Maxwell Conferences

[Rowan]

The Pittsburgh event is on September 28th and 29th. Since Steve reads here, he likely knew about a couple of Pittsburgh FJers talking about crashing the event, sometime after that it was announced that Pittsburgh wouldn't have a Q&A portion.

Damn, I'm going to be only about 90 min away that weekend instead of my normal 3 hours-ish since I live in Cleveland but my hometown and the rest of my family is halfway between the two cities and I'll be there for my mom's birthday. I don't think she'd appreciate my desire for a roadtrip although her boyfriend (that she lives in sin with!) and my sister would probably love it. :-)

[Palimpsest]

Posted this on the Gangsta/humping Uriah thread, but the question is getting lost in major troll-control. :)

Serious question about the Maxwell Dog and Pony Show. Am I right that Stev-o doesn't charge an entrance fee for the conference? I won't go if they charge . . . I'm not funding this guy in any way shape or form.

So, how do they make the $$ to keep Uriah in gas and themselves eating animal crackers? Does the host church pay a fee, through book/publication sales, or do they pass a love offering basket?

[Nothing2CHere]

Someone else would have to give the website a hit on your behalf if you won't look....?

I figured someone had previously viewed this information and remembered it, therefore no new hits would be necessary (I'm not a regular reader of the Maxwells).

[LostSamurai]

Too bad I'm nowhere near Pittsburgh(I'm on the opposite side of PA, being more near Philly) because I'd be willing to wear a long skirt and pretend that I"m a Uber Fundie just for the lulz and leave some FJ stuff...

[slickcat79]

Posted this on the Gangsta/humping Uriah thread, but the question is getting lost in major troll-control. :)

Serious question about the Maxwell Dog and Pony Show. Am I right that Stev-o doesn't charge an entrance fee for the conference? I won't go if they charge . . . I'm not funding this guy in any way shape or form.

So, how do they make the $$ to keep Uriah in gas and themselves eating animal crackers? Does the host church pay a fee, through book/publication sales, or do they pass a love offering basket?

Yes on the love offering and the sales. They always have both set up at the conferences.

I don't know about the church fee, but my guess would be that they don't pay the Maxwells. Just having the church facilities available to them, tables/chairs/etc, and any necessary church staff members to help host the conference would be a not-inconsiderable expense. I'm guessing they agree to provide those things for free in exchange for having the Maxwells in.

Any Pittsburgh-area members who are interested in going to the conference as part of an FJ group should PM ClibbyJo

[Palimpsest]

Yes on the love offering and the sales. They always have both set up at the conferences.

I don't know about the church fee, but my guess would be that they don't pay the Maxwells. Just having the church facilities available to them, tables/chairs/etc, and any necessary church staff members to help host the conference would be a not-inconsiderable expense. I'm guessing they agree to provide those things for free in exchange for having the Maxwells in.

Any Pittsburgh-area members who are interested in going to the conference as part of an FJ group should PM ClibbyJo

Thanks. It was answered on the other thread too. No entrance fee. The love offering would be a great time to put a "Free Jinger wuz here" tract where Steve would be sure to find it. :twisted:

I'm not anywhere near Pittsburg but I anxiously await the next FJ reports. :clap:

Power to you all. Perhaps the Maxwells will come to a city near me soon.

[gardenvarietycitizen]

Heck, if you're going to leave a tract, go all the way - make up some "Free Jinger" tract that looks like money, same way the Christian proselytizers do it! Pic in the middle can be the bacon bra...

[lilwriter85]

Posted this on the Gangsta/humping Uriah thread, but the question is getting lost in major troll-control. :)

Serious question about the Maxwell Dog and Pony Show. Am I right that Stev-o doesn't charge an entrance fee for the conference? I won't go if they charge . . . I'm not funding this guy in any way shape or form.

So, how do they make the $$ to keep Uriah in gas and themselves eating animal crackers? Does the host church pay a fee, through book/publication sales, or do they pass a love offering basket?

My guess is that churches do pay them some kind of speaker fee. They have visited mega churches before and mega churches often have the resources to cover people like the Maxwells. I think it was confirmed somewhere that love offerings have happened at Maxwell events. If a Maxwell event is $20 or less I would go if they were near me.

