Peter Bradrick files for Divorce

[SamiKatz]

The whole Return of The Daughters video made me angry, but the part that really had me shaking my head was Lourdes speaking about her younger brother, making it sound like he was also her superior (he could impart wisdom to her!).  Grrr.

 

[older than allosaurs]

1 hour ago, MamaJunebug said:

If I were as enterprising as Marian the Librarian, I'd google to see  many RE listings he has right now. But I'm ready for bed. 

I'm definitely not as enterprising as Marian, but I do know the area Bradrick's working in pretty well. He's had 14 sales in the past year, his reviews are excellent and they seem real to me. I actually was considering calling him for advice about some nearby land values awhile ago, so I've been checking his listings every now and then. They were rising in price and variety since he started.

However, he only has one property listed right now that I can see, so my guess is that he's switching careers or locations. 

I have to say I've developed a soft spot for him. Back when he was updating his Facebook more, he posted something basically saying that adulting is tough--that he often gets home so late from work that he barely sees his kids and he wishes he were more help to Kelly (I'm paraphrasing wildly here). Anyway, he sounded to me pretty much like a decent young husband and father who was in way over his head.

Caveat: I notice that I get to feeling protective of people we snark on here if they live anywhere near me. That makes no sense, and I don't think it would apply to Lori, or Jill, or Nichole and Joe if they moved my way, but there you are.

[acheronbeach]

I think most people have to feel a little compassion for Kelly and Peter Bradrick.  It must have been crushing to have been raised believing that you're part of something majestic and countercultural and God-given (and YOU have a very special role in it) and then to have all of those promises and beliefs crumble away... leaving you with a huge family and little education and avenues for supporting yourself.  

[older than allosaurs]

Oh yeah, another thing. I'd always wondered about Return of the Daughters, and now I've watched most of it. Holy moly. Are the Botkinettes Botoxed? I have never seen such immobile young faces, though they did match the androidal delivery. I pictured daddy pulling the marionette strings up out of the frame somewhere.

BTW, Jasmine Baucham Holmes seems to have landed on her feet. Her tweets are worth reading.

 

[Mrs. Bean]

This finally lured me out of  the lurk-dome! I watched ROTD when it first came out and Peter, Kelly, and the gang have been my "gateway" into the fundie watching. I followed Bradricks for all this years and was quite proud of them for standing up to the loathsome Doug Phillips the Tool. Their current situation greaves me more than I realized. Kelly, if you read here, please take care, don't go back to your parents, get state assistance if you must, it's there for a reason, and strongly consider  going to school and getting  an education ( if nursing appeals to you, it's a great field and it pays well, I'm an RN) and change the trajectory of yours  and your children's lives. Don't be  a victim of someone else's agenda again. You can do it, and God speed. 

[CyborgKin]

14 hours ago, Howl said:

I was looking here and there at NCFIC beliefs.  They discuss marriage ad nauseum but not divorce, because I think for them, it's the unthinkable!  I'll be very interested to see how Scottie spins this, especially at his marriage conferences.  Marriages in NCFIC simply cannot fail, because GOD!  And yes, @Fundiewonder, I agree there is a specific reason that Bradfick! filed and not Kelly.  

 

 

Yeah, just finished Scottie's LifeSkills video course last week and while it purported to prepare men for real life it sure didn't cover the topic of how to handle divorce

[ophelia]

15 hours ago, Howl said:

I was looking here and there at NCFIC beliefs.  They discuss marriage ad nauseum but not divorce, because I think for them, it's the unthinkable!  I'll be very interested to see how Scottie spins this, especially at his marriage conferences.  Marriages in NCFIC simply cannot fail, because GOD!  And yes, @Fundiewonder, I agree there is a specific reason that Bradfick! filed and not Kelly.  

 

 

And since Scottie is earning part of his income from these conferences and his daughter and SIL were the poster kids I can see a lot of finger-pointing from his direction. I'm not sure who takes the blame in Scottie's eyes, but I sure do hope that it isn't Kelly. At least not if she decides to move back to them. That would be a horrible environment for her and the kids then.

