Maxwell Book Launch 10am cst!!1!!!

[kpmom]

I found it googling around this www.familiesforjesus.com/music/index.php

Not "Row Row Row Your Boat" specifically, but that's generally the sort of thing in extreme beginning music books.

Aside from all this, I'm shocked - "we-communicate.com" has actually updated their webpage for the first time in goodness knows how long. Seems they've removed links to most of their dead websites... those cannot have been helping any of their businesses. If there's one thing worse than not being on the web in 2013, it's having an easily found but DEAD WEB PAGE.

The Maxwells seem to have a lot of those Dead web pages. Preparing Daughters, Preparing Sons, Families for Jesus, that exercise site that Nathan started. It seems like they go all out on something and then...just drop it.

[ThatSnark]

The arrogance abounds at Maxhell.

I home-schooled over a period of 15 years and my kids went to (are going to) public school for middle school and high school. We were never isolated like the Maxwells, though - we were very active in community sports (karate, soccer, baseball, swim team, etc.), the kids all took music lessons outside the home, plus we were involved in home-school co-op groups. My kids had tons of friends - some home-schooled, some public-schooled. What I noticed is that there were kids in BOTH groups who had good conversation skills and kids who were awkward. It really had nothing to do with home-schooling or public schooling, but everything to do with the personality they were born with, the personalities of their parents, and upbringing.

Oh! Then you totally did homeschooling wrong. If you'll take a look at Managers of their Homeschools, you'll note that you likely did the scheduling part pretty well, but where you fell down was in doing things OUTSIDE of the home with OUTSIDE influences. The lessons, co-ops, friends, and sports are a huge problem in Maxwellia. If you want to Keep Your Children's Hearts, you can't let them be exposed at length to anyone with whom they don't share DNA.

;)

[YPestis]

The Maxwells are the weirdos of the fundie world. In what twisted world is it healthy to deprive children of friendships or that activities with nonsibling peers (not even friends!) will corrupt your soul? The Maxwells are extremely paranoid. I'm starting to think that their nonreaction to the website hacking is due to paranoia, that they must keep silent, such as in times of war, to not let unseen enemies know they were successful. I bet they think they've been infiltrated by Muslim terrorists who targeted them for their large societal influence, fighting against the heathen tide. This kind of fits the family's arrogance, paranoia and isolation from the world. Perhaps for the next few weeks, the family will bunker down in their houses, standing guard against imminent invasion of their house by people in Arab garbs!

[IReallyAmHopewell]

The Maxwells seem to have a lot of those Dead web pages. Preparing Daughters, Preparing Sons, Families for Jesus, that exercise site that Nathan started. It seems like they go all out on something and then...just drop it.

My guess is Nathan started feeling manly and made an idol out of exercise. Either that or he needed a Pepsi to stay awake in iTonrAMP sessions!

[anjulibai]

I found it googling around this www.familiesforjesus.com/music/index.php

Not "Row Row Row Your Boat" specifically, but that's generally the sort of thing in extreme beginning music books.

Aside from all this, I'm shocked - "we-communicate.com" has actually updated their webpage for the first time in goodness knows how long. Seems they've removed links to most of their dead websites... those cannot have been helping any of their businesses. If there's one thing worse than not being on the web in 2013, it's having an easily found but DEAD WEB PAGE.

That webpage is DULL. I remember it used to looking a lot more interesting. I wonder why they changed it.

[anjulibai]

I should also note, it looks like Nathan never updated his certifications, because he's listed only Windows 2000 and Windows 2003. How many versions have there been since then?

[sparkles]

I think they're ignoring the hacking for the same reasons they scrubbed the blog of any mention of the failed courtships. If they don't talk about it, if you can't see it, IT DIDN'T HAPPEN.

Elizabeth Who?

That webpage is DULL. I remember it used to looking a lot more interesting. I wonder why they changed it.

What about the Maxwells ISN'T dull?

[Jana814]

The Maxwells are the weirdos of the fundie world. In what twisted world is it healthy to deprive children of friendships or that activities with nonsibling peers (not even friends!) will corrupt your soul? The Maxwells are extremely paranoid. I'm starting to think that their nonreaction to the website hacking is due to paranoia, that they must keep silent, such as in times of war, to not let unseen enemies know they were successful. I bet they think they've been infiltrated by Muslim terrorists who targeted them for their large societal influence, fighting against the heathen tide. This kind of fits the family's arrogance, paranoia and isolation from the world. Perhaps for the next few weeks, the family will bunker down in their houses, standing guard against imminent invasion of their house by people in Arab garbs!

Well said and I agree!

[anjulibai]

I think they're ignoring the hacking for the same reasons they scrubbed the blog of any mention of the failed courtships. If they don't talk about it, if you can't see it, IT DIDN'T HAPPEN.

Elizabeth Who?

What about the Maxwells ISN'T dull?

True, but even for them. I also don't seem any way to contact Nathan to get his out of date services.

[gardenvarietycitizen]

I also don't seem any way to contact Nathan to get his out of date services.

...which is kind of sad, considering.

Think about it for a minute. A dead web page, or an out of date web page, or one with no contact information on it, is pretty much the perfect storm of web fail meets communication fail! :think:

[anjulibai]

...which is kind of sad, considering.

Think about it for a minute. A dead web page, or an out of date web page, or one with no contact information on it, is pretty much the perfect storm of web fail meets communication fail! :think:

LOL, so true! They are really delusional about how they interact with the world, aren't they?