When it comes to traveling the Maxwells do a lot to keep costs low. They take most of their food and so they probably rarely eat at restaurants and they sometimes park the bus in Wal-Mart parking lots.

[Anxious Girl]

I love the way fundies have fellowship rather than having a conversation.

Is there a fundie dictionary? Fellowship = hanging out and talking, convicted = I wanted to, put on my heart = I had an idea

There is. Ya just have to look for it in the Chatter subforum. ;)

[nomoxian]

Speaking about Jello, here's some other nasty food...

titus dot com /blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/DSC_5180-425x283.jpg

"Anna made a skillet meal for lunch Friday."

At first I thought it said "small meal" ... and someone please 'train' her to put the cheese in the skillet before you serve the "meal" Maybe add some veggies too. Buddah knows they need as much food as they can eat, and fried onions and peppers taste really good with hashbrowns.

[Guest Anonymous]

My guess is that churches do pay them some kind of speaker fee. They have visited mega churches before and mega churches often have the resources to cover people like the Maxwells. I think it was confirmed somewhere that love offerings have happened at Maxwell events. If a Maxwell event is $20 or less I would go if they were near me.

When it comes to traveling the Maxwells do a lot to keep costs low. They take most of their food and so they probably rarely eat at restaurants and they sometimes park the bus in Wal-Mart parking lots.

From: http://www.titus2.com/conferences/rock- ... amily.html

We do not charge a fee. The Lord has always provided through love offering boxes on our book tables.

I believe ClibbyJo (who has a fundie sister in the homeschool resources business?) has confirmed that as they start attending the bigger homeschool conferences they will actually have to pay a hefty fee to tout their wares.

[Sprocket]

Inspired by the Fab 3's standing up to Steve Maxwell, I was excited to see that the Maxwells were coming to my neck of the woods. I had to find out whaat the reprocussions were, if any in their little dog and pony show. Many of you may know all of this already. I just started following the Maxwell's when the engagement was called off, so all of it was new to me. So here goes:

 

The church where the conference was held was massive. It was in Conyers, which like most of the suburbs surrounding metro Atlanta, has good areas and bad areas. I didn't know which one I was in for, but it was right off of Interstate 20 and it was incredibly isolated. Seriously, there was nothing down that two mile road except that church which is rare in this area. The church itself was massive. I don't even think the conference was held in the main chapel, as it was in the back of the church. Anyway, for the first hour or so, there were three groups.

1. Homeschooling mom group.

2. Father/Husband group. <- We need a male volunteer for this, pronto!

3. Teen group with the Maxwell offspring.

 

A lot of what Teri started off saying was a common sense approach to parenting. Children need to know what to expect, hence, the schedules. It provides them with security, which I believe, especially when they are young. She suggested imagining a mirror is on your child's forehead and trying to see yourself as your children see you. This was poingnaint to me as it had been a long week with the kids being sick and whiney and I probably hadn't been as nice every moment of the day as I should have been given that they didn't feel well. Guilt, check! Then she moved on to the creepier aspects of Steve. According to Teri, when the kids were very young, they learned to play on their own, which in and of itself is fine. However, Steve had made individual "Daddy Tapes" for the kids to listen to and absorb as they played alone. I looked around the room, to see the reaction of the women and there was none that I could see. Was I the only one that thought that this propaganda that started in toddler-hood was creepy? Maybe. Probably. She also went on to explain that one of her sons had just had their first child, Joshua, and he had already made little Joshua's first "daddy cd" for him to listen to. I was shocked that he didn't put headphones on his wife's tummy and make the baby listen to it while in utero. You're never to young to learn biblical principles, y'all! Moving on....

