Homeschooling and Black History: A Call for Stories

By Wende Benner, HA Editorial Staff One of the interesting aspects of homeschooling is the flexibility that parents have to customize their children’s education. Thus, different homeschool alumni–even those using the same curriculum–can often have vastly different experiences learning (or not learning) a particular subject. Black history is one of those areas where the difference can be as stark as

Lawsuit Against Bill Gothard and IBLP Amended

By M.K. Wiley, HA Editorial Team As many of our regular readers know, a lawsuit was filed in October 2015 against IBLP (Institute in Basic Life Principles) alleging sexual misconduct by former president Bill Gothard during his time working for the “ministry” he founded. Specifically, there were 10 women alleging Gothard sexually harassed, sexually assaulted, molested, and/or raped them, often

Savannah’s Story: Republicanity (or, When Politics Is Your Religion)

“Some adults may genuinely believe that the rest of the world is out to persecute them, and the rest may just be bigots, but children—children are oblivious. Innocent. Children are told what to believe and they believe it until they learn to question when they are older, if at all. When you tell a young child that a certain kind of person wants to kill them, they do not have the ability to think it through and weigh the evidence. They simply trust you.”

Bill Gothard Claims to have Secret Cure for Mental Illness

Rather, to solve mental illness, he suggests, one must do something much more significant to one’s “gut brains” than use FDA approved medication

I am the thing I was taught to hate

This post is about discovering I am the thing that we were told to scorn.

Verticality, Sameness, and the World of The Giver

CC image courtesy of Flickr, Lars Plougmann. Editorial note: The following is reprinted with permission from Eleanor Skelton’s blog. It was originally published as a guest post in a series on March 3, 2016. J.B., the writer of this post, blogs at Finding Normalcy: Insights in a Noisy World. Jonas wasn’t interested, just then, in wisdom. It was the colors that fascinated him.

It’s Complicated

CC image courtesy of Flicker, Studio Incendo. Editorial note: The following is reprinted with permission from Laurie Works’ blog. It was originally published on June 18, 2015. When I tell people about my relationship with my dad now, sometimes they’re surprised. For one, I still talk to him. A lot of people think this is weird. I think… yes… but he’s my dad. I

Do You Love God More than You Love Your Children?

CC image courtesy of Flickr, Jon Grainger. Editorial note: The following is reprinted with permission from Libby Anne’s blog. It was originally published on March 30, 2016. I’ve written a lot about the evangelicalism I grew up in. I’ve written about patriarchal ideas about male leadership and female submission, and about what it was like to believe demons were literal beings I might encounter.

Take the Long Way Home

CC image courtesy of Flicker, jmawork. Editorial note: The following is reprinted with permission from Laurie Works’ blog. It was originally published on August 31, 2015. It’s not the context of the words but the words themselves that dig deep and gather some footing in my heart soil. “Take the long way home… take the long way home.” The rest of the lyrics

Kiery Actually Does College

I almost believed everything my parents told me about how my uterus meant that higher education wasn’t an option for me