"Bad Beliefs Good Homeschooling Christians Have"

This Twitter Woman Tries to Label All Christians as Potential Terrorists with One Slanderous Thread

I am fourth generation American born without a social security number nor birth certificate. Basically if your great-grandmother was transported to the 21st century, I’d be her, except I wouldn’t seem so out of place.

My siblings who are home-schooled and feral — do we look like we are capable of having bad beliefs?

I began blogging about this for about five years now when I realized how weird I was. It wasn’t really something I liked to talk about before then . . . it was just something weird my family did. I’d had a nagging fear that it might hold me back, however I optimistically tried to be naive and hopeful. My faith panned out. I was able to do whatever I wanted, and it turned out the naysayers didn’t know that much after all.

My goals in blogging about my experiences and successes was to help other young people like me. I have done just that. A lot of youth who might have turned their back on family and faith have been encouraged to see their upbringing as a blessing instead of as a curse, and I have been able to guide them through the process.

However, I still run into those who stubbornly cling to the idea that you can’t function without a social security number, or that it’s somehow detrimental to your child’s mental health. Some of these people were my own aunts and uncles and cousins. Even now that they know that I and my siblings have managed to make it work for us, they are skeptical.

I do not know how to confront this skepticism without being blunt.

Sometimes you just have to be okay with being raised weirdly without turning it into some dramatic trauma. There's so much good — why ignore that? I guess one gets more attention for saying they were raised in a “cult” and how bad it was, and all that. But the attention fades, and eventually all you’re left with is chaff. It is an ugly, worthless trade and leaves one feeling bitter, with the constant self-righteous need to defend their right to abandon their family.

I look for this mentality when I speak to crowds. I warn parents to choose this lifestyle out of joy instead of from fear of CPS. Do it because you love freedom, not because you hate the government. You can do the same thing as your another but taint it with your improper motives alone, so make certain your intentions are ordered.

When I see a teenager struggling w — do I honor my parents or cancel them? — I first ask them, “What do you want from life? Do you want to pay income taxes? Or do you want to find a way to exist in modernity without being a subject of the system?”

Usually I can convince them to try the unorthodox way first — and once they do they are always glad they did. However, some don’t. They simply are bent on believing their parents meant them ill (and maybe their parents did). They dye their hair purple and fill their face with metal and their poetry friends say, “What about medical insurance? You should get a ss#.”

(you can get medical without a ss#, but that’s another conversation)

And so these kids pretend like my advice is a fairy-tale, and they throw the baby out with the bathwater and moan about how hard it is to prove they exist (it isn’t hard. I saw my aunts and some of my friends do it, and it literally is just bureaucratic paperwork).

However, once these individuals start to question their mental stability and form gender insecurities, they have also decided that doing any paperwork is abusive and hard. Their parents are bad for never filing their birth certificate. The government is their friend for a brief moment.

And then, the government is also bad because they don’t make it easy to get medical insurance even after you have all the “correct” paperwork. Their lives become consumed with the horrors of paperwork and every authority is bad because of it. But at least they exist now! Their entire lives center around identity.

I share my story because at the end of the day I feel for those kids who cry “wolf” about their cults. I want to help them before they start spiraling. I also want to protect the truth from their screaming rage. I want the world to know that it’s possible to be free, and not really that difficult.

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The Woman Who Wrote A List About Homeschooling Christians

I don’t know her real name, but her twitter name is “Jezebel Spirit, Allegedly” and her handle is Dragonfly_Darcy. Her bio reads:

“She/her, ex-christian, queer, neurodivergent, opinionated, liberal AF, country girl, likes rocks. Montanan in exile”

She would be me, if I were queer and if I hated my childhood. Her cover photo says, “Well behaved women rarely make history.” I relate to that, but also I don’t question my femininity.

She likely got her driver’s license at the same DMV where I got mine. I assume that I know her grandfather. I do not know her, nor have we ever talked. But we have a mutual friend — a young trans kid who decided to get their paperwork even though for a moment they wavered and considered doing what was best for them instead of acting “vindictively” against their parents. Their bio now says that they “— is real and legally exists now and cannot be contained by cults | artist | video game addict | the last mistake you'll ever make | They/Them.”

