So Much More, p. 15-22 – Part 1: Father God

So did you guess that the title of this post was an intentional play on words, before even reading the post? Yes? Good. Then you grasp one of the foundational concepts of stay-at-home daughterhood (SAHD): that the line between human fathers and the Divine is murky at best.

Don’t believe me? First, review some previous SAHD material here and here. Highlights of the show include Doug Phillips issuing an “altar call” for girls to turn their hearts to their fathers, and Anna Sofia Botkin claiming that girls can take their fathers’ names in vain. Second, stay tuned, because there’s a whole boatload of bizarre headed your way that might make you change your mind.

Robert Gifford Speaks Out

Well, at long last, a tiny bright spot seems to have appeared in the deep dark mess that is the collapse of Doug Phillips and his empire. After being out of the loop over the holidays, I decided to check Jen’s Gems to see if any updates had been posted about the final shuttering of Vision Forum Inc. (For curious readers, any attempt to search for products on visionforum.com currently yields only a page titled “Clearance” and the message “No products match the filters you selected.”) I didn’t find anything about the closing, but I did find this encouraging report by T. W. Eston about Robert Gifford, the pastor whom Doug Phillips has repeatedly referred to as his “spiritual father” and mentioned in several of the lectures I’ve critiqued in the Big Box series.

Discovering Life Purpose (TBB)

The “TBB” in the name of this post means that it is part of The Big Box series. If you’re new to Scarlet Letters, read the introductory post to see what The Big Box is all about.

What’s the meaning of life? What’s my purpose? What does God want me to do with my life? These seem to be some of the most popular questions in Christianity today. Others have already tried to answer them – most notably Rick Warren in his runaway bestseller The Purpose-Driven Life, but also lesser lights such as John Piper (Don’t Waste Your Life). So how does Doug Phillips answer these all-important questions?

What’s A Girl to Do? (TBB)

The “TBB” in the name of this post means that it is part of The Big Box series. If you’re new to Scarlet Letters, read the introductory post to see what The Big Box is all about.

What you are reading is the end of the beginning…because today Scarlet Letters has reached an important milestone. What’s A Girl to Do? is the last of the “first tier” CDs in my Big Box (see here for an explanation of the term “first tier”) – which means I am officially one-quarter of the way through this series! Most fledgling blogs don’t last this long in the wide world of cyberspace, so I’d like to thank my dear readers for all their support, comments and views, especially the good folks at The Wartburg Watch, who inspired me to finally put feet on my idea for a blog. Thanks to you, many Big Box posts now appear on the first page of Google returns when the name of the product they critique is entered (in some cases before Vision Forum’s own website). Hopefully, this will further one of Scarlet Letters’ main goals: giving Vision Forum’s potential customers a second opinion before they buy.

A Biblical Vision for Multi-Generational Faithfulness (TBB)

The “TBB” in the name of this post means that it is part of The Big Box series. If you’re new to Scarlet Letters, read the introductory post to see what The Big Box is all about.

Well, the homeschool conference is over – but not The Big Box! This week we’ll be meeting one of patriarchy’s more obscure proponents, William Einwechter (though readers who’ve brushed up on their Reconstructionism will probably recognize his name – he’s rather infamous in certain circles for his remarks about stoning rebellious teenagers).^[1][2] According to the brief bio on the back of the case, he serves as pastor of Immanuel Free Reformed Church in Pennsylvania and vice president of the National Reform Association.

A Home School Vision of Victory (TBB)

The “TBB” in the name of this post means that it is part of The Big Box series. If you’re new to Scarlet Letters, read the introductory post to see what The Big Box is all about.

It’s appropriate that I should be reviewing A Home School Vision of Victory this week, as I’m currently attending New England’s largest Christian homeschool convention and in fact, I’m posting this review from my hotel room. Unfortunately, Doug Phillips and Vision Forum won’t be making an appearance. But that doesn’t mean we can’t crack open the Big Box and take a peek inside…

The Blessed Marriage (TBB)

The “TBB” in the name of this post means that it is part of The Big Box series. If you’re new to Scarlet Letters, read the introductory post to see what The Big Box is all about.

Today we’re going to talk about mawage. More specifically, The Bwessed Mawage!

But wait…maybe I’m not taking this seriously enough. Doug Phillips, after all, takes it plenty seriously:

How to Think Like a Christian (TBB)

The “TBB” in the name of this post means that it is part of The Big Box series. If you’re new to Scarlet Letters, read the introductory post to see what The Big Box is all about.

In preparation for this series, I made a list of all the CDs in my Big Box. If you read the introductory post, you already know that there were around 40 of these, so yes, it was a little overwhelming at first! So many lectures, so little time!

Or so I thought. As it turned out, the longer I looked at the list, a pattern began to emerge. Some titles were clearly about Vision Forum’s core doctrines; some were about important practices derived from said doctrines. Others “zoomed in” on those practices, examining them in more detail. And still others seemed almost unimportant, at best only peripherally related to the core doctrines or not related at all.