June Fuentes - True Christian Motherhood

[Burris]

June Fuentes, who blogs at A Wise Woman Builds Her Home, has recently released a book.

Most of you are at least familiar with it by now, since this stunning, powerful, evocative, convicting treasure of Christian literature - “True Christian Motherhood†- has run the 'give-away' circuit of our favorite fundie blogs for the past several months.

I purchased this item to review it, but I can't.

When I set out to review fundie e-books, I do so with a full awareness of my biases. I try to limit the influence of these biases by picking out the best parts of the books I review and highlighting them, even before I get down to the nuts-and-bolts of content analysis. (And this should go without saying, but I also read each e-book in its entirety before daring to review it.)

While I may not have liked a lot about the other books I've reviewed here, I have always been able to find something in them worth recommending – a saving grace that adds some value. (I needn't look all that hard; there's usually at least one thing well done in any e-book, whether I agree with the politics of it or not. After all, most of these authors are emotionally and intellectually invested in the products they sell.)

Not so, here.

My personal opinion, based on wading through about half the book and skimming the rest, is that Fuentes cobbled this thing together from a series of old posts simply because she needed the money.

This book fails on so many levels and so often that I can find little to redeem it – and certainly nothing to justify the $7 I paid for this turkey.

I know English is not her native language, but that still doesn't excuse such bathic errors. Fuentes should at least have hired a copy-editor - but then again, an editor might have gotten in the way of Fuentes' poetic pretensions.

Take, for example, the first sentence/paragraph of chapter three:

O' for mothers to hold in their hands a child who's soul is eternal and to grasp the vision of changing the world through her mothering as she

purposes toward multigenerational faithfulness.

Here, then, is what happens when Christianese jargon collides with bad writing: The result is gibberish.

Beneath the bad writing is a weak narrative structure expressed through a long series of very short chapters, none of which treat their subjects in-depth.

These chapters are peppered with rhetorical questions designed, presumably, to make the reader think. Or, more likely, those "questions" are there simply to inflate the word-count.

Fuentes doesn't just fill space with statements disguised as questions, however: She also fills it with point-form lists, with unattributed pictures, and with improperly sourced quotes (among other things).

Chapter four, for example, consists entirely of an 18-item list of things that, when taken together, supposedly constitute the 'Biblical perspective' on motherhood. Most of these statements are merely variations of one another, though Fuentes does make a couple of points that differ enough from the rest to be recognized individually.

Not surprisingly, for example, Fuentes has adopted the Quiverfull philosophy and is now passing it on as unquestioned doctrine to her readers:

She welcomes the number of children the Lord gives her and treasures each one in her heart because she knows that He has a purpose for each and every single one--- even if the world doesn't see it that way. She rejects the lie that children are a burden.

(Fuentes is deliberately confusing the issues here. There is a difference between describing children as “burdens†and recognizing that child-care is physically, financially, and emotionally taxing. People are not burdens, but some of the costs associated with caring for people can certainly be burdensome.)

Chapter five, like its predecessors, is full of political statements. Within the space of a page, Fuentes manages to include barbs aimed at religious pluralism and the growing acceptance of homosexuality.

Her message is simple: If you don't properly raise your children – and by that, the author means homeschooling them in Dominionism, natch – then The Big Bad World will do it for you.

She follows that up, of course, with a leading “Challenge Questionâ€:

Share some examples of how we, as a culture, relegate or dismiss our responsibilities as parents to others.

Chapter six, devoted to sins of the tongue, begins with a quote Fuentes attributes to “a Titus 2 website.†She doesn't say which website, nor does she try to track down the name of an author. Like the pictures she uses at the head of each chapter, this quote is merely something found and added.

At one point, Fuentes is so sloppy she actually discusses a specific news story and then imbeds a link in the midst of her text to where one might go to 'read the rest.'

With all the fluff, one would think Fuentes would be happy to offer a complete summary or at least a proper text attribution.

It was at this point that I gave up on trying to write a legitimate review.

There's nothing here worth reviewing.

The book is gawd-awful crap. I can't even review it let alone recommend it to anyone. I would even go so far as to say Fuentes owes her readers an apology for insulting their intelligence and taking their money.

The fact she got so many good reviews for this book is proof not that the book is worth reading but rather that some people are willing to accept any amount of shit just so long as they believe it to be ideologically correct.

[ophelia]

Wow, Burris. Thank you! Great review.

[synchroswimr]

Thank you for taking (yet another) one for the team!

[browngrl]

Thank you for taking (yet another) one for the team!

