The Rehm Family Website ?

[Turning-A-New-Leaf 0]

Does anyone know if The Rehm Family has a website, or if any of the siblings of Abi Rehm do?

I have tried to look, but unsuccessful. Thank you.

[ridethekick 0]

I've looked previously, and I don't believe they do. Shame!

It's crazy how interlinked their relationships are. For example:

Abby Grady marries Caleb Beasley

Dan Beasley marries Bethany Wissmann

Josiah Wissmann marries Abi Rehm

And now Anna Rehm is courting Aaron Grady.

[terranova 663]

How long is it going to take before they exhaust the gene pool?

[No KoolAid 1]

I've never seen a website for the Rehm family, just comments by some of the girls on blogs and websites of people from their church or other big families.

The Rehms are part of the same church the Wissmanns have attended since 2004, Millard Alliance. On the website, Pastor Larry Nelson calls his church "family-integrated" instead of identifying it as a Bill Gothard ATI Church. Loren Wissmann told several of us years ago that Larry Nelson believed a too public awareness of families' affiliations with ATI might cause the church to be viewed as a "cult" by the Greater Omaha Community or by the Christian & Missionary Alliance Headquarters.

Having heard a fair amount of sermons at Millard Alliance, and having been in the Nelsons' and Wissmanns' homes socially and having attended showers and other social functions in various locales with many families in this extended church community, I can tell you that it IS a Bill Gothard ATI church with strong Vision Forum undertones, and the Rehms are part of that community whether they use the ATI home school curriculum or not. (I don't know what curriculum they use, I never met the Rehms. But the mindset of Gothardism/Dougism in church sermons and in the lives of the social crowd can be infectious despite school curriculum.)

So, if you want to, you can probably learn more facts about the Rehm family by searching for additional publicly available blogs and websites of church members affiliated with Millard Alliance Church, and by reading posts and following links and commenters from there.

[CanticleoftheTurning 0]

Geez. It still feels weird to see the Beasleys mentioned here. I graduated with Josh B, and we both participated in some homeschool high school and graduation type socialization get-togethers, but never knew him past acquaintance stage.

And yes, as conservative as Omaha is (well, the west suburbia of Omaha is conservative, midtown/downtown are little more liberal) people wouldn't like to hear about the "family integrated church's" involvement with ATI, *if* people know what ATI even is.

Now, the homeschoolers are pretty redneck over there, so some probably wouldn't care if the church was an ATI-associated church. Heck, some might even seek it out.

In retrospect, I think we might have had more ATI/VF people in the Omaha homeschooling community than I'd initially realized...plenty of girls wearing denim or beige skirts, moms wearing frumpers...there was one family who was churning the kiddos out--they had like 10 or so by the time their older brother graduated in my class (maybe more who were older). They lived on the AFB and had to combine apartment units to get enough space for the family.

/okay, just rambling.

Ditto searching Millard Alliance Church for any info about the Rehm family. That'd be your best bet.

[No KoolAid 1]

Don't know if you found him likable but I'm glad you didn't catch Joshua Beasley's eye for marriage. Otherwise he might have ended up playing "the intruder game" with YOU. What a shame, what happened to his beautiful wife and her family. What a shame, also, the things the Beasleys said about Josh and his killing, and how they and their religious community failed to place any real blame onto Josh Beasley for what he did. The things that the Beasleys, Josh and others said on TV and in letters, media interviews and blog posts revealed a mindset and self-absorption about the killing that caused me not to want to be around any of those people even if their theology was acceptable to me, which it's not.

The air force family... was it the Gradys or someone else?

[darkplumaged 478]

Having heard a fair amount of sermons at Millard Alliance, and having been in the Nelsons' and Wissmanns' homes socially and having attended showers and other social functions in various locales with many families in this extended church community, I can tell you that it IS a Bill Gothard ATI church with strong Vision Forum undertones

Thanks for the info! I've often wondered "what kind" of fundies the Nebraska contingent are... they (meaning the Gradys, Wissmanns, and Beasleys) never mention ATI or VF, and I knew they weren't IFB, so I couldn't figure out where they fit in.

[CanticleoftheTurning 0]

I'm an ebil Catholick, so there really was no chance of him ever considering me. Plus I don't do well when people oppress women...I get rather bitchy...(on the other hand I was stuck in my dad's personality cult so I could have easily succumbed to his charms if he had decided to "court" me, which scares me that I was so used to things like that.)

