.....But I love My Abusers! Anna V of Narcissists Suck Blog Disappoints

“He gazed up at the enormous face. Forty years it had taken him to learn what kind of smile was hidden beneath the dark moustache. O cruel, needless misunderstanding! O stubborn, self-willed exile from the loving breast! Two gin-scented tears trickled down the sides of his nose. But it was all right, everything was all right, the struggle was finished. He had won the victory over himself. He loved Big Brother.” "1984"--George Orwell.

 The other day, I went back to an old blog, I used to read all the time named Narcissists Suck. This blog with it's author, Anna V was very helpful to me once upon a time. Her blog was one that helped to open my eyes about narcissists and no contact. My gratitude for Anna V was always there as she was someone who lit a match for a light for me to find my way out of the ACON thicket. They always say be careful of elevating your heroes too high because sometimes you find out they have feet of clay or maybe you outgrow them?

 Anyhow I saw this post on the Narcissists Suck blog:

 Book Recommendation

Anna V recommended the book, "If You Tell" by Gregg Olsen. This book and what she had to say about it disturbed me. I did leave her a comment, but for some reason, the title of the book had not clicked when I wrote my comment. I had seen a TV show about the Knotek case too, and got confused. When I went to go read reviews, I realized I had read the book from the library some months ago. I also had seen a TV show too about the case.

Anna V's reaction to this book horrified me. She wrote:

"Like the Knotek sisters, I hate my mother, yet she was my mother and part of me loves her. It is a hard dichotomy to explain, but those of us with these kind of mothers understand perfectly."
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I responded back a couple weeks ago....[as of 6/27/20 my comment has NOT been posted on her blog]

If those Knotek sisters still love their mother, something is wrong with them, but then they should have maybe seen a prison cell too. I don't think they deserved full sentences as sociopaths put undue influence on teen children, but these girls went to school while their mother starved and beat disabled people and DID NOTHING. I wrote a controversial post on my blog some time ago where I was offended at those who preached love and forgiveness for the most sociopathic including the BK Killer.

http://fivehundredpoundpeeps.blogspot.com/2019/02/why-did-she-apologize-to-her-serial.html?showComment=1553283138179#c8525994975477158778

http://fivehundredpoundpeeps.blogspot.com/2019/03/forgive-and-forget-enables-them.html

I have to admit your post disturbed me, where you mentioned a GC supposedly narcissistic sister changing. Most will not have their GC [if truly with NPD] change.

When I was a fundamentalist Christian, I deconverted and have since left Christianity, I remember the talk about "God changing people" and "testimonies" which actually helped to enable abusive people to continue harming others.

Maybe your sister never was truly NPD, I don't know.....but those false religious promises can set people up to be re-offended against. A person who isn't NPD, may be able to change, and introspection will come, but those who are malignant and with it, that is never going to happen. I also get worried when people wax on about "love" for abusers.

Please be mindful of the ACONS who do not love their abusers, and who have been shamed for not producing emotions of fondness for those who tried to destroy them. Sadly in our authoritarian and toxic religious society, even if a parent, beats and starves you, one is told they "must love them".

Even the horribly abused Turpin children showed the same messages to "love and forgive" sociopathic parents. With the Turpin children, I wrote:

https://fivehundredpoundpeeps.blogspot.com/2019/04/the-turpin-parents-sentenced-to-25.html

"The evil are empowered on multiple levels in this society. Those who enact the worse crimes who don't have a sorry bone in their bodies, are excused and empowered while their victims or families of their victims are told to "forgive". I understand moving forward from abusers, but why are are their victims told over and over to suppress all emotions, to "forgive" and to give them place after place? This is especially strong in some religious circles."

I loved your blog for years, in fact finding your blog years ago, helped me so much. This post worries me though. Please be careful of telling people that God will change their abusers or flying monkeys or GC's in a family.

Today I see conservative Christianity as teaching many false and harmful things when it comes to abuse and "forgiveness". Evil is enabled in many of these circles.

I think there is something insidious about love for sociopaths being pushed in these notorious cases. I hope you can take the time to understand what I am warning of here.