Yes, thanks. I'm not sure I could have waded through that muck - at least not without incurring sickening waves of nausea.

[contrary]

One eleventy puffy hearts to Burris.

[fundifugee]

Wow, sounds like the SOTDRT strikes again.

Your statements about this book remind me of a 'research paper' that I had to read during my one year as a TA in university (the year that convinced me that going into academia would be death on a stick for me). The 'research paper' was handwritten with photocopied charts and graphics and even entire paragraphs taped to it, without attribution or references.

At least in university we could give the smackdown of a failing grade and make people go back to what should have been learned in grade 9 English, start over, and do it properly.

Off to look into real estate in the Internet Is The Death of Writing and Knowledge Camp.

[Third]

Wow.

In my experience of some really bad eBooks - the author will give the book to friends and those friends to friends for free and ask them to write a good review. It's okay to lie if you are bull shitting for the cause!

[AudreyE]

All I feel is jealousy that no audience for whom I would write would consider paying $7 for writing this lousy. I'd be crapping it out left & right, if they would, and a chiseled male slave would be typing this while another one fed me chocolates.

[thoughtful]

Take, for example, the first sentence/paragraph of chapter three:

Wow. I think I need to embroider that, frame it, and hang it on the wall. :roll:

Thanks for trying, Burris.

[Guest Anonymous]

Wow. I think I need to embroider that, frame it, and hang it on the wall. :roll:

Thanks for trying, Burris.

I had a whoopie cushion in mind, myself.

[hoipolloi]

Thank you once again, Burris.

I've always wondered how much editing of submissions to LAF Mrs. Chancey does. It would seem in Mrs. Fuentes' case that we're talking serious overhauls if not outright ghost writing!

[FundiesInMyFamily]

The fact she got so many good reviews for this book is proof not that the book is worth reading but rather that some people are willing to accept any amount of shit just so long as they believe it to be ideologically correct.

QFT - I have a hard time with this aspect of some of the fundie groups and their adherants - If you want to buy Christian materials, why not go for good ones? I wonder if it's that they don't know the difference? Is it anti-intellectualism, or are they so under educated themselves that they see this kind of drivel as literature?

[JesusFightClub]

QFT - I have a hard time with this aspect of some of the fundie groups and their adherants - If you want to buy Christian materials, why not go for good ones? I wonder if it's that they don't know the difference? Is it anti-intellectualism, or are they so under educated themselves that they see this kind of drivel as literature?

I can't speak to anti intellectualism, but I suspect it's the rightness of the line. If the line is poorly written but correct, it wins over the wrong line well written.

Translate that into fundie talk and it will make sense.

[MamaJunebug]

Burris, I am in possession of the book and CD for Victoria Botkin's study, "She Shall Be Called Woman." I've not been able to get out of the first chapter, and that may be due to my irritation at the shallowness of the teaching [sic] or simply laziness.

I feel called ;) to review it but perhaps you would be the better one to do this? If so, let me know and I will happily ship the items to you. If not, let me know and I will double-down and get the job done.

Although on consideration, I may just have half-reviewed it: Shallow. The other half: predictable.

Also, Burris, thank you for your review of Fuentes' latest.

[GolightlyGrrl]

Thanks for the review of the book, Burris. This book sounds horrible.

Maybe we should start a series called, "I Read (name fundie book here) So You Don't Have To."

[Burris]

Burris, I am in possession of the book and CD for Victoria Botkin's study, "She Shall Be Called Woman." I've not been able to get out of the first chapter, and that may be due to my irritation at the shallowness of the teaching [sic] or simply laziness.

I feel called ;) to review it but perhaps you would be the better one to do this? If so, let me know and I will happily ship the items to you. If not, let me know and I will double-down and get the job done.

Although on consideration, I may just have half-reviewed it: Shallow. The other half: predictable.

Also, Burris, thank you for your review of Fuentes' latest.

I think you'd make a great reviewer. I sincerely look forward to your take on what Victoria Botkin has to tell us all.

[MamaJunebug]

Humble acknowledgment of your confidence in me.

I shall begin today.

Promise.

;)

[Someonetocall]

Dear <3Burris<3,

Please forward me your contact information(not an actual request as that would be creepy) that I may adopt you and ply you with baked goods so that you may focus on wading through the garbage so that we may know what the fundies are doing without each of us getting covered in their stink to do so.

I have not run this idea past my headship (L&M, DH) as obviously I am waiting for the LORD to move his heart. Although, my L&M, DH does agree with the posts of your's I show him. ...so, any day now, LORD, any day now...

Thank you,

K