He was nice enough, but always seemed awkward to me, like he was following a ton of invisible rules or something. Now I know that he was part of the ATI cult, which explains a lot. It was big news--my mom forwarded me the email that circulated through the Omaha HEN about the situation when it hit the media, asking for prayers for Josh and Alaina's family. Everyone was pretty supportive of Josh--some of the fellow homeschoolers in our graduating class got together on Facebook--I forget if it was a group or an event--to try to coordinate letter-writing and prison visitations to keep his spirit up.

At first we all thought it was a simple gun accident like Josh initially said, but then as the Moores started backing away from their initial forgiveness and thought it might be something more to Alaina's shooting. Then the homeschooling community sorta stopped talking about it. And I agree--Josh showed no real remorse. His letters showed no remorse--it was all about him. I wanted to go back in time and slap him real good and tell him to get rid of all his guns.

The AFB family was the Bythrows. I don't know if they still live on the base--but checking what's visible on their FB profiles they seem more mainstream. One kid went to a local high school, so hopefully they're not actually ATI. Still, the frumper, denim skirts, and boatloads of kids...and looks can always be deceiving.

[boxedin 29]

I've been searching for the newlywed couple, where the man shot the wife. Thank you for your post! I'm in Nebraska and remember that from the local news. One of the ATI family blogs I was following at the time asked for prayers for the man and the families.

I'm a quiet former member of the old board but am just coming out of lurkdom here. I just needed the right post. Duggars are my starter family. I follow ATI families pretty much exclusively. Free Jinger is a reference (TMZ?) to keep me updated. You probably won't hear from me much unless on a Bates or related thread. I don't care much about the Duggars anymore, unless one of the kids flees. Joy is the best bet. RUN Joy Run!

[boxedin 29]

Just looking at the Elders of the Millard Church. I believe that the Wattermans used to home church with Vyckie in West Point. I remember the wife's name from her life story.

[formerlegalist 20]

Thanks for the info! I've often wondered "what kind" of fundies the Nebraska contingent are... they (meaning the Gradys, Wissmanns, and Beasleys) never mention ATI or VF, and I knew they weren't IFB, so I couldn't figure out where they fit in.

They are very much ATI fundies, and to be honest, the Millard Alliance Church has a lot in common with IFB. The only reason the church did not leave the denomination and go independent was because the C&MA could have taken the building and everything in it.

Millard Alliance Church started as a plant of Christ Community Church, one of the largest churches in Omaha. But as a C&MA church, it has always been deeply involved in the Keswick/Higher Life theology, which teaches two-stage sanctification. For Millard Alliance, the teachings of Bill Gothard in particular were promoted as the means to get to that second stage and "break through" to higher life. The church was often the host site for any IBLP events in the Omaha area; basic and advanced seminars, financial freedom, etc. Groups from MAC also attended ATI events in other states; Knoxville each year, Sound Foundations a couple times, I think EXCEL or EQUIP too. Quite a few of the boys in the church went through the ALERT program. The Miller family (known through the Gradys' blog) had once been influential in ALERT.

There was a second fundie/patriarchal "church" in the Omaha area, too. Rick and Jan Hess (THE Hesses who wrote "A Full Quiver") live near Omaha and attended a house church with other families like, I believe, the Kanes, Stearns, Storms, Stangls, etc. -- all well known in ATI circles. For a while this was the more conservative alternative to Millard Alliance -- scary, right? (Another side note: the IBLP teaching that cabbage patch dolls cause miscarriages has been attributed by some to Carol Storm.)

MAC was also in the news in the '90s when a homeschooled boy shot his mother to death, and injured his sister, believed to be on a sugar high after binging after being denied sugar as part of the house rules. The subsequent investigation pointed back to the family's church as one source of the legalistic way of life in that home. Following the turmoil surrounding this, many women in the church miscarried. (Local midwife Carol Storm visited the families and observed the presence of cabbage patch dolls in many of the homes, which may have led to the aforementioned hypothesis that Bill Gothard picked up on.)

"Country Victorian" (whose blog I have not seen linked here, but she's connected to "Lady Lydia") also spent time at MAC. countryvictorian dot blogspot dot com

The MAC culture was always very legalistic, where each new idea that benefitted one family was shared and promoted in such a way it would soon become "highly recommended", if not nearly law, for all the other families. Things such as sewing matching clothing, making homemade bread in Bosch bread machines, attending homeschool health food co-op, hiding TVs behind the coats in the closet, and avoiding modern music and movies spread like wildfire among the families - especially the women. One could never know what would be normal one week and then be viewed as a gross sin the next.

