within it.)

Since referencing Jim McCotter as a member of the Council for National Policy, I’ve received some emails asking more about the group and what I though of it. Some Christians have never really heard of the Council. If you asked me about them 15 years ago, I would have told you that they were on of the most important organization in the United States. Many people who I loved and looked up to with love and admiration were members and participants. Watching the events of recent years unfold, I have a very mixed and contradictory opinion of the group that I once revered so highly, often believing what I was told to believe. Aside from general knowledge that I’ve gained while reading and interacting with Christian Reconstructionists, I think the book that put more of this together for me was Pat Robertson’s “New World Order.” I don’t know whether others consider that to be a good source of information in a condensed form, but that book certainly, for me and my Pentecostal roots, argued well for the need for the CNP. (I don’t recall if the book actually discusses the group, as it has been about 15 years since I’ve read it.)

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Who is Geoffrey Botkin? A Vision Forum Recruit from the Cult of the Great Commission

Revised 02Feb13

Revised Introduction, 14Feb2019

A few days ago, I received a registered, restricted access letter from the daughters of Geoffrey Botkin (GB).  They allege that I have profited somehow by hijacking their family name, and while I never dreamed that I was so powerful, they claim that I all but destroyed their family’s ability to support themselves.

Of notable mention in the letter was a reference to this “Who Is GB?” post..  If you find broken links in this and other material, please note that I’ve put my entire blog into draft to provide myself time to prayerfully consider the family’s claims about specific matters that they found painfully difficult.  I was willing to pend everything here for careful review in a spirit of cooperation and empathy, and I do because I don’t believe that these daughters have any true agency under the system that the family advocates.  I attest to the veracity of the core information.

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Spiritual Politics, Occidentalism and (Some) Modern Evangelicals

A few years ago, I read “Occidentalism: The West in the Eyes of Its Enemies” by Buruma and Margalit. Written in the wake of 9/11/01 and the start of the U.S. War with Iraq, and just as I completed a paper on totalitarian idealism in the church, I found the parallels staggering. I’d misplaced the book and just recently turned it up again. (I was amazed, because I did not remember the number of notes and red pen marks I’d made in the book on my first time through it four years ago.)

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Race and Slavery as Synonymous or Separate Issues?

From Mark Noll's
"The Civil War as a Theological Crisis"

The University of North Carolina Press
Chapel Hill, 2006

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The Problem of Solving Theological Problems with Military and Industrial Force

From Mark Noll's "The Civil War as a Theological Crisis" The University of North Carolina Press: Chapel Hill, pg 50:

The country had a problem because of its most trusted religious authority, the Bible, was sounding an uncertain note. The evangelical Protestant churches had a problem because the mere fact of trusting implicitly in the Bible was not solving disagreements about what the Bible taught concerning slavery. The country and the churches were both in trouble because the remedy that finally solved the question of how to interpret the Bible was recourse to arms. The supreme crisis over the Bible was that there existed no apparent biblical resolution to the crisis. As I have written elsewhere, it was left to those consummate theologians, the Reverend Doctors Ulysses S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman to decide what in fact the Bible actually meant. 

  pg 159 -160:

The theological crisis of the Civil War was that while voluntary reliance on the Bible had contributed greatly to the creation of American national culture, that same voluntary reliance on Scripture led only to deadlock over what should be done about slavery. After the shooting stopped, two great problems in practical theology confronted the United States. One was the enduring reality of racism, which displayed its continuing force almost as virulently through the mob and the rope as it had in the chain and the lash.

The other was the expansion of consumer captialism, in which unprecedented opportunities to create wealth were matched by large-scale alienation and considerable poverty in both urban and rural America... But the Civil War was won and slavery was abolished not by theological orthodoxy but my military might and a hitherto unimaginable degree of industrial mobilization. 

Although the war freed the slaves and gave African Americans a constitutional claim to citizenship, it did not provide the moral energy required for rooting equal rights in the subsoil of American society or for planting equal opportunity throughout the land. Although the war showed what could be accomplished through massive industrial mobilization , it did not offer clear moral guidance as to how that mobilization could be put to use for the good of all citizens.

Pg 162:

From the historical record it is clear that the American Civil War generated a first-order theological crisis over how to interpret the Bible, how to understand the work of God in the world, and how to exercise the authority of theology in a democratic society.

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Racist Roots of the Constitution Party? Maybe Some Tree Branches...