1 hour ago, older than allosaurs said:

Oh yeah, another thing. I'd always wondered about Return of the Daughters, and now I've watched most of it. Holy moly. Are the Botkinettes Botoxed? I have never seen such immobile young faces, though they did match the androidal delivery. I pictured daddy pulling the marionette strings up out of the frame somewhere.

BTW, Jasmine Baucham Holmes seems to have landed on her feet. Her tweets are worth reading.

 

And she got some kind of degree and was teaching at public school before giving birth to her son. I'd love her to return to her job instead of being a SAHM. She really seemed to like it.

[Palimpsest]

11 hours ago, DomWackTroll said:

It won't embed here, but Doug Phillips, on Facebook, just used a political video as a cover to tell us, in his own words, that "the people who's [sic] scream the loudest, who are the most merciless in their public rampages, and who attack others with the most ferocity, are often the ones who are guilty of the very things they claim to despise."

The VF world must be like telephone scene from Bye Bye Birdie right now. 

DPIAT is chortling with glee at the thought of the downfall of "destroyer," I have no doubt.

10 hours ago, DomWackTroll said:

They're so damn predictable! The only question was which one would "not gossip" about it first, James or Stacy. 

QFT.  They so enjoy not gossiping.

7 hours ago, older than allosaurs said:

I'm definitely not as enterprising as Marian, but I do know the area Bradrick's working in pretty well. He's had 14 sales in the past year, his reviews are excellent and they seem real to me. I actually was considering calling him for advice about some nearby land values awhile ago, so I've been checking his listings every now and then. They were rising in price and variety since he started.

However, he only has one property listed right now that I can see, so my guess is that he's switching careers or locations. 

It could be the time of year.  Real estate sales slow right down in the winter.  Bradrick's reviews do seem good - and quite secular.

6 hours ago, acheronbeach said:

I think most people have to feel a little compassion for Kelly and Peter Bradrick.  It must have been crushing to have been raised believing that you're part of something majestic and countercultural and God-given (and YOU have a very special role in it) and then to have all of those promises and beliefs crumble away... leaving you with a huge family and little education and avenues for supporting yourself.  

Yes.  Adding to that, ir must be devastating to find out that after all that keeping "pure," letting Daddy do all the screening and generating all those test questions, marrying someone you barely know, doing all the right things by multiplying like bunnies, Fundie marriage isn't necessarily the bliss and solution to all your problems that it was cracked up to be.

I have compassion for both of them.  The way they were raised is truly fucked up.

5 hours ago, CyborgKin said:

Yeah, just finished Scottie's LifeSkills video course last week and while it purported to prepare men for real life it sure didn't cover the topic of how to handle divorce

Thanks for taking one for the team.  I bet it doesn't prepare men for real life in most ways - let alone failed marriage!

Keep an eye on Scottie for some of these texts about Biblical divorce: 

Mark 10: 6-12, Matthew 5:31-32, Luke 16:18.

And if Kelly returns to the Brown fold and wants to remarry, stuff like this:  1 Corinthians: 7-39, Romans 7:2-3. Peter had better watch out.  Kelly can only remarry without committing adultery if he kicks the bucket.

[nokidsmom]

5 hours ago, ophelia said:

And since Scottie is earning part of his income from these conferences and his daughter and SIL were the poster kids I can see a lot of finger-pointing from his direction

I am waiting to hear what Scottie says, I imagine we will get something in due course.   As far as pointing any fingers, shortly after the fall of DPIAT, and Bradrick moved with his family to be near his parents, were there any indicators on how things stood between him and Scottie? It's been a while and I can't remember anything specific but the general impression I had was that things weren't that good.

I suspect that Scottie will back up his daughter, regardless of the reasons.  Blood being thicker than water, etc.  Could be wrong but nothing that some mental gymnastics can't solve and VF folks always struck me as being prone to that kind of thinking IMHO.