A similar form of legalism was promoted among the youth, mainly in the form of gender-segregated prayer groups. Behind those closed doors, while I'm sure there was some good fellowship, there was also immense spiritual peer pressure, not unlike the way the youth in the TV movie "In God's Country" are depicted. The boys in particular were challenged to do things like give up talking to girls (something that would always get the moms buzzing anyway - unless it was a pre approved relationship, which did happen), getting onto emotional spiritual highs, and just doing more for Jesus. Completely lacking in these small groups was any discussion of grace, or taking comfort in what Jesus had done for them. Many spoke of the fear of what might happen if they suddenly died and had unforgiven sins. (Christ's death was not seen as covering all their sins, but rather simply making it possible for sins to be forgiven if they kept the rules.)

Gun culture has always been huge at MAC. There were also cases of boys whipping out hunting knives inside the church, just for "fun". Paintball was a popular recreational activity for the boys.

Through ATI's "Family Coordinator" program, ATI families in the military were pointed toward MAC over the years. This was how the Gradys, a military family, as well as many other large but non-blogging ATI families found the church. The Wissmanns started attending a few years later, after the fallout in the Seward church, after people from MAC had heard them play a concert in Seward and recognized similar values.

MAC has been known as a safe place for conservative families to have their beliefs strengthened, and not challenged. Basically, an incubator for perfectionists. At a 2005 men's meeting, it was even suggested that elders or other men stand at the door on Sunday mornings and measure skirts to ensure a wholesome and non-distracting worship environment. The measure was debated but ended up being a slight minority position and was never implemented.

All of the families mentioned on this site, including the Beasleys, Gradys, Rehms, Wissmanns, Millers, Nelsons, Wattermanns, and others, were at least close enough to ATI to have been through the seminars and have the iconic "Red Books" and Men's Manual in their homes. Many also used the Wisdom Booklets as their homeschool curriculum.

MAC has also been deeply involved in the Nebraska Home Educator's conference each year, and the skit is something many of the "young people" (singles 15-35) have participated in. It is not just a Wissmann family event; I don't even think they are the authors of the scripts that are used. The skit practices used to take place at MAC on Sunday afternoons after church services and congregational meals. (For many families, other MAC families were the only like-minded people they knew, and so it was common for after-church fellowship to go four hours or more and be the primary or only social activity of the week.) Thus, the recent offensive "black-face" incident was probably not the work of just one family, but something condoned by many in the church, and would have been rehearsed at MAC. The Nebraska Home Educator's conference is not overall as legalistic as the children's ministry portion, because the children's ministry portion is run by MAC attenders but the "main" part of the conference is not. There are plenty of mainstream homeschoolers in Nebraska who do not fall for this stuff.

There has been a lot of intermarriage between the prominent ATI families in the area, as has been previously noted in other threads. There are other ATI families in the area as well, whose names I have not seen mentioned here so I will not name them, that have one or more marriages in "the group". In addition, two Nelsons married siblings from an ATI family in Virginia. Would not be surprised in the least if there are more marriage between the same families considering the dozens of younger children in the "pool".

Look no further than their church as the background and explanation for what you read on many of these families' blogs, and their close-knit community.

[No KoolAid 1]

Well written.

FJ is anonymous so I'll never ask who you are, and I don't have a guess. I wouldn't be surprised if you and I were at some of the same functions, social events or church services. Until today I thought I was the only one who escaped!

[ophelia 6,851]

Don't know if you found him likable but I'm glad you didn't catch Joshua Beasley's eye for marriage. Otherwise he might have ended up playing "the intruder game" with YOU. What a shame, what happened to his beautiful wife and her family. What a shame, also, the things the Beasleys said about Josh and his killing, and how they and their religious community failed to place any real blame onto Josh Beasley for what he did. The things that the Beasleys, Josh and others said on TV and in letters, media interviews and blog posts revealed a mindset and self-absorption about the killing that caused me not to want to be around any of those people even if their theology was acceptable to me, which it's not.

The air force family... was it the Gradys or someone else?

