Maranatha and Matthew Chapman divorced

[waspchick]

Per public records Smith County, TX. Divorce was final 4/14/22. 

Mods, if this should be in a different place, please move it and accept my apology! I am a long time lurker and do not know much about how to post things. My gateway fundies were the S'Mortons, which led me to FJ where I discovered the Chapmans shortly thereafter. I recently went back down the Chapman family rabbit hole and wow, lots of changes there.

 

[JermajestyDuggar]

So a marriage between an underage girl and a much older man didn’t work out? Color me shocked. 

[sableduck]

I’m surprised it lasted as long as it did.  I wonder what her parents think.

[hoipolloi]

Wow. This is newsworthy but it's not surprising that it went under the radar. 

IIRC, they subjected their oldest daughter, Lauren, to the same perverted ideas, marrying off her at an early age. She eventually divorced that man, ended up in Turkey with her kids where she has remarried a Turkish man. Judging from her public FB photos, she seems to be living her best life.

ETA: Found an account of the daughter's marriage at 16 to a 26-yo man. Apparently, as things were back in the day, the Chapmans had a major blog post or two about it which has long since been scrubbed.

Quote

Maranatha’s story is an extreme, yes, but it is not the only one of its kind. In 2008, only weeks after turning 16, Maranatha’s daughter Lauren married a man who was 26, a man who had already been interested in her for several years.

 

Edited February 5, 2023 by hoipolloi

[harkasquirrel]

Wow. This would have been unthinkable 10 years ago. I hope Maranatha is okay and not back under her father’s thumb.

[hoipolloi]

30 minutes ago, waspchick said:

Mods, if this should be in a different place, please move it and accept my apology!

This is fine. Oddly enough, it looks like we never had a separate discussion thread although their infamous courtship+marriage has come up many times over the years.

Just now, harkasquirrel said:

Wow. This would have been unthinkable 10 years ago. I hope Maranatha is okay and not back under her father’s thumb.

Judging from the various public FB photos she & other family members have posted, I doubt that she's been pulled back into that sick milieu. 

[Destiny]

I actually said, “HOLY SHIT,” loud enough to wake up the kitties. WOW! This is major news IMHO.

[Giraffe]

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/lovejoyfeminism/2013/12/the-rest-of-the-maranatha-story.html
 

I didn’t remember anything about them so I googled. What. The. Fuck?!!!

[Columbia]

It wouldn’t surprise me if there was an Alyssa Wakefield style tell all podcast in a few years. I’m glad she’s away from a grown man who likes 13 year olds. 

[waspchick]

 A tell-all would be amazing. Maranatha does seem to be enjoying life. She does not seem fundie at all any more and the kids REALLY do not seem fundie. I would really love to hear about the journey. They all seem happy, so that is good.

[Howl]

The Chapman's bought Premier Crossfit in Tyler, Texas in 2015.  That alone blew me away; they were the last people who I'd think were into Crossfit.  And just let me say, I DID NOT SEE THIS COMING!   ELEVENTY!!!!11!!!!!

I just checked the Premier Crossfit website.  Before it featured a photo of married couple Maranatha and Matthew Chapman as the owners.  Now Matthew is nowhere to be found in photos and not mentioned in text.  He's been Swiffered from the website. 

Now it shows Coach Maranatha and the son, Ezra Chapman, as part of "The Team".  

Did Maranatha fall in love with a hot Crossfit guy/gal and give Matthew the boot?  Or maybe it was Matthew who wandered for a younger woman.   Or maybe they realized they sucked together.  We may never know, but I hope with all my heart we do.   

Came across this on Homeschoolers Anonymous, if any of you wonder what they were up to in 2013: "As of yesterday, Matthew and Maranatha Chapman are no longer presenting at Christian Home Educators of Ohio’s (CHEO) annual homeschool convention this summer. Matthew Chapman was a keynote speakers and his wife Maranatha was slated as a featured speaker. The Chapmans have recently provoked controversy due to increased attention to their advocacy of marrying homeschool girls in their 'middle-teens' to older men."

[Howl]

16 minutes ago, waspchick said:

Maranatha does seem to be enjoying life. She does not seem fundie at all any more and the kids REALLY do not seem fundie.

Do you follow them on social media?  I looked her up on Instagram, but the account is private.  Looks like there's a grandkid, though, based on the avatar photo with the account.   

How many kids did Matthew and Maranatha have besides Lauren and Ezra.

It seems they were into early marriage, but perhaps didn't emphasize quiverfull? 

[Leftitinmysnood]

27 minutes ago, Howl said:

 

How many kids did Matthew and Maranatha have besides Lauren and Ezra.

It seems they were into early marriage, but perhaps didn't emphasize quiverfull? 

When I met them in like 1995 they had at least 5 or 6 kids. They were definitely quiverfull.

[waspchick]

7 kids. Maranatha has a public Facebook page. Lauren does too. I am not sure about the FJ rules about this.

[hoipolloi]

More discussion of the Chapmans & their kids here, from 2021. That was about the time Lauren divorced her first husband and moved to Turkey. 