I started to look at the video and the Botkinettes' stare is just unnerving.   I agree with another poster upthread who said that maybe it wasn't Daddy keeping the suitors away after all. 

 

[hollyandivy]

I just started watching "Return of the daughters" - Voddie Baucham is something else, he makes me want to throw up or cry or something. Condoleezza Rice serving Bush is like Jasmin serving her father???????? Sorry, but my limited mental abilities cannot follow his gymnastics.....

[ophelia]

24 minutes ago, hollyandivy said:

I just started watching "Return of the daughters" - Voddie Baucham is something else, he makes me want to throw up or cry or something. Condoleezza Rice serving Bush is like Jasmin serving her father???????? Sorry, but my limited mental abilities cannot follow his gymnastics.....

Oh yes, that comparison was really cruel. I cannot stand this guy and hearing him talking and then Jasmine made me think that be probably beat all the ambitions and dreams she ever had out of her. Especially since he is a big advocator of corporal punishment even for toddlers I can absolutely imagine that Jasmine had to suffer. And that also makes me want to cry and puke. Though they still seem very close.

[RosyDaisy]

Yeah, just finished Scottie's LifeSkills video course last week and while it purported to prepare men for real life it sure didn't cover the topic of how to handle divorce [emoji14]

Kind of hard to teach life skills when you are uneducated and associate with mostly like-minded people.

[nokidsmom]

1 hour ago, RosyDaisy said:

Kind of hard to teach life skills when you are uneducated and associate with mostly like-minded people.

ITA and I wouldn't be surprised if these two things contributed to the divorce in some way.   Don't get me wrong, I give Peter credit for his efforts to reforge his life outside of VF.  But he had to face the truth about his mentor, see the end of VF plus lose his job and exalted position at the same time.   Both he and Kelly were living in the VF bubble, they were part of it's royalty, and it all comes crashing down.   Trying to rebuild their lives in the real world plus come to terms with their losses (on many levels) had to have been very, very hard as neither had been instilled with any skills and education for that.

[Red Hair, Black Dress]

Well -- I've finished watching ROTD without throwing my computer across the room.  OMG what was all that BS nonsense.

I wanted to laugh and then cry and then laugh again  i really wanted to punch Scottie and Voddie in the throat for crushing and ruining their daughters lives.  I wanted to smack the smug right off Peter's face.  The fundie mothers willing to stifle their daughters' ambitions and actively enabling that to happen made me stabby.

Lourdes going on and on about how great patriarchy and SAHD life are made me sadder than anything.  Talk about brainwashed,

The Robotkinettes are as creepy as their creepy father, although I think the robotic demeanor is an attempt to appear like serious (but sweet) women discussing a serious topic -- biblical womanhood and SAHDs.

What is a sanctification tool?  Although I'll agree Peter is a Tool.

Not a fundie here (Catholic), but my father instilled in me some of the things this piece of propaganda advocates:  Be a strong woman, live your faith, love and care for your family, use your God-given intellect and talents.

But he didn't think that meant being a SAHD.  He mandated higher education, actively encouraged a career, and taught me the life skills to live successfully on my own.  He never, ever intimated that marriage and children was the be all and end all of my life.  In fact I don't think he cared if I got married or not as long as I was happy.

He was proud of the woman I became as well as of my personal and career successes. He taught me that I could do and be anything I wanted if I worked hard. He believed in me 100%. And he would have choked before saying my role in life was to serve him.  He was a truly wonderful man and an awesome father.  Not something I can say about the fathers in ROTD.

 

[Palimpsest]

When you watch Return of the Daughters note how much of it is male talking heads.  I really think they should do a follow-up "Where are They Now - 10 years later."    

Let's see (and if anyone can fill in the details, thanks):  

E and A.S. still withering on the vine serving their father.  From choice, because no man has come up to their father's strict standards, or because they are so imprinted on Daddy that no man is good enough for them. 

Katie Valenti married Phillip Bradrick.  Kids?

Melissa Keen married Justin Turley. Still sanctimonious and four kids and counting.