The other day, I received an email asking about what I knew of the “racist roots of the Constitution Party.” I denied that there are racist roots but I did explain that I believed that there were Christian Reconstruction roots from a vein that appealed to the writings of Confederate Presbyterian ministers.

 I don’t think it’s fair, right or reasonable to say that the roots of the organization extend much beyond states rights and a notably Christian perspective, but the Constitution Party (CP) unfortunately does attract "racialists," racists, and neo-confederates. There’s also the problem of the League of the South (LoS) which, at its inception, did not appear to be an organization with any racist or racialist interest. (This may be idealistic naivete on the part of my husband and myself, but this is what we believed.) I’ve never heard anything racist or anything remotely racialist from the CP itself during our participation which ended in 2003, and I know only what everyone else does about its inception. Our departure from the CP came about because of the patriarchal rhetoric from both Doug Phillips who directed the CP efforts of the state we lived in at the time and from Michael Peroutka during the 2004 election.

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The Development of Christian Education-Oriented Affinity Groups and Intolerance of the Non-Reformed: The Shift from Dominion to Domination

Before addressing how the related interpretations of an hierarchical view of Calvin’s spheres of government and dominion (as opposed to the traditional interpretations of the sphere of family and federal headship) necessitate the Family Integrated Church (FIC), I would like to review a bit more about the development of Christian education options as related to the FIC.

The transition of the children of Christian families out of the public school system which became increasingly hostile to Christianity has been an interesting history, one that has offered two options: private Christian school and homeschooling. The original goals (circa 1970) of both groups were once common ones, primarily. All focused on providing Christian young people with a firm foundation in a Christian worldview without the pressures of indoctrination from the socialist and humanist influences within the government school system. I had the privilege of attending a Christian school at the height of the growing movement and wrote award winning essays about the desperate need for reformation among my own generation. I was inspired by the writings of men like Donald Howard and Francis Schaeffer, and the vision and mission were clear: spiritual and academic preparation of young people who would be well-equipped Christian ambassadors, effective evangelists of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The early writings concerning homeschooling also embraced this approach.

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Everready Apologetics

I just don't understand this attitude of retreat from secular or even Christian culture. In "The Twilight of American Culture," Berman says that retreat from the degrading culture like the monastics did might be one way of surviving posmodernism. I think it's safe to say that Berman is not an Evangelical Christian.

Rousas J. Rushdooney stated on some of his armchair tapes that he had concern that the homeschooling movement might actually end up doing something like this in a reactionary withdrawal from culture. (This was definitely NOT something he believed to be desirable!) This concept was brought to mind by Karen Campbell's August 8th "thatmom" podcast where she quotes several Evangelicals who promote "outbreeding the competition" over evangelism of the unbeliever. We are to retreat into little monastic communities and withdraw from culture, partly through fear and partly through piety.

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More on the Mental Burqa

Richard of By His Grace, For His Glory has come up with a different graphic that is now displayed on the White Washed Feminists website sidebar, but I would like to make note here that it was Jeanette of Taliban Rising who officially coined the phrase. Jeanette contacted me after finding the patriarchy video on YouTube (from the workshop I gave as an invited lecturer at an unnamed apologetics organization at an unnamed Baptist seminary in March). She wanted to talk to me because there is a similar patriocentric movement in the Roman Catholic Church, and the parallels are very striking, if not disturbing.

This Roman Catholic analog to the so-called "Biblical patriarchy" movement in Protestant churches also focuses on homeschooling, and according to Jeanette, has connections to the neo-nazi groups in Europe. Also interwoven more directly is the concept of "Perennialism," which the Chambers Initiative notes thusly as it pertains to patriocentrism:

Those who adhere to these “faiths” can, through specific ascetic processes, arrive at the knowledge of the “perennial wisdom” and a state of enlightened consciousness. This state is for the “initiated”, hence the term “Gnosticism” is often used to define Perennialism. Perennialism was a reaction against the rational, materialist spirit of the Enlightenment and Industrial Revolution. Its founders rejected modern Western Civilization because of its departure from the traditional paths that led to “wisdom and enlightenment.” Thus, the central focus of Perennialism is a fierce adherence to natural, human traditions and a bitter rejection of “modernity,” all the Perennialists perceive to flow from the “modern spirit.”

