Maxwell 50: Maxhell Has Frozen Over. Anna and Mary Are Off to College and Sarah Moves Out!

[Melissa1977]

1 hour ago, Palimpsest said:

But I'm not at all surprised that A and M want to be missionaries.  The writing has been clearly on the wall about that for several years now.  I just hope they stick to the USA and don't go to pollute Africa or even worse "creative access" countries with Steve's twisted version of Christianity

They have been volunteering in a poor neibourhood for a long time, in their town or near it. You never know with fundies, but I think they probably did a (relatively) decent job there, because:

- they went there for years, so there was a serious commitment. Hi, Lawson!

- didn't use to post pictures about the ministry. Just once in a while. They didn't use the children in need to make them look better. Hi, Lawson!

-They are hard working and know how to look after children. I doubt they went to that neibourhood just to chill. Hi again, Lawson!

Like you, I think it's better they stay in US and don't bother foreigner people with their speshul version of the Bible. But at least, they will do some actual work.

[browngrl]

I wrote a long post about my opinions on what Anna, Mary, Sarah and Christopher will do now and then I erased it all. Clearly the Maxwell's have been hiding a lot in recent years. I have to wonder what else they have kept on the down low - maybe these people are not who I think they are? I'll never know because I think they will all go social media private in the future. 

However if any of them read here (looking at you Steve): do you want a new goal for YOUR mission? Then write about how you are navigating these swiftly changing currents. 

 

[Bluebirdbluebell]

1 hour ago, Red Hair, Black Dress said:

I've been thinking this for awhile and hope to heavens I'm wrong.  I see Christopher as a dog in the Maxhell manger. The 'if daddy ain't happy, ain't nobody happy'' rule.

Stevehovah forced him to give up sports and the dream of being an EMT. I have no doubt Stevehovah forced decided Christopher was to be the photographer (with no talent or passion for it) the same as he forced decided Sarah was the author (with no talent or passion for it).

Christopher has doubled down and clung hard to the Maxhell teachings in a perverse "If I couldn't do want I wanted, none one of my children can. They have to give up wants and dreams as I did."

Except now Things. Have. Changed. A&M are out of state off to college. Sarah has her own home. She's not blogging, not creating Tits 2 content, most likely not writing any more Moody books.  Steve has even publicly acknowledged things have changed.

Not. Fair. Not fair at all.  Nothing has changed for Christopher.

Steve took away his childhood, crushed his EMT dream, pushed him into a job he didn't want, and made sure that Christopher was right there all the time in Steve sight and under his oppressive control.

So what's next for Chris? Does he triple down and and become Christohovah - even more oppressive and self righteous that Stevehovah. Are his children isolated even more than he and siblings were.

Or does he say the heck with it. loosen up and live his own life. Tell Stevehovah he's done with Maxhell rules . Let his children have the childhood he was denied.

I'm hoping for this outcome.

I see it differently. I think Anna Marie is as fundie as her husband or maybe even more fundie. All of the Maxwell women (including Chelsy) wear more modern clothes.  It could Chris's desire to see his family, but it also could be that Anna Marie decides clothes. Michelle Duggar was the driving spirit for her family going to skirts only and they also followed Gothard's rules. Anna Marie also seems too happy to be fundie if it wasn't her choice.

I hope both Anna Marie and Christopher lighten up and become more mainstream.

[Black Aliss]

2 hours ago, Red Hair, Black Dress said:

Steve made good money as an engineer, but he quit years ago.  What has he been living on since then? Did Tits 2 bring in that much?

At the time he left Boeing the company was doing pretty well financially. If he sold off his stock then and reinvested in something more stable he'd be pretty well set financially. And didn't he leave because he objected to having to work with, or for, a woman? I've always assumed he was let go and given a handsome buyout because his union had a really strong contract. A buyout is even more likely if he was over 50, because that would have given him protected status.

[treemom]

Holy shit and good.  I am happy for them.  It still is a world that I don’t love and isn’t great for women, or LGBTQ.  But for just one moment I want to be happy for the maxwells, especially the kids.  I am very glad we were wrong.  I wish it hadn’t taken so long but the kids have all left home in some way.  I’m happy Anna is healthy, and the kids look genuinely happy, and they have lives and I think lives they all want to some extent.

