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Tia Levings's avatar

Thank you so much for writing this. And while I make it a policy to never comment on reviews and overviews, I can’t resist a parallel on substack between what happened to me in fundamentalism and what’s happening now. All of it is intentional and strategic, and I hope readers who might struggle with “how” Project 2025 manifests in real life can see the flesh of my example and better understand our current events. Everything I ran from is in our headlines now.

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Rachelle Bergstein's avatar

Tia, thank YOU so much for this comment and for writing your beautiful book. It is so, so important. I'm so glad I read it.

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Baptizing Feminism's avatar

Phew, wow yes. We saw this unfolding yeads back researching our documentary, wanted to yell, is anyone listening? Tia is a heroine 🌠

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Hall's avatar

Authoritarianism by nature is abusive and shows up in the home, in churches, their schools. Their abuses are well known yet some women walk right into it not understanding they are participating in oppressing, suppressing

And depressing themselves and their children.

It’s incredibly sad how abuse is sanctioned in this country and even more so now.

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Sy's avatar

Everything is about controlling women in fundamentalism. They don’t care about God or Jesus. Everything they do is an affront to God. They’ve just found a way to control women and give themselves power. Would Jesus really approve of slapping a baby on a blanket? Nope. It’s all a fakery.

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Tamara's avatar

I learned a lot from the bravery, vulnerability and scholarship in A Well Trained Wife. By the way, you might want to make a correction to get her name right. It’s Tia Levings.

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David Morris's avatar

We’ll put. Thank you. And I’ve been avoiding news but forgot the SAVE act is still alive. It’s extremism in plain sight.

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Mari Ferguson Cheney's avatar

Wow, I need to read this book! It explains a lot.

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Emily Wiebe's avatar

Rachelle a slight correction to your understanding of IBLP. It was not a church, it was an organization that drew in people from all sorts of churches, and indoctrinated them. Then they would go back to their communities and churches primed to pass on their "new approach to life " to others. Eventually, Gothard started promoting the house church movement which would help isolate his followers from outsiders.

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Rachelle Bergstein's avatar

Appreciate the clarification, Emily!

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