Jasmine Baucham married someone.  Kids?  (And Voddie has doubled in weight.)

Lourdes Torres.  Well we all know what happened there.  Lourdes is now in college.  Go Lourdes!

And Kelly Brown Bradrick.  Six kids and on the brink of divorce.

I wish IngridGrace still blogged.  I always think she nailed Kelly's situation.  A blast from the past: 

http://ingridgraceandaudrey.blogspot.com/2012/06/portrait-of-lady.html

[Destiny]

16 hours ago, divadivine said:

I wonder if we will ever find out the real reason behind the divorce? I think she was tired of Sippy Cup's ears. Imagine waking up to that every damn day? That would give you nightmares. 

FWIW, comments like this are not helpful IMO. BRADRICK! can't help his ears. He can help being a patriarchal asshole. I'd much rather hear us snarking on his terrible beliefs, not his appearance. 

12 hours ago, princessmahina said:

Finally watched all of Return of the Daughters. Holy hell. The part with Jasmine Baucham made me the saddest-- it sounded like she had a plan for what she wanted to do with her life and how she was going to get there. Ugh. 

That. I had never watched it either, but took this last snow weekend and watched it. HOLY FUCK I DIDN'T THINK IT WAS POSSIBLE TO HATE VODDIE MORE THAN I ALREADY DID AND I DO! She was a smart girl with a plan that got ruined because daddy needed someone to research his books. Voddie ruined her fucking life, the asshole. 

[ophelia]

@Palimpsest I'd love to see an HONEST "where are they now - 10 years later." That would be worth watching.

 

Katie Valenti Bradrick has 3 kids - 2 boys and a girl (born summer 2015) as per her fb she didn't have any kids since that. Although the first ones are really close in age it seems like they slowed down the baby production or stopped it.

Jasmine Baucham Holmes has a babyboy.

[Leftitinmysnood]

13 hours ago, MamaJunebug said:

Darlin' @Clementine, Ben Serven's wife also has a nose ring - it's been there at  least since they were engaged. TTBOMK she and Ben have no children after a few years of marriage. What do it all mean, what do it allllll mean...?!

 

I have a relative who is a Biblical scholar who has always maintained (jokingly) that fundie relationships are not truly scriptural unless the bride is given a nose ring a la Isaac and Rebekah. Maybe someone else decided that, too.

[Howl]

7 minutes ago, Palimpsest said:

Jasmine Baucham married someone.  Kids?  (And Voddie has doubled in weight.)

Didn't Jasmine marry Voddie's assistant?  

I abhor Voddie's stance on disciplining young children child abuse.  He's right up there with or worse than the Pearls. 

[ophelia]

Just now, Leftitinmysnood said:

I have a relative who is a Biblical scholar who has always maintained (jokingly) that fundie relationships are not truly scriptural unless the bride is given a nose ring a la Isaac and Rebekah. Maybe someone else decided that, too.

This makes me laugh sooo hard. I have a nose ring. But no headship. Damn.. I got the order wrong.

[Palimpsest]

19 minutes ago, Howl said:

Didn't Jasmine marry Voddie's assistant?  

I abhor Voddie's stance on disciplining young children child abuse.  He's right up there with or worse than the Pearls. 

Ah, yes. Found it!  Jasmine married Phillip Holmes (Desiringgod.org) who was previously Voddie's executive assistant.  Jasmine has written a book, taught 5th grade at a Christian school and has a baby boy.  (Thanks @ophelia)

I cannot stand Voddie Baucham.  He is definitely right up there with the Pearls and is now polluting Zambia with his faux Christianity.

[MamaJunebug]

Ooh, here's something tickling my curiosity!  A reply to IngraceGraceAudrry's seminal Kelle Jeannette post:

 

Quote

Scott Brown didn't start the NCFIC - A man from New Hampshire named John Thompson did with Doug's help. 

John was removed from heading up the NCFIC after 2 of his daughters ran away.

