Stephen Hammer is Clerking for CJ John Roberts

[hoipolloi]

3 hours ago, Zebedee said:

Sorry, I meant more that it's unusual for a Rhodes scholar who aims for politics to *not* be involved in the Oxford Union, rather than it being an unusual sequence. This guy really is a ghost, as far as Oxford is concerned. No one, literally none of the political/journalist hack type people I know from those days remember him, even people at his college then. Usually, Rhodes scholars get a nice introductory event at their college, get to host thanksgiving dinners for the graduate common rooms, etc. 

No worries. It's interesting that he seems to have been largely invisible during his time at Oxford. As @JermajestyDuggar noted, though, he may have spent any spare time with fellow fundies, either in Oxford or elsewhere. I know that fundie Christians are not as ubiquitous as they are in the US but there are some around.

 

[Clementine]

Meredith was one of my gateway fundies. Here is her archived blog and the courtship story:

http://web.archive.org/web/20110824004130/http://strivingtoserveathome.blogspot.com/2010_03_01_archive.html

Meredith makes the whole thing sound like a business negotiation between her parents and the future husband.

Quote

I was so amazed and felt so undeserving of this godly, amazing, and brilliant man's interest.

Over the following four months, Stephen and my father corresponded over the telephone and email, discussing Stephen's walk with the Lord and convictions that are of importance to our family. As I continued to read Stephen's letters that were sent to my father (I checked my parents' email address so often that I usually read Stephen's emails before my parents did!) and his incredible testimony of God's saving grace in his life, I began to desire more and more that the Lord would cause him to be the man for me.

?
 

Quote

 

Contrary to what many advised as necessary, I did not have to put myself out there or date an endless string of guys to get the man the Lord had already chosen for me. I simply had to live the life to which the Lord had called me.

 

My somewhat counter-cultural life as a twenty-two year old living at home, striving to serve her family, and preparing to be a wife and mother is the very thing that Stephen says first attracted him to me.

 

 

Edited November 8, 2020 by Clementine

[JermajestyDuggar]

1 minute ago, Clementine said:

Meredith was one of my gateway fundies. Here is her archived blog and the courtship story:

http://web.archive.org/web/20110824004130/http://strivingtoserveathome.blogspot.com/2010_03_01_archive.html

Meredith makes the whole thing sound like a business negotiation between her parents and the future husband.

?

I’m glad this is archived so when he does run for a top office one day, people will know how his future wife couldn’t even speak for herself in their relationship beginnings. 

[Clementine]

9 minutes ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

I’m glad this is archived so when he does run for a top office one day, people will know how his future wife couldn’t even speak for herself in their relationship beginnings. 

I am too. The way he found her and their courtship story are really creepy. I can't imagine that anybody who isn't a religious nutjob can find any part of it cute, sweet or even ok.

Edited November 8, 2020 by Clementine

[JillyO]

The fact that Stephen allowed (gag) Meredith to have a public blog seems like a stupid mistake in an otherwise incredibly calculated path to power. I sure as hell hope that will come back to bite him in the ass sooner or later. People need to see what a creepy, dangerous asshole he is before he rises higher and higher in the political sphere. 

[Clementine]

20 minutes ago, JillyO said:

The fact that Stephen allowed (gag) Meredith to have a public blog seems like a stupid mistake in an otherwise incredibly calculated path to power. I sure as hell hope that will come back to bite him in the ass sooner or later. People need to see what a creepy, dangerous asshole he is before he rises higher and higher in the political sphere. 

He probably didn't. Meredith started to blog in August 2007. Stephen found her blog in September 2009 and they got married in December 2010.
Meredith made a few posts about the wedding and then wrote a goodbye message on January 16 2011, one month after the wedding . The blog was closed or removed the next year.

Meredith and Stephen moved to Oxford right after the wedding and I think that a lot of her followers would have loved to read about her new life as a wife, on a new continent, but she just stopped blogging.
I thought it was a bit odd at the time and we here on FJ speculated that it was Stephen who told her to stop blogging. She seemed to be happy to blog about her life and her married life sure sounded a lot more exciting than being a SAHD.

The goodbye message is here:
http://web.archive.org/web/20120308082028/http://www.strivingtoserveathome.blogspot.com/

Edited November 8, 2020 by Clementine

[hoipolloi]

3 hours ago, JillyO said:

The fact that Stephen allowed (gag) Meredith to have a public blog seems like a stupid mistake in an otherwise incredibly calculated path to power.

He made her shut it down as soon as he could, but I agree that her followers would have been happy to continue reading along through her marriage. 