Wow. It's the first time I read about Joshua Beasley and the fact that he killed his wife. I did a quick google research (read two articles) and I am absolutely speechless right now. Is he still in prison? How did the Beasley family explain what their son did? Did that change the way the fundie-world looks at them? If I got the story right, Beth Wissmann married Dan AFTER what happened, didn't she?

[formerlegalist 20]

Wow. It's the first time I read about Joshua Beasley and the fact that he killed his wife. I did a quick google research (read two articles) and I am absolutely speechless right now. Is he still in prison? How did the Beasley family explain what their son did? Did that change the way the fundie-world looks at them? If I got the story right, Beth Wissmann married Dan AFTER what happened, didn't she?

They got married in December '09 and the killing happened the previous February.

Josh was released in the past couple months. To my knowledge the family's account remains that it was an unfortunate accident.

[ophelia 6,851]

Which (even fundie) dad would really let his daughter marry Joshua after all what happened?? Of course, dramatic accidents happen, but after reading a few of his statements I somehow got a feeling that there is something wrong with this guy (even more wrong than pointing a gun at his wife..)

[No KoolAid 1]

Here's a thread, ophelia. viewtopic.php?f=8&t=2434

[ophelia 6,851]

Thank you.. and sorry for asking questions that have already been covered!

[No KoolAid 1]

Sure. Here's discussion on the old yuku board too: http://freejinger.yuku.com/topic/6578#.T6Bw0BweQc8

[No KoolAid 1]

Is he still in prison?

Joshua Beasley had to turn himself in on October 4, 2009 (trial was late September). By April 7, 2011 he was appearing in family photos again on Anna Beasley's blog. So 18 months tops were served.

[Witsec7 11]

Joshua Beasley had to turn himself in on October 4, 2009 (trial was late September). By April 7, 2011 he was appearing in family photos again on Anna Beasley's blog. So 18 months tops were served.

Yea Anna doesn't know that denial is not just a river.

[No KoolAid 1]

There was a second fundie/patriarchal "church" in the Omaha area, too. Rick and Jan Hess (THE Hesses who wrote "A Full Quiver") live near Omaha and attended a house church with other families like, I believe, the Kanes, Stearns, Storms, Stangls, etc. -- all well known in ATI circles. For a while this was the more conservative alternative to Millard Alliance -- scary, right?

It was sometimes called "The No Name Church" and it was for the most spiritual of spiritual people. You could attend if you were approved and invited by someone already in the church.

[No KoolAid 1]

The MAC culture [...] spread like wildfire among the families - especially the women.

Despite strong patriarchal teachings, "The No Name Church" and MAC seemed to me to have some wives and teen/adult daughters running the spiritual show behind the scenes. (These women seemed to believe that they were being "spiritual help meets" and thereby keeping their place.)

I recall that the more that the wives and teen/adult daughters stroked, pampered and bragged about their heads, and maybe did the spiritual homework for them and prepped them before events, the more that the husbands, children (and even the wives themselves) seemed to believe it was the men who were "leading" and being moved by the Spirit of God.

[formerlegalist 20]

Despite strong patriarchal teachings, "The No Name Church" and MAC seemed to me to have some wives and teen/adult daughters running the spiritual show behind the scenes. (These women seemed to believe that they were being "spiritual help meets" and thereby keeping their place.)

I recall that the more that the wives and teen/adult daughters stroked, pampered and bragged about their heads, and maybe did the spiritual homework for them and prepped them before events, the more that the husbands, children (and even the wives themselves) seemed to believe it was the men who were "leading" and being moved by the Spirit of God.

That is spot on. For years, it seemed to be that wherever the wives and daughters went, so went the entire church.

I've seen other descriptions too saying that for many families the ATI culture is almost more of a "matriarchy"...

[No KoolAid 1]

Which (even fundie) dad would really let his daughter marry Joshua after all what happened?? I somehow got a feeling that there is something wrong with this guy (even more wrong than pointing a gun at his wife..)

Josh Beasley has been seen hip to hip, thigh to thigh, hand in hand, and arm around a brunette. So, somebody thinks it's good to let his daughter desire Joshua Beasley.

[luckystone 0]

Josh Beasley has been seen hip to hip, thigh to thigh, hand in hand, and arm around a brunette. So, somebody thinks it's good to let his daughter desire Joshua Beasley.

Wait, since the event???

I was wondering about that. I posted it on his thread too (don't want to go too off-topic here).