Maxwell 51: Empty Nesters, Empty Vesters? End of an Era

[JermajestyDuggar]

The thing about the max boys is that they didn’t marry full on maxwellian type families. Most of the families allow things Steve never would have allowed. I think the Max boys were exposed to so much more once they were married. 

[ElizaB]

Jesse and Joe seem almost normal in that video. If I just stumbled across that I would have no idea what their background is. 

[kpmom]

9 minutes ago, ElizaB said:

Jesse and Joe seem almost normal in that video. If I just stumbled across that I would have no idea what their background is. 

Do you remember Joseph's original Swift Otter site (might not have been called Swift Otter at the time)?  In his intro. he talked about being saved by the blood of Jesus.  All of his "employees" were Maxwell men, including Steve whose job description was "Chief Synergist".  I guess it was actually some sort of customer service position.  Because of Steve's great people skills, I suppose (sarcasm, of course).

It's completely different now.  No religion talk at all, some non-Maxwell employees, and Steve nowhere in site.

[Bluebirdbluebell]

He used to list the employees, but I think he took the list down.

[kpmom]

2 minutes ago, Bluebirdbluebell said:

He used to list the employees, but I think he took the list down.

He does still have a section called The Team.  I hadn't checked it in awhile and was surprised to see how many employees he now has.

[Melissa1977]

5 hours ago, fundiewatch said:

Joe and Elissa moving away was a big crack in the control. Jesse’s Anna never even inhabited the DebtFreeHouse. John has rocked things less in some ways, but he loves his firecracker (🙄) Chelsy, and her fam broke the engagement news. In pants! Maybe for the first MaxEver?

Christopher is 101% Maxwell, followed by John and the 3rd is Nathan. The fact that Chelsy wears jeans and make up does not invalidate her uberfundie beliefs and her strict baby training. John seems to be very comfortable in a Maxwellian life if it includes plenty of food and fun activities like sports.

I think the real change came with Joseph. He's no doubt extremely conservative, but he clearly put boundaries and made hia own decisions. Jesse followed his bro, so it was easier for him. 

The big surprise have been the girls. I hope they can make her own decisions, too. While I don't expect any of them quitting, I hope they become just average conservatives. 

[JermajestyDuggar]

5 hours ago, Melissa1977 said:

Christopher is 101% Maxwell, followed by John and the 3rd is Nathan. The fact that Chelsy wears jeans and make up does not invalidate her uberfundie beliefs and her strict baby training. John seems to be very comfortable in a Maxwellian life if it includes plenty of food and fun activities like sports.

I think the real change came with Joseph. He's no doubt extremely conservative, but he clearly put boundaries and made hia own decisions. Jesse followed his bro, so it was easier for him. 

The big surprise have been the girls. I hope they can make her own decisions, too. While I don't expect any of them quitting, I hope they become just average conservatives. 

I see the Bontragers as a very different type of fundie. They are the conspiracy theory types and I just don’t see Steve buying into all the popular conspiracy theories that we see fundies sharing. They also like to have fun unlike Steve. I think both fathers are very fundie and controlling. But it’s interesting how they can both be very fundie but also pretty different. 

[sableduck]

In all honesty, I think the original crack in the Maxwell facade was Elizabeth Munck.

[fundiewatch]

53 minutes ago, sableduck said:

In all honesty, I think the original crack in the Maxwell facade was Elizabeth Munck.

In the comments section once Steve said that Elizabeth and Joe were planning to travel with them on their tour. I didn’t see it until years later but it surprised me. Elissa did a couple of musical performances and nothing ever again. So definitely a big shift there!

[SassyPants]

I don’t care what happened to initiate the shift, I’m just glad that it occurred. Those girls WOMEN were basically prisoners. At least the males were allowed to move to Steve provided homes. The Max grown offspring are like the ripples produced from a rock dropped in a lake, distancing themselves from the Stevecentric center.

[theologygeek]

14 hours ago, Black Aliss said:

The Santa hat and there is a Christmas tree in the background. Fetch me my smelling salts!

My memory is that Steve forbade Christmas trees and I remember when Joseph was betrothed to Elizabeth Munck there was some concern about this match not working out because the Muncks kept their tree up all year 'round and redecorated it for every holiday.

Teri posted this in Dec of 2021.  It's funny now.  lol  "Many years ago, we realized when one entered our home at Christmas time, the Christmas tree was the center of attention. However, we had a desire for the decorating in our house to reflect our worship of the Lord Jesus Christ and draw our hearts and our children’s hearts more closely to Him. So we replaced the Christmas tree with a beautiful, fireplace mantel arrangement with lights, a nativity, garland, and the names of God displayed. We also culled out Christmas decorations that were not Christ centered and only purchased new ones that were.

After our salvation, we eliminated Santa Claus. We didn’t want our children believing in Santa Claus only to find out later he was a lie. “Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds” (Colossians 3:9).  Plus we desired to have Christmas be all Christ!"

[Black Aliss]

It's so weird. We taught our kids, when they were ready to hear it, that Santa is a figure, a representation, the embodiment (an avatar, if you will) of something that cannot be seen--the spirit of Christmas. It's not that there is no Santa Claus, it's that we are all Santa Claus. Fundies have no problem with someone playing the part of Jesus, or representing God in picture form and reconciling that with their faith and that God cannot be seen or touched.

I guess there's only room for one spirit in fundies' hearts.

[Coconut Flan]

Carry on here: