Undercover Agnostic (Update 10): Closure

 The wait is over. I have won the bidding war that I talked about in Update 9. I went to the real estate agency today and gave them a $500 cashier's check addressed to HUD, and signed several lines on about 12 pages of paperwork to make it official.

After some more bureaucracy, paperwork, a 30 day wait for closing procedures (and paying the remainder of the purchase price). I will have a house.

I don't really feel elated or victorious, I just feel a sense of closure. As I was driving up to the real estate office, the song We Are the Champions by the 70's band Queen came on the radio, and the opening lines really struck me as a perfect description of the last 5 years:

I've paid my dues time after time

I've done my sentence but committed no crime 

And bad mistakes, I've made a few  

I've had my share of sand kicked in my face  

But I've come through 

An awful era of my life is coming to close, and I'll have to start over. Be mindful of my past, and what I have been through and learned, but learn to forgive and how to set boundaries with people to keep it from happening again.

Step Forward and Call for Change

I can't believe that I finally got a guest post done for Homeschoolers Anonymous, I was beginning to think that it couldn't happen. I got so bogged down, and I had a great deal of writers block. It's an odd conundrum  being a former fundamentalist blogger, everyone wants your story, but it's hard to bring back all those memories, and it's hard to find a way to keep from repeating yourself over and over.

Anyway, I decided instead of doing a more biographical post like I have done in the past for blogs like Leaving Fundamentalism and The Wartburg Watch, I decided to go more with a topic instead. The guest post has to do with the issue of socialization in homeschooling. Here's an excerpt from the guest post,

I spent about a year at a well known Southern Baptist university, and some of the people there were homeschool alumni. They use to make jokes about the “awkward homeschool kid” stereotype, and many of them were even members of a Facebook group that was built around such jokes. 

The Allegations Against Sovereign Grace Ministries Are Getting Worse

The evangelical group Sovereign Grace Ministries, which has heavy ties to the Southern Baptist denomination, is facing a class action lawsuit by former members over sexual abuse by it's clergy and adult members.

5 of the 11 plaintiffs have had the courage to come forward and let their names be revealed, and face the accusations and attempts at silencing that often come in these situations.

I have a great deal of respect for the writers of The Wartburg Watch for calling out SGM, and standing with the victims. Some of the details coming out in the amended lawsuit (court filing can be read here), are extremely disturbing.

 SGM leadership refused to follow mandatory reporting laws, and took bribes to hide abuse:

From The Wartburg Watch (quotes from the lawsuit text):

109.  Defendants Ecelbarger, Mullery and V. Hinders, conspiring together with Mahaney and Loftness, violated the mandatory reporting obligations and conspired together to cover up [name withheld pending court ruling on defense motion]'s molestation of children. (p. 25)

Undercover Agnostic (Update 9): The Bidding War that Could Change My Life

I walked out of the real estate agent's office in a state of shock Tuesday. It actually could happen. If I am declared the winning bid on Monday, the 20th, I can be several months closer to finally being able to come out as agnostic.

He put in a bid from his office on my behalf for a house that was foreclosed on though HUD. I had been through the house earlier with my family.

As one could expect for a foreclosure it's in rough shape, but most of the damage is easily fixable and primarily cosmetic (holes in drywall, etc). In 2 months or so, it could be looking nice and ready to move in. The best part of it is, that I would be able to buy it, and rebuild it without any debt.

A house owned, by me, with no debt, and a life of my own for once, and sitting here today, 5 years to the day that I came back to Southwest Illinois after my nervous breakdown, it almost seems like too much to hope for. Being able to choose the course of my own life? Being able to live life openly, and no longer having to live in the shadows as the Undercover Agnostic, attending church, and reading inserts in church bulletins from right wing extremist groups like Mosaic and Illinois Family Institute?

It all seems like too much to hope for, and yet there is so much to hope for at the same time. The course of my life right now is waiting on an announcement from a real estate agent that a anonymous clerk somewhere in a federal government office building noticed that my bid was the highest, and approved it. Unlike most auctions like this, there is no second chances to raise the bid, and no ability to know what anyone has has bid. It's very random, yet so much hinges on it.

Three more days, and I'll know if my life is going to be changed for the better.

HSLDA: We Would Rather Stand Behind Abusers Than Their Victims

If you are not familiar with what HSLDA (the Homeschool Legal Defense Association) is, you need to know who they are, and how they stand in the way of child abuse investigations, and condone abuse.

Libby Anne of the Patheos blog Love Joy Feminism recently had a great post series on the disgusting tactics that this group uses, supposedly in order to protect homeschooling families (read all her posts related to them here).

Here is some of the more disturbing ways of how they end up supporting child abusers in the process, in their campaign to supposedly protect the homeschooling rights of member families:

If HSLDA had their way, anonymous tips to social services agencies would become history:

In a report to Congress, HSLDA lawyer Christopher Klicka stated that he wanted federal law to be amended to prohibit anonymous tips to state social services agencies:

Anonymous Tips: As a condition of receiving federal funds, CAPTA should be amended to mandate states to require all reporters of child abuse to give their names, addresses and phone numbers. This will curtail false reporting and end harassment using anonymous tips. CAPTA should be amended by adding subsection 42 U.S.C. 5106a(b)(2)(A)(xiv): provisions and procedures to assure that no reports shall be investigated unless the person making such a report provides such person’s name, address and telephone number and that the information is independently verified.

This would all but end reporting of abuse cases to social services. Think about it, if you knew that a neighbor was beating their children, how likely would you be to report it if not only did you have to state name, address, and your phone number to the social services worker, but that the neighbor's lawyer could insist that this information be provided to them (and therefore their client as well). Wouldn't you likely be afraid for your life in a situation like this?

HSLDA opposes mandatory reporting laws:

HSLDA believes that laws requiring adults to report evidence of abuse to social services, local police or prosecutors will create a 'police state", here's what they had to say about a proposed federal law that would have made state mandatory reporting laws a nationwide norm:

S. 1879 will require every single person to be a mandatory reporter of suspected child abuse. States will lose certain federal funds if they do not create mandatory reporter laws that encompass every single person in the state. This will create a massive “police state” system that forces people to report on family members and neighbors even if they only suspect child abuse, or they will face a mandatory minimum sentence of one year in jail.