[treemom]

23 hours ago, browngrl said:

I can't let this go.

I feel like an era of fundie watching is ending and I am a bit at a loss. For years I have snarked on the Maxwell's and their beliefs and now they are gone (or mostly so). In fact pretty much all of the bloggers who initially drew me to FJ are either gone or just post bland pap or MLM stuff. I miss the blogs of the past. I'm not quite sure what to do. None of the "newer" fundies capture my attention the way the older fundies did and I can't discuss politics too much or my blood pressure goes up too high. I want to talk about fundies who think biting into a cheese wrapper is hilarious. I want to watch a fundie wedding where the bride washes the groom's feet or someone tells me that 2 lettuce leaves are enough to feed a family. That is what pulled me into the fundie world and now it feels like that door has closed permanently. I feel like FJ should hold hands around a campfire and sing kumbaya as you would on the last day at camp. 😀

I feel very similar.  Like well I think maybe I’m done?  Which honestly, I am about to have a big life change myself.  Maybe my days of fundie watching are over.  

[Cults-r-us]

10 hours ago, fundiefan said:

 

I see the entire TItus 2 shit show folding within a couple of years. All the offspring have their own lives & jobs - there is no one to take it over. 

Ah, the young and the vestless Maxwells living their best lives (as one's offspring should).

The Maxwell schtick was good while it lasted, but the face of homeschooling has changed. The conferences of the 80's where vendors pedaled systems such as Maxwell time management and VF sold the dream of a perfect family (and fundies got to meet each other and socialize) are obsolete. Programs are now on-line and people socialize via social media. 

Many Fundy children enjoyed Sarah's books. This is no small accomplishment to have your work enjoyed by 2 generations of kids and Sarah should be proud.

As we have learned from our fundie friends, there is a season of life for everything, and the seasons are changing for the Maxwell tribe.

[Bethy]

A thought just occurred to me: I hope that wherever she is living, Sarah was able to take her dog. If she bought a house, then that's not an issue, but many landlords won't allow dogs - especially large ones. I hope that the price of her freedom wasn't leaving her fur child behind.

[Red Hair, Black Dress]

Steve is 70;  he's been gone from Boeing more than 20 years. I think he was allowed to resign rather than be flat out fired for cause.  Resigned would not come with a union buyout. if his position was actually  eliminated maybe -- although I really can't see Steve belonging to a union.

He might have had stock options, but I think Steve would see the stock market as gambling.

I have always assumed Steve only allows 2 spoons of beans on a burrito because he's beyond cheap. -- not because you can't tell the difference between beans and meat. 

[kpmom]

2 hours ago, treemom said:

I feel very similar.  Like well I think maybe I’m done?  Which honestly, I am about to have a big life change myself.  Maybe my days of fundie watching are over.  

The Maxwells were my gateway fundies,  and Maxhell is the first, and a lot of times only, section I come to when I get on this site.  I followed their blog before I found FJ.  The end of an era for a lot of us, though I'm not quite ready to give up on fundy watching just yet.

Any suggestions about families to follow here on FJ now that the Maxwells might be calling it a day?

I've never been interested in the Duggars.  Who else would y'all suggest?

Best of luck with your big life change @treemom 

ETA:  Do you think Sarah will continue to write children's books wherever she's going and whatever she's doing?

Edited September 12, 2021 by kpmom

[IReallyAmHopewell]

On 9/10/2021 at 8:51 PM, Bluebirdbluebell said:

@MomJeansHere's the link: Anna and Mary are living in West Virginia at Appalachian Bible College. 

It's accredited unlike the Bates' Crown College.

I work in higher ed--Christian higher ed even. I won't snark on Crown because at least the Bates' girls go to GO. It helped. They aren't looking to go to graduate school. They got out of the house. They met other people. They studied in classes. Not everyone who goes to such colleges want to be there--many are there because Mom/Dad said "If we're paying, this is where you are going". They met new people. Had that not been in their backyard, they'd still be wearing clown dresses they sewed for themselves.

