A few years back there was an outcry in the British Homeschooling community over the possibility that the Pearls' might visit the U.K. and spread their abusive parenting practices. In response, Rebekah Pearl Anast wrote a form letter that she sent out to many bloggers saying how great her childhood was. This morning I started to moderate my blog and discovered I had been sent that same form letter.
I have several thoughts about this letter. One of the reasons that I feel comfortable in writing about Rebekah, who I believe was horribly abused as a child, is that she has put herself out as the defender of her parents. Here is a woman who has had options in life. At one point, she did get away from her family's control. So, I don't believe for an instance that she is unaware of how abusive her family is.
I will admit also that there are parts of her letter that strikes me as odd. She points out that Gabe Anast is her only lover. There is no reason for her to make such a statement in the letter. Nor does it add anything of value to her point. To be honest, I do not care how many sexual partners another person has had and unless, we are having a conversation about it, I don't want to know. That seems like very intimate information to give out to strangers.
Also, Rebekah claims to be the happiest person that she knows. Unless she is psychic there is no way that she can know who is happy or not. There is also the fact that as a child, she has been told to always be cheerful. How can we trust what she claims to feel when we know that she was whipped for not showing joy?(see To Train Up A Child) Her claims to be the happiest person that she knows is so extreme that I wonder if the opposite isn't true and she is trying desperately to cover up her unhappiness.
Another odd point in the letter is how Rebekah clearly contradicts herself. In one paragraph she writes that she was never spanked, but then she continues to describe her thankfulness that the rod was used against her. I was never injured in body or spirit by the training I received. I was never “struck” in anger. I did receive non-injurious spankings on my fully clothed backside with a willow switch when I had clearly transgressed a known “law” of the house. These spankings did not leave bruises or abrasions, or emotional distress. Notice the plural use of the word spanking. So, she did receive more then one spanking. Either she is a horrible liar or Rebekah has some weird definition of corporal punishment that the rest of us do not share.
Because of my childhood, I feel empathy for Rebekah. My own mother was mentally and emotionally abusive but she combined her cruelty with moments of kindness and generosity. I am certain that lots of abused children have a very confusing relationship with their parents. Parental cruelty is often sporadic and twisted in with claims of love and even attempts by the abusing parent to win their child's affections. Its not always easy admitting that you were an abused child. I know. I have been there.
But when my mother turned her abuse toward my children, I had to cut contact with her. Protecting my children was more important then my denials about my mother's actions. I include my own story to make a point. Rebekah Pearl Anast's childhood sounds like the religious version of my own. She probably has some of the same scars that I do.
On the slight chance that she ever reads this blog I would like to talk directly to her. Rebekah, your parents' advice is responsible for creating a adversarial relationship between parent and child that can lead to abuse. By defending them you are as culpable for their actions as they are. When innocent children are hurt, you need to stand up and admit that the myth that your family has tried to create is not true.
Rebekah, it doesn't matter what your parents tell you, or Gabe. You have to live with your own conscious. Every time a child is whipped or their spirit is broken, you are partially responsible because you have not spoken out but have tried to hide the truth. Anyone reading the first part of this series can tell that you had a rotten childhood. A woman as obviously intelligent as you can not be unaware that she had an abusive childhood. I had to stand up to my mother to protect innocent children, now you need to do the same thing. Grow a set of ovaries and be a woman.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Monday, March 22, 2010
Rebekah Pearl's Young Adult Years
The first part of this series covered Rebekah Pearl’s childhood. This second part will cover her early adult hood until her marriage. To me, this is the saddest part of her life because it exposes the potential that the younger Rebekah possessed.
The young Rebekah Pearl attended a Bible College where she received a BA degree in linguistics and Bible translation.
At the age of 21, Rebekah Pearl was escorted by her 18 year old brother, Gabriel to Papua New Guinea. (No Greater Joy. September 12 1995 Wusaywusay-ai-yanday)
After twenty-five hours in the air, here I stood below the equator with my lanky, eighteen- year-old brother in a strange country thousands of miles from our little valley in Tennessee. As we picked up our back packs and wandered bewilderedly toward the buildings, I was wondering what we would do if our contact did not come to pick us up. God has called me to go to the primitive unreached tribes of Papua New Guinea, learn their language, translate the Scripture, and teach them how to read it. I have been told more than once that it is not the job for a young lady. I too have wondered how I would survive alone in a primitive tribe. I have prayed that God would send another woman to go with me.