I do not use these examples to tear either of these people down. I sincerely feel compassion for them — I understand they struggle they felt when they realized that they weren’t like everyone else. I understand how easy it is to react and over-correct and find yourself on a much different path filled with bitterness. I feel so blessed that by the grace of God I was able to work through my own misgivings without going in a similar way. I share these things only because they serve as examples of how a false narrative is constructed.

In 2018, Dragonfly_Darcy posted the following thread on twitter that went semi-viral:

Let me tell you some of the things I heard growing up in off-grid/fundamentalist/anarchist/sovereign/homeschooling circles. Let me tell you things said and taught and believed by good Christian homeschooling families.

Disclaimer: these are not necessarily all beliefs that my family ever held, but they were held in sincerity by friends, church members, teachers, and various members of the homeschooling community in which I was raised. CW for ALL the awful things.

"Black people can't be saved and inhabit heaven; they are under the curse of Ham. They could possibly be redeemed and occupy a different place in heaven than the rest of us Chosen people, but most won't. They are often enemies of God."

"Modern day Jews are imposters. White Caucacions are the 10 lost Tribes and God's true chosen people. " (they were torn on whether white people would once again restore Israel to its true owners or if America usurped Israel as the promised land)

"The gov't is Rome. They are illegitimate. We are under no obligation to follow Rome. Actually we have a moral imperative to oppose Rome. We recognize no authority but God's. And we may have to fight and even die for that stance."

"Randy Weaver was a righteous man and the FBI persecuted and murdered his family because the FBI is part of Rome and under the influence of Satan and false gods who want to kill and destroy God's chosen people [white people]. He will be avenged on the day of Judgement."

"The South was God's chosen land of promise, morality, and family values. The War Of Southern Aggression was Rome's way of destroying what God loved."

"God's law is the supreme law of the land. Any of man's law that opposed God's law should be disobeyed and it is us to up as God's chosen and Kingdom warriors to punish those who disobey God's law."

"This place has demons left over from the Native Americans who lived here. They summoned demons and false gods and we must purge the land so we can truly inherit the promised land God gave us."

"America was God's promised land for his chosen people. We had a moral obligation to purge it of the evil living here, even if that meant killing the natives who brought the evil here. Just like the Israelites did in Canaan. And God blessed us like he blessed them."

"God cannot bless a mixed race marriage. The children would be illegitimate."

"Social security numbers are the mark of the beast. They make us a commodity of the government. We don't need identifying papers because we do not belong to Rome, we belong to God. Those papers give ownership of our bodies to Rome and that is displeasing to God."

"We don't need marriage licenses, building permits, drivers license or any other permission from Rome because we have permission from God to do those things & his word is all that matters. This land the roads the trees the skies all belong to God not man. He has given it to us."

"Guns are our way of exercising our God-given right to freedom against the tyrannical government. We may have to use them against attacking gov't agents someday who try to take away the freedom God has given us."

"We should get all the young men together and form our own militia. A Christian militia. We can teach them to use guns and weapons and protect our families and land from the ungodly government."

"It's a righteous cause to kill abortion doctors and bomb clinics. Saving the life of innocent babies sometimes means taking the life of their murderers."

"The Kingdom of heaven is opposed to the kingdoms of men and we live in opposition to them as citizens of the Kingdom of heaven. They will persecute us for not being of their world. They will not understand us. They may even fight us. But we have God on our side."

These are the voices of those good Christian homeschoolers people seem obsessed with today. Families active in church and communities and farmers markets. I lived in a part of the west where anarchist Christian white supremacy was rampant.

Our curriculum was white supremacist at worst, white-washed at best. We had books from men who defended slavery [Steve Wilkens]. We were sovereign citizens. We were raised to see the gov't as illegitimate and opposed to God. Violence was boasted about.

None of these folks turned into serial bombers or murderers. But some turned into wife beaters and child abusers. Had run-ins with law enforcement. Many more just live their lives quietly their way.

But how long can beliefs like these fester out there in the woods before someone acts on them? Had a serial racist bomber come out of any of this, I and many others would not have been surprised. Beliefs have consequences.

I was 18 the first time I realized that it might be weird and alarming that i didn't have a social security number and drivers license. From there it was a slow dawning on just how weird my background was and why.

She shares a moving argument. Albeit it is unfair and inaccurate. Starting off, at the very beginning she offers a disclaimer: “These are not necessarily all beliefs that my family ever held.”

