Maxwells History

[johnhugh]

I’m pretty new here, and only found the forum as I was searching for dirt on the Dugger’s. However since I’ve been here it is the Maxwell’s which fascinate me.

 

So I know that:

 

Steve had issues at work after being asked out to lunch with a female colleague.

Terrie (unfortunately) suffers from depression

They have a church for the ‘elderly’. (poor sods)

Anna became Anna Marie

They have a fab CD with hits such as “Daddy on his kneesâ€

They don’t do fun.

 

But how did they go from a normal Christian family to this odd lifestyle? What was their turning point?

[Rainbowcolor]

I think it was gradual over many years. They started homeschooling when the oldest boys were in grade-school. Then they removed the boys from baseball because it infringed on their family time. I get the impression that they may have used Bill Gothard material at one time but ditched it in favor of their more restrictive rules. Then they had five more children because children are a blessing and humans shouldn't control their blessings. Then Teri wrote a book about how she managed a large homeschooling family. It was successful so they wrote other books and Steve started a home business and then went into the "ministry" full time. They must sell LOTS of books. Steve says in his Dad's Corners that the Changes came as God directed Steve through his personal time with the Lord. He then tells the family how God is leading him, complete with scripture and asks them to follow him. And they do!! T.V. removal was a "leading", then videos, and movies, activities that stole school time, activities that stole hearts, any activity outside of parental supervision, removal of friends, church, pastimes, etc. All are replaced by working for the family and Bible time. It appears all this was parallel to becoming homeschool conference speakers to teach/sell their books. All you could ever stomach can be found at titus2dotcom.

[clibbyjo]

That pretty much covers it.

Don't forget John is the "hot" one and we all want Sarah to find a man. She is almost 30,so its probably too late for her unless she snags a widow who will take pity on her and have a couple more kids. Poor Sarah.

Oh, and Uriah the bus is ALWAYS breaking down or breaking roads(for real, it snak into a road in Canada last year)

[gardenvarietycitizen]

The best thing for you to do is read all of the Dad's and Mom's Corners. Once you've done that, go to the Internet Wayback Machine (google it, it's the first hit) and use it to look up even older versions of the Corners and other stuff from their titus 2 website.

From the current blog site you can also read back several years, stuff's been edited after publication in some cases (as pointed out by readers here, and you might find it while playing with the Internet Wayback Machine on your own) but it's interesting stuff too. Personally, I found them via an article on their customizing their tour bus Uriah - I was interested in some similar vehicle modifications and read it for that, but then just got sucked into the rest :D

So yeah, I'm reading about this bus, and it's all interesting, and then somehow I find myself watching a live stream of their son's wedding (being livesnarked on this blog's former version), and both Dad and Son give a huge long lecture about DEATH, at a WEDDING, just... WTF? and I was certainly hooked then...

[tehgoobster]

I have a question for you avid Maxwell followers: What are your top "WTF?!" moments from Corners and blog entries? I've only been following the Maxwells for about six months or so, so I haven't read anywhere near all the Corners or blog entries, and I need recommendations.

[Lillybee]

My WTF moment comes from Terri having to pray that Steve remembers to order the Pizza for dinner, because a submissive wife would not dare to remind him.

[Guest Anonymous]

We've speculated on this before and no-one really knows exactly what predisposed them to this.

Teri seems to suffer with chronic depression, although she describes this as post-natal, and her parents are close with the family and seem to share Steve's views, so it seems likely she 'grew' into the role of Steve's doormat nicely.

Steve is the controller of the family and I would love more clues as to what went on in his childhood and young adulthood, to urn out like this. He describes his late father as having 'lost his family' and destroyed his parent's marriage, which we guess was adultery, and Steve is still extremely bitter about that. His mother has dementia and he only visits 1-2 times a year, despite his belief that helping widows in distress is 'pure religion' and led to setting up his own church in a residential centre....

Steve seems to have huge issues around sex, to the extent he nearly cried once when he accidentally saw a flash of a women's cleavage at home church - he wrote an angry corner, directed at the woman's husband who will stand before God on Judgement Day for letting her out in that top.

For some reason, not long after his post about refusing to have lunch with a female colleague, he took 'a stand' at work which took a year to resolve and ended in redundancy and a payout. That was God bringing him home to start full time ministry.........

[ophelia]

My WTF moment comes from Terri having to pray that Steve remembers to order the Pizza for dinner, because a submissive wife would not dare to remind him.

