Maxwells explain it all for us

[sparkles]

These shattered my irony meter too. It's crazy.

I half wanted to ask what is so ungodly about non-fiction memoirs, partly because I'm reading Into Thin Air right now but then, by Maxwell standards, that's obscene --- buddhist prayer flags AND sex on Everest?Drinking too!

I even went and read the preview for Summer Days with the Moodys on Amazon. My imagination was not taken...anywhere. I still think there must be some nonfiction memoir that is Maxwell friendly...somewhere. Somehow. I know it's unlikely but I want them to have like a whole 3 approved books to read for pleasure.

Evil Everest made the baby Stevus cry. Remember the incident with the Everest videotape where the fact that he allowed himself to watch as one of the climbers offered up a Buddhist prayer was enough to make him want to poke his eyes out? I don't think he's ever gotten over it. Those five seconds almost meant the end of the world.

[Antimony]

Evil Everest made the baby Stevus cry. Remember the incident with the Everest videotape where the fact that he allowed himself to watch as one of the climbers offered up a Buddhist prayer was enough to make him want to poke his eyes out? I don't think he's ever gotten over it. Those five seconds almost meant the end of the world.

I...I can't tell if this is pure snark or a snarky retelling of a real incident. The Maxwell rabbit hole is so deep I honestly could never tell the difference. :shifty: They are into those 14ers.

Oh.My. God. You were serious.

articles.titus2.com/guarding-hearts-a-real-life-situation/

I can't deal with this. I can't....I actually can't handle how screwed up that is. Other religions EXIST, Steveo, otherwise, who the hell would be around to listen to your asinine proselytizing?

[sparkles]

Totally serious. When it comes to the Maxwells, you couldn't make this shit up.

[WonderingInWA]

First time I've seen a side ponytail on Sarah. She looks great. Until she starts speaking.

And then she's just a Stepford Wife. Except she's not a wife, she's a child in a grown woman's body. Listening to her stilted chatter was truly painful. I agree with a previous poster -- I think even Sarah finds her books stiflingly boring. There is no enthusiasm in her voice whatsoever. If she's been writing these books for 10 years, shouldn't she at least know how to market them?

[Black Aliss]

Side pony tail?-- check

Pink to with white collar/shirt underneath? check

No natural pauses during sales pitch ? Check

Selling something no one wants or needs? Check.

[quiversR4hunting]

My first though when watching Sarah's video is that she's more attractive than she appears in photos. After that it was all discomfort with the way she speaks and moves. It's like she's doing a bad impression of a human. So stilted and, like someone else said, no idea of where to pause or add emphasis. To those that have gone to conferences, is Sarah like that in person as well?

BTW Sarah, my daughter is 8 and she'd be bored to death with the Moody books. She's a Nancy Clancy and Lego comics girl. You know, fun, mystery, adventure. Everything you've been taught is bad.

I've heard podcast interviews with Steve and his tone surprised me by being warmer than I expected. Looking at him though shoots that to hell. He creeps me out.

My children would also be bored with these Moody books. Some of the JE books I want to continue to read because they are really good. (Gingersnap by Giff; A Dog called Homeless by Lean; any of the magic treehouse books, etc).

I did give myself a fright last night- I ordered some books for my 7 year old (1st grader) from Scholastic. They are Moody books- whew- different Moody- Judy Moody. http://www.judymoody.com/friends/ Then I figured no way Scholastic would have Moody by Maxwell in their flier.

From the A Summer With the Moodys sample chapter on their website.

She thinks this is a thrilling imaginative world children never would've dreamed of?

Holy yawn fest! My 1st grader and 5th grader would be able to write that paragraph!

[Dru]

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094036/

Well there you go. I had no idea that movie existed. I guess I'll move on to my sci-fi meets VC Andrews theory that something tragic happened to real Sarah as a child so Steve has been making a series of robotic Sarahs to replace her. It all makes sense now!

[quiversR4hunting]

I just realized (went to amazon for publication dates) that the Moody (Maxwell) books were published in the last 2 years. What the hell is Sarah talking about that there wasn't any good Godly fiction out there?! :angry-banghead:

I went to zondervan.com and there are pages and pages of fiction books for children (baby age to JE) The stuff from Nancy Rue seems to have interesting plots (don't know how preachy it gets), along with the author Rober Elmer. The Maxwell ladies would never be able to read the Carter House Girls series by Melody Carlson- much to worldly - even though it is Christian fiction.

[yetanothermeg]

My children would also be bored with these Moody books. Some of the JE books I want to continue to read because they are really good. (Gingersnap by Giff; A Dog called Homeless by Lean; any of the magic treehouse books, etc).

I did give myself a fright last night- I ordered some books for my 7 year old (1st grader) from Scholastic. They are Moody books- whew- different Moody- Judy Moody. http://www.judymoody.com/friends/ Then I figured no way Scholastic would have Moody by Maxwell in their flier.

Holy yawn fest! My 1st grader and 5th grader would be able to write that paragraph!