It is interesting that as a young woman, Rebekah believed that she was capable of doing what men could not. Apparently, she also believed that God could call women to teach men.
About his daughter's role in Papua New Guinea, Michael writes:
Upon her final return to P.N.G., Rebekah will be learning an unknown language and reducing it to writing by creating an alphabet and a dictionary. She will have to discover and define the innate rules of their grammar. All definitions of words must be linked to an understanding of the culture. In order to make the translation and her communication understandable, she will be recording their history, folk tales, religious beliefs and social customs. She will have to teach them to read the literature she produces and cause them to understand the Scripture in its foreign cultural context
This is very impressive. I don’t know how successful she was at creating an alphabet and dictionary, teaching this tribe to read its own language or writing out scripture for them. That sounds like a monumental task that would take one person an entire lifetime to complete. If she did all this then Rebekah is a highly intelligent, disciplined person who deserves to be credited for her role in bringing literacy to this tribe.
From the same article, Michael writes about the people that his eldest daughter will serve
Their naked bodies reek with the stench of decaying flesh and putrid sores. Their faces are hardened by fear of the evil spirits ruling every facet of their lives. Their daily life is one of foraging the rotten logs for grub worms, which are eaten alive as they are found, or of digging in the ground with stone implements or sticks for the roots which comprise the main part of their scarce diet. Their existence is not as National Geographic or Public Television would portray. They are unhappy people with sins and evil habits ranging from the deliberate killing of young children to Sodomy and child molestation
and
It is a simple matter to obey our Lord’s last words and take the message that is medicine to the soul and health to the spirit. As all men, every tribal adult is individually, willfully rebellious. They do not deserve to hear, but it is at this very point that grace begins
She seems to have enjoyed her adventure but to keep from being lonely she wrote songs that she would later turn into a CD entitled From The Ends Of The Earth. All alone in a bamboo hut on the top of a mountain in New Guinea, the first white woman ever seen by the Kumboi village, Rebekah writes and sings songs about her God. She accompanies herself on a classical guitar. One CD. Also available on cassette.
I admit that the emphasis on her being white and female strikes me as odd.
She spent two years among the Kumboi villagers.(No Greater joy July 1, 2003 Beginning With Words)
I spent two years among the Kumboi people of Papua, New Guinea. Most of that time was spent on linguistics and translation. I squatted for hours in the smoke-filled cook-house in the center of our village, practicing the words I learned and trying to pick up new ones.
I do not know if Rebekah ever accomplished her mission of translating the bible for the Kumboi people before she returned home. After her time in the jungle, Rebekah seems to have enjoyed a rather adventuresome lifestyle.
I enjoyed exploring and scuba-diving in Thailand and Laos. From there, I headed to the Middle East. For a year and half, I traveled Israel, Egypt, and Jordan, and had in-depth conversations with monks, Jews, Ethiopians, Germans, Palestinians, Europeans, and even some socially handicapped, public-schooled Americans.
Once she returned to the states, she did not date. Her father writes that dating is understood to be nearly synonymous with fornication. Not that we think everyone who dates will commit fornication, but recreational dating, at its best, is foreplay—psychologically and emotionally, if not physically
In the same article, Michael proudly comments:
Rebekah was twenty-six when she married, and she never had a “boy friend”—never shared any kind of emotional or physical relationship with anyone. Her husband need not be concerned that someday a man may walk up to him and say, “Your wife and I used to be very special to one another.” He is her first and only.
Michael does assure the readers that Rebekah had plenty of marriage offers. He claims to have turned away five or six young men who he didn't even allow near his daughter. There were also other men that he thought would make good husbands but his daughter turned down.
The Pearls do not believe in betrothal, although the family does exert a lot of control in who is allowed to get close to their adult children.
I have formed a fence around my daughters, and by their consent I guard them against unworthy suitors. I control the gate. I let young men that I trust gain social access to my daughters. In a sense, I allow only those that are tentatively approved to pass in review. Out of that small lot of potential suitors, with their parents’ guidance, they will seek God and determine their life’s partner. Every step will be under our oversight. Again, by their consent only, we hold veto rights. A young man must go through my wife and I to get close to our daughters, but we don’t make them sign on the dotted line before they get to know each other
After receiving Micheal's permission to court Rebekah, Gabriel Anast worked for a period in the family's business. Because Rebekah was overseas, it was several months before she and Gabe met.
