The Quiverfull Families Next Door: Part 3
Homeschooling can be a dangerous tool in the hands of abusers and those who believe they have a God-given right to exert total control over another human being. Children who are homeschooled have very little access to mandated reporters. Sometimes homeschooled children are also “home-churched,” further isolating them, or participate in churches where abuse or neglect is endorsed or will go unreported.
The Quiverfull Families Next Door: Part 1
In addition to valuing pronatalism, homeschooling, and gender hierarchy, many Quiverfull families also view the world through a dominionist lens, placing great emphasis on “filling the earth and subduing it.”
Broken Arrows: High Control Religious Communities and Abuse
The Broken Arrows series names and identifies the layers of harm contained in CFC’s approach to child training. This type of child training sets children up for abuse by teaching them erroneous beliefs about themselves and their place in the world.
A reflection on homeschooling and abuse
Homeschooling is not inherently abusive. What it is, inherently, is isolating: something that works to the advantage of abusers both inside and outside the family. Children whose education is limited, whose contact with outside communities is cut off, and whose access to basic resources is often constrained by authority figures who are at once parent, teacher, and spiritual leader, become vulnerable targets for abuse.
An Open Letter to CFC Members
We write to you as former members of Christian Fellowship Center. Some of us left recently. Some of us left years ago.
We are survivors of abuse at Christian Fellowship Center. We have experienced spiritual, emotional, physical, and sexual abuse at the hands of CFC leaders and members.