That's correct. It also included any music, radio and TV.
"I am 22 years old and I was raised in Bill Gothard's homeschool program all the way through high school. I went to both the Basic and Advanced Seminars. My Mother was fully into both Bill Gothard's programs AND the Charismatic movement. She followed Peter Wagner, Mike Bickle, Joyce Meyer, Ted Haggard of New Life Church, Cindy Jacobs, Dutch Sheets and any other person who was popular in the Charismatic movement at the time.
In addition to all of Bill Gothard's insanity my mother was into all the charismatic/"fanatical evangelical" insanity. Her and her church believed that Satan and demons were everywhere in everything. The rules were VERY strict all the time. We couldn't have ANY christian or non-christian music at all except for a few charismatic worship CDs. There was physical abuse in my home. My mother although used psychotropic drugs because she somehow thought it would make it easier to control me(I've never been diagnosed with any mental illness either). Pastors would always come and interrogate me over video games or TV watching or other things. There were NO FRIENDS outside the church and family and even then only family members who were in the church. You could not trust anyone at all because anyone might be a spy.
"I am still awaiting a single example of this mother's alleged child abuse."
See above. How about feeding the kid moldy food and cereal dug out of the garbage disposal.
Um...really? Does this ring true? Not to me.
There was physical abuse in my home.
I didn't catch this before. But I'm not sure what this entails. If it means his mom spanked him, then I'm going to have to say, "Whoopee." If more than that, then you have a bit of an argument.
Please understand that I came out of the same environment in many ways. And I have many friends who have come out of it as well. And many times they exaggerate the wrongs they suffered. "I had to wear dresses." Ok, might not be the funnest thing, but it's not even approaching abuse. "I couldn't listen to music." Ok, I think that's misguided for a parent, but how does that make it ok for the kid to not "find himself?" Did people not find themselves before we had CDs and DVDs? Bravo Sierra.
I'm sure it had nothing to do with his behavior. This kid was probably troubled from almost birth. That's my guess. I think legalism was the worst thing that could have happened to him. But it's not the fault of legalism. In fact, I think it's barely a contributing cause. He made plenty of choices. He didn't want to get better from his time in the church (whatever real or imagined wrongs were done to him). He wanted to be mad. Wanted to be right. Wanted to be in power and in control over those he felt had been over him. That's not because he didn't get to listen to N'Sync or play with Teletubbies. That's the selfish nature of sin at its core.
Also, consider this guy has no problem posting lyrics from obscure (and some not-so-obscure) rock bands as though they are his own poetry. He likes to exaggerate his importance and his sense of who he is. And if regaling a sympathetic audience of ex-Pentecostalers with exaggerated stories will get him that importance and sympathy, he’d do it.
Once again, though I hate having to constantly repeat myself, this is not possible. The fact that they had DVD players, CD players and game consoles in their home, necessarily implies that they had DVDs, CDs, and games to insert into these electronic boxes. What's more, in the link you just pointed me to, he talks about his mother going through his collection of CDs DVDs and video games and removing the ones she doesn't want him to have.
Bottom Line once again: She never forbid ALL music, movies and games in her house. She just threw out certain ones. Sounds pretty normal to me! This is what we've done with our kids. On this single issue of "electronic entertainment," the only thing he claims his mother did, that we ourselves have not done with our kids, is to ban all Christian music CDs that are not worship CDs. I do find that too strict, but still light years short of "child abuse," which is the end result we're trying to establish here.
How about feeding the kid moldy food and cereal dug out of the garbage disposal.
I read the entire post you linked to, and never found this claimed anywhere. Was this some other forum poster you're mixing him up with perhaps? I'd like to see the actual claim before I comment.
..... Bill Gothard's programs AND .... [long list of other Christian authors]
I've not been exposed to Gothard, but if half of what I've read about him is true, he pushes a very legalistic doctrine. If MM was subjected to a very legalistic regimen, then I would tend to agree that this was a poor parenting choice on his mother's part, though we of course are second guessing her based on a minimum of facts, a heavy slanting of the few facts we have, and no opportunity to hear her side of the story.
But still, "poor parenting choices" are not equivalent to "child abuse," or else I'm guilty of child abuse hundreds of times!
There are other points of disagreement I want to make about your post, but I need to turn in for the night. BOTTOM LINE SO FAR: Still nothing remotely approaching child abuse demonstrated here.
First of all, you never base a story on one side of anything.
And this guy’s claims must be looked at critically. He obviously was not sound of mind.
Secondly, it seems that your opinions of what were the bases of his problems stem from his being in a Christian household being taught Christian values and beliefs, and because of that, he was taught “lies” and “falsehoods.”
It is apparent to me that you are personally against Christianity and therefore that is coloring YOUR PERCEPTION of reality.
This guy’s perception of realty must also be questioned. He was psychologically ill; anyone with a psychological illness has an impeded sense of ACTUAL REALITY because of their illness. No matter how real they perceive things to be, it is usually not an accurate perception of reality, of the way things actually are. It’s only that way in HIS OWN MIND....