 

Chores:

Did you know that the destruction of S&G was caused by idle time and fullness of bread (which equals video games now)? So as soon as those kids can stand up, you put a broom in their hand and damnit, they will work! Granted, she was very thorough about child/age appropriate chores. And if it hadn't dawned on these people that you don't give a four year old a bottle of Scrubbing Bubbles and let them loose in the bathroom alone, then they need lots of help. Also, you have to write down that you need to brush your teeth and get dressed in the morning. Some kids may be so dense that they are well into their teens/adulthood before they don't need to write that down (read: boys) while other kids can figure it out by four years old (read: girls). Also, she made a point of saying that ceiling fans don't need to be cleaned because no one looks up there and you can turn them on high and they clean themselves. But now that she has someone to clean her ceiling fans, it's someone's chore to do it once a week. Yes, something that doesn't need to be done at all has to be done once a week in the Maxwell house. Maybe her daughters need to sit in on this lecture so that they will realize that they are being given unnessesary busy work. As if it wasn't already clear if you follow the Maxwell's, she pointed it out loud and clear: You don't build memories by "doing fun stuff". What's a good idea for building memories for a 4-6 year old? Laying concrete. They cherish the pictures of their little ones laying concrete. And if the chores that you give them aren't adequately done, you give the checklist to "daddy" and that will be enough to make sure that those chores get done quick and in a hurry.

 

 

Homeschooling:

I will admit that I could not homeschool my children. While I have a love of literature and the well written word and my husband would have math and science covered, I just know that I'm not qualified to teach my kids in a way that would allow them to go to the college of their choice. That isn't a problem if you're a Maxwell. Six year olds teach their four year old siblings phonics. Flash cards are used from everything from third grade mathmatics to spelling/phonics and everything in between. Four year olds were being exposed to 11th grade math concepts. Now I'm a fan of scaffolding but not as a sole foundation in a child's education. Each child gets approximately 30 minutes of Teri's time. If they need help with an upper level math question, they are handed a solutions manual and told to figure it out by themselves.

 

Other interesting tidbits:

The girls get up at 5:15 (absolutely of their own choice. Yeah right, you'll see why it's not their choice in a minute) and the boys who still live at home get up at five in order to use the workout space first. Steve advocates getting up as soon as the alarm clock goes off so that, and I quote, "you're [his daughters] are not one of those moms needing our schedule." I wrote that down verbatim, in case you're wondering. Just another example as to why he's a condescending asshole. Oh, and Sarah answers the Titus 2 dedicated line while they are at home, in case you're wondering.

 

 

Now Teri becomes very human. A sad human, but a human:

She addressed her depression. She said that one of her tipping points was when she walked into the bathroom and a child had been in there and unrolled a roll of toilet paper. She cried out to the lord that, "there were so many of them and only one of her" and for God to please help her. The way she said it, you could hear the desperation in her voice. She said that she struggled greatly with their lifestyle in the beginning. She fought their lifestyle. But Steve God finally called her to do Steve's God's commands. She cited bible verses that she said over and over to herself when she had a depressed thought. The way she said those verses was seamless as she was breathing. I could tell that she must have said those verses hundreds of thousands of times in her lifetime. She all but came out and said that she was overwhelmed with her life but that she had been beaten with scripture long enough for her to come to peace with the life she had. Indoctrination, Stockholm syndorme, religous abuse? Check, check, check! I wanted to weep for her right there on my little pew. It was all I could do not to take her home with me, give her a Pepsi, and just hug her and let her say all of the things that were forbidden for her to think. Something else I didn't expect... she is overwhelmingly kind and intelligent. It exudes out of her. Now she is an adult and is a participant in holding her offspring hostage and contributing to their emotional abuse, but she's a victim too. If she were to get away from Steve, I think she could do amazing things.

 

 

 

Break for 10 minutes and I haven't seen hide nor hair of a Maxell daughter. I spot two of them at the book table. Sarah and another one. Aren't there three girls? If so, one of them either wasn't there or wasn't there for the public to talk to.