Thanks for the book recommendation. I would like to read it but I can tell some of those messages are probably in this book too.
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I did read the book from the library. It was terrible. The psychopathic mother in the book is extreme. She basically is a serial killer who went after disabled and down and out people, moved them in and then tortured, starved, beat, imprisoned and killed them. Kathy Loreno and Ronald Woodworth were two boarders that lived with the Knotek family, where Michelle Knotek destroyed them over a series of months. Shane Watson was a nephew too, that lived with the Knotek family who was murdered at the behest of Michelle Knotek, by her husband David Knotek. In the book, Shane had taken pictures of the abuses done against Kathy and was going to expose Michelle and was shot by David. James McClintock was a later possible murder victim as well.

This book was a disgusting how-to manual on the ways humans scrape and bow and in cowardice do the bidding of manipulative sociopaths and psychopaths. Michelle Knotek played everyone for a fool around her and they all shuddered in fear before her. I don't have this book now to quote from it but the two oldest daughters while they were abused themselves, did witness the abuse, starvation, and killing of Kathy and Ronald. As I read this book, I was driven to tears and angry, but some of my anger was towards them, they would go to school and say nothing, they wouldn't even bring a slice of bread to Kathy or Ronald or call for any help, thus the title "If You Tell..." As the book proceeded, I was horrified.

They both, Nikki, and Sami [the youngest daughter--Tori- I don't hold as responsible] should have seen some charges for their inaction. This book angered me so much reading it, that while I understood psychopaths manipulate and teenagers will be afraid, I do hold the daughters at a level of culpability in refusing to do anything for the people they watched be killed. Where was their empathy? My level of disgust for them was pretty high. They even left their youngest sister in the pit for years, after they left home knowing their mother was a murderer. They were all complicit. The monster sadist mother was allowed to hurt and kill people with no one standing up to the extremes of brutality and the silent people around her helped make it happen.

The excuse making in the book for the weak most likely Dark Triad husband, and the daughters made no sense to me. As I have written on this blog many times, enablers, betraying bystanders and more hold responsibility too. Every ACON has had their moments of weakness and cowardice in the face of sociopaths and malignant narcissists. I regret some of my own though in my case, I did attempt rescue of other scapegoats from abuse and to ally with them. But would a person of any conscience sit and watch someone be killed and then do nothing? Could you or I watch someone be tortured and do nothing watching these horrors for months? Cowardice is something abusers use to do their evil and they get away with it.

I saw this man on the show Evil Lives Here, who did express remorse and disgust at his own cowardice in refusing to help save two sisters from his own psychopathic mother Teresa Knorr, he went to school too, as one was chained to a table and killed, and the other locked in a closet and starved to death. William and Robert did face charges in this case. Teresa Knorr led them to have active participation, but what can say about the two daughters in this case? This blog post angered me and later made me want to throw up.

Anna V admits Knotek is evil, but then gives us the "love sociopaths/malignant narcissists/psychopath" message. She starts writing about how her supposed NPD sister "changing" and talks about "loving her mother" even while admitting some hate. The book, "If You Tell" was a very hard book to read but one running theme in the book is basically a murdering sociopath achieving malicious victory over others via manipulation and cowardice. David Knotek most likely is on the malignant narcissist/sociopath spectrum too, as he callously murdered his wife's nephew---the girls were lied to and told he had left. The nephew was going to run away but the mother wanted him dead because she was afraid of being exposed.

The disabled people who got starved and beaten in front of the teenage girls and one younger sister watched the mother do all these horrible things, they even have descriptions in the book of walking past the boarders as they were locked in small cages out in the barn and bleach being poured over Ronald's injuries. The suffering they went through was extreme. The two daughters were going to school and seeing neighbors, and were not locked up themselves. One even escaped and never told anyone what happened at home after she was safe. There were descriptions of both murder victims begging for food and being ignored. I almost did not finish this book, I was so upset.

I don't mind someone recommending books on true crimes, these things need talked about to be stopped but the "love" talk nauseates me. The two oldest daughters remain in contact with their father who shot their cousin and murdered him as a teen, that is a problem. The daughters yes were abused, the mother had them run around naked, she beat them, and had them wallow in mud, denied them hygiene, food and clothing. I think they should have faced some charges for their inaction but their abuse histories definitely should have been taken into account if there had been any court actions.