Edited February 5, 2023 by hoipolloi

[JMO]

Maybe her daughter's divorce opened her mind to the possibility of leaving a bad marriage. 

[NachosFlandersStyle]

Per her Facebook page, Lauren has remarried in Turkey. The wedding photos are gorgeous, what a contrast with her first marriage!

[Bluebirdbluebell]

I hope her parents are still alive and either embarrassed and contrite or disappointed and sad. Either way I hope her father is unhappy. Just because her dad was able to control her as child doesn't mean that he is still able to control her as an adult. I hope she is able to tell him off at least once.

 7 Kids actually doesn't sound quiverfull when you consider she got married as a teen and divorced around 50. 

Edited February 5, 2023 by Bluebirdbluebell

[AnnaSofia]

1 hour ago, NachosFlandersStyle said:

Per her Facebook page, Lauren has remarried in Turkey. The wedding photos are gorgeous, what a contrast with her first marriage!

From her website:

That's a pretty big career shift considering that just a few years ago she was promoting herself as a "Nutrition Coach" loosely associated with her parents' CrossFit business.

She and her sister Zion also tried some sort of health influencer thing around that time, but it never really got off the ground.

 

Looks like Zion is marrying her baby daddy later this month.

Edited February 6, 2023 by AnnaSofia

[hoipolloi]

According to the court website, it looks like Maranatha is the party who filed for divorce, which was done without attorneys.

 

 

[Howl]

3 hours ago, hoipolloi said:

More discussion of the Chapmans & their kids here, from 2021. That was about the time Lauren divorced her first husband and moved to Turkey. 

Thanks! My memory is terrible these days, but it's coming back to me now! 

[JermajestyDuggar]

I just think it’s interesting when fundie families change so damn much. Many actually do. First it was the CrossFit that was a big change. Then it was Lauren’s divorce. And now it’s Maranatha filing for divorce. I honestly don’t believe any fundie family can stay the same and always follow their strict and legalistic fundie rules for a long time. Most fundie families on FJ have changed over the years. I know Jill Rod is holding on tight. But there will be changes. Not every child will be like Nurie. There will be divorces. There will be pants wearing hussies. It’s inevitable. 

[dawbs]

1 hour ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

I just think it’s interesting when fundie families change so damn much. Many actually do. First it was the CrossFit that was a big change. Then it was Lauren’s divorce. And now it’s Maranatha filing for divorce. I honestly don’t believe any fundie family can stay the same and always follow their strict and legalistic fundie rules for a long time. Most fundie families on FJ have changed over the years. I know Jill Rod is holding on tight. But there will be changes. Not every child will be like Nurie. There will be divorces. There will be pants wearing hussies. It’s inevitable. 

I think the strict rules means when they change, it almost has to be huge. 

(I didn't grow up completely fundie, but close enough. Because doubting intelligent design condemned me to hell, deciding to explore roles of women, pants in church, alcohol consumption, sexual purity, etc... that seemed logical.  "Out for a penny,out for a pound" if you will) 

 

Adults should not be able to saddle children with marriage and the us is so so broken in this. 

[JermajestyDuggar]

2 minutes ago, dawbs said:

I think the strict rules means when they change, it almost has to be huge. 

(I didn't grow up completely fundie, but close enough. Because doubting intelligent design condemned me to hell, deciding to explore roles of women, pants in church, alcohol consumption, sexual purity, etc... that seemed logical.  "Out for a penny,out for a pound" if you will) 

 

Adults should not be able to saddle children with marriage and the us is so so broken in this. 

I’m happy to report that the laws outlawing underage marriage are progressing state by state. However it’s going way too slow. I personally wish all states would outlaw marriage under 18 yesterday. But it won’t happen. So laws are passing each year in a state or two raising the age of marriage. I like where the trend is headed. But it’s going so slow that thousands of kids are still getting married before laws change. 

[Howl]

12 hours ago, NachosFlandersStyle said:

Per her Facebook page, Lauren has remarried in Turkey.

Hoping all is well where she is.  There was a 7.8 magnitude quake in Turkey/Syria yesterday followed later in the day by a 7.7 magnitude quake.  Istanbul, where Lauren lives, is on the other side of Turkey.  However, it's a reminder that the 1999 7.6 magnitude earthquake in Istanbul killed 17,000 people. 

The Guardian:  Earthquake in Turkey and Syria kills hundreds with fears casualties will rise  7.8-magnitude tremor hit early on Monday, with second major quake mid-morning hampering rescue efforts

The article describes the damage, but already there are reports of at least 1,500 dead which will rise into the many thousands.  The quake has hit a part of Syria that is filled huge numbers of displaced people from the civil war in Syria.  It extremely cold and snowy in some areas. Disaster on top of disaster. 

Damn, she's a long way away from Tyler, TX. 

Also, I'm not seeing the father of the groom in any of the family photos of Ezra's wedding or Lauren's. 

8 hours ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

I’m happy to report that the laws outlawing underage marriage are progressing state by state. However it’s going way too slow. I personally wish all states would outlaw marriage under 18 yesterday.

Yes, yes, yes to this. 

 

Edited February 6, 2023 by Howl