Corners

[Guest Anonymous]

He is completely mentally ill. And Teri is depressed. Those poor, poor children....

I think she's more than DEpressed, she's OPpressed as well.

[Lillybee]

That whole family is oppressed by Steve. They are living in a cult and don't know it.

[darkplumaged]

Steve really has his daughters in a bind. (His sons, too, but at least they have trades at which they can make money if they fled the cuckoo's nest.)

If Sarah decided to walk, where would she go? She has no friends outside her family and the one or two "friends" who pack orders for them, and she probably has no money she can easily access. Who would take her in? Steve would just go get her, wherever she was, and make her sorry she'd ever set foot outside the Maxwells' doorstep.

What would she do? She has no education. She can't do anything but care for children. (Perhaps she thinks she can play music and write, but she is mistaken.)

This is the first time I've really thought about this, and it's frightening. I can't think of an escape option that would work well-- except marriage, and so far the Lord has not seen fit blah blah blah...

[Sola]

There's no wonder Teri got depressed. A life of drudgery and a loveless marriage.

Memo to Steve; Even if you don't feel as though you love Teri at times, you tell her that you do.

And no, it isn't the same for every couple. I have never not felt the emotion of love for my husband. You need to take a good hard, long look at yourself.

[mirele]

I wrote and sent Steve Maxwell an e-mail. I doubt anything will come of it, but he's running a cult over there.

Dear Steve Maxwell:

You're running a family cult over there. You are the cult leader and Teri and your children are your slaves. (I can't say whether they're willing or not because you won't give them a real choice.) Jesus is not the center of your lives, YOU are. It's all about YOU and YOUR whims. Even that silly business with the coils that bind the chorepacks, it's all about you, you and you.

Today I wrote on a message board that I was very tempted to drive up from Arizona to your house to ask Sarah if she wanted to leave, because a woman who is nearly 30 should be living her life either on her own or as a married woman in a family, and not as a slave to her father. And don't go asking Sarah if she is a slave, she'll of course tell you that she's not, but that's because she knows what you want her to say.

As for your wife, Teri, she needs to see a doctor for help with what is obviously a serious depression. With all due respect, her new "book" is absolutely unhelpful to anyone who has serious physical problems and needs medication and treatment. Bible verses did not treat my chronic major depression but a course of medication has allowed me to hold down a respectable job and own a home. And, to be blunt, Teri's life does not reflect that of the Proverbs 31 woman. Instead she seems absolutely ground down underneath you and only allowed privileges when you (as her God) say.

I thanked my parents the other day for raising me the way I was, to be independent. I talk to them nearly every day and visit them often, but they know something that you apparently don't--someday they will not be here and I will remain, and I need to be prepared for that time. Some day, Steve, you won't be here, but Sarah and her siblings (and maybe Teri) will be--and you, running your little cult with you as the leader, you will have left them in an awful position to live from day to day after you're gone. You need to think about that hard.

Regards,

ETA "sent" in the first line. Because grammar riffles are my friend.

[ChunkyBarbie]

It would be nice if your message penetrated his thick skull.