Patriocentricity in America, on the Protestant side approaches very many of the same concepts, theories and goals of Perennialism through their strong connections to the agrarian movements and neo-Confederate ideology. The fathers of the foundations of the modern patriocentricity follow ideals of the very gnostic higher life and Keswick movements, believing that holy living can produce greater sanctification, following after the "Christian perfection" doctrines of John Wesley. This is comingled with devotion to Confederate Presbyterians like Robert Lewis Dabney and Benjamin Morgan Palmer along with many of the sentiments of modern Southern secessionist movements. This Luddite mentality also pervades many pockets within patriarchy, and also corresponds to sentiments that arose from early 20th century revivalism that viewed wholesome living as God's most powerful agency in the Christian life.

What is interesting is that I understand that notable figures in US Evangelical Christianity and evangelists for the complementarian message turn up in association with some of the Pereniallist groups affiliated with this similar movement in the Roman Catholic Church. Jeanette was shocked (as was I) to recognize these names as we discussed the similarities of each of these movements on the phone. I hope that more writings emerge in the future comparing and contrasting these different groups (the Protestant patriocentrists and the Perennialists largely affiliated with Roman Catholicism's own patriocentricity). [It's not traditional patriarchy, to be certain!]

I was also shocked but pleased to see that my site is listed as a resource and "Site of Interest" at the Chambers Initiative site (along with Jeanette's Taliban Rising: Fight the Mental Burqa). So with that interesting tidbit set to simmer on the back burners of your brain, here's some more thoughtful insight from Jeanette, SHE who officially coined the term "Fight the Mental Burqa!" as the subtitle to her blog, named Taliban Rising. I look forward to more good posts here.

More On Fighting The Mental Burqa!

Another section from "In Defense of My Mind":

A woman is imprisoned by a Mental, Burqa if her entire formation, or her present indoctrination by those claiming to speak in God's name, does not inform or enable her to choose the other good means that God allows her in the pursuit of her final end. A girl is living under the Mental Burqa if she is told that she is “resisting God’s Biblical plan for her” by pursuing a higher education or by exercising a legitimate profession, before settling down to marry, should she believe that is God's will for her. She is oppressed by the Mental Burqa if she is trained to believe she is not fit to choose whom she will marry. Patriocentrism treats women as interchangeable, and castigates as “modern sentimentality” a woman’s loathing to be “given in marriage” to a man she finds repulsive, one with whom she has neither affinity of character nor compatibility of intellect. So, yes, I am for the woman's right to live as a human being with a rational nature. I am for her right to know she has a God-given choice between the legitimate means to reach Him. I am for her right to the education that will equip her to embrace any state of life. I am for her right to determine, if she decides to marry, which man she thinks will make a good husband for herself and father for her children. I am for the woman's right not to be extinguished by the neo-fascist philosophy of a group of men who know that their own agenda is best served by women who have been denied or who have abdicated their duty to act as rational, responsible human beings. We have a face and a mind. Fight the Mental Burqa.

If you haven't already, read the full post HERE.

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Sick Twist of Calvinism into Karma

As a person that tends to be very human, fallible and able to readily recognize my shortcomings (Romans Chapter 7), I strongly identified with the “total depravity” message (the first T in the TULIP mnemonic of the 5 points of Calvinism). This concept alone gave me much liberty by bringing my personal understanding of God’s providence into a better perspective.

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The Centrality of Christ and the Quest for the Best Denominational Fit

Having emerged from cultic Christianity, I embarked upon a quest that I never dreamed would be a challenge: the quest for a denomination that best fits my views as a steadfast believer in the principles of Protestantism and the Reformation. No one has a corner on truth, but this has been a great challenge for my family since learning about manipulation from the pulpit.

Not that I am recommending any denomination over any other at this point, following some recent ruminating on the problems I have encountered with many but not all Presbyterians, I found this post to be encouraging and validating. The bottom line is that our faith must be Christ centered and not on anything else. Doctrine divides, but it should never separate us from the Love of God in Christ or Christ crucified!

From "A Presbyterian Comes to Lutheranism: Why?" on Cyberbrethren:

I've been in contact recently with a Presbyterian pastor who has shared with me his deeply moving account of coming to a point where he is on the cusp of a decision about his continued membership in the Presbyterian Church. What is it all about for him? Christ!

Follow this link to read the rest.

Thanks to Eric's "On the Wittenberg Trail"

for posting this in his shared links.

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Not So Strange Bedfellows

About the Photo: A December 29, 2007 message received from Flickr username robertstaddon www.flickr.com/people/15266406@N00/ states that he is the copyright owner and grants permission for the use of the unedited version of the photo with proper credit.

