There were a number of wins under my tenure there. I'm not sure why they didn't include them.

Victory for Homeschooled Students in Georgia! | Coalition for Responsible Home Education For Immediate Release: Lawmakers supported homeschooled students last week by passing bill to catch parents who abuse the law Canton, Ma., 04/03/2019—The Co ...

Fondly looking back on my first legislative win at @responsiblehs.bsky.social in 2019, the passing of GA HB 530, that helped protect homeschooled children from being hidden by their abusers.

share.google/7UBUwyXWGHLf...

Something I've seen happen over and over again is for a homeschooling family to convince homeschooled teens to come "work" for them.

And then exploit and enslave them.

I cannot say this is what happened for sure. But it's what my gut says after decades of living and breathing this stuff.

Now, speaking as the leading expert on how homeschool law and child abuse statutes interact, what types of abuse homeschooling exacerbates, and being a fundie cult survivor myself, this is my -- speculative-- gut instinct:

#Kendraduggar #JoDuggar #HomeschoolAbuse

ALSO: preventing CPS from interviewing your kids would never, ever, cause a false imprisonment charge. 30% of homeschoolers do so *exclusively because* they want to deny CPS access to their kids, and homeschool law allows this.

Kendra was not arrested for stopping a CPS interview.

#kendraduggar

On the Kendra Duggar arrest today: under Arkansas statute, it's essentially impossible for "false imprisonment" to apply to her own children. They are not old enough. As their legal guardian, Kendra can "give permission" to ... """contain""" her children.

#homeschoolabuse #kendraduggar #joduggar

The takeaway here is there is no reform that can fix this. These children are being #homeschooled entirely BECAUSE their parents are stupid. They will have no balance, no differing perspective, no exposure to science or history. All the accountability and oversight in the world can't stop this.

When I was around 13, my Sunday school teacher told me I needed to start wearing control-top pantihose and walk sideways up the stairs to the piano because my "behind" was "tempting her husband." Her husband the church deacon.

Conservative Christians don't bat an eye at pedophilia and never will.

Same! I see you published your book, congrats!

Thanks for letting me know!

I'm no longer with CRHE, so if they still want to chat they can reach out to me at:

samanthapfield@gmail.com

The bog-standard sermon after we all found out Josh Duggar was a pedophile was "everyone is a sinner" and "everyone makes mistakes."

That continued all the way through him being CONVICTED for CSAM-- including infants. Actual babies.

Dismissing pedophilia is baked in to American evangelicalism.

No one who had eyeballs during the *extended* Josh Duggar scandal should be even remotely surprised by the Christian response to the Epstein files.

Everyone knew he was a pdfile for years and he still rose in the Christian ranks. It was being on AshleyMadison that got him fired, not the pedophilia.

This is what your average homeschool parent will just straight-up admit to, without any prompting. They *voluntarily* tell the world this crap because they see absolutely nothing wrong with it.

Did the industrial revolution do really cool things? Absolutely. It also caused uncountable deaths and over a century later is the single biggest reason our current climate is collapsing and MAYBE some of the people criticizing it were RIGHT

In response to raising concerns about AI, I'm getting told some version of "yeah but we've been through this before- industrial revolution, AV media, they all caused huge change"

YEAH AND SOME OF THOSE CHANGES WERE BAD AND WE SHOULD HAVE THOUGHT HARDER ABOUT THEIR IMPLEMENTATION

(ALSO not that this isn't RELEVANT (cough) but Ruth was a foreigner, an immigrant, etc etc and she STILL GOT GOVERNMENT BENEFITS)

Ruth's whole story revolves around how the law was built to help poor people and institute a welfare system.

GLEANING WAS GOVERNMENT WELFARE.

Like y'all. Y'ALL.

These aren't little-heard stories! These are major Sunday school characters! And y'all just MISSED the whole damn point!!

Next up is Ruth. Also a beloved story, but something Christians seem to gloss right over when it comes to "application" is the fact that Ruth benefitted from Bethlehem's welfare system. The GOVERNMENT said every farmer had to leave some of their harvest for the welfare recipients.

That's Joseph's triumph! The thing he's the most proud of, the thing he attributes to God's direct intervention! Getting THE GOVERNMENT TO FEED PEOPLE.

First up: Joseph. Very dramatic story, but "what you meant for evil, God meant for good" is probably the most popular text.

Y'know what Joseph's WHOLE THING was? The Thing he accomplished that he said made it all worth it?

CONVINCING THE *GOVERNMENT* TO STOCKPILE FOOD AND THEN FEED PEOPLE.

And I can reject the "not the government's job to feed people" premise AS A CHRISTIAN using THE BIBLE. And no I'm not going to reference some obscure-ish laws but two of the most famous Bible stories. If you grew up in church, these people were featured in dozens of sermons.

Something I heard all growing up was how it's not the job of government to feed people-- that's the responsibility of the church. The typical rejoinder is something like "churches don't feed people tho" (see: "churches wouldn't help a mom get formula").

That's great, but I reject the premise.

I'm boycotting all things Bezos, but a while ago I would go in, because they're the only place in my area that carries Jeni's mint chocolate chip-- my favorite flavor and the only brand who makes it that I'm not allergic to.

they also carry the only decent gluten free ravioli I've ever had

😭😭😭

Student couldn't look me in the eye the rest of the semester.

He was angry and bitter, but he also cited his sources.

I got a DM from the history teacher confronting me about it. 🤷‍♀️

Me: I am prevented by federal law from discussing this with you.

Student later sends an email explicitly telling me to talk about it.

🤦‍♀️

🤷‍♀️

I tell Mark EXACTLY everything that was wrong with the paper, virtually line by line.

~Shockingly~, he had not corrected any of the problems by the due date. I graded according to the rubric, and he received a failing grade.

He was irate. Wasn't I a fundamentalist Christian like him (wildly incorrect assumption) who saw that all these ideas were self-evident?

The second paper of the class was a Definition essay, and this student's first draft was abysmal. Not in writing quality (although that wasn't great) but he refused to cite sources on huge claims. I pointed this out to him multiple times through the drafting process.

My second semester, a student found out I'd graduated from Pensacola Christian College. His history teacher was from there, turns out I attended his history teacher's wedding. Small world.

I taught Composition & Rhetoric at Liberty University for two years.

I would've failed that Fulnecky paper.

In fact, I ran into something similar-ish there.

#storytime

Adjacent, my MIL is a bleeding heart liberal but still goes to a conservative church. When the little old ladies find out I go to a church "downtown," they whisper, scandalized "one of those LIBERAL churches??"

Yeah, and where do *your* kids go, Barbara? Nowhere? Yup. That's what I thought.