Student in one of our classes is a walkaway
I learned that one of the students in the class I help to TA is a walkaway... grew up in the Assemblies of God. Not only that, she also was familiar with the local AoG "University" we have to deal with and the real stuff that goes on behind the scenes. We got to chatting about fighting them... and one student was standing there with her mouth open. (That student said that she didn't even know how to react to the things she was learning... how bad those churches and anything connected to them really are. She knew that Pentecostals were bad, but not that they were as evil as she learned!)
We got to talking about "engagement by rape"... the practice (especially prevalent in their "ministry" students) of a guy picking a girl out to be his wife (usually because he thinks she's especially pretty), raping her, and then the church pressuring her to marry him because she got pregnant (it was all her fault by the way). This, by the way is part of what the school teaches their "ministry" students... that a "man" who has a young family is far more likely to "get" a church and that it looks good to the church-goers to have a wife and young children "in tow". They don't openly encourage "engagement by rape", but it's extremely common and accepted. I know one woman I think went through that (she certainly knows about it and especially how they also tacitly support wife-beating - she left the church after her minister husband beat her and his big-name minister father told him it was understandable - and the wife-beater preached the Sunday sermon the next day) and I've talked with others (and read accounts from yet other women) who had been forced into marriage through rape. Anyway, this student knew all about it... and how hypocritical the whole situation is. I also heard about a friend of hers (she mentioned by name and another student knew who she was talking about) whose parents sent them to that school because it was being advertised so much as a relatively inexpensive school to attend. They didn't know what sort of school they'd sent their child to... and it caused all sorts of problems.
She also told about the church going to arranged marriages... and that had been the last straw for her. The way it works - the boy would go to his parents and tell them he wanted to marry some girl, so they'd go to the girl's parents and tell them, and the negotiations would begin. If everything worked out, the boy and girl would "meet" for the first time in a strictly chaperoned church setting. THEN the girl would learn about her new relationship. From what she said about the arranged marriages... her parents had tried to pull that on her. I guess they think it's "Biblical". But then, they also think that slavery is Biblical and therefore a good thing.
I'd heard about something similar (arranged marriages), but didn't know it had become so mainstream that I'd encounter a young escapee who'd been targeted for an arranged marriage. I'm used to hearing about rape (especially by preachers and "church elders" and "youth ministers" of the women when they were kids), but I thought arranged marriages were a new fad that hadn't caught on yet. I guess I've been out of the loop too long. Avoiding "Good Christians" does have its price. I don't know what the latest goofy craziness (I should say evil) is.
It turns out that the young walkaway woman also knew about things like what Sue and I have been put through - and that those sorts of actions by the damned fundamentalists are common (arson, killing pets, harassment and stalking, blocking employment, etc.). She also knew that the church was teaching people to infiltrate other churches and wasn't surprised that I'd hung out with the "Ministry Students" being so trained.
One thing that was reinforced by the whole encounter... that these churches are driving people away from Christianity left and right. Out of a class of around 20 students, 5 already have expressed being driven from Christianity by the fundamentalists, and one other (who is Jewish) having been insulted to the point of not being willing to be around them.
Yet they think they're "Doing God's Work". Now I feel like puking...
We got to talking about "engagement by rape"... the practice (especially prevalent in their "ministry" students) of a guy picking a girl out to be his wife (usually because he thinks she's especially pretty), raping her, and then the church pressuring her to marry him because she got pregnant (it was all her fault by the way). This, by the way is part of what the school teaches their "ministry" students... that a "man" who has a young family is far more likely to "get" a church and that it looks good to the church-goers to have a wife and young children "in tow". They don't openly encourage "engagement by rape", but it's extremely common and accepted. I know one woman I think went through that (she certainly knows about it and especially how they also tacitly support wife-beating - she left the church after her minister husband beat her and his big-name minister father told him it was understandable - and the wife-beater preached the Sunday sermon the next day) and I've talked with others (and read accounts from yet other women) who had been forced into marriage through rape. Anyway, this student knew all about it... and how hypocritical the whole situation is. I also heard about a friend of hers (she mentioned by name and another student knew who she was talking about) whose parents sent them to that school because it was being advertised so much as a relatively inexpensive school to attend. They didn't know what sort of school they'd sent their child to... and it caused all sorts of problems.
She also told about the church going to arranged marriages... and that had been the last straw for her. The way it works - the boy would go to his parents and tell them he wanted to marry some girl, so they'd go to the girl's parents and tell them, and the negotiations would begin. If everything worked out, the boy and girl would "meet" for the first time in a strictly chaperoned church setting. THEN the girl would learn about her new relationship. From what she said about the arranged marriages... her parents had tried to pull that on her. I guess they think it's "Biblical". But then, they also think that slavery is Biblical and therefore a good thing.
I'd heard about something similar (arranged marriages), but didn't know it had become so mainstream that I'd encounter a young escapee who'd been targeted for an arranged marriage. I'm used to hearing about rape (especially by preachers and "church elders" and "youth ministers" of the women when they were kids), but I thought arranged marriages were a new fad that hadn't caught on yet. I guess I've been out of the loop too long. Avoiding "Good Christians" does have its price. I don't know what the latest goofy craziness (I should say evil) is.
It turns out that the young walkaway woman also knew about things like what Sue and I have been put through - and that those sorts of actions by the damned fundamentalists are common (arson, killing pets, harassment and stalking, blocking employment, etc.). She also knew that the church was teaching people to infiltrate other churches and wasn't surprised that I'd hung out with the "Ministry Students" being so trained.
One thing that was reinforced by the whole encounter... that these churches are driving people away from Christianity left and right. Out of a class of around 20 students, 5 already have expressed being driven from Christianity by the fundamentalists, and one other (who is Jewish) having been insulted to the point of not being willing to be around them.
Yet they think they're "Doing God's Work". Now I feel like puking...