Excerpt from from the blog of Midwest Christian Outreach entitled "The Crux":

From"Bill Gothard King Maker": “ 

Huckabee announces White House bid” was the title of the article by Aaron Sadler at the Arkansas New Bureau on January 29, 2007. Outside of Arkansas not too many took notice. I had suggested to several in the media shortly afterward that they may want to keep an eye on this not very well known Arkansas politician, mostly due to his ties to Bill Gothard. 

This was pretty much met with a collective yawn...... According to several former employees from the late 1970s era Bill had a landing strip built at his 3,000 acre Big Bear lodge retreat in the Northwoods and he had it built to accommodate Air Force 1. I am told that he indicated God had told him that one day presidents to come to him and he wanted to be prepared. Will this happen in the near future? Well, if Bill has his way it may. It is not difficult to believe. as we pointed out in our book A Matter of Basic Principles: Bill Gothard and the Christian Life that Gothard often claims special revelation and mystical understandings of Scripture from God.... 

Why wouldn’t a U.S. President turn to a fellow American leader which the Chinese government has turned to for guidance in fixing their nation’s woes? After all it wouldn’t be the first time Huckabee turned to Gothard. He did so when he was Governor of Arkansas and Gothard his plan to rehabilitate prisoners... 

In addition to the above past relationship between Gothard and Huckabee, they were together at a private fundraising even in Texas on December 23, 2007. One of the Gothard followers that was there, the Robert Staddon family, provided a photo of Bill Gothard, Mike Huckabee and Texas billionaires Mr. and Mrs. Dr. James Leininger on their blog. This particular page of their blog was recently taken down. It is also my understanding from several that James Leininger is a partner in Doug Phillip’s Vision Forum. 

Again, there isn’t necessarily anything wrong with putting your money where your belief system guides you. All of us do that. And without specifically commenting more on the views represented In James Leininger’s choices, we have done that in article and blog form, I would suggest that we probably have a better idea of why Huckabee did so well with so little money in Iowa. There was a virtual homeschooling army at his disposal through Gothard and his connections. (There is a compendium of Huckabee’s ties to Bill Gothard.)

Well, Don Veinot (author of the above excerpt), there is a quite a compendium of Leininger ties to Doug Phillips documented on the Vision Forum website. Google Leininger with Doug Phillips or Vision Forum see what you find. Vision Forum also sells books authored by Traci Leininger, homeschool graduate. It seems to be common knowledge in homeschooling circles in San Antonio (where this blog host lived for seven years and attended the same Presbyterian church as Phillips before he officially founded his own, local church) that James Leininger was the benefactor of Vision Forum, providing the initial capital for the launch of Phillips' ministry.

Hmmm. I'm not at all comfortable voting for a graduate from the spiritually abusive and mind-numbing IBLP (Gothard's training program), and I am certainly not comfortable with the Leininger connection to Doug Phillips, evangelist for another spiritually abusive system, to say the least. The fact that Phillips love Dabney so intensely (referencing Dabney without qualifying statements about race or slavery) doesn't help matters either.

The billionaire, James Leininger, MD , sits on the IBLP board, yet approves of the outright silly medical and health instruction propagated by Bill Gothard (see the MCO blog article for references). As a Registered Nurse and a Doctor of Naturopathy, I believe that I am qualified to make an evaluation and offer an opinion. Gothard's health recommendations differ little from the spiritualist Louise Hay. As a trained hypnotherapist, I've spent a great deal of time evaluating the concept of disease owing to emotions and lifestyle after the tradition of Hay and other hypnotherapists. Both systems differ little from the Word of Faith movement, save that Gothard's and Hay's ideas are based in concepts of spiritism. Considering that I grew up in the teachings of Pentecost and participated as an adult in the Word of Faith movement for more than ten years, I know that tune well also. I'd rather be a Tulsa groopie than follow Gothard any day, but I believe that both are spiritually abusive and extreme in their teachings. And yes, I am an IBLP graduate as well.

At the time of this writing, I display an "Anyone But Hillary" icon and link to a site where they sell bumper stickers, buttons and attire displaying the motto. I posted it here as a half-hearted joke. With the knowledge of Huckabee's connection to Bill Gothard, and in consideration of Doug Phillips and his connections to both Bill Gothard and Jim Leininger, I am inclined to display an "Anyone But Huckabee" button as well. Thought reform (under Gothard's program) does not for a good president make in my book!