One thing that is scary here, is Michelle Knotek may get out soon. A masterful sociopath managed to manipulate the court system. The daughters warn she is still a danger. Wikipedia claims they are no contact with the mother and that Nikki the youngest is the only daughter who is no contact with the father.

Back to Anna V, the comments about the daughters still loving this mother disturbed me. So Anna V's take on this house of sociopathic horrors book, was I love Mommy too!? and My narcissist sister has really changed!?. This book was like a primer of most people kissing sociopathic butt, and how much of cowards they can be. Just look at Trump, the destruction of America and all the cowards and sycophants around him.Where's her sense of outrage? We definitely viewed this book very different.

This is one dark human trait, where the worse get the most accolades and dare I even say demands for love! Where's the love for the victims here? In our society, evil is enabled at multiple layers. The message is go submit. While some scapegoats stand up against evil and walk on, counting our losses, some remain as identifiers with abusers.

With Anna V who in the past seemed so strong and resolute, my disappointment is great. Perhaps some start off strong and then break later. The pressures can be unrelenting even for someone long into no contact to go rejoin the Borg and assimilate with gooey-eyed dreams of "forgiveness" and "changed hearts". Conservative Christianity sure shoves that stuff down people's throats. Those are some circles that really demand acquiescence to the powerful.After all if you are to bow before an all powerful capricious God that sends most humans to hell, maybe this translates to what type of humans you put before others.

Maybe some obtain higher status, that changes their role in the family via career and return. One thing I have noticed about Anna V and yes I only have so much information available to me via her blog, is she seems to have escaped the poverty, family and job problems that come for many life long scapegoats. I have to admit when a self-admitted scapegoat has life go swimmingly well free of autoimmune disease, disabilities, career problems, money problems, it makes me wonder how severe the abuse really was? Many scapegoats can find success and financial security don't get me wrong, but one thing I note in our status oriented society, is most scapegoats who are severely abused end up with a stacked deck.

I tend to distrust self-avowed scapegoats who formerly went full no contact, and then suddenly end up with full inheritances, status and respect within their families. How does this happen? Can someone fill me in on this? Yes some with marriage, luck, work that pays off and careers that work out, can do well, and maybe with this higher status in their abusive family, they go and rejoin heads full of cotton candy and family mythos, saying "I love my family, my golden child formerly narcissistic sibling has changed!" Add in flowing liters of Jesus Juice and some commit newly to the family dream, their earlier "negative" musings set aside.

Some former scapegoats do choose the system. Like Uncle Ruckus who hates being black on the Boondocks and helps out the racists, many scapegoats choose the side of the powerful and then teach us we must love and forgive abusers. They tell us the people who hold the power, are owed most of our love and obedience. We live in a sick society, where power and status denote everything and the "dominator" culture teaches people to bow before those who have oppressed them. "Internalized oppression" is a concept that one can consider here. The messages are: Submit to the family. Submit to the people in charge. Submit to mother, father, boss, the people with money, the people who are "not weak". The "family" in our culture is often a tool of oppression, never question the "cult leader", and the myths there can oppress us, such as the one, "you must always love your mother" even if she is a murdering psychopath.

Us supposedly unloving ACONs who no longer love our abusers, nor smile up at the Big Brother's or Big Mamas who sought to literally destroy us, physically and otherwise, are deemed as the "radicals" who must be silenced or ostracized. I notice some of the most popular and well read blogs--even ones on a 10 year long hiatus, preaching the societally mandated messages of "love your abusers", definitely move up the ranks. I do not think this is by accident.

One reason I am no longer a Christian, is the oppressive nature of the conservative Christian world. I do see the conservative Christian world as allied with evil. This shows on multiple layers. I can be allies with liberal Christians even as one who no longer believes in the religion who see a loving Jesus of freedom--a radical Christ who was seen against the system, but lets be frank modern conservative Christians belong to a religion that is power focused. Pay attention to WHO they tell you to love. It's not the down and out or weak. It's not the disabled people chained up in a cage. This is a religion that pushes full ableism. They want you to love your abuser. They want you to love the mother who abused you. They are happy when people are obedient and LOVE their murdering sociopaths or in the case of the Turpins someone who chained you to a bed and left you mal-nutritioned for years.