Thanks, @Clementine, for the link to the archived blog. Have downloaded a bunch to save for later. I think it will come in useful down the road.

I hadn't seen Meredith's journal excerpts before and her perceptions of what was happening move the creepiness of Stephen Hammer's behavior way up.

 

 

[DomWackTroll]

On 11/5/2020 at 2:35 PM, JermajestyDuggar said:

I like the names too but they leave a bad taste in my mouth because they are Hammer children.

When I read this, I heard MC Hammer in my head saying, "Hammer child!" ? 

[Hane]

Whoa. I used to follow the heck out of Meredith, and forgot how over-the-top fundie her family is!

[Clementine]

On 11/9/2020 at 4:57 AM, Hane said:

Whoa. I used to follow the heck out of Meredith, and forgot how over-the-top fundie her family is!

Me too. Her mother writing about the courtship:

Quote

I remember clearly the Sunday that Meredith told me she needed to talk with me and asked if she could ride with me while I dropped off the milk we were delivering to a drop site. She told me that a young man had written to ask a relevant question at her blog. As was customary, Meredith did background checks on any young man before replying to their questions - no matter how worthy the question might seem. She believes that the focus of her online ministry is to young ladies and that young men are often better served by other ministries. However, in an attempt to be cordial she did answer questions from young men that she felt were like-minded.

She shared with me the question that the young man asked and the communication that had taken place since then. We agreed that guidance was needed from Dad and the big boys - Elliott and Oliver. Meredith and I have learned first hand that, as women, we are created with a much deeper well of emotions and we can be led astray by feelings if we don't have the valuable input from men who are much more logical and analytical. (Our men never get starry-eyed or dreamy as Meredith and I talk about love, weddings, and such!)

 

Quote

In preparation for the visit, our family was in much prayer. Timmy prepared pages upon pages of questions that were relevant in his assignment of offering guidance to Meredith in selecting a husband. The first full day of the visit concluded after many hours of interviewing while Timmy and the young man spent time together. That night after everyone had gone to bed Timmy told me how the young man answered all the questions. I offered some input, Timmy added more questions, and I sneaked up to Meredith's room to tell her the answers to all of the questions. Although discussed previously, Timmy told me she needed to give him her list of requirements for a potential mate by the next morning.

http://web.archive.org/web/20120315131150/http://strivingtoserveathome.blogspot.com/2010_05_01_archive.html

[DomWackTroll]

Imagine having to endure mansplaining from someone named "Timmy." 

[Petronella]

On 11/8/2020 at 2:06 PM, Clementine said:

I am too. The way he found her and their courtship story are really creepy. I can't imagine that anybody who isn't a religious nutjob can find any part of it cute, sweet or even ok.

Oh, even some people who don't consider themselves religious will fall for it, guaranteed, because of the straw-man argument Meredith herself talks about:

On 11/8/2020 at 2:00 PM, Clementine said:

Contrary to what many advised as necessary, I did not have to put myself out there or date an endless string of guys to get the man the Lord had already chosen for me. I simply had to live the life to which the Lord had called me.

See? The only two options are "complete passivity and arranged marriage" or "putting [your]self out there" and "dat[ing] an endless string of guys" which is her delicate way of saying "dress slutty and have sex with everybody."

The option of "meet fellow human beings, interact as friends, get to know each other, gradually decide to share life together" is not considered.

On 11/10/2020 at 7:43 AM, Clementine said:

Meredith and I have learned first hand that, as women, we are created with a much deeper well of emotions and we can be led astray by feelings if we don't have the valuable input from men who are much more logical and analytical. (Our men never get starry-eyed or dreamy as Meredith and I talk about love, weddings, and such!)

After all, Meredith would only be led astray by her emotional longing for romance, while her father would never, ever be emotionally led astray by his ego. Oh, wait--this power trip is ALL ABOUT being led astray by his ego.

I saw a saying recently that logic is not the opposite of emotion. A thousand yeses to that! A superficial lack of emotion doesn't mean the person is logical instead. Whether someone is logical has its own measure, apart from the measure of how much emotion they allow to show.

I understand that some of these people earnestly think that having conversations about someone's beliefs and intentions is the deep and grounded thing to do, as opposed to superficially interacting, like going to the movies or having dinner. But why would you think that what someone SAYS about themselves is more true than what someone DOES?? You learn a lot about a person from observing how they treat waitstaff, and how they judge characters in a movie, and just how they talk and listen to YOU. Yes, couples should explicitly talk about serious things if they're considering a deeper relationship; it would be foolish not to clarify whether their ideals and future hopes match up. But that's THEM talking about it, not some weirdo mediator.