I haven't read any of the corners yet, but this is already my WTF-moment!

[Sola]

We've speculated on this before and no-one really knows exactly what predisposed them to this.

Teri seems to suffer with chronic depression, although she describes this as post-natal, and her parents are close with the family and seem to share Steve's views, so it seems likely she 'grew' into the role of Steve's doormat nicely.

Steve is the controller of the family and I would love more clues as to what went on in his childhood and young adulthood, to urn out like this. He describes his late father as having 'lost his family' and destroyed his parent's marriage, which we guess was adultery, and Steve is still extremely bitter about that. His mother has dementia and he only visits 1-2 times a year, despite his belief that helping widows in distress is 'pure religion' and led to setting up his own church in a residential centre....

Steve seems to have huge issues around sex, to the extent he nearly cried once when he accidentally saw a flash of a women's cleavage at home church - he wrote an angry corner, directed at the woman's husband who will stand before God on Judgement Day for letting her out in that top.

For some reason, not long after his post about refusing to have lunch with a female colleague, he took 'a stand' at work which took a year to resolve and ended in redundancy and a payout. That was God bringing him home to start full time ministry.........

Wow, Steve really does have a lot of issues. I really feel for Teri, even though she has swallowed the Koolaid. At her lowest point, in her depression, it seems as though Steve took that as a reason to control her even more. She would have been at her lowest ebb and I know from personal experience when you have depression having someone making the decisions seems like a good thing. In reality its the last thing you need.

[Justme]

Steve said he wasn't "saved" until he was an adult. Both he & Teri are college graduates. He worked for Boening in WA. They had 3 kids, he got "snipped". Had a "revalation" then had his "snipped" reversed. (A/k/a, the "reversal kids.) He was in the Air Force, as a pilot I believe. Nate & Chris went to a Christian school until 2-3rd grade. Steve liked flying, motorcycles, amusement parks, etc when he was a young adult.

They belonged to a normal church until shortly after Nate was married. Nate met Melanie at this church. Nate & Melanie had terrible fertility problems. They were married over 4 years before she became pregnant for the first time. They've had several miscarriages. Their 1st dd died shortly after birth. (sad story) They've been married abt 10 years.

[WonderingInWA]

For some reason, not long after his post about refusing to have lunch with a female colleague, he took 'a stand' at work which took a year to resolve and ended in redundancy and a payout. That was God bringing him home to start full time ministry.........

Wow, I consider myself to be a Maxwell expert, but even I didn't ever heard about the lunch with the female colleague bit! Interesting! Was that info conveyed in a Corner? So are we to assume he filed some sort of sexual harrassment claim? I did know they lived in the Seattle area and that he worked for Boeing, but I'm not sure how many years ago that was.

[Guest Anonymous]

Wow, I consider myself to be a Maxwell expert, but even I didn't ever heard about the lunch with the female colleague bit! Interesting! Was that info conveyed in a Corner? So are we to assume he filed some sort of sexual harrassment claim? I did know they lived in the Seattle area and that he worked for Boeing, but I'm not sure how many years ago that was.

I think it more likely that the organisation had a claim against him, but took the safe option and gave him a payout along with a confidentiality payment. The woman in question simply asked him for a business lunch and even suggested he bring a male colleague along, when he declined, in horror. We don't know all the details and he seems to have removed a lot of Corners from that year, which could possibly have been to cover his end of any severance agreement. We do know that he went over his boss's head (he never disclosed the gender of his boss, so some of us are thinking she was an ebil woman!) to the male President, to whom he protested that his job should not exist, because noone should be asked to do whatever it was he objected to doing.

For the full detail you need to go to Wayback Machine and look at the early Corners on Titus2. The corners go back to the 1990s, the blog only started in 2006. If you search this site there are also some quite recent threads with more detail. I got hooked one weekend and posted loads of old corner excerpts. :mrgreen:

[VodouDoll]

Wow, I consider myself to be a Maxwell expert, but even I didn't ever heard about the lunch with the female colleague bit! Interesting! Was that info conveyed in a Corner? So are we to assume he filed some sort of sexual harrassment claim? I did know they lived in the Seattle area and that he worked for Boeing, but I'm not sure how many years ago that was.

Here's the thread where we posted a bunch of exceprts from old corners, including all the info we could find about Steve's moral stand at work: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=1314.

As for the Maxwell greatest hits, I'll have to think about that for a little while. They're the findie family that fascinates me most. I've been following them for years.