It's funny you say that. I recently found my 1st grade diary and it reads almost exactly like this Moody sample! This is 7 year old level writing.

[KittenMitten]

Totally serious. When it comes to the Maxwells, you couldn't make this shit up.

I read that post about the Mt Everest video. I tried to find anger, but all I could come up with was a good amount of sadness, and this time for Steve and please everyone don't hate me. Steve expressed an interest in Mt Everest and mountain climbing and bought the videos. Well, good for him. Great way to learn about the world! Mt Everest is fascinating and so are the people who live there. What is the SIN in watching the ways others worship? You don't have to agree with it and another type of worship can not pull you from your own beliefs. I can imagine how beautiful the Buddhist worship was. What is the harm to him and his children. And the second video, where the man cursed, so what? It was a subject that Steve seemed very interested in, but because someone cursed the whole video, in which Steve was interested was thrown out the window.

I have often thought that these Fundies were only controlling jerks and holier than thou. But I think Steve does believe what he preaches. If so, his life is as sad as Sarah's. The difference is that Steve had a choice to close off the world, but his children didn't.

[sparkles]

I read that post about the Mt Everest video. I tried to find anger, but all I could come up with was a good amount of sadness, and this time for Steve and please everyone don't hate me. Steve expressed an interest in Mt Everest and mountain climbing and bought the videos. Well, good for him. Great way to learn about the world! Mt Everest is fascinating and so are the people who live there. What is the SIN in watching the ways others worship? You don't have to agree with it and another type of worship can not pull you from your own beliefs. I can imagine how beautiful the Buddhist worship was. What is the harm to him and his children. And the second video, where the man cursed, so what? It was a subject that Steve seemed very interested in, but because someone cursed the whole video, in which Steve was interested was thrown out the window.

I have often thought that these Fundies were only controlling jerks and holier than thou. But I think Steve does believe what he preaches. If so, his life is as sad as Sarah's. The difference is that Steve had a choice to close off the world, but his children didn't.

To the bolded, the thing is that Steve believes it CAN and so can anything and everything else that isn't Steve approved. It's why he's circled the wagons as closely as he has, because he's convinced that he and his family are under constant attack from evil and he doesn't believe any of them are strong enough to withstand it. He's said more than once that he loves his children more than he trusts them and clearly he doesn't trust himself or Teri either, hence the constant Big Brother-ing of even the most innocent seeming activities. I'm sure if he could find a way to monitor everyone's thoughts, he would. This is simply not normal behavior, no matter how they try to dress it up. SOMEthing had to happen in the man's life to make him think there's a monster hiding under every bed. He's just a scared, weak little man who's somehow managed to convince his family that he—and only he—has got a direct line to god.

[nomoxian]

Well of course this is thrilling and imaginative. There are pancakes, scrambled eggs and sausage. That is a meal for Kings. Normally they just have green smoothies.

Sausage and eggs are "extra special" ?? Now I don't really eat special food, but maybe that's because I'm eating special food everyday... which reminds me; I should go and cook up my pork and scrambled eggs for dinner. Shock and horror - eating breakfast food at 10PM!

[justakitten]

Do you all like Grace B's comment? :D

[LogansMama]

I don't want to be friends with these people. They scare me. :cray-cray:

[Palimpsest]

To the bolded, the thing is that Steve believes it CAN and so can anything and everything else that isn't Steve approved. It's why he's circled the wagons as closely as he has, because he's convinced that he and his family are under constant attack from evil and he doesn't believe any of them are strong enough to withstand it. He's said more than once that he loves his children more than he trusts them and clearly he doesn't trust himself or Teri either, hence the constant Big Brother-ing of even the most innocent seeming activities. I'm sure if he could find a way to monitor everyone's thoughts, he would. This is simply not normal behavior, no matter how they try to dress it up. SOMEthing had to happen in the man's life to make him think there's a monster hiding under every bed. He's just a scared, weak little man who's somehow managed to convince his family that he—and only he—has got a direct line to god.

Yes. Steve's paranoia and need for control is simply not normal.

The thing about the Maxwell parents that I find the most frightening is that they do initially present as pleasant, educated and very socially skilled people. Also, Steve seems to reserve his off the charts ranting for the Men Only groups so quite a few naïve people at the conferences probably leave thinking they are a sweet and precious family.

It is only when people dig deeper into their presentations, teachings and books that they realize how strictly all interactions with the evil world are controlled -- and how skillfully they instill fear of the outside world into their children.

Steve and Teri's own lives were certainly not so limited. I differ slightly to Sparkles: don't think that SOMEthing big necessarily happened in Steve's life. I think it was probably more like a series of things. IMO, Steve has always been arrogant and controlling as hell and that doesn't always play well in the military or business worlds. In addition, he is scared to death of his own sexuality and is possibly/probably hiding major anger issues and a very violent streak under that benign public persona. He's used Teri's depression and vulnerability against her so she is now a fully participating guard at the Maxwell prison.