Conservative and evangelical Christianity kills empathy and these conservative Christians only value families and "breeders" so single people who are disabled are deemed worthless and disposable, with the emphasis that love should be given to murdering psychopaths and narcissists. I know questioning these societal edicts by the way, is really sticking my head out. These are some of the most controversial articles that earn me the most ire. How dare you? I know with this one it may bring negative responses. That's fine with me. If more people spoke out, maybe we'd get somewhere instead of being told to coddle and enable abusers.

Anna V was one of the most well-liked ACON bloggers out there. With Anna, since she was someone who lit up my path out, I hope she understands and reads this not seeing condemnation but being brought to a place of self-examination to ask herself what are you allied with? Why do you preach love for the worse? Do you really love your abusers, or do you assent because you are told you MUST? Why didn't you question the message of this book like I did?

No one loved the disabled and poor in this book. They were seen as "throw-aways" desperate for a home. I write this article to defend them and others like them, who have the world busy loving the sociopaths. Kathy and Ronald deserved a lot better. Maybe the daughters instead of going on about loving their mother and making excuses for their cowardice should have confronted their lack of love for them. I cried reading about how Kathy and one daughter were even close and Kathy showed her love and was betrayed even after all that.

By the way, being disabled myself, I know people who have been desperate and very abused invited into homes. One of my closest friends who I talked to on the phone everyday for 17 years, was locked up and chained to a bed, to have a Social Security check stolen before I knew her. The vulnerable of this society became far more so as the evil are enabled, and given far higher places. That horrible deliverance minister invited people in, to live with her. She preyed on the disabled too to play her head games and from what I could tell many of her clients that did go live there, were homeless and poor and disabled. To be disabled in American society means you are very vulnerable and forced to be dependent on the help of others. Disability checks especially SSI are well below survival levels. Many predators take advantage of that.

Those who wax on about love for their abusers, have rejoined the system and promote it.

Anna V is friends with Sister Renee. I was on her boards when I was still a Christian. One scary thing about Sister Renee, she wrote an "OK BOOMER" flavored book about "mooches", aka poor people in her family. That probably tells you everything you need to know. Younger people [Gen X on down] have been horribly abused by religious boomers who refuse to acknowledge how the economic world has changed for them. I was going to order her books but after I saw that decided not to. I knew someone who had such a horrible attitude towards poor people was not someone who was going to relate to my situation.

Obviously Sister Renee is not someone who is on the economically disenfranchised side, as her anger is for the relatives who borrowed money from her. I would see her outraged posts about those in need on her Facebook pages too and it turned me off. The existence of this book angered me years ago, because many scapegoats end up poor and out of money....so she writes this well-off woman book complaining about poorer family members?

Let's just say the conservative Christian track record with the poor, isn't a good one. This is another place where I wonder about the higher status and money influencing ACON writings. I used to love Anna V's blog, but now that's no longer true.

Maybe I changed, it may not be all her, but to see so many backtrack on formerly strong stances can be rough. There's not many ACON blogs out there. Having one of the most well-known ACON blogs backtrack on the strong positions of ten years ago is not easy. I worry about other ACONS who may have even gone no contact years ago, finding her blog, and feeling uneasy. The illusion of "changed" narcissists is a scary and dangerous one too, as many ACONs feel the pressure to "forgive" their families and I have heard of people even going back into the fray 10 years later only to be reburned and abused.

She is promoting a false dream there to many. My sister is never going to suddenly see and validate me. That's a fool's notion. God never changed my narcissists or made what happened to me right or brought me any justice. Everyone loved and chose my mother. What does love mean, when all the love is meant for the most cruel? Nothing. She wrote about her family's abuse, and cruelties for years and suddenly now they are alright? Contact is just fine after she preached no contact? How many of us ACONs were shamed for not loving our abusers?

Notice the message here, even the Knotek sisters LOVE their monster mother, and the message is "so should you". Be wary of pro-establishment ACON blogs, message boards, support groups etc. I had one blogger years ago, do the "you are so unforgiving" line with me years ago. They know what they are doing preaching these messages. There's a lot of forces in society that do not want people questioning power structures of family, politicians, and monied circles. Dealing with narcissism and how evil works is getting right to the heart of it all.