[ncb]

I could write a book of my favorite Maxwell moments. I especially loved when Sarah posted a picture of an old Catholic Church to the blog with a caption about how it was too bad that the people in the church needed Jesus so badly. Steve promptly removed the comment. Must always keep the family brand seemingly innocent of biggotry!

[treemom]

I have a question for you avid Maxwell followers: What are your top "WTF?!" moments from Corners and blog entries? I've only been following the Maxwells for about six months or so, so I haven't read anywhere near all the Corners or blog entries, and I need recommendations.

I am tied with Terri not being able to remind Steve about picking up a pizza or Pepsi as an idol.

And the burritos. For the love of all things holy, the burritos.

[HoneyBunny]

For me, the WTF moment was when I read about Mary and her painful palate expander. Teri took her to the orthodontist who asked MARY how she would like to proceed in view of the pain. Mary meekly replied, "Whatever Mommy wants" or words to that effect. Steve's corner that month dealt with this issue, how the parents should have total control, and said something about Teri not taking the time during that appointment to educate the orthodontist about the Bible's stand on parental control.

WTF! The kid's in pain, there are two ways to proceed. She was at least 7 or 8 at that time. Surely she should have a say in whether they proceed slow and easy or more quickly and painfully. But, oh no, not in the Maxwell residence. Mom's word is law...unless Dad's around or there is time to pray fervently about it.

Just took the time to go back to find it:

http://www.titus2.com/Corners/5-05-d.htm

[fundiefan]

I don't think I can possibly come up with just one WTF moment/thing. Every time I read more my WTF's go through the roof.

[kpmom]

So many WTF moments. One of mine is Steve's piece about how you can learn to play musical instruments on your own.

According to Steve, Christian materials are best, but if you cannot find them you may use secular ones, but only if you white out the offending lyrics (like Mary Had a Little Lamb, Row, Row, Row Your Boat) so your children don't have those lyrics rolling around in their head all day. You can also remove pages, or staple pages together. I'm serious.

When I first read that piece back 5 or 6 years back I finally realized just how bat shit crazy this guy really is.

The piece is on their sister site Families for Jesus familiesforjesus.com/music/

[gardenvarietycitizen]

Wow. Just... wow. I'm only now reading their music guide site, and I see they don't let their kids read the words of ANY secular songs? That's just crazy.

[Guest Anonymous]

I love (in a snarky fashion) the way that Chris Max has fallen hook, line and sinker into the infantilised fundie-adult-at-home way.

On the families for Jesus he has written one section of the piece on teaching materials, and the section is headed "By Christopher Maxwell, Aged 26". I haven't put my age on something I wrote since I won a writing competition in Junior School and labeled it "By Annie-C, aged 9 3/4" :lol:

[Guest Anonymous]

Wow. Just... wow. I'm only now reading their music guide site, and I see they don't let their kids read the words of ANY secular songs? That's just crazy.

Cos you woudn't want your precious blessing showing you up by humming "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" around the grocery store, when they could be belting out a chorus of "Daddy on his knees", now would you.... :whistle:

[Justme]

I love (in a snarky fashion) the way that Chris Max has fallen hook, line and sinker into the infantilised fundie-adult-at-home way.

On the families for Jesus he has written one section of the piece on teaching materials, and the section is headed "By Christopher Maxwell, Aged 26". I haven't put my age on something I wrote since I won a writing competition in Junior School and labeled it "By Annie-C, aged 9 3/4" :lol:

So he's a lier?!?!? :naughty: :liar:

[Guest Anonymous]

So he's a lier?!?!? :naughty: :liar:

:?: A liar? I guess he was 26 when he wrote it, I just find it odd that an adult would put his age on something he wrote. That's usually just what school kids do.

[VodouDoll]

From their music site:

The biggest advantage of using a music teacher is they provide accountability and motivation for your child. However, homeschooling parents have learned they can take that role on themselves. They motivate their children to do regular schoolwork, and they can also challenge them to practice a musical instrument. Of course, it is easier to let the teacher be the motivator, and so, if one is to self-teach music, that “cost†has to be counted.

Yeah. My freshman year college roommate was majoring in violin performance. She'd been in lessons since age two. I'm sure that's all her teachers and professors did her entire life: just remind and encourage her to practice. Her parents could've homeschooled her into the exact same skills and saved a lot of tuition money.

[Visionoyahweh]

Thanks for the background on the Maxwell's, everyone.

Was Steve the fundie that prayed over his newborn daughter's ovaries?