Comments on: Safeguards from Evil Men

By: Tree

Tree — Mon, 15 Aug 2022 19:31:26 +0000

Reading your blog on this garbage is SO therapeutic. I was homeschooled using Rod and Staff materials in the late 80s and early 90s, even though we were traditional Catholics. By the time I was a teen, I was a nervous wreck in public and terrified of being seen. We had modesty rules, not as strict as Mennonites but close, and they guaranteed that a girl like me stuck out like a sore thumb no matter how hard I tried to be invisible. “You’re wearing a SKIRT? What are you, Amish?” The skirt was supposed to be a symbol of true Catholicism that would shame women into conversion. This book, and others like it, not only shaped my subconscious, but hugely influenced my mother. I’m still unpacking this stuff in therapy.

By: Renee

Renee — Thu, 23 Sep 2021 16:09:27 +0000

Rod and Staff was one of the only publishers willing to sell to homeschoolers in the early 1980’s. R&S curriculum was the entire catalyst for my family’s deep dive into conservative Mennonite/Anabaptist teachings/trappings. (Mom inquired, and Crockett connected us with a Nationwide church.) Other publishers soon followed, but R&S definitely benefitted by being early.

By: Mary

Mary — Thu, 16 Jan 2020 16:59:42 +0000

Way to go! You are spot on!

By: Shirley

Shirley — Mon, 28 Oct 2019 00:24:24 +0000

I wanted to say thanks for showing me how negligent and uncaring my parents were in raising us.ok I’m being sarcastic. I remember begging my mother to tell me what was missing. Decades later I did the same to a church in a strong Mennonite community. Now I understand why!!! No wonder I got ostracized so much. I was indeed a horrible influence and didn’t even know it. My parents are both gone now but after reading this blog I am sooo grateful for what they neglected to teach me. I’ve since left the Mennonite Church. Not by my choice we were invited to leave. But I’d always hoped maybe if I found what was so wrong with me I could fix it and would be welcomed back. After reading this blog??? If this is what is being absorbed No Way !!!! Agsin thank you for showing many of us those unpoken rules we were breaking and had no idea.

By: Ebeth

Ebeth — Thu, 23 May 2019 20:28:35 +0000

When I read that book years ago I realized that the author was coming from an area where it actually WAS unsafe to walk along the road. There were some very perverted neighbors that were molesting the women of the community. One lady accosted them when they were parked close to her daughter’s house. They claimed their car wouldn’t start. She brought out a gun, pointed it at them and said, “Maybe this will help it to start” and it DID, immediately!

By: By Thy Words

By Thy Words — Thu, 23 May 2019 17:01:17 +0000

In reply to Valerie. I had no idea that it was used extensively in the homeschool movement, although I'm not surprised, given the prevalence of purity culture in those circles. Now I want to check out that curriculum and see what fresh horrors I can unearth.

By: By Thy Words

By Thy Words — Thu, 23 May 2019 16:59:34 +0000

In reply to Jonna.

Thank you, Jonna, for your kind and thoughtful comment.

I assure you that I thought long and hard about using that word, before I made the decision to include it. I felt like its coldness and harshness matched the tone of what Mother was actually saying.

Nevertheless, I respect your objection to its use, and will consider your feelings in the future.

As you go through life, may Christ walk with you.

By: Valerie

Valerie — Thu, 23 May 2019 16:29:15 +0000

Thank you so much for doing this series. I am enjoying your wonderful humor, and I’m grieved by how far this pernicious teaching was spread through the homeschooling movement also. “Dear Princess” was sold in homeschooling catalogs and was part of at least one Christian home ec program, “Training Our Daughters to be Keepers at Home”. (I’ve been homeschooling since 1994 and still have a few left to graduate, yet.)

When my younger kids go walking in our small town, I tell them to keep to the highways where there is more visibility and accountability, for safety’s sake!

By: Jonna

Jonna — Thu, 23 May 2019 15:24:28 +0000

Wow- you are a gifted writer, whoever you are (yes, I get that anonymous part!) who made me laugh and think at the same time. I was in Mennonite circles for 14 years. It is only when you leave their circles you begin to see the very things that you are talking about. I must admit my kids and I used to read the Rod & Staff story sheets and often laugh, sad to say, at the predictability of the story lines (Erva Mae’s biggest concerns of life were determining which dress fabric to buy as she watched the dirty dishwater swirl down the drain or Durvin’s contemplating the error of his ways, always in a timely fashion, while he bedded down the calves). God forbid many of us never lived on a farm- maybe THAT is why we were never totally accepted among many in the conservative Mennonite circles we tried so desperately to enter, for all those years:-)??
These things aside, the more I hear of abuse you, and others I have met, have mentioned that exists within these circles, the sadder I am, and supportive of this scourge being dealt with and exposed.
Just one small note-with your gift and ability to write so well, maybe you can pray about leaving the profanity out, even if it is meant to generate a laugh. Please don’t make those of us feel apologetic if we don’t enjoy reading that. Though I may be moving in different Christian circles now, I still hope to try to reflect Jesus in my words and public writings that, like you, I also do.