It does not escape my attention that books like this one, or that Educated book, I wrote on all have the message, "Love your abusers, Love Big Brother/Mama/Father". The memoirs that get all the attention are the ones where the victims "forgive" and still love the abusers. People are lied to and told if they are forgiving and nice, they will go on to have great lives. What a con that is! It goes along with the inspiration porn used against the disabled and the poverty porn meritocracy lies! The abusers show absolutely no love, but the abused are to submit and love even to monster psychopaths and murderers. No one ever asks why everyone is being told to love the people who are life-long incapable of it, and have proven themselves to dangerous to the rest of us. These authors play a game that they have 'transcended" evil by loving the evil and it is a lie. They have abandoned and betrayed the victims of the evil over and over.

They all push this disgusting forgiveness agenda that enables evil. Here it is even promoted for a disgusting woman that makes Ted Bundy look benign because he at least killed his victims quickly while this one drew out the torture and pain over a series of months. The daughters in this book were accomplices to evil. Their love for their mother does not impress me, it sickens me.

{Update on this, I still follow teachings of Jesus Christ, but conservative Christianity is following a scary path in this world}

Mr. and Mrs. Peep Talk About 10 Years of the Five Hundred Pound Peep Blog and Life

• 500 POUND PEEP INTERVIEW (6/14/20)
  
  500 POUND PEEP (FHPP): All right, Mr. Peep...

  
  

  MR. PEEP (MP): Yes?

  
  

  FHPP: How do you feel about Budge's 500 Hundred Peep blog, that she started 10 years ago? She was both trying to find out why she was so fat, and why she never lost weight, and she was also trying to figure out her life.

  
  

  She started her blog, after we had moved here, and after you had lost, had your job layoffs, and I know it was kind of like a psychological help tool – but what did you think of the last 10 years of 500 Hundred Pound Peep? Then I'm going to get into the no contact question.

  
  

  MP: All right. Well, it definitely did start out, mostly about the Five Hundred Pound Peep, but it's been interesting to watch it broaden from beyond that, even. So I'd say, the first half of that era is very much about what you just said, psychological self-discovery, or self-examination...

  
  

  FHPP: Figuring out the weight issues.
  
  MP: And, to a certain degree, self-affirmation, too, because it wasn't like the outside world was necessarily providing you with that.

  
  

  FHPP: Yeah, that's true. Especially with size acceptance being so limited.

  
  

  MP: Well...

  
  

  FHPP: Of course, I questioned aspects of size acceptance at the start, but –

  
  

  MP: But remember, even all that stuff we went into, back in Chicago, it was for a certain group of people, and they had tons of money, and they were always on the edge of the earth, all these events.

  
  

  FHPP: Yeah, I remember. That was one thing I always thought about size acceptance in Chicago. They seemed – OK, it was very Boomer dominated. That's one thing I didn't think about at the time. It was very wealthy, Boomer dominated. In fact, I don't even think NAAFA's still alive at all, in the same way. And I would even concede that they failed, not selling themselves to the new generations, or being real about our economics.
  
  Because, if you think about it, here's one fact. Most super-sized or even mid-sized people are not, today, able to get the jobs that people in the past were. I'm not even talking, just even disabled overweight people, like me, who are in the highest stratospheres, but I'm talking mid-sized.

  
  

  Right now, maybe 30 years ago, someone could get a decent job if they got up, went there, did their work. But now, it goes, you have to fit with the health insurance. If they see you being too expensive, they'll get rid of you. You went through that with your job in 2007, since they laid you off, the very week I went on the insurance.

  
  

  MP: Yeah.

  
  

  FHPP: So that was some of the stuff I saw. But no, I didn't relate to everything, and I thought it was a very, kind of a classist, kind of shallow (group), because everything was about dating, and they never talked about anything with life.

  
  

  MP: Yeah. Well, I always used to groan, when these things came up, because I thought, “Well, there goes a Saturday,” because, remember, I was –

  
  

  FHPP: Yeah. I remember that.

  
  

  MP: I'd think – well, especially, it was more difficult, I think, when I started working again regularly. Because I'd think, “Well, it'll take us all day to get there, it'll take us all day to get back, and I'll only have one day to cram everything in.”