7 hours ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

There has to be a youth group at that new church. Hopefully Abby can participate. 

Youth group is evil... Hopefully she can at least go to Awana

[PennySycamore]

1 hour ago, Bethy said:

A thought just occurred to me: I hope that wherever she is living, Sarah was able to take her dog. If she bought a house, then that's not an issue, but many landlords won't allow dogs - especially large ones. I hope that the price of her freedom wasn't leaving her fur child behind.

I hope the if Ellie is with Sarah -and I hope she is- and if Arnold and Ellie are good friends, that they can have playdates.  

[nelliebelle1197]

6 hours ago, Palimpsest said:

Humph.   FG shouldn't trust you.  You have my contact info. and failed to alert me to this truly ground-breaking news in a timely fashion.  And you promised!  Granted, Sarah Maxwell didn't get married but moving out of the Fathership is nearly as good! 

I could not find your email address!! I swear! I remember part of it but not all of it!

[Captain Obvious]

6 hours ago, Red Hair, Black Dress said:

So what's next for Chris? Does he triple down and and become Christohovah - even more oppressive and self righteous that Stevehovah. Are his children isolated even more than he and siblings were.

Or does he say the heck with it. loosen up and live his own life. Tell Stevehovah he's done with Maxhell rules . Let his children have the childhood he was denied.

I'm hoping for this outcome.

The problem is, as others have pointed out, that Anna-Marie appears to support the system that oppressed him more than he does. And not out of being forced, but because she genuinely believes in it.

That said, I hope the capacity to look a teenage or adult child in the eye and coldly forbid them from doing something their heart is set on, just because of The Rules, is purely a Steve thing and that she will give her own kids some leeway, because she wants to see them happy.

6 hours ago, thoughtful said:

I hope so! They've always referred to her as Sarah's dog, so I think it's very likely

I was wondering if Arnold went with her, or if Steve and Teri consider him their cat.

I hope they kept Arnold, if only to have an ongoing presence in their house of a being that doesn’t give two shits about their rules and just does what he goddam wants.

6 hours ago, Palimpsest said:

But it leaves so many unanswered questions.  Did Anna and Mary diligently put away $20 a week in an envelope until they could pay for college themselves?  Or, such horrors, have they taken out student loans and gone into debt? 

I’m almost certain that they would not have taken out loans and that would have been Steve’s main condition for slowing them to attend.

The question is whether he needed to put in any money himself or whether the girls are entirely self-funded. Since I think it’s less clear whether the younger girls, but especially Mary, have consistently earned a salary all those years (unlike Sarah, who clearly has), I think he would have had to pay for some of it.

6 hours ago, Red Hair, Black Dress said:

Steve made good money as an engineer, but he quit years ago.  What has he been living on since then? Did Tits 2 bring in that much?

I don’t know how accurate this is, or what it means about how much net income it is bringing in, but publicly available info shows CCI generating $500k in sales, presumably per year. I think that would give him enough to live on when he has few other expenses.

https://www.dnb.com/business-directory/company-profiles.communication_concepts_inc.98c84aabec937e5c89c67b9915cf46d8.html

5 hours ago, petrushka said:

Mary Maxwell is still a puzzle to me.  Aside from her "artistic" talents, we really know very little about her.

Honestly we don’t really know anything about any of them. But I think it would to be fair to say that A & M both appear to genuinely love working with and ministering to children, and not just because Steve told them to.

So I hope that they get to do more of that - even changing majors if that’s what it takes.

1 hour ago, Bethy said:

A thought just occurred to me: I hope that wherever she is living, Sarah was able to take her dog. If she bought a house, then that's not an issue, but many landlords won't allow dogs - especially large ones. I hope that the price of her freedom wasn't leaving her fur child behind.

I can’t imagine she would do that. And that being the case, I also hope she was able to buy her own place, or at least rent one that Steve owns. She deserves to have her own nest-egg, and not throw away her money on rent, in the same way the boys did.

[Dru]

It's actually super common for even apartments to allow dogs, especially if you are on the first floor. I see no world where Sarah leaves Ellie behind.

By the by Christ still hasn't added Anna to the property deed. Am I wrong or is that weird?