Once they did meet, their relationship progressed fairly quickly. After a few weeks, Gabe had asked permission to court Rebekah. And a short time later Rebekah asked her parents for their permission to accept Gabe's offer of marriage. In four months they were married by their parents.
Due to a strong aversion to the possibility of same sex marriage, none of the Pearl children have gotten legally married. Instead of a license all of children, including Rebekah, were married via private contract.
So when the sodomites have come to share in the state marriage licenses, which will eventually be the law, James and Shoshanna(Rebekah's sister and brother-in-law) will not be in league with those perverts. And, while I am on the subject, there will come a time when faithful Christians will either revoke their state marriage licenses and establish an exclusively one man-one woman covenant of marriage, or, they will forfeit the sanctity of their covenant by being unequally yoked together with perverts.
Interestingly, Rebekah Pearl, who has visited several countries, brought literacy to a primitive tribe, wrote songs for a CD, published a book on her missionary work and translated scripture into a new language, is unable to choose who will answer her theological inquires. After her marriage, her father informed her that her husband, Gabe, was now the person who would answer her religious questions.
Although her young adulthood is not abusive as were her early years, it is probably the saddest portion to write especially as I am aware of Rebekah Pearl Anast's current situation.
The next and final article will cover her life after marriage and I will try to put it up in by the beginning of next week.
The young Rebekah Pearl attended a Bible College where she received a BA degree in linguistics and Bible translation.
At the age of 21, Rebekah Pearl was escorted by her 18 year old brother, Gabriel to Papua New Guinea. (No Greater Joy. September 12 1995 Wusaywusay-ai-yanday)
After twenty-five hours in the air, here I stood below the equator with my lanky, eighteen- year-old brother in a strange country thousands of miles from our little valley in Tennessee. As we picked up our back packs and wandered bewilderedly toward the buildings, I was wondering what we would do if our contact did not come to pick us up. God has called me to go to the primitive unreached tribes of Papua New Guinea, learn their language, translate the Scripture, and teach them how to read it. I have been told more than once that it is not the job for a young lady. I too have wondered how I would survive alone in a primitive tribe. I have prayed that God would send another woman to go with me.
It is interesting that as a young woman, Rebekah believed that she was capable of doing what men could not. Apparently, she also believed that God could call women to teach men.
About his daughter's role in Papua New Guinea, Michael writes:
Upon her final return to P.N.G., Rebekah will be learning an unknown language and reducing it to writing by creating an alphabet and a dictionary. She will have to discover and define the innate rules of their grammar. All definitions of words must be linked to an understanding of the culture. In order to make the translation and her communication understandable, she will be recording their history, folk tales, religious beliefs and social customs. She will have to teach them to read the literature she produces and cause them to understand the Scripture in its foreign cultural context
This is very impressive. I don’t know how successful she was at creating an alphabet and dictionary, teaching this tribe to read its own language or writing out scripture for them. That sounds like a monumental task that would take one person an entire lifetime to complete. If she did all this then Rebekah is a highly intelligent, disciplined person who deserves to be credited for her role in bringing literacy to this tribe.
From the same article, Michael writes about the people that his eldest daughter will serve
Their naked bodies reek with the stench of decaying flesh and putrid sores. Their faces are hardened by fear of the evil spirits ruling every facet of their lives. Their daily life is one of foraging the rotten logs for grub worms, which are eaten alive as they are found, or of digging in the ground with stone implements or sticks for the roots which comprise the main part of their scarce diet. Their existence is not as National Geographic or Public Television would portray. They are unhappy people with sins and evil habits ranging from the deliberate killing of young children to Sodomy and child molestation
and
It is a simple matter to obey our Lord’s last words and take the message that is medicine to the soul and health to the spirit. As all men, every tribal adult is individually, willfully rebellious. They do not deserve to hear, but it is at this very point that grace begins
She seems to have enjoyed her adventure but to keep from being lonely she wrote songs that she would later turn into a CD entitled From The Ends Of The Earth. All alone in a bamboo hut on the top of a mountain in New Guinea, the first white woman ever seen by the Kumboi village, Rebekah writes and sings songs about her God. She accompanies herself on a classical guitar. One CD. Also available on cassette.
I admit that the emphasis on her being white and female strikes me as odd.