 

 

 

Now for Family Time with Steve and Teri (are you sick of reading yet?):

 

A lot of this is common knowledge to people who follow them. I had a vague idea based on what I had read here, but it was completely different hearing it come out of his mouth and imagining myself as one of his children and hearing this day in and day out. Thins that are bad: Friends, team sports, friends, Andy Griffith, TV (he calls it "the beast"), and flying. Steve used to have an air plane that he loved and it was his passion. Upon realizing that it was a passion, he got rid of it and hasn't flown in 20+ years. According to him, you have to give up every single thing that you like (because it may become a passion and the only thing you can have a passion for is Christ) and "turn your heart to your children and family." Something would be "wrong with your relationships" if your wife/daughter didn't want to go with you to Lowes to pick up plumbing supplies. Here is what you are supposed to "purpose" and pledge to do:

*Purpsoing not to have time apart

*Purpose to spend time with children

*Purpose not to be angry

*Purpose to show love

 

"Ager will drive your children away," says Steverino and, "The more our goals for our children differ from the direction of the world, the more we need to shelter our children." Apparently, giving your baby/toddler/teenager a handgun is the equivalent to them having friends and playing sports. He spoke at length that his sons were very talented in athletics but that it didn't matter how "Christian" the team they were playing on, it was still too worldly. Give your kid a phone and they will absolutely take nude pictures of themselves and send them to their platonic male friends. It doesn't matter how much you trust your children, because he "values them more than he trusts them."

 

 

On to television. As I said before tv is bad. Even "old shows" like Andy Griffith are bad because of Otis, the town drunk. Not to mention the commericals for beer in between. You can't even "take the shows and fast forward through the commmercials" because there is too much worldly content. Steve made a production of taking a plastic water bottle and and a dropper that he said was full of bus sewage and putting one drop of sewage into the bottle of water. Then he offered the bottle of water to a man in the audience to see if he would drink the water even though you couldn't see the droplet of Uriah sewage that he had just put in there. That's what a beer commercial does to you, folks. Commercials and Andy Griffith = drinking toxic, carcinogenic poop water.

 

 

 

Stories that were told to scare the shit out of people inform the audience:

*Don't send your kids to college or vocational school because they will be "taken" in six months. This means that they will either be pregnant or addicted to porn.

*Take the Maxwell son's wholesome computer classes so that they can be A+ certified and be able to support a family on a single income. (Disclosure: My husband is Cisco CCNAS/CCNP certified and we live well, but not well enough to support a family of ten. And he certainly wouldn't have the job that he has today with just an A+ certification.)

*A friend of Steve's (wait, he's not supposed to have one of those!) lost his entire family because the wife kicked him out because they were living too worldly of a life.

*A preacher's daughter told Sarah filthy things at an early age -- don't let your kids associate with other people no matter how "Christian" they may be.

*Boys and girls CANNOT be friends. There are hormones that are not supposed to be mixed until marriage. Platonic male/female relationships are wrong and will lead to sin. There is no wiggle room there.

 

 

 

 

My final thoughts and comments:

I am not a cryer by nature and meds! But I sobbed my heart out on the way home from that conference for Teri and her children. I cannot imagine being 30 years old and never having a friend and being expected to be my sibling's best friends. No one else to confide in, no time to sit alone with your own thoughts to figure out what you, as an adult, want for your own life. Their oldest daughter is a beautiful 30 year old woman and she is kept on a leash so short that she doesn't even know that another world exists. It is tragic. Seeing it up close and personal made me see how enormously tragic it really is.

 

The broken engagement was not mentioned. Although Teri said that three of her sons had purchased their homes debt free but that only two of them were married. Even though Joseph has his own home, he still lives at home with his parents and siblings.

 

Oh, and I left a FJ calling card. I'll post pictures later unless someone else wants to do it first. I contributed two dollars to the FJ cause in hopes that the Maxwell offspring would see it and wonder. As it stood, I don't think they would know where to seek help. Also, I decided against a note because that could be thrown away. At least with two one dollar bills, he either had to pocket it and know what he was carrying (tainted) FJ money or at the very least he would give it to a homeless person. Either way, I considered it a win.

 

 

*I will have more later, but I spent the kid's nap time typing out this wall of text and now they are waking up. Enjoy!

 

 

Edited to add pictures!

 

Free Jinger was here!

 

We are everywhere!

[Sprocket]

I'm sure there are riffles, but I can't fix them now and I didn't have time to proofread.

[treemom]

Sprocket,

This makes me so sad and yet is unsurprising. We had surmised that much of what Terri had done she had done to deal with depression. I am so sad for her that she is married to Steve. A good husband would not have insisted on things he did.