[theologygeek]

If a person's facebook picture is public, are we allowed to say what it is a picture of?  

[Giraffe]

Why are people doubting Sarah would take Ellie with her? I assume she just found a place that’s dog friendly if she hasn’t bought. That’s a really normal thing. 

[Black Aliss]

3 hours ago, Red Hair, Black Dress said:

although I really can't see Steve belonging to a union.

Washington is not a Right to Work state. He would not have had a choice about joining SPEEA. And a lot of companies "manage out" their difficult employees, paying them to leave quietly. I've been a manager, I've worked with HR depts to make it happen.

Finally, there's a big difference between "playing the stock market" and receiving company stock as part of your compensation package. The former is gambling, the latter is, well it's close to socialism, I guess, but not really. More like a way to keep employees invested in their work place.

Edited September 12, 2021 by Black Aliss

[CyborgKin]

I used to be a bit worried about being stuck as long as the Arndt boys, now I'm worried about not leaving as soon as Sarah

14 hours ago, LilMissMetaphor said:

Cheese paper anecdotes? Wiping down blinds? Unloading Uriah's poop? Rearranging mulch?  Earbud recommendations? Come on, that is all solid stuff.  Especially the poop.  Although, considering the burritos, maybe not so much.  

 

Key word "random", Sarah.  You were doing it wrong.

Randomness is too important to leave to chance!

8 hours ago, Palimpsest said:

Humph.   FG shouldn't trust you.  You have my contact info. and failed to alert me to this truly ground-breaking news in a timely fashion.  And you promised!  Granted, Sarah Maxwell didn't get married but moving out of the Fathership is nearly as good! 

I'd say leaving single is better than leaving to marry someone approved by Steve.  Granted she's not about to become a purple-haired techno witch but small steps  

[church_of_dog]

What I'm enjoying thinking about is -- Sarah had reasons to move out.

I mean, she didn't move out like most of us did, "just because that's what you do", or she would have moved out twenty years ago.

No, some thing or things about living at home were not acceptable or agreeable to her, so she moved out in order to address those things.

I think that's pretty significant -- A & M moved away because they were going TO something, namely, Bible college.

But Sarah moved OUT not to go TOWARD something, at least not that we know about.  She moved out to get AWAY from whichever aspects of the Stevehovah household she didn't want to play along with anymore.  I think that's exciting and a big deal in terms of her possibilities for the future.

 

[Katzchen24]

I'm so happy for the Maxgirls. Whatever comes from the changes they are making is for the future to worry about. For now, it's enough that change has actually happened.

[Triplet3]

6 hours ago, kpmom said:

The Maxwells were my gateway fundies,  and Maxhell is the first, and a lot of times only, section I come to when I get on this site.  I followed their blog before I found FJ.  The end of an era for a lot of us, though I'm not quite ready to give up on fundy watching just yet.

Any suggestions about families to follow here on FJ now that the Maxwells might be calling it a day?

I've never been interested in the Duggars.  Who else would y'all suggest?

How about the Bontragers? They have a blog and an Instagram. The family comes with the additional bonus that Chelsy is married to a Maxwell (and has her own blog as well, too!) There’s a thread on the Bontragers in QoS.

[socalrules]

I don’t understand why anyone thinks Steve got a huge buyout/severance. He was likely just a regular employee doing the grunt work like most people.  If he had some special position deserving of a huge payout, we would have heard about it to show what he was leaving behind for the sake of morality. Why would he receive a huge buyout/severance? He didn’t build the company. He wasn’t a Bill Gates or Tim Cook.  For all we know he was fired for cause, not because he refused to work with a woman. I cannot imagine anyone receiving a payout because they refused to have a female boss anyway.  If he received anything for leaving, at most it may have been a couple months salary. If they had so much money to live off of they would keep pumping products with Amazon links. 

[IsmeWeatherwax]

@theologygeek yes if its a public pic or post I believe its ok to post on here

[JermajestyDuggar]

I’m sure Sarah will bring Ellie to Sunday dinners to see the kids and Arnold. Of course Arnold will pretend he doesn’t care to see Ellie but deep down he’s excited to see her again.