  
  

  FHPP: I was always scared, because everything was so far away. And then, when we did have a car, we had no hope to going to any of that stuff. And getting rides with people was miserable, and it was just too much to ask, and there was no bus or trains that ever went anywhere they met. It was all these very wealthy suburban people. And I mean, in that way, it was kind of disappointing to me. I expected to find maybe more support, and not have it be so limited.

  
  

  FHPP: Oh, yeah. I remember, even my job was way far out, too, in the suburbs. So, yeah.

  
  

  MP: So your eight-hour day is really a 10-hour day, basically, because of all the time that you spend, shelling out to get back and forth.

  
  

  FHPP: Yeah. All right. One thing I wanted to ask about, okay –

  
  

  MP: Well, let me wrap up this thought. Then we'll get to your next point.

  
  

  FHPP: All right.

  
  

  MP: But, anyway, it's interesting to see, once you moved beyond that (initial focus), some of the other things that you got into – your various commentaries on the issues of the day, or even the artwork that you got into showing, and even then, the extended writing that you started doing. So it's all been very interesting. I've learned aspects that I don't think I would have learned otherwise, had you not actually done that.

  
  

  FHPP: Okay. All right. How do you think Five Hundred Pound Peep affected Peep being able to get diagnosed, and stay alive? You think the blog had anything to do with it?

  
  

  MP: I think it definitely helped, because people, of course, will always chime in: “Well, did you think about this, have you thought about that? Have you looked into this, have you looked into that?”

  
  

  FHPP: Yeah. Yeah, that definitely came up. Because, actually, when I was doing research on the blog, I found the picture about Lipedema. And I remember, I was in the nursing care, and they were talking about having me go to Mayo, because they knew something else was wrong.

  
  

  I remember when the head nurse came to me, and said, “We really want you to think about going to Mayo, because we watch you, we see you as you eat, we know something else is wrong.”

  
  

  And that's when I found that one illustration about Lipedema. And then, I had never heard of it, or maybe I read about it, and it kind of flew over my head years ago, when I was trying to research what was wrong. And I remember showing it to them, and that's where the explorations began, and the discussions with the doctors, and seeking out a lymph therapist. So I was able to get officially diagnosed later.

  
  

  MP: Yeah, what you did sort of reminds me, in a weird way, of what I read about (Sun Records founder) Sam Phillips doing later in life, when I read that bio.

  
  

  FHPP: Yeah?

  
  

  MP: He actually – remember, this was the pre-Internet era, so he would go to the library and get the medical papers about this condition he had, or that.

  
  

  FHPP: Yeah.

  
  

  MP: He did the research, and he would research other people's conditions that way.

  
  

  FHPP: I've done that, too. I've actually gotten people diagnosed before (laughs). I've read about so many weird medical conditions, where it's like information in my head. Does that make sense?

  
  

  MP: Yeah, I have a feeling you and Sam would probably have hit it off beautifully, on the research aspect.

  
  

  FHPP: Probably, yeah (laughs). All right, a very component of Peep's blog, that began around 2013, was when Peep decided to go contact with toxic and narcissistic relatives. She would end up, in 2017, basically going no contact with the whole family, though some cousins had ended up taking a little bit longer, but now, she ended up walking from all.

  
  

  How did you view Peep during this process, and do you think that it helped Peep in going no contact? And also, what were your own thoughts about her family, and what happened there, and how they appeared to you?

  
  

  MP: Wow, this is... Gee, I mean, we might be here all day, if we had to make a statement.
  

  FHPP: I know (laughs). Do your best.

  
  

  MP: I know. Well, I guess, on the first aspect of it, you seemed to be a lot more relaxed, once that took place.

  
  

  FHPP: Yeah.

  
  

  MP: I mean, towards the end of all these little visits we made, it began to feel more like a chore, than something you looked forward to. And I'd think, “Well, if all I'm really interested in is getting the latest magazines, I can certainly order them by mail, if that's really what I want to do.”

  
  

  FHPP: Yeah.

  
  

  MP: That's not enough. I mean, that particular city, there's not really a lot to look at, or do, honestly.

  
  

  FHPP: No, it was kind of a dead place. Even this little town's got a lot more. I remember, we'd go there, and she wouldn't say a word to me to the whole time. It'd get weird. She was cooking a meal for me, and giving me dirty looks. It just got too much. That got too much, too.