She spent two years among the Kumboi villagers.(No Greater joy July 1, 2003 Beginning With Words)
I spent two years among the Kumboi people of Papua, New Guinea. Most of that time was spent on linguistics and translation. I squatted for hours in the smoke-filled cook-house in the center of our village, practicing the words I learned and trying to pick up new ones.
I do not know if Rebekah ever accomplished her mission of translating the bible for the Kumboi people before she returned home. After her time in the jungle, Rebekah seems to have enjoyed a rather adventuresome lifestyle.
I enjoyed exploring and scuba-diving in Thailand and Laos. From there, I headed to the Middle East. For a year and half, I traveled Israel, Egypt, and Jordan, and had in-depth conversations with monks, Jews, Ethiopians, Germans, Palestinians, Europeans, and even some socially handicapped, public-schooled Americans.
Once she returned to the states, she did not date. Her father writes that dating is understood to be nearly synonymous with fornication. Not that we think everyone who dates will commit fornication, but recreational dating, at its best, is foreplay—psychologically and emotionally, if not physically
In the same article, Michael proudly comments:
Rebekah was twenty-six when she married, and she never had a “boy friend”—never shared any kind of emotional or physical relationship with anyone. Her husband need not be concerned that someday a man may walk up to him and say, “Your wife and I used to be very special to one another.” He is her first and only.
Michael does assure the readers that Rebekah had plenty of marriage offers. He claims to have turned away five or six young men who he didn't even allow near his daughter. There were also other men that he thought would make good husbands but his daughter turned down.
The Pearls do not believe in betrothal, although the family does exert a lot of control in who is allowed to get close to their adult children.
I have formed a fence around my daughters, and by their consent I guard them against unworthy suitors. I control the gate. I let young men that I trust gain social access to my daughters. In a sense, I allow only those that are tentatively approved to pass in review. Out of that small lot of potential suitors, with their parents’ guidance, they will seek God and determine their life’s partner. Every step will be under our oversight. Again, by their consent only, we hold veto rights. A young man must go through my wife and I to get close to our daughters, but we don’t make them sign on the dotted line before they get to know each other
After receiving Micheal's permission to court Rebekah, Gabriel Anast worked for a period in the family's business. Because Rebekah was overseas, it was several months before she and Gabe met.
Once they did meet, their relationship progressed fairly quickly. After a few weeks, Gabe had asked permission to court Rebekah. And a short time later Rebekah asked her parents for their permission to accept Gabe's offer of marriage. In four months they were married by their parents.
Due to a strong aversion to the possibility of same sex marriage, none of the Pearl children have gotten legally married. Instead of a license all of children, including Rebekah, were married via private contract.
So when the sodomites have come to share in the state marriage licenses, which will eventually be the law, James and Shoshanna(Rebekah's sister and brother-in-law) will not be in league with those perverts. And, while I am on the subject, there will come a time when faithful Christians will either revoke their state marriage licenses and establish an exclusively one man-one woman covenant of marriage, or, they will forfeit the sanctity of their covenant by being unequally yoked together with perverts.
Interestingly, Rebekah Pearl, who has visited several countries, brought literacy to a primitive tribe, wrote songs for a CD, published a book on her missionary work and translated scripture into a new language, is unable to choose who will answer her theological inquires. After her marriage, her father informed her that her husband, Gabe, was now the person who would answer her religious questions.
Although her young adulthood is not abusive as were her early years, it is probably the saddest portion to write especially as I am aware of Rebekah Pearl Anast's current situation.
The next and final article will cover her life after marriage and I will try to put it up in by the beginning of next week.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Rebekah Pearl Part One--Her Childhood
Not only do the Pearls hold their adult children up as a living testimony to the success of their child training methods but many of their children have written articles for their parents’ magazine, No Greater Joy. The oldest daughter has even written a glowing letter describing how wonderful her childhood was. So, although I do not like causing pain to people who I feel were both physically and mentally abused as children, there are simply too many people who believe that the Pearls are the epitome of what a God fearing family should look like for me to ignore the adult children.
I am starting with Rebekah Pearl Anast, the oldest daughter. For years, I have been concerned with her. Something about her writing has always made me feel sad for her. I am using information gleaned from the Pearls’ book, To Train Up A Child, the website, No Greater Joy and the Anasts’ own site, 7xsunday to describe both her early years and present life.