And yet, here she is setting her daughters up for the same exact thing. And her sons. And their wives or future wives. Human beings were not designed by either God or evolution to live joyless lives without a full community. Many of us have different personalities and the level of which we need community is different but the Maxwells can't have it. And of course Steve says don't let anyone near your kids, while he has his "kids" in the next room lecturing to your kids in order to make you the cult of Steve as well.

it is just horrible. I actually am beginning to think this is one of the most damaging families out there right now.

[treemom]

Oh and the middle daughter, Anna does a presentation with Joseph, so she might have been there.

[Dark Matters]

I would have been crying too. How very twisted they are, it's such a waste.

[Witsec7]

Thank you for the field work Sprocket. I'm sorry the reality of the Cult of Steve Maxwell was so emotionally exhausting for you. I appreciate the time and emotional effort it took for you to attend the show and give us a a good overview of it's proceedings.

[Deleted01]

Wow. Just wow. I would have cried, too. Now I really feel that I should purpose to attend a conference in the future so that I can continue the good work you and the FJ Trinity have begun, and save these poor people from themselves.

[Sprocket]

Oh and the middle daughter, Anna does a presentation with Joseph, so she might have been there.

I saw Sarah and another daughter (who I think was the youngest) at the family meeting with Steve. Joseph was in the Loft doing sound. Another son was behind the book table on his computer. So I don't know where the rest of them were. I can report that the Maxwell men had on the same shirts that they wore in Tupelo but the Maxwell women were wearing matching skirts/blouses that were different from Tupelo.

[Sola]

Well done Sprocket, you put yourself through that and I'm not surprised it was emotionally draining.

What you said about Terri just confirmed what I've thought for a while. Steve-O got to her at her lowest point. She is STILL depressed, but she's too brainwashed to see it.

It makes me wonder if Sarah or her sisters ever marry. Steve shuts out everybody and completely isolates his daughters. He sees them as more corruptible than his sons so I wonder how he would handle a prospective male caller for one of his daughters.

It is such a sad life and the worst part is, none of them realise that.

[smores]

This is so heartbreaking. I can't imagine... I really do hope Steve just keels over one day and that family can leave the crazy behind. I know it's unlikely, but I do so hope for their sakes.

[ILoveJellybeans]

Free Teri!

The Maxwells are completely wasting their life, Earth is not heavens waiting room, its a place to enjoy and learn. Its OK to have hobbies and friends and things that you enjoy. If they believe God made everything, theyre wasting Gods creations by not using them, and surely he would have wanted his creations to take advantage of all the world has to offer.

[IReallyAmHopewell]

But I sobbed my heart out on the way home from that conference for Teri and her children. I cannot imagine being 30 years old and never having a friend and being expected to be my sibling's best friends. No one else to confide in, no time to sit alone with your own thoughts to figure out what you, as an adult, want for your own life. Their oldest daughter is a beautiful 30 year old woman and she is kept on a leash so short that she doesn't even know that another world exists. It is tragic. Seeing it up close and personal made me see how enormously tragic it really is.

This.

And, I recall some patronizing crap about Teri's depression posted with a photo and an anti-abortion thing. She looked suicidal. Sounds like life has only marginally improved over the years.

The Daddy tapes are not new--The Boyers at Thelearningparent.com have sold "Uncle Rick" tapes for years--when Daddy doesn't have time to read the kid to sleep with the Bible, let Uncle Rick do it.......

[mkitten]

This is so heartbreaking. I can't imagine... I really do hope Steve just keels over one day and that family can leave the crazy behind. I know it's unlikely, but I do so hope for their sakes.

+1

I'm really not a crier by nature, but wow, this is really sad.

[Closed Womb]

Thanks for the summary, Sprocket.

I just can't believe that any little bit of enjoyment out of life turns into a passion and/or an idol, yet, Steve can't see (or won't admit) that he has set himself up as an idol/god.

The water story reminded me of a similar one told by a fundie: just a little bit of the dog's droppings in a pan of brownies. It was supposed to show how something good, worldly, enjoyable, seemingly innocent was a danger. Booga Booga.