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Perception: A Major Problem for Patriarchy

"Escaping Criticism" by Pere Borrell del Caso)

Patriarchy seems to be an outgrowth of Christian Reconstruction which is largely spearheaded by Calvinistic and Reformed groups. Patriarchy is not monolithic by any stretch of the imagination and crosses many denominational bounds however, patriarchy is not limited to Reformed Theology. Because so many different groups and ideologies have contributed to what is now understood to be so-called “Biblical patriarchy,” it can be difficult to sort through. The tension that exists as a consequence of religious freedom in the United States contributes to this problem. 

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May the Lord Alone Rise Again (Neither North nor South)

I believe that truth emerges and vindicates itself, especially for those who have faith in God. In that sense, not much if anything can ultimately work against truth. As a Christian, that is my first and foremost desire – to know the truth and be set free, more and more. But perception is a tricky thing, whenever it appears contradictory and paradoxical, and from different perspectives, the truth can look very different. 

I drove through a bank the other day, and noted how different the bank looked from the front and from the back. To hear a man in the front of the bank describe the entrance and then to hear another man describe the drive through teller lanes, one might be confused or believe that both men could not be speaking of the same building. 

Is either man wrong? Is either man a “tale bearer”? The wise one would say not. Without self assurance or trust in the truth, one man might easily call another a liar and be completely truthful based on his own understanding.

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Getting Back on the Same Page

[Late entry/addendum 21Dec07 AM: I have been asked to make a qualifying statement, so as not to misinterpret the and make false associations regarding the League of the South. My point in mentioning specific groups or individuals who argue for Dominionist or Christian Reconstructionists views as a source for knowledge about the League was meant to highlight that the knowledge came from a source that was viewed by us to be completely reputable and reasonable. It was because of our trust in the integrity of certain key persons or organizations that we trusted in the integrity of the other organizations that they would have recommended many years ago. I am now of the conviction that one is in error to argue slavery or to use other statements from those who advocated for slavery such as RL Dabney without a qualifying statement that repudiates the practice of slavery. Gary DeMar is one example of someone who does so online in qualifying articles about Dabney. Many of these groups or affiliated individuals many actually do so. My germane point references the Dominionist and other Chiristian Reconstructionists as trustworthy sources and not to imply racial related impropriety. My apologies to not stating this more clearly initially. /CMK]

Coming out of spiritual abusive systems is not an easy process. I spoke with someone a few weeks ago who mentioned to me how she and her husband are on different pages in their process of recovery. After writing my last post here, I find myself thinking about that conversation with her.

My cultic church loved Gothard’s material, but they were also strongly influenced by Christian Growth Ministries and New Wine magazine. The church had an elder who participated in Bob Mumford’s ministry (one of the Ft. Lauderdale Five), and Bob participated with Chalcedon. We already supported the Tax Payers Party and American Vision through listening to Marlin Maddox on the radio. I enjoyed some of the Chalcedon material to which our elder introduced us , but when we left that Shepherding/Discipleship church, I wanted to stop support of Chalcedon. I didn’t want anything in our house with the word “Covenant” written on it, quite frankly.

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Not Just Whistling Dixie

Life is a journey. I’ve used the term “learning curve” about half a dozen times this past week, as it is a big part of life’s journey. Maybe that's one of our greatest purposes, progressing along on the curve. I know that in discussing matters of differing Christian doctrine, I stated to someone recently that none of us has a corner on truth, and the real challenge in life is leaving our lives with a whole lot less heresy than when we entered into it. Discernment comes through experience, and our responsibility to exercise it always presses us.

Learning the skill of balance between the innocence of a dove and the wisdom of a serpent takes a great deal of work that never ends for the Christian. I’ve come full circle on the “Kinism learning curve” and the emerging Occidental Christianity. I had no clue.

My husband, a graduate of a Southern college with training under one of the most renowned historians regarding the War Between the States, was quite taken by the initial concepts of “League of the South.” He took the mission and purpose of the organization prima facie, believing that this was an organization that fought for state rights, opposed governmental tyranny, defended agrarian freedoms and promoted Christianity. I came of age at a time when Christian conspiracy theories ran rampant as the first movements of Christian protest began to emerge. There was still an iron curtain, we had just emerged from the Iranian hostage situation, and economic times were just starting to improve. In my early twenties, I chose to participate in crisis pregnancy centers rather than picket, but I admired those who followed through on their convictions. Such was the climate of the day. That’s what good, committed, serious Christians my age did. So it pulled on my heart strings and opposing tyranny held great appeal.

