Steadfast Daughters Leaves Me Quivering Once Again

A contributor, Christy, has chimed in with her review of Quivering Daughters.


I found this review even more interesting the last time I read it, back when it was called Stacy McDonald's review of Quivering Daughters.


It was even more interesting the first time I read it, back when it was called Stacy McDonald's comments, as "McMom", on Robin Phillips review of Quivering Daughters - before she had read the book.


I fully expect that these reviews would look almost identical even if the reviewers had never read the book. Their conclusions were predetermined, and their approach in reviewing the book is totally dishonest, disingenuous, and formulaic.
 


This, from Christy...

As I read, I anticipated accounts of tyrannical, cruel abuse. My thoughts raced ahead to physical violence, molestation, incest, or accounts of hunger, harsh punishment, or isolation. Hillary had set the stage in early chapters that caused me to anticipate the unthinkable, yet those stories never came.

Total BS. She fully anticipated pointing to a lack of tangible bruises, scars, and sexual molestations so she could say "Where's the abuse?"

Though the word “abuse” is used throughout the book, its meaning is ambiguous. As I progressed through Hillary’s childhood, the image of abuse faded, and a clearer picture took shape in my mind. Most (not all) of the accounts that she shares (from her pen and other “daughters”) were testimonies of discontent and disappointment.

Total BS. Discontent and disappointment were her predetermined conclusions. Completely dishonest of her to suggest that this conclusion came about gradually over the course of reading the book. Sounds nice and fair, though.

Hillary says she felt like she was being attacked. Key word: felt.  Feelings are not to be discounted at all. However, in this book, feelings tend to trump any sort of fact – that is, the fact of abuse…at least, the way most of us would define it.

I suppose, if I were standing on the open plain, with no trees or bendable/breakable objects to serve as benchmarks, the wind I feel on my face isn't really the wind at all, since it's merely a feeling or a sensation and isn't tangible to someone not there.


But let's go back to the previous piece of patriocentric/dominionist propaganda...

Though the word “abuse” is used throughout the book, its meaning is ambiguous.

Hey, Christy, maybe this will help. Try this too.

Another beautiful nugget...

I could not fathom how daily trials could be considered abuse.

I'm not surprised, considering it's coming from a 1st generation practitioner of an abusive, legalistic religious system.

Again, I just don’t see the abuse here. I see self-pity and discontentment from a writer who has been convinced that God and her parents owe her something more than what she has been given.

Yeah, Stacy and the girls really have such a heart for QDs. Hey QDs, it's your fault!


Where, in God’s Word, are we promised a life of ease and personal desire? Making dinner, caring for children or aging parents, nursing sick spouses, trying to make ends meet – these are all part of daily life for many, many people. This is called Christian service. It is the ministry to which Christians are called.


Ahhh, I love deception and diversion, because Hillary obviously wrote Quivering Daughters because she felt she deserved a life of ease and just knew that writing this book would produce a stress-free life. Of course she wouldn't know what it means to actually sacrifice out of obedience to the Lord, especially if it's hard. (<-sarcasm alert) What a completely deceptive angle for Christy to take.

Cognitive dissonance is psyco-babble for “I don’t understand,” which is a fairly common plight for all of us in life.

Yep, and Cardio Infarction is just physician-babble for "I'm lazy, therefore my chest hurts." I wish fundamentalists would leave the psychology to professionals, or at least make the attempt to rely on professional opinion so they don't come off as brainwashed and ignorant. Of course, fundamentalists, being highly trained (and not mind-conditioned) to render such an opinion as they are, consider "modern psychology" one of the Great Satans of the church.


But, alas, nestled firmly amidst the litany of utter mind-numbed ignorance in this review, perhaps the most telling line...

She expresses a concern for the manner in which “patriarchy” is carried out in the home. And indeed this may be a valid concern in some homes.

You hear that, QDs? There may be problems in some patriarchal homes. There may be. Indeed, your concerns may be valid.

Hillary is faced with a crisis: She needs to leave or she has to stay. This is part of growing up. We all face tough decisions. We have to make decisions that are unpopular or that hurt, yet these are the growing pains of life that sanctify us in our walk with God. Still, this is not abuse.

Completely out of touch with reality. What this woman just described is absolutely foreign to 99.999% of young Christian adults. It's the norm in the patriocentric world. The rest of us call it abuse, whether emotional or spiritual. And Christy, in her bounty of Christ's love, fails to see the tyranny in such a scenario.


I sincerely hope that Christy doesn't serve as a source of counsel for any human being on this planet. She's given her heart, her mind, and her soul, to the cult of patriarchy and dominionism. If you removed her perception and practice of authority structures and patriarchal lifestyle, she'd have no Jesus, because like the rest of the SD contributors, the authority structure and lifestyle IS her Jesus. Jesus doesn't define the belief and lifestyle. He IS defined by the belief and lifestyle.


Now, on a SD Facebook page, Stacy is soliciting at-large contributions to her cause. Part of me fears that, given her repulsive use of Hillary's sister, she's looking to publically pit family members against other family members. It wouldn't be unexpected of her, because few of us have very high expectations. It may be the route she needs to go, given that so far, what we've seen at SD is a perpetual regurgitation of the same message, much like James' sermons about authority, submission, and the time-traveling uterus.


Make no mistake, quivering daughters - War has been declared on you, the abused. Doctrine over person is the chief weapon. No amount of BS is considered out-of-bounds in their advance on your abuse.


God have mercy on these people, because I can't see past the millstones that may end up around their necks.