In their book, To Train Up A Child, the Pearls describe their four month old daughter as being mobile at an unusually young age. Instead of putting up a gate to prevent the young Rebekah from climbing the steps, her parents switched her tiny body.(Meaning that hit her with a flexible stick) As she grew older, her father’s method of keeping his children from drowning was to allow them to fall into a pond. If his children were too well balanced to take the plunge, he gleefully pushed them into the water (again from To Train Up A Child).
His method of gun safety was similar in practice to his lesson in water safety. Michael writes in his book, To Train Up A Child. With our first toddler, I placed an old, unused and empty, single-shot shot-gun in the living room corner. After taking the toddler through the "No" saying, hand-switching sessions, they knew guns were always off limits. Every day they played around the gun without touching it. I never had to be concerned with their going into someone else's house and touching a gun. I didn't gun-proof my house, I gun-proofed my children. I am not certain why the Pearls insisted on such a dangerous practice in their own home.
Part of the Pearls’ methods includes teaching children to always show joy. Michael accomplished this outer show of mindless happiness by playing a strange game with his kids. He had his children follow a series of commands such as sit, stand, touch the door knob, don’t touch the door knob. It sounds like the game that most of us played in school, Simon Says, until you read that Michael had a switch in hand ready to spank any child that didn’t obey with a smile and cheerful demeanor.
I have taught the children to obey first and ask questions later. When they were small and I put them through paces, they learned to immediately do what I said. If they ever failed to instantly obey a command, I would "drill" them. "Sit down. Don't speak until I tell you to." Understand, I was not taking out frustrations. It was all done in the utmost pleasantness and usually even fun. "Stand up," I would say. "Now come here. Go touch the door." And, before they could get there, "Sit." Plop, down they would go. "Now, go to your rooms and clean them up." Just like little, proud soldiers, off they would go to the task.
If one of them should fail in his attitude, he would be spanked--without haste or hostility, mind you. Negligence or clumsiness was a time for patience and grace, but lazy rebellion was punished with the rod.
Some people might wonder why his children haven’t rebelled but that is where the truly insidious part of Michael’s methods come into play. The Pearls have discovered that children respond to love and attention. All children want their parents’ approval, affection and time. Not only were his children taught to deny their own emotions and only express joy but they have been taught that love is dependent on their acting in an approved manner. It doesn't matter that the book, To Train Up A Child, sounds like a manual for potential brainwashers or that the Pearls use methods from behavioral science to 'train' their children. Outsiders are willing to accept the fantasy that following the Pearls will produce perfect, happy kids.
At one point, the Pearls income was so low that they were forced to eat what might have been cat food. Rebekah describes this time period on her forum, 7xsunday under the thread called, How is Becca? When my family first moved near the Amish community in TN, I was 14 years old. The first winter we had cabbage, wheat, raw milk, and canned cat food or poor quality tuna (the cans were missing labels when we bought them and we couldn't tell for sure if it was cat food or tuna.)
It doesn't appear that either Pearl held down a paying job during this time period. Although I am uncertain, I think that this is the time period in which they were trying to start their ministry and magazine. Most responsible parents would either put their dreams on hold or one of them would find employment outside of their new business.
In 1974, Micheal Pearl announced to his wife that they would homeschool their young family. Debbi took up her husband's suggestion and began teaching her children at home. Rebekah has written that she suspects that she was dyslexic. She even jokingly claims that she would have been forced to ride the short bus if she had attended public school.
Rebekah writes, I never spent a day locked away in my own introspection (Mom was sure to intrude!). Despite the fact that I can no longer find the post, Rebekah has written on the forum, Well Tell Me, that she had trouble with daydreaming. Perhaps Debbi felt that her daughter had a real attention problem but I wonder if was it just another way to control their daughter. Even her inner thoughts were not off limits to her parents.
The Pearls certainly had a problem with boundaries.In the article Safeguarding Your Children, Rebekah remembers, Dad built our house so that all the bedroom doors facing the main living room/family room. None of our doors had locks on them until we were older, and then only the girls. We were never allowed to spend time in our rooms behind closed doors. The door could only be closed for five minutes of clothes changing. If a door was closed for a longer period of time, Dad was likely to walk in unannounced to see what we were up to. One has to wonder what their father thought his children were going to do if they were left alone for a few minutes. To me, this lack of any privacy shows an extreme need to control not only their children's life but their private thoughts as well.
