How I Learned To Stop Being Afraid and Love Other Religions: Part Three, I Celebrate My Childlike Wonder

“I think of the child that Antoine de Saint Exupéry talks about, who sees the beautiful house and the grown-ups cannot understand the beauty in anything other than dollar amounts. Those of us who are learning to see the beauty in religions are scary to the ‘grown-ups’ of American Christianity and Christian homeschooling because they cannot understand the beauty in anything other than disembodied doctrines.”

David Noebel, Summit Ministries, and the Evil of Rock: Jeri Lofland’s Thoughts

“In 1974, David Noebel was staggered when students confided to him that Billy James Hargis, ardent promoter of traditional morality and father of four, had had sex with several of them…In 1976, Hargis was forced to resign, and the school closed its doors the following year. Noebel went on to effectively ‘fold’ Christian Crusade into Summit Ministries, building it into a successful international worldview training/brainwashing center targeting all ages, but teenagers in particular.”

How I Learned To Stop Being Afraid and Love Other Religions: Part Two, When Buddhism Saved My Life

“What C. taught me about emotions is one of the most important lessons I have ever learned in my life. Growing in the conservative Christian homeschool world, where first-time obedience and purity culture were rampant, I was taught to distance myself from my emotions, to be afraid of them: Don’t be angry at adults. Anger is rebellion. Don’t look at attractive women. You will lust. Don’t be sad. You must set an example for others.”

How I Learned To Stop Being Afraid and Love Other Religions, Part One: If Satan Made Xanax, And Other Worldview Myths

“To say that other religions can be beautiful or valuable is not an exercise in relativism. But granting this beauty or value will likely suffer the fate of being interpreted as such by many of today’s ‘worldview’ champions. The old guard of American Christianity and Christian homeschooling is terrified of anything that sounds ‘postmodern.’ Postmodernism is like intellectual dub step to these people.”

Burn In Case Of Evil: Cain’s Story, Part Four

“Many have remarked that it was obviously homeschooling that made us who we are. The answer to that question is complicated because I am what I am because of, and despite of, homeschooling. When your entire social life and community K-12 is homeschooled, of course these influences significantly impacted my life.”

I Have to Live My Life: Eve’s Story

“All I ever wanted was for someone to sit with me and be honest. I needed someone to either tell me that they didn’t have the answers I wanted or to help me find them. No one would because asking questions was against the rules.”