Gregg Harris’s Business Closing

[Jasmar 6,676]

I live in the city where Gregg Harris’s business has been (and quit our last church just as he and that last son joined - we were scheduled to be on coffee team together). Just saw a headline in Facebook that their terrarium business is closing. Boo hoo.

Click here for information.

Shoot, not sure how to get that under the spoiler box from my iPad. Sorry!

Edited August 5, 2020 by nelliebelle1197
Edited link

[JermajestyDuggar 190,261]

I feel like shipping the “do it yourself terrariums” during the pandemic would have made for a lot more business. Plenty of kids were home and bored out of their minds and a terrarium would be a good activity. 

[tankgirl 1,708]

What is the story behind this guy, what did I miss?

[Pecansforeveryone 16,524]

He is the father of Joshua Harris of I Kissed Dating Goodbye and probably the actual "mastermind" behind the book. He was also a pioneer in the homeschool movement.  

[Jasmar 6,676]

He was also a bigwig in the FIC movement (family integrated-? Churches). He started Household of Faith in a Portland suburb.

[tankgirl 1,708]

Omg I had no idea! I actually have been there in the shop and thought they were all super odd, but had no idea I was having such a high named funny sighting! 

[meep 1,879]

Also the father of twins Brett and Alex Harris of The Rebelution (the had several books themselves about young christian teens shaping the culture) and put out that infamous modesty survey shaming women. Gregg also was part of the takedown of a Christian magazine editor just because he thought she was immoral (she wasn't) and he didn't like her. 

[hoipolloi 23,038]

Yes, Gregg Harris has quite the toxic history, including the shielding of a pedophile that operated in one of his affiliated churches.

 

[JermajestyDuggar 190,261]

I think he would have gone out of business even if the pandemic didn’t happen. 

[nelliebelle1197 41,905]

22 hours ago, Jasmar said:

I live in the city where Gregg Harris’s business has been (and quit our last church just as he and that last son joined - we were scheduled to be on coffee team together). Just saw a headline in Facebook that their terrarium business is closing. Boo hoo.

Click here for information.

Shoot, not sure how to get that under the spoiler box from my iPad. Sorry!

Jasmar, I fixed it! 

[MamaJunebug 36,363]

21 hours ago, Jasmar said:

He was also a bigwig in the FIC movement (family integrated-? Churches). He started Household of Faith in a Portland suburb.

I have an alternate definition for FIC: Father-Idolizing Churches. Because they do. Gregg Harris is abominable. Great move, @Jasmar, quitting that church just in time to miss him. Was his arrival the reason, or was it lucky timing? 

[refugee 9,954]

22 hours ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

I feel like shipping the “do it yourself terrariums” during the pandemic would have made for a lot more business. Plenty of kids were home and bored out of their minds and a terrarium would be a good activity. 

But then there’d be no opportunity to upsell. The way he worked, you signed up for one of his terrarium classes, he told a bunch of stories and gave info on terrariums, had all these amazing glass containers sparkling on shelves surrounding the work area, modeled how to create one... and then when it was time to build your own, you found out your class registration fee covered a quart mason jar, and if you wanted anything decent, you had to pay extra. Lots extra. With little discounts thrown in here and there to distract you from the jacked-up prices. A lot of the offered discounts seemed aimed at upselling you higher and higher. We had a strict upper budget, so...

[refugee 9,954]

3 hours ago, hoipolloi said:

Yes, Gregg Harris has quite the toxic history, including the shielding of a pedophile that operated in one of his affiliated churches.

 

Shoot, the incident I remember is no longer searchable on the internet, so I’ve removed it here.

Edited August 5, 2020 by refugee
Caution

[Jasmar 6,676]

4 hours ago, MamaJunebug said:

I have an alternate definition for FIC: Father-Idolizing Churches. Because they do. Gregg Harris is abominable. Great move, @Jasmar, quitting that church just in time to miss him. Was his arrival the reason, or was it lucky timing? 

I’d already been thinking about leaving, but that reiterated that it wasn’t the place I thought it was, or the very least had changed enough since we had joined that it wasn’t my kind of place anymore.

Thank you @nelliebelle1197

[refugee 9,954]

5 hours ago, Jasmar said:

I’d already been thinking about leaving, but that reiterated that it wasn’t the place I thought it was, or the very least had changed enough since we had joined that it wasn’t my kind of place anymore.

Thank you @nelliebelle1197

Did you go to the church (the one that had the ministry to the homeless, I think it was Baptist, but not sure) before it merged with the newer church (the 9Marks/Acts 29 one that had spun off of a Households church)?

I hear the new, combined church is super family-centered and doesn’t have a homeless outreach anymore.

I could be wrong, as this is mostly hearsay from people who did go to that church until the virus outbreak and then some internal turmoil that happened around the same time.

But I have wondered since the time of the merger what the original congregation thought of being taken over (building and everything) and being changed from reaching out to the neighborhood needy population to a family-centered emphasis. Especially after reading on TWW about 9Marks and Acts29 followers taking over churches in a similar way, changing bylaws and forcing the original church members (who had built the church originally and paid for the building) out if they didn’t agree with the new regime.

Edited August 6, 2020 by refugee
Clarification

[Jasmar 6,676]

The church was a hipster place called Door of Hope. They have their own strange story, but I don’t think it’s the same one. I was actually pretty shocked when they turned up there, knowing Gregg’s background. But the leader is a total narcissist, so I guess it’s a case of like attracts like.

[Marmion 3,593]

On 8/5/2020 at 5:57 PM, MamaJunebug said:

I have an alternate definition for FIC: Father-Idolizing Churches. Because they do. Gregg Harris is abominable. Great move, @Jasmar, quitting that church just in time to miss him. Was his arrival the reason, or was it lucky timing? 

Even my one fundie Calvinist cousin refers to this critically as " solus pater" , which is Latin for father alone , in contrast to " sola scriptura" , or scripture alone .   https://otrmin.wordpress.com/2013/06/03/solus-pater-rears-its-ugly-head-again/  ,  https://otrmin.wordpress.com/2012/05/16/scott-brown-and-the-danger-of-solus-pater/ 

[Jasmar 6,676]

Guess who I ran into at the store just now…

(Well, parked next to at any rate - I considered waiting to see how he was looking, but decided I didn’t really care that much 😆)

[fransalley 828]

I read portions of Harris’ The Christian Home School many years ago, and the one thing that really bugged me was his insistence that sons were to be aimed like arrows, but daughters were to be trained, and their main purpose was to get ready for that wonderful man to come along.  

What happens if 1. He never does, or 2. Something happens to that “wonderful man”?  I can’t remember if I read this book before or after 9/11, but there were a pretty sizeable handful of women who were pregnant that lost husbands that day.  (Todd Beamer’s wife Lisa was one of them.  Todd was the one on Flight 93 who said “Let’s Roll”.).  

My own grandmother lost her husband when my father was nine.  Had she not taken a number of odd jobs and then got hired as a cafeteria cook, her family of five probably would have starved due to the loss of that “wonderful man”.  

[Jasmar 6,676]

It struck me as a little weird that the business closing announcement was almost exactly a month ago, but he still has the custom paint job. It was a very nice van, too.

[tankgirl 1,708]

On 10/7/2020 at 4:18 AM, Jasmar said:

It struck me as a little weird that the business closing announcement was almost exactly a month ago, but he still has the custom paint job. It was a very nice van, too.

The family lived in the shop as well, so wonder what they will do? The rent is probably high there and can't see why they would continue to live in the store front. Still weird I met them, but had no idea. But will say, they were weird! The kids barely spoke, and seemed odd.