By the way, the same article describes how Michael Pearl presented prostitution to his children. During a trip to Memphis, Rebekah observed a woman being slapped by a man. Despite the fact that No Greater Joy brags about the manliness of the Pearl men, Michael did not step forward to help the woman nor did he search for a pay phone to call the police. Instead he uses the opportunity to teach his kids about prostitution. She’s a prostitute,” Dad told us. “He’s a pimp. She works for him, selling her body to lascivious men who will burn in hell, so that she can continue to buy drugs to satisfy her addiction. God hates prostitution and pornography, kids. It destroys lives and families.” I think that he taught his children to stand idly by while people are being hurt.
Instead of being the wonderful fantasy life that the Pearls try to present to their followers, Rebekah's childhood sounds nightmarish. I have no idea why anyone would want this for their children.
In the next installment, I will continue the Rebekah Pearl story.
I am starting with Rebekah Pearl Anast, the oldest daughter. For years, I have been concerned with her. Something about her writing has always made me feel sad for her. I am using information gleaned from the Pearls’ book, To Train Up A Child, the website, No Greater Joy and the Anasts’ own site, 7xsunday to describe both her early years and present life.
In their book, To Train Up A Child, the Pearls describe their four month old daughter as being mobile at an unusually young age. Instead of putting up a gate to prevent the young Rebekah from climbing the steps, her parents switched her tiny body.(Meaning that hit her with a flexible stick) As she grew older, her father’s method of keeping his children from drowning was to allow them to fall into a pond. If his children were too well balanced to take the plunge, he gleefully pushed them into the water (again from To Train Up A Child).
His method of gun safety was similar in practice to his lesson in water safety. Michael writes in his book, To Train Up A Child. With our first toddler, I placed an old, unused and empty, single-shot shot-gun in the living room corner. After taking the toddler through the "No" saying, hand-switching sessions, they knew guns were always off limits. Every day they played around the gun without touching it. I never had to be concerned with their going into someone else's house and touching a gun. I didn't gun-proof my house, I gun-proofed my children. I am not certain why the Pearls insisted on such a dangerous practice in their own home.
Part of the Pearls’ methods includes teaching children to always show joy. Michael accomplished this outer show of mindless happiness by playing a strange game with his kids. He had his children follow a series of commands such as sit, stand, touch the door knob, don’t touch the door knob. It sounds like the game that most of us played in school, Simon Says, until you read that Michael had a switch in hand ready to spank any child that didn’t obey with a smile and cheerful demeanor.
I have taught the children to obey first and ask questions later. When they were small and I put them through paces, they learned to immediately do what I said. If they ever failed to instantly obey a command, I would "drill" them. "Sit down. Don't speak until I tell you to." Understand, I was not taking out frustrations. It was all done in the utmost pleasantness and usually even fun. "Stand up," I would say. "Now come here. Go touch the door." And, before they could get there, "Sit." Plop, down they would go. "Now, go to your rooms and clean them up." Just like little, proud soldiers, off they would go to the task.
If one of them should fail in his attitude, he would be spanked--without haste or hostility, mind you. Negligence or clumsiness was a time for patience and grace, but lazy rebellion was punished with the rod.
Some people might wonder why his children haven’t rebelled but that is where the truly insidious part of Michael’s methods come into play. The Pearls have discovered that children respond to love and attention. All children want their parents’ approval, affection and time. Not only were his children taught to deny their own emotions and only express joy but they have been taught that love is dependent on their acting in an approved manner. It doesn't matter that the book, To Train Up A Child, sounds like a manual for potential brainwashers or that the Pearls use methods from behavioral science to 'train' their children. Outsiders are willing to accept the fantasy that following the Pearls will produce perfect, happy kids.
At one point, the Pearls income was so low that they were forced to eat what might have been cat food. Rebekah describes this time period on her forum, 7xsunday under the thread called, How is Becca? When my family first moved near the Amish community in TN, I was 14 years old. The first winter we had cabbage, wheat, raw milk, and canned cat food or poor quality tuna (the cans were missing labels when we bought them and we couldn't tell for sure if it was cat food or tuna.)
It doesn't appear that either Pearl held down a paying job during this time period. Although I am uncertain, I think that this is the time period in which they were trying to start their ministry and magazine. Most responsible parents would either put their dreams on hold or one of them would find employment outside of their new business.