[ianthe]

What gets me is that conversational analysis is a perfectly ordinary area of academic study, of which the Maxwells are chemically free of any trace of knowledge. I've worked on CA and the idea of someone just pulling a book on conversations out of his--ah--hat without any attempt at research just stuns me. Or it would have stunned me if I were not so accustomed to Maxwell arrogance.

[anjulibai]

What gets me is that conversational analysis is a perfectly ordinary area of academic study, of which the Maxwells are chemically free of any trace of knowledge. I've worked on CA and the idea of someone just pulling a book on conversations out of his--ah--hat without any attempt at research just stuns me. Or it would have stunned me if I were not so accustomed to Maxwell arrogance.

Have you looked at the sample pages they released? What do think of it?

[Brittany15]

I think that this book really backs up the point that Steve is very religious in order to control his family, not because he actually believes. It seems to be a how to appear to be a perfect fundi in your conversations guide, without actually encouraging readers to be truthful in what they are saying. This is what rules Steve's life. It does not matter if he really believes what he is saying, it only matters that what he is saying gets him what he wants.

[ianthe]

I did read part of it and I way pretty dismayed. If I were reviewing it (heavens forbid!) I would have to say it seems to have been written with no understanding of what actual, real-people, everyday exchanges are actually like. The examples of "good conversations" are wholly unrealistic. It's as if the author only knew about conversations by reading them in books. There's no attention to things like turn length or floor maintenance or topic shift.

I am probably overreacting, but to me, it's as if someone felt that they could write an authoritative textbook on dermatology by looking at his family members' freckles. Drives me nuts!

[anjulibai]

I did read part of it and I way pretty dismayed. If I were reviewing it (heavens forbid!) I would have to say it seems to have been written with no understanding of what actual, real-people, everyday exchanges are actually like. The examples of "good conversations" are wholly unrealistic. It's as if the author only knew about conversations by reading them in books. There's no attention to things like turn length or floor maintenance or topic shift.

I am probably overreacting, but to me, it's as if someone felt that they could write an authoritative textbook on dermatology by looking at his family members' freckles. Drives me nuts!

I don't think you are overreacting, and I think your analogy is spot on. I've been thinking that perhaps this is how the Maxwells actually talk; they've been so isolated, even with their trips, that they've developed their own speech patterns, which is expressed in their writing.

I think Brittany15 is correct, this book is really about how to appear to be the perfect fundie. It's not about actually helping anyone.

[gardenvarietycitizen]

The examples of "good conversations" are wholly unrealistic. It's as if the author only knew about conversations by reading them in books.

The examples of "good conversations" reminded me of one book in particular - "Summer With The Moodys."

I know nothing of conversational analysis myself, but just as an ordinary person who speaks English and has - wait for it! - FRIENDS and a WORK LIFE, that book just comes off as very, very, stiff and scripted to me. The characters just don't seem real.

[Snarfblatt]

After reading the extracts I have to wonder perhaps they have a different definition of the word "conversation" than the rest of us?

[sparkles]

This book really should have been called Making Great Salespeople because ultimately that's what this is, a training manual for the sales pitch. It has nothing to do with conversation at all; selling Jesus is the endgame. And like most sales pitches, it's slick, superficial and rehearsed within an inch of its life. There's nothing real or genuine about it.

[Milly-Molly-Mandy]

This book really should have been called Making Great Salespeople because ultimately that's what this is, a training manual for the sales pitch. It has nothing to do with conversation at all; selling Jesus is the endgame. And like most sales pitches, it's slick, superficial and rehearsed within an inch of its life. There's nothing real or genuine about it.

Your Amazon review? ;)

[pattygbucks]

newbie here...I've been lurking, but never posted. I was thinking about the young man's courtship request in the book sample. If it is God's plan for a couple to be together, then the quality of the conversation should have NO EFFECT on the matter.

[uber frau]

God's plan is a tricky thing though. Sometimes it does things like tell a young man he should marry a girl but then suddenly tells him he shouldn't a week before the wedding. (but it was totally God's plan all along, it wasn't like Steve heard him wrong or that someone told Steve and Co they were too creepy for her taste.)

God might use your godly conversation to convince your loves's father that your desires really are his plan (and not your plan to get away from your freaky family and also bonus sexy times). You just can never tell with God's plan (except that it nearly always looks suspiciously like Steve's).

[Justme]

I wonder how many prospective husbands Sarah has lost because they didn't make good conversation.

[Shoes Grace]

newbie here...I've been lurking, but never posted. I was thinking about the young man's courtship request in the book sample. If it is God's plan for a couple to be together, then the quality of the conversation should have NO EFFECT on the matter.

Ah, but God told Steve that young men who can't talk pretty are not part of His plan for His daughters. That's why He has to write a book about it, to make sure no one is accidentally serving Satan. It's complicated, if you listen to the wrong guy, you might actually think you're doing stuff for God, but it's actually Satan, so make sure you listen to Steve, because He knows what God wants.

[YPestis]

God's plan is for the Maxwells:

A young lad will drop onto their front doorsteps, ready to endure an arduous spiritual quest for the hand of a Maxwell maiden, sight unseen. You see, that's how most Godly guys would court if they want entry into the Maxwell household. They randomly select a fundie maiden and suffer through many trials in order to have a chance at having a chaperoned conversation with the lucky maiden.

For the Maxwell men, they are allowed to glance at their fair maiden before courting. Courting itself will consist of stringing together sentences ("conversations") about death and eternal damnation. If the lucky maiden can withstand the presence of the Maxwell man as he lectures her about fire and brimstone for a minimal of 3 conversations, then she is ready for marriage into the Maxwell household.