Sigh. So all I've really been focusing on the last couple of days is finishing up my semester & I'm fucking EXHAUSTED but the work of #ChurchToo does not care how many pages I had to write this week. I'm gonna tweet about Josh Duggar and Moody Bible Institute so buckle up & TW

First of all, the news about Josh Duggar is traumatizing af for a lot of us especially those of us who come from fundamentalist homeschooling backgrounds (hi ) and one thing I'm gonna need every media outlet to stop doing immediately is treating purity culture like it's *cute.*

So much of the coverage of the last decade has been like "let's go look at these evangelical freaks with their purity balls & their weird church services! how unique!" It has felt like a field trip to the evangelical zoo but this shit is not cute. It's killing people. #ChurchToo

I am an incontrovertible pessimist so I do not think yet ANOTHER formerly prestigious white man in evangelical Christianity getting exposed as a predator and a fraud is going move the needle for folks who would die for purity culture even as it slowly kills them. #ChurchToo

But I can't help but think about my own story. Homeschooled, oldest of 7. My parents idolized a local family who were like the Duggars minus the TV show. They ended up with 20 something kids when it was all said and done? My parents wanted to be just like them.

TW abuse
.
.
.
.
One thing this family did was punish their kids by making them run laps around their property until they were exhausted—my parents picked this one up & started implementing it after we got too big to spank with the sanded-down 2x4 they kept in the kitchen drawer.

In these communities, children are not people. They are mini-me's, little vessels who are supposed to act like math formulas, where you input discipline and theology and they output good behavior and devout Christianity. Except when they don't and require "correction."

What I'm saying is children are already basically worthless in this mindset. So. The fact that we see this Josh Duggar and other #ChurchToo stories coming out of these environments in which children are the victim rings true to me and many others raised in similar ways.

With regards to Moody and #ChurchToo: It's come out in the last few days that the third party investigation they set up as a result of allegations of many years of botched and covered up disclosures of sexual assault by administration has come to a close. Great, right?

LOL. Pres Mark Jobe & the board of trustees aren't going to let anyone see it until AFTER they approve their budget for the 2021-2022 year. So fuck what the report says because even if they have recs, MBI won't be able to do anything about it! Budget's been approved! #ChurchToo

You can learn more here #ChurchToo: http://bebettermoody.com/  Like I said I'm an incontrovertible pessimist so unlike the creators of the website I do not believe Moody wants to do better or *can* given their theological commitments. But accountability is good so please share

Here are the graphics for that which you can save and share in your own tweet #ChurchToo #MoodyToo #BeBetterMoody

Like I said y'all, I'm exhausted. I hope if any of this triggers you or resonates with your experience you're able to take some time to put your hand on your chest and breath in and out deeply and know that you are no longer there. Love y'all.