However, she goes on to share some horrific and bizarre beliefs, and then ending it — despite the disclaimer — with “I was 18 the first time I realized that it might be weird and alarming that I didn’t have a social security number . . .” implying that all these beliefs were associated with her brand of faith.

Let’s put this in perspective for a moment. This would be like a Buddhist saying, “I realized how evil religion was when I learned that Jews circumcise their baby boys and Muslims practices Sharia law. I simply got angry and had to leave everything behind.” A rational person would ask, what does Judaism and Islam have anything to do with the Buddhist experience? A rational person should also ask, “What does every strange belief concerning racism and misogyny and terrorism have to do with your Christian experience?”

It would’ve been one thing to share the actual strange beliefs of your immediate family. however even beyond that, it it overkill. Yes, I know people who have some of those beliefs Dragonfly_Darcy listed. I even have relatives who sincerely believe some of those things. Honestly, I believe the one or two of them myself, and I’m sure some of my readers believe one or two of the listed beliefs. That in no means should indicated that I or anyone believes all of them, or that the beliefs of my relatives or acquaintances had any connection to my personal experience growing up in a home-schooled Christian home. It’s simply bizarre to conflate all of those things in such a manner.

Several people confront her on how what she’s describing isn’t a single experience, and share that they have never known anyone who subscribes to most of the listed beliefs despite being very involved in home-schooled Christian communities. One former FBI agent comments, “I agree all these are bad, however the thing about Randy Weaver’s wife was true. We did wrongfully shoot her in the head.”

She ignores the latter comment, but responds in typical liberal fashion to the home-schooled mom:

In another tweet she shares, “Honestly? I got angry. It took a lot of years and work to get all my identity and prove my citizenship. The battle finally ended when after a 2 year fight I got my passport at 31.”

I understand the journey she describes, however she forgets that only about 45% of Americans have passports. I got mine — without a social security number or birth certificate — when I was about twenty-two. Nobody else in my friend circle had their passport yet, and they all had socials. Furthermore, since then I have helped many, many youth get passports without a social security number and it took the same amount of time for them to get their passports as it would a regular U.S. citizen.

She writes of when she got her drivers license, almost implying that the ordeal proved she was raised to be “terrorist”.

She and I likely got our licenses at the same DMV. I can guarantee — as most Americans might corroborate — that the women who work at the DMV are usually grumpy. I am not surprised if they called her a potential terrorist. As for me? The employees at the DMV were rude to me, too, and told me I was a liar, that there was no way I didn’t have a social security number. However, when I found a way to prove to them that I was indeed telling the truth they were forced to assist me. After that it was much easier for my friends and siblings, and the DMV ended up creating a special form for us.

I don’t think that Dragonfly_Darcy really cared about whether or not she was a “potential terrorist” in the eyes of bureaucratic employees. I don’t really think she even suffered much at the hands of religion. I think she just decided it was cool to tell the world that she had a weird upbringing. I think she decided that she wanted to hate instead of honor her family and friends. I also believe that she took joy in how she was raised — because she now has a “good” story to tell. There’s nothing wrong with that. I, too, delight in sharing about the story of how I was raised — but I see no need in degrading my history or family, or making up lies, in order to tell the story.

I believe this because why else would she suddenly be yearning for the Montana of her youth — which was certainly more Christian and conservative than whatever it is she now flees — if her youth was tainted by the experiences of a toxic cult?

Stories like hers are designed to fear-monger and cause distrust and abuse toward Christian families. It would’ve been one thing if she’d shared real stories of things done to her or others. But creating a collection of “bad beliefs” from assorted sources, and then blaming it on one demographic is sinister. In another post she shares, “I get a lot of flack because I have created an anti-homeschooling movement.” Nobody can question her though — because she has spoken about what has been true for her. Her perspective matters (and nobody else’s opinion counts unless it matches her narrative). And in the process she influences innocent bystanders to believe things that are simply not true.

She is a prodigal daughter — until she returns, she will do her best to deconstruct a two-thousand year old faith. A faith that has proved the test of time — slander can do it no harm. However the slanderous testimonies of the “prodigals” can dissuade and confuse others. And this is why it’s important to find beautiful ways to prove them incorrect. They, too, are worthy of love and respect and of being invited to the banquet feast — but first they must be convinced that the feast is good (and we must remember that it is good!).

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