 

5 minutes ago, Palimpsest said:

Ah, yes. Found it!  Jasmine married Phillip Holmes (Desiringgod.org) who was previously Voddie's executive assistant.  Jasmine has written a book, taught 5th grade at a Christian school and has a baby boy.  (Thanks @ophelia)

I cannot stand Voddie Baucham.  He is definitely right up there with the Pearls and is now polluting Zambia with his faux Christianity.

Desiringgod.org? That's John Piper, no? Talk about a repulsive little faux-man!!!

[acheronbeach]

8 hours ago, ophelia said:

And since Scottie is earning part of his income from these conferences and his daughter and SIL were the poster kids I can see a lot of finger-pointing from his direction. I'm not sure who takes the blame in Scottie's eyes, but I sure do hope that it isn't Kelly. At least not if she decides to move back to them. That would be a horrible environment for her and the kids then.

And she got some kind of degree and was teaching at public school before giving birth to her son. I'd love her to return to her job instead of being a SAHM. She really seemed to like it.

Jasmine was consistently smarter than pretty much all the other SAHDs we follow here.  Her father might be nuts, but she had the benefit of being raised by a parent with a doctorate.  Not exactly the typical SAHD experience. 

I felt a little bad when she visited FJ to try and defend her (father's) beliefs. She was smart and pretty respectful but she seemed a little out of her depths.

I do wonder what's going on with her mom Bridget's illness and if her brother's kept out of trouble. 

[MamaJunebug]

I *still* remember her referring to working people as "wage slaves" but she completely denied it, so she didn't. 

But somebody did. My next contenders are Jenny Chancey & the Botkin spinsters. 

(And there's nothing wrong w being a spinster.)

Wellllll! John Thompson might have been deposed but as of 2003 he was still talking the talk. 

https://scarletlettersblog.wordpress.com/

(I hope they link goes right to the article.  If not, search for this title: "How Modern Churches Are Harming Families (TBB)")

[WonderingInWA]

20 hours ago, Red Hair, Black Dress said:

Based on my limited experience of seeing a few fundies have a (sort of) crisis of faith and get divorced, I think Peter filed for divorce for the simple reason he doesn't want to be married with 6 children any more.

Peter was a VF true believer, a nearly life-long disciple of DPIAT beginning with his internship. A member of the inner circle and possibly being groomed to lead VF when DPIAT retired.  Peter bought into *everything* patriarchy that VF extolled.

His marriage to Kelly was VF sanctioned by DPIAT and Scottie -- uniting the VF princess with the VF heir apparent.  It was primarily a political and theological alliance. A business arrangement disguised as a courtship and loving fairy tale marriage.  It was not that at all.

Peter then proceeds to be the living example of VF doctrine -- practicing patriarchy - many babies quickly -entrepreneurship (Bradrick!).  He and Kelly are the golden shining example of why SAHD, patriarchy and VF are the perfect way.

And then it all goes to hell in a hand basket.  DP is revealed to be a Tool.  Peter calls him out and is "banished", Everything Peter thought he knew was true was now in question.  His entire VF support system is gone. He suddenly needs a job.  He moves everyone completely across the country for a new start.

Then one day he looks around. He's married to a woman he doesn't really know, with whom he doesn't really have anything in common. There is no more VF to be the royal couple of.  And he has *6* children.  Children he probably had without ever considering if he wanted 6 children,

So he wants out of this life that hasn't turned out the way it was supposed to.  He files for divorce intending to leave it all behind.

Not WK-ing Peter at all, because I think he's just as much of a Tool as DP, but the impulse to chuck everything and start again is pretty universal.  Except -- he has 7 people depending on him -- a situation he created and perpetuated.

Even if he's divorced he's still responsible for those 7 people. He created the situation, now he needs to own it.

 

I think it was probably Kelly that finally just got sick of his pompous ass-hattery, but that she left it up to her headship to file for divorce as almost a humiliating last move for him.  She probably just got tired of being the only parent and wanted out of the marriage but wanted him to do the "business" side of filing since she's too busy homeskooling and mothering her SIX children.  What a mess.