[Seven Severn]

Sarah's saying that the Moody books can be a vehicle for a child's imagination, taking him somewhere he's never been, shattered my irony meter.

This made me wonder: Has Sarah ever gone into any kind of detail about what fictional Sunflower, KS is like? Is it unique in some way? What distinguishes it from all other small Kansas towns? Why does Sarah think that a child's imagination would be sparked in some way?

[Naga Viper]

This made me wonder: Has Sarah ever gone into any kind of detail about what fictional Sunflower, KS is like? Is it unique in some way? What distinguishes it from all other small Kansas towns? Why does Sarah think that a child's imagination would be sparked in some way?

She doesn't have the scope of reference to know what those words really mean.

[Odd1Out]

Sarah doesn't remind me of Priscilla so much, more like Anna Duggar.(at least the first few seasons she was on the show) She's not in a hurry and constantly searching for words and losing her train of thought. She just takes breaths and pauses in weird places and emphasized words in a strange way.

[LadyPriss]

I did an online course in Oral Communications a while back (we did our speeches via youtube video for the instructor/class to critique) and Sarahs video reminds me of a few of my videos, at roughly the 17th take. Some of our speeches were 2-3 minutes long and its definitely feeling familiar.

We had to practice the whole gestures/movement/emphasis song and dance, and becuase we were uploading them (as opposed to doing it live) we had the benefit of being able to do it again and again until it looked passable.

By the time it got to the end of one of my speeches, the words were nearly memorized and they lost all meaning.

I'd dare say Sarah knew she was under a time constraint (this was probably card 76 in her chore pack for the day) and was probably on take 5 or 10 when Steve was finally happy with it.

She didn't have a genuine smile once in that video. All I see is a woman who tries to look positive And happy, but the facade is curling at the edges.

[thoughtful]

Well there you go. I had no idea that movie existed. I guess I'll move on to my sci-fi meets VC Andrews theory that something tragic happened to real Sarah as a child so Steve has been making a series of robotic Sarahs to replace her. It all makes sense now!

:lol:

You know Rule 34? We need a related rule that reads as follows: if an idea exists, there is already an old movie about it (and Thoughtful will be annoying and remind you of it! :D ).

[Antimony]

I did an online course in Oral Communications a while back (we did our speeches via youtube video for the instructor/class to critique) and Sarahs video reminds me of a few of my videos, at roughly the 17th take. Some of our speeches were 2-3 minutes long and its definitely feeling familiar.

We had to practice the whole gestures/movement/emphasis song and dance, and becuase we were uploading them (as opposed to doing it live) we had the benefit of being able to do it again and again until it looked passable.

By the time it got to the end of one of my speeches, the words were nearly memorized and they lost all meaning.

I'd dare say Sarah knew she was under a time constraint (this was probably card 76 in her chore pack for the day) and was probably on take 5 or 10 when Steve was finally happy with it.

She didn't have a genuine smile once in that video. All I see is a woman who tries to look positive And happy, but the facade is curling at the edges.

I was in a local political commercial once. It took forever to get to my shoot because the woman before me needed over 70 takes for one sentence. Slightly higher stakes, but it took me and my friend about 30 takes to just walk in the background properly.

This stuff is hard and videotaping is awful but man, Sarah's script is the worst bit.

[Hane]

Well there you go. I had no idea that movie existed. I guess I'll move on to my sci-fi meets VC Andrews theory that something tragic happened to real Sarah as a child so Steve has been making a series of robotic Sarahs to replace her. It all makes sense now!

In this sequel to The Stepford Wives, Steven and Laura Harding (along with their kids David and Mary) have moved to the quiet community of Stepford, CT. Steven joins the men's club, which is still assimilating their wives into robots. This time, they have begun to turn their out of control teens into robots as well. Once they are assimilated, they are obedient, homework loving, big band dancing droids. Laura, David, and Mary stumble onto this mystery, and they must avoid Steven's plans to turn them into robots.

And the dad is named Steve. *shudders*

[16strong]

I don't want to be friends with these people. They scare me. :cray-cray:

That's just as well. I don't think they allow themselves to have friends. They may (on occasion) have "friends," but it's just a superficial label they apply to people they use for their own gain.

[Pastors Daughter]

Do you all like Grace B's comment? :D

Grace B:

"Thank you for these inspirational videos! My daughters love the Moody books, and are always thinking of new adventures we can have! We are planning on making pancakes and reading Bible stories for Father’s Day already. What a great idea! I never would have thought of it otherwise."

Kudos to Grace B! Just like her, I am equally inspired by the story lines in what (little) I have read of the Moody books. I am surprised that comment actually got through seeing how blatant the sarcasm was! But when FJ comments sometimes comprise half of the comments submitted for a post, I guess Steve-o has take what he can get lest it be known no one really takes their posts seriously.

[FloraDoraDolly]

And the dad is named Steve. *shudders*

Ah, the Stepford Children! I first saw it when I was a teen, and I saw it again on YouTube a few years ago. The robot girls dress a lot like fundies. The movie is more funny than creepy. I highly recommend it.