So Much More, p. 95-105 – Part 4: American Girls

“A&E” refers to Anna Sofia and Elizabeth Botkin, authors of So Much More. I chose the abbreviation to save space and time.

At the end of chapter 8, A&E have a go at history:

When the first brave wives came with their husbands to the shores of Plymouth in 1620, they brought character and the customs of Christendom with them. Unfortunately, most modern history books give inaccurate depictions of women from this time, and often focus entirely on the “feminists before their time” who did little or nothing to build up their society, and often had little cultural significance.

I can’t help but nitpick here and point out that the Pilgrim wives on board the Mayflower were not the first married English women to reach North America. They were preceded (by nearly 40 years) by Eleanor White Dare, mother of Virginia Dare, the first English child born in North America and a member of the famous “Lost Colony” of Roanoke. This doesn’t affect any arguments about Christendom, of course, since we’re still talking about English women from the same general time period; but I still find it annoying, even though it’s only obliquely relevant to the actual issue here: A&E glossing over things about history and portraying early American women as pretty darn close to perfect and/or superhuman:

So Much More, p. 63-74 – Part 3: Is Patriocentricity, Misandry?

“A&E” refers to Anna Sofia and Elizabeth Botkin, authors of So Much More. I chose the abbreviation to save space and time.

[Content warning for sexual abuse and racial slurs.]

This rant post has been stewing, brewing and in general rattling around in my brain for a long time now – in fact, long before I started reviewing So Much More. At first I was going to write it separately, and started a few times, but all those attempts failed miserably. (I also discovered that I suck at what I call “rageblogging,” which I guess is actually a good thing for me – and Scarlet Letters – in the long run.) But now, finally, in chapter 6, A&E have given me an excuse to just make this post part of a series like I normally do:

So Much More, p. 63-74 – Part 2: Wake Up, Neo!

“A&E” refers to Anna Sofia and Elizabeth Botkin, authors of So Much More. I chose the abbreviation to save space and time.

Since we might as well start this post with a bit of comic relief, this video reflects my general feelings about conspiracy theories. (Apologies for a swear or two and for “retarded.”)

Aside from the point mentioned in the video – that most conspiracy theories are too vast to be pulled off in the real world – they have some other characteristic weak spots that tend to render them unlikely or just downright impossible. Two that come immediately to mind are 1) that conspiracy theories often rely solely on secret conferences, conversations, etc. that the conspiracy theorist cannot confirm actually happened and did not personally witness; and 2) that most conspiracy theories are extremely selective in the information they present, and ignore other information that disproves the theory. I’ll (mostly) be dealing with #2 today, because the view of history that A&E present in Chapter 6 of So Much More has all the hallmarks of this problem, and then some.

So Much More, p. 63-74 – Part 1: I Acknowledge Traditional Gender Roles for the Remission of Sins

“A&E” refers to Anna Sofia and Elizabeth Botkin, authors of So Much More. I chose the abbreviation to save space and time.

Chapter 6 of So Much More is entitled “Fathers, Daughters, and Their Enemies.” I think the title was well-chosen. Why? Because in this chapter, A&E put their persecution complex in full throttle and go for broke.

If you desire to live godly in Christ Jesus you will be persecuted. And the more you embrace your calling to love and honor your father, the more your enemies will strike out at you in more fearful ways.

Translation: when you embrace stay-at-home daughterhood (SAHD), people will criticize you for doing so and object to your ideas. Those people are ungodly, and your spiritual enemies.

So Much More, p. 15-22 – Part 2: Goin’ to the Chapel

Gloria Steinem, founding editor of Ms. Magazine and one of the mothers of the feminist movement, stated, “A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle.”

Even many women who have rejected more extreme feminism feel this way.
Even independent women who acknowledge men’s usefulness and who plan to
get married or be somehow involved with men “someday” are held captive to
the idea that men are optional and can be put off until later. Many women feel
they are too busy doing their important work to involve any male input and in-
volvement in their lives. To these women, men are just a distraction.

But God created men to be more than just optional lifestyle accessories. He cre-
ated women to be dependent on them, in a good way.

If you’re like me, you read the above and immediately asked, “Wait, are they saying all women are required to get married?”

So Much More, p. 1-13 – Part 1: He Who Defines Wins

The title of this post is (supposedly) one of Doug Phillips’ favorite phrases. It means, essentially, that the party who defines the terms, gets to control the conversation. There is wisdom in that, but it won’t be my focus in this post. Instead, I’ll be exploring how it’s essential to know how others define their terms in order to understand what they are really saying – and more importantly, how a failure to define terms can be used to a speaker or writer’s advantage.

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.