I expressed a great deal of concern about this “League” to my husband however, because I am a strong advocate for equality and very much against hegemony (the posturing of one group over other subordinates). He assured me that this was a good organization that was first and foremost Christian in purpose. He investigated it at the time, to the best of his ability, finding nothing stating that the organization had any racist leanings. I’ve even attended conferences that different states groups have hosted, but this was however all before I had knowledge of this thing called kinism. But times, they’re always ‘a changin,’ aren’t they?

I don’t know if it was 9/11 that set everything into a tailspin or whether it was just the natural progression of things. The aging and passing of good and balanced Christian leaders of yesteryear have not helped matters and the course of events. It’s been a heart wrenching and rude awakening for me. Due to some catastrophic life events, I had no resources with which to be concerned about the state of things in Christianity at large, and then it became suddenly unavoidable. I picked up great momentum on that learning curve, as it seemed that all at once, people who I believed to be honorable and trustworthy suddenly became otherwise. I had coasted through a phase in life, too pressed to keep up with things, but I had convictions and checks along the way.

I urged and pressed for a reevaluation of where we donated funds. I woke up. I questioned and reevaluated those groups that I trusted in times past based on my previous perspective on the learning curve and their gradual changes over time. I learned that many trusted Christian Reconstructionists now functionally advocate for theocracy and authoritarian versus libertarian ideals. I learned that the League of the South made position statements in favor of kinism (although the online documentation of this has recently disappeared). The Monroe-Moscow Axis presented itself. RC Sproul, Jr. seemed to lose more of his mind every day, and I waited for Dad to step in and do something. I’m glad that I did not hold my breath.

I look back on some of these events in shame, but I realize that it was all part of the learning curve that I pursued as a consequence of my service and worship unto the Lord. I regret that we ever gave a dime to the League of the South. I regret that we supported Chalcedon after RJR’s passing. I regret that I ever supported some of these creation science groups. I wish that we had stopped support of American Vision after they restructured and hired a Vice President with great affection for this so-called “Biblical patriarchy.” With the rise in popularity of Vision Forum and Howard Phillips’ actions concerning the pragmatic pro-life equivocation, I am deeply sorry that I ever supported the Constitution Party.

I’m sorry that I took my husband’s word that RL Dabney’s views were consistent with my own without reading them for myself. I’m sorry to discover that my husband believed the words of others concerning Dabney without reading Dabney's words himself. But it’s all part and parcel of the learning curve. The great challenge comes as one decides what one does when one realizes that they were in process and by virtue of good Christian character, trusted that what they took prima facie was appropriate. I believe that my personal actions and testimony have always demonstrated that I am dedicated to equality and freedom. (I'm still proud of the day that I tried to lean out of the car in the middle of a Shreveport KKK rally to scream "Jesus was a Jew" in the US driveby shooting capital, even though they didn't care much about Jews in Shreveport. I'm proud of my work at the "charity hospital" there.)

I was very good at the innocence of the dove, and the wisdom of the serpent came at a high price. I broke bread with kinists because I believed that they were my brethren and because I believed that our purposes were common. I trusted that they had no concern with race and that they argued in no way for the virtues of enslaving others. We were mistaken, and my husband and I repented. And at the other end of the learning curve, I’m pleased that I can have compassion for myself and for those who lead me astray. But that does not make it right.

 Like pendulums, we swing from extreme to extreme, hopefully learning how to be stable and plumb under the power of the gravity of Gospel. They are still my brethren, but I believe that they are in great error. I hope that they believe the same of me but will come to swing my way in time, as they venture on their own learning curves.

So praise God for the learning curve!!! I’m no longer what I was before and not all that I will be. My heart has been crushed and woven back together in, by and with God’s healing love. The learning curve means we are yet alive, growing and living from glory to glory in Christ. May I begin to worry when the rude awakenings stop. May I always be rudely awakened by my own heresy and sin. And may I leave this life of learning curves with far less sin and heretical belief than I had when I embarked upon the journey. And all glory be to God for his great grace and mercy towards me and those who trust in Him.

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Dominion or Tyranny?

quote from Some Are More Equal Than Others

by Sara Robinson

" This is a new and ugly phase in the history of Christian America. Whenever one group begins to assert a legitimate, God-given, government-approved right to dominate and deny rights to others, it's also another ominous sign of creeping proto-fascism. 

We are now sharing this country with a substantial class of people who not only harbor the fierce belief that they are superior to the rest of us -- yes, a master race, and their rhetoric is starting to work that meme as well -- they also believe that the future of the country is at immediate risk unless the non-believers are restrained and subdued, placed under total control of their betters. Further: they believe that they are justified by God to do this by any means necessary -- within or without the Constitution."

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