In 1974, Micheal Pearl announced to his wife that they would homeschool their young family. Debbi took up her husband's suggestion and began teaching her children at home. Rebekah has written that she suspects that she was dyslexic. She even jokingly claims that she would have been forced to ride the short bus if she had attended public school.
Rebekah writes, I never spent a day locked away in my own introspection (Mom was sure to intrude!). Despite the fact that I can no longer find the post, Rebekah has written on the forum, Well Tell Me, that she had trouble with daydreaming. Perhaps Debbi felt that her daughter had a real attention problem but I wonder if was it just another way to control their daughter. Even her inner thoughts were not off limits to her parents.
The Pearls certainly had a problem with boundaries.In the article Safeguarding Your Children, Rebekah remembers, Dad built our house so that all the bedroom doors facing the main living room/family room. None of our doors had locks on them until we were older, and then only the girls. We were never allowed to spend time in our rooms behind closed doors. The door could only be closed for five minutes of clothes changing. If a door was closed for a longer period of time, Dad was likely to walk in unannounced to see what we were up to. One has to wonder what their father thought his children were going to do if they were left alone for a few minutes. To me, this lack of any privacy shows an extreme need to control not only their children's life but their private thoughts as well.
By the way, the same article describes how Michael Pearl presented prostitution to his children. During a trip to Memphis, Rebekah observed a woman being slapped by a man. Despite the fact that No Greater Joy brags about the manliness of the Pearl men, Michael did not step forward to help the woman nor did he search for a pay phone to call the police. Instead he uses the opportunity to teach his kids about prostitution. She’s a prostitute,” Dad told us. “He’s a pimp. She works for him, selling her body to lascivious men who will burn in hell, so that she can continue to buy drugs to satisfy her addiction. God hates prostitution and pornography, kids. It destroys lives and families.” I think that he taught his children to stand idly by while people are being hurt.
Instead of being the wonderful fantasy life that the Pearls try to present to their followers, Rebekah's childhood sounds nightmarish. I have no idea why anyone would want this for their children.
In the next installment, I will continue the Rebekah Pearl story.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Rebekah's Dreaming Awake Blog
Michael Pearl holds his own children up as examples of the good that can come from his child training methods. I thought it appropriate to explore what his children are now doing.
In her blog, Dreaming Awake, Rebekah Pearl Anast, posts under the name Ruby Archuletta. My real name is Rebekah Anast. I am an author and freelance writer for homeschool magazines. She doesn't claim in this particular post that her dreams are prophetic but if you read through her answers to questions that people leave on her blog, it appears she does consider herself a prophetess.
dreaming-awake.com/index.php?itemid=95(you have to add the www. at the beginning of the address.)
The majority of the dreams are troubling accounts of the end of civilization. There is rape and desperate parents hurting their children. At the very least, Rebekah has a very scary view of the world. It makes me wonder what is going on in her life to make Rebekah have so many frightening dreams. If there are any psychologists who visit this site, I would love to know their opinion on Rebekah's mental state. I am not saying that she is insane, but she does sound as if she has a very unhealthy mindset.
This is a typical dream listed on the site. I took the www. out of the address so you have to add it back in.
dreaming-awake.com/index.php?itemid=134&catid=10
I dreamed that I was asleep and then awoke to a regular day. Time passed and I saw events come to pass that are prophesied in Scripture. I was distressed to see people I love experiencing horrific distress. Sickness, famine, war, death... These are just words. How can I describe the way famine looks? The way pain-induced insanity rings in the ears? How violence upon loved ones breaks the mind? I was overwhelmed with grief because I had not warned the people enough to convince them to leave the cities and the coasts... grieved that they had not believed me. It was too much to bear.
I awoke with huge relief that it had been only a dream, and had not yet happened.
So I went about my day and thought about the dream. Time passed, and I saw the same events come to pass that I had dreamed about... and then saw again the people I love experiencing the most traumatizing violence and death. I couldn't bear it... and so I woke again with relief that it was just another dream.
I lay in the bed crying and praying for the people, and then got up to go about my day... and was horrified to see the end coming so quickly. It was just like I had dreamed, but with more detail and involving people that are very dear to me.
A friend and her husband wanted to show us a place that they had purchased out in the rural mountains of the East. I was impressed with their choice of a house. It was stone, and very rural. People were trying to talk them out of living so far away from friends and family, but they believed bad times were coming, and wanted to live rurally. They were showing us the house they had bought, and we told them that it was going to get really bad in the East, but that the place they had chosen was pretty good, for that area of the US.
