Jocelyn Andersen Blog Talk Radio

Reviews have called Meg Moseley's debut novel a “thought-provoking, cautionary tale of extremeism” as well as a “a lovely work of fiction that portrays a side to American freedoms that is too real to ignore.” Join Jocelyn and Cindy as Meg joins in to discuss her new work about young a mother's “fight for truth and spiritual freedom” for herself and for her homeschooled family. While giving the world a window into the world of an ultra-conservative Christian homeschooling community, the novel also addresses common aspects of a spiritual abuse.  Meg draws on more than twenty years of joyful experience homeschooling her three grown children as well as her knowledge of some complex and contemporary issues within the Christian church in the U.S., sharing with the listener how her book came to fruition. Read more about the novel and Meg at her website (www.MegMoseley.com), on her blog, and on her Facebook page.  When Sparrows Fall is a Waterbrook Multnomah publication (a division of Random House), available at majo

 “…there are times in which you must take a risk for the betterment…To live a life of abundance, you must ultimately move beyond fear and work to create abundance for others.  Otherwise you’ll ultimately be cast out as worthless.” “Jesus... telling the extremists…GET WITH IT and GET REAL!” “The church sadly has become the sin enabler of the world.”   The above quotes are taken from  the eaandfaith.blogspot.com where Hannah Thomas has been advocating  for victims of domestic violence and spiritual abuse since 2005. Join us on Friday May 20, as we interview Hannah Thomas of EMOTIONAL ABUSE AND YOUR FAITH blog (www.eaandfaith.blogspot.com).

Bible Doctrines are used to justify the abuse of women, especially the notion of female submission. Religious people often cover up the abuse of girls. Victims are not believed while perpetrators are excused. Author Jon Zen’s will be our guest discussing his latest book, “NO WILL OF MY OWN: How Patriarchy Smothers Female Dignity and Personhood.”

Though the Hephzibah House in Winona Lake, Indiana offered parents and pastors a safe and protected Christian environment for their "troubled girls," no one dreamed of the abuse that went on behind its closed doors.  Though operated by a single independent church in the International Fundamental Baptist network of churches, many affiliated families and churches throughout the country sent their daugthers to Hephzibah House for spiritual healing.  The girls found only cruelty and abuse within its walls, justified by and carried out in the name of Christianity. Jocelyn and Cindy gladly welcome Susan to the program, a former resident of Hephzibah House, for a discussion of what life was like there and the problems that young women face after they leave.  Join them to hear a message of understanding and hope.

An Addendum to the Abuses within the Baptist Church Series. Many people who have not suffered spiritual abuse or other types of abuse in their lives may not understand the experience of the girls who survive Hephzibah House.  In order to allow Susan, a Hephzibah House survivor, more time to talk about her experiences on the show scheduled for Saturday, April 23, this special episode has been added to address some additional concerns about life there.  Please also visit the previous show on this topic. Listen as Cindy gives a brief description of the abuses suffered by the girls there, but also the emotional, mental and spiritual pressures that girls and families must overcome in order to deal with this specific type of religious abuse.  Read more about Bounded Choice HERE. For more resources, visit Jeri Massi's site to download podcasts about what it was like at Hephzibah House, as well as the Hephzibah House Girls site (and the many links to additional information they offer).

Why no mention of Hephzibah House???!!! On April 8, 2011, ABC's 20/20 aired an episode entitled Shattered Faith which featured the personal accounts of many abused women and children within the Independent Fundamental Baptist affiliated churches ("IFB").  The investigator (Elizabeth Vargas) focused on young girls who were sexually abused by fathers, pastors, and other men within their churches. Though grateful that the media has acknowledged the abuse that the Church at large seems to ignore, Vargas made no mention of the abuses at the infamous Hephzibah House in Winona Lake, Indiana.  The private home for "troubled girls" promises parents and pastors a protected Christian environment in an effort to help save these daughters from troubled lives at home.  Parents who enrolled their girls there never dreamed of the harsh conditions and inhumane treatment that their daughters would suffer there. Join Jocelyn and Cindy for a discussion of these difficulties faced by young women in authoritarian and hierarchical

As an adjunct to last week's discussion of the corporal punishment methods of Michael Pearl, Jocelyn and Cindy will discuss some of the reasons why good, earnest, and sensible people like the parents of Lydia Schatz can lose touch with reality when following these types of forumulaic methods.  (Read more HERE.) Learn how idealism, social pressure, expectations of authorities, and tactics of manipulation can disengage a person's moral safeguards and better judgment when they believe they are following instructions which will result in great benefit and some ultimate good. The Milgram Experiment and Zimbardo's Lucifer Effect are of special interest.

Michael Pearl who wrote "To Train Up a Child" claims that he's taught upwards of one million people his methods of the "biblical chastisement" of children, propagating his ideas throughout the Evangelical Christian homeschooling community. Kevin and Elizabeth Schatz prepare to face charges of murder and torture in Butte County, California in just ten days. Have the homeschooling and Christian communities learned anything from the death of eight year old Lydia Schatz and the kidney failure in her surviving sister, Zariah? Or have Christians largely turned their backs on the Schatz family, sullying them as scapegoats in favor of protecting Pearl and their own consciences for using Pearl's methods themselves? Do Christians have a divine right to discipline a child with Teflon reinforced plumbing supply hose until the child cannot speak a two syllable word? Why would they think that they do and what might someone like Stanley Milgram have to say about the Schatz family? Visit WhyNotTrainAChild.com and TulipGirl.c

Marriage is honorable in all and the bed undefiled, and John Piper is NOT invited. What business is it of John Piper's and other Complementarians' just what goes on in the bedroom between married couples? Last week's show could not do the topic proper justice, so tune in again for continued discussion about the Complementarian obsession with sex and sex by way of gender in defense of their contrived theories about the "evil woman" and "evangelical feminism."

Marriage is honorable in all and the bed undefiled, and John Piper is NOT invited. What business is it of John Piper's what goes on in the bedroom between married couples? Cindy and Jocelyn will be discussing the habit of complementarian leaders of dictating to couples what is and is not permitted in the privacy of their bedrooms. If time permits, they will also be discussing the practice of domestic disciple among Christians.