I guess their theory is that Meredith (well, ANY young woman) would be too dazzled by wanting the relationship to be successful that she might ignore any potential problems, while someone more neutral would see them more clearly. And that's actually true for either party in any romance, not just women: you can want it to work so badly that you gloss over things that really shouldn't be glossed over.

But the father really isn't a neutral party. He has emotional investment too, including getting a son-in-law who would be a credit to the family in various superficial ways, and in getting his ego stroked, and in controlling his daughter.

Most of all: how is TALKING about what someone intends and believes any kind of evidence?? Fill in this questionnaire...you're good to go! I mean, even I know what the "right" (to them) answers should be, but I'm pretty sure you don't want your daughter to marry me.

It's sad to read about. But lots of people will think it's lovely.

[Howl]

Because of the roles assigned to males and females, there are some males with extremely high control needs (up to and including pathological) who are extremely attracted to patriarchy for that reason. THAT would be my primary concern. 

I'm going to hazard a guess that Stephen Hammer falls somewhere on that spectrum; I can't come up with anything else. 

 

 

[Petronella]

11 minutes ago, Howl said:

Because of the roles assigned to males and females, there are some males with extremely high control needs (up to and including pathological) who are extremely attracted to patriarchy for that reason. THAT would be my primary concern. 

I'm going to hazard a guess that Stephen Hammer falls somewhere on that spectrum; I can't come up with anything else. 

 

 

Do you remember the Pearls' analysis of the the three types of Christian men?

The flashiest kind is the "command man" with, as you say, a high need for controlling others. The descriptions are horrifying: http://nogreaterjoy.org/blogs/createdtobehishelpmeet/excerpts/

The other two types are "Mr Visionary" (see John Shrader for one; this type is all about big ideas and very little accomplishment) and "Mr Steady" which is the Pearls' backhanded designation for those husbands who are not controlling and not chasing big dreams with little practicality; they basically straight up say that such men are boring and that their wives will call them "wishy washy."

Anyway, yes, controllingness. It's considered a feature, not a bug.

[JMarie]

10 hours ago, DomWackTroll said:

Imagine having to endure mansplaining from someone named "Timmy." 

I think Timmy's the dad. That post was written by Meredith's mom.

(still doesn't make things better)

[Howl]

2 hours ago, Petronella said:

Anyway, yes, controllingness. It's considered a feature, not a bug.

Yes, and Michael Pearl is a poster child for controllingness. 

[Rosie]

On 11/5/2020 at 3:00 AM, JemimaPuddle-Duck said:

Eleanor Ivy, Caroline Julia, and Cole Alexander born January 1. I’ve never seen her refer to John Bradford as Joby on IG. 

How did you get access to her Instagram?  I asked to follow her and didn't get a response.

I love her kids' names.

[JemimaPuddle-Duck]

9 hours ago, Rosie said:

How did you get access to her Instagram?  I asked to follow her and didn't get a response.

I love her kids' names.

I don’t remember; I’ve been following her for a long time. 

[Howl]

So, this is how it works for some people: 

 

[Howl]

A bit thread drift-y but there's more: 

 

[hoipolloi]

6 hours ago, Howl said:

So, this is how it works for some people: 

 

As someone pointed out on Twitter, Moscow Mitch let 250,000 Americans die of COVID-19 so that he could stuff 225 tRumper judges into Federal vacancies.

McConnell makes me wish that the fundie concepts of hell, damnation, and punishment everlasting were real.

Edited November 19, 2020 by hoipolloi

[Stola]

On 11/8/2020 at 3:23 AM, Zebedee said:

And probably, all it will be is something scandalous, like SH attended an Anglo-Catholic service *sigh*. No tales of not inhaling anything on the horizon, I fear.

I mean, he'd definitely inhale a lot of incense... 

[hasunah]

This hasn't really nothing to do with Stephen Hammer or John Roberts  personally  but I read this title as "Stephen Hammer is circle jerking ... " And now I can't stop laughing . 

Edited November 26, 2020 by hasunah

[MamaJunebug]

You want sad, look up S&M’s wedding photo. M looks exhausted and S is looking straight into the camera and beaming, with NO body English to indicate that he is standing by his brand-new wife. It’s The Stephen Show.

 

 

 

 

[Hane]

1 hour ago, MamaJunebug said:

You want sad, look up S&M’s wedding photo. M looks exhausted and S is looking straight into the camera and beaming, with NO body English to indicate that he is standing by his brand-new wife. It’s The Stephen Show.

Of course she looks exhausted—she busted her hump doing all the damn work for that wedding!

And *this* UU is disgusted with his facile use of his “faith” trajectory to advance his career.