Time passed and violence fell on the land. We were separated from friends and family in the East, but I saw how it went with them. I saw many of the younger men leave their families to go fight in small groups to help defend the country. It was a noble cause. But the end was prophesied. They died. I saw my friend starving. Her youngest had died earlier, by disease I think. She had no one to care for them or hunt for food. She didn't know what wild things were edible. She was living in a rural "safe" place, but had not seen anyone alive in a long time. She knew her husband must be dead. She and her 7 year old child sat listlessly waiting for death. The child was starving to death.
The woman looked at her child and thought "I should just kill her, so she won't go through the pain and suffering of death." So she did. Then she looked at the child's body and thought, "Why not eat the body? Why not?"
I saw the end ahead of her... I saw the relief coming. It was just beyond the reach of mortality... or maybe not... and I saw the endless ages in which she would live with the knowledge that she had eaten her own child. I thought, "these are the tears he wipes away." And I began to cry.
I woke up crying. I cried all day. I'm still crying for the people that just don't believe what is coming could be that bad.
In her blog, Dreaming Awake, Rebekah Pearl Anast, posts under the name Ruby Archuletta. My real name is Rebekah Anast. I am an author and freelance writer for homeschool magazines. She doesn't claim in this particular post that her dreams are prophetic but if you read through her answers to questions that people leave on her blog, it appears she does consider herself a prophetess.
dreaming-awake.com/index.php?itemid=95(you have to add the www. at the beginning of the address.)
The majority of the dreams are troubling accounts of the end of civilization. There is rape and desperate parents hurting their children. At the very least, Rebekah has a very scary view of the world. It makes me wonder what is going on in her life to make Rebekah have so many frightening dreams. If there are any psychologists who visit this site, I would love to know their opinion on Rebekah's mental state. I am not saying that she is insane, but she does sound as if she has a very unhealthy mindset.
This is a typical dream listed on the site. I took the www. out of the address so you have to add it back in.
dreaming-awake.com/index.php?itemid=134&catid=10
I dreamed that I was asleep and then awoke to a regular day. Time passed and I saw events come to pass that are prophesied in Scripture. I was distressed to see people I love experiencing horrific distress. Sickness, famine, war, death... These are just words. How can I describe the way famine looks? The way pain-induced insanity rings in the ears? How violence upon loved ones breaks the mind? I was overwhelmed with grief because I had not warned the people enough to convince them to leave the cities and the coasts... grieved that they had not believed me. It was too much to bear.
I awoke with huge relief that it had been only a dream, and had not yet happened.
So I went about my day and thought about the dream. Time passed, and I saw the same events come to pass that I had dreamed about... and then saw again the people I love experiencing the most traumatizing violence and death. I couldn't bear it... and so I woke again with relief that it was just another dream.
I lay in the bed crying and praying for the people, and then got up to go about my day... and was horrified to see the end coming so quickly. It was just like I had dreamed, but with more detail and involving people that are very dear to me.
A friend and her husband wanted to show us a place that they had purchased out in the rural mountains of the East. I was impressed with their choice of a house. It was stone, and very rural. People were trying to talk them out of living so far away from friends and family, but they believed bad times were coming, and wanted to live rurally. They were showing us the house they had bought, and we told them that it was going to get really bad in the East, but that the place they had chosen was pretty good, for that area of the US.
Time passed and violence fell on the land. We were separated from friends and family in the East, but I saw how it went with them. I saw many of the younger men leave their families to go fight in small groups to help defend the country. It was a noble cause. But the end was prophesied. They died. I saw my friend starving. Her youngest had died earlier, by disease I think. She had no one to care for them or hunt for food. She didn't know what wild things were edible. She was living in a rural "safe" place, but had not seen anyone alive in a long time. She knew her husband must be dead. She and her 7 year old child sat listlessly waiting for death. The child was starving to death.
The woman looked at her child and thought "I should just kill her, so she won't go through the pain and suffering of death." So she did. Then she looked at the child's body and thought, "Why not eat the body? Why not?"
I saw the end ahead of her... I saw the relief coming. It was just beyond the reach of mortality... or maybe not... and I saw the endless ages in which she would live with the knowledge that she had eaten her own child. I thought, "these are the tears he wipes away." And I began to cry.
I woke up crying. I cried all day. I'm still crying for the people that just don't believe what is coming could be that bad.
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