  
  

  MP: But even the experience of going to some of these places [bookstore in mother's town]– they started taking out the chairs, and places you could sit down. I'd think, “OK, I get it. You just want my money, and you want me to fuck off. Well, you know what? Maybe I will do just that.”

  
  

  FHPP: What do you mean, when we went to some of their gatherings?
  

  MP: No, when you went to the actual places – like the bookstore. Remember? They started taking all that away.

  
  

  FHPP: Oh yeah, I remember that, yeah.

  
  

  MP: It's like, “OK, you just want my money? All right, fine. I won't show up, then, because you're not making me feel welcome.”

  
  

  FHPP: Yeah.

  
  

  MP: So the store was very much an extension of the (Peep's family's) house, I thought. It was a metaphor for how they treated you.

  
  

  FHPP: What was your experience of Five Hundred Pound Peep's family? Do you think they were toxic people?

  
  

  MP: I thought they were strange, and unusual, but not necessarily in a good way.

  
  

  FHPP: Yeah. I think so, too.

  
  

  MP: Because the one thing, I think, I noticed about – well, two things, actually, about most of them. When they did talk, they mostly talked about themselves and their own pursuits. They never showed much interest in other people, really.

  
  

  FHPP: Yeah, that's true.

  
  

  MP: And, of course, they always thought they were experts, on this, that and the other, even if it was pretty clear to me that they really weren't. And that was basically – I mean, I even thought the way they treated each other was strange, honestly.

  
  

  FHPP: In what way?

  
  

  MP: Well, they didn't always seem to get along with each other, that was one thing.

  
  

  FHPP: I know. I had enough of the abuses, and stuff, but, yeah. And what did you notice in that, that they were always fighting?

  
  

  MP: It reminded me a lot of what they would say about the crime families: “This one falls in with this one, this one falls out with that one.”

  
  

  FHPP: Yeah, it was like that, exactly. It was like being in a mob family (laughs). It was like that.

  
  

  MP: That was one of the strangest parts of all of it, to me. Or maybe not. Well, it wasn't strange to them, but I'd be thinking, “Well, how far are we going to take this, exactly? And where are you going to see yourself ending up, at the end of the day?”

  
  

  FHPP: Yeah, that's true.

  
  

  MP: All right. So what was the other part of what you were asking?

  
  

  FHPP: What's that?

  
  

  MP: Well, what did I notice, and how it affected you, and I think you asked a third one.

  
  

  FHPP: Yeah. I asked, what did you think of Peep going no contact, and how it's played out?

  
  

  MP: Well, at the time, it seemed like some scorched earth, extreme sort of scorched earth step to take. But now, it would appear, maybe not so much.

  
  

  FHPP: Yeah.

  
  

  MP: Because I notice, now that Peep's a little more relaxed, and a little more centered, I guess, if that's the term we can use here.

  
  

  FHPP: Yeah.

  
  

  MP: And you don't spend all your time worrying about, “Well, what are they gonna do? What are they gonna think? How are they gonna react?”

  
  

  FHPP: Yeah, I remember all that (laughs).

  
  

  MP: Because, I would add, it's the same –

  
  

  FHPP: You don't realize this, but I always had to be on the ball, and vigilant, because they were so crazy, and abusive, that even when I was in contact, I had to be on my toes, so crazier stuff didn't happen, you know.

  
  

  MP: Because it, funnily enough, it's the same thing with toxic work environments, too. You go there thinking, “What are they gonna do to me today? How bad is this gonna be?”
  

  FHPP: Yeah, it was exactly like that.

  
  

  MP: Or, if you wanted to try to be a Positive Pete, you'd say, “How am I gonna get through the day without an incident?”

  
  

  FHPP: Yeah, Positive Pete (laughs).

  
  

  MP: But yeah. “How am I gonna get through, without getting scorched by them? How am I gonna make it unscathed?”

  
  

  FHPP: Yeah.

  
  

  MP: Although, that's not a very noble goal, if you think about it: “Dear Lord, please let me get through the day without some kind of useless drama.”

  
  

  FHPP: Yeah, and think about it. We only, usually, on average, went to go see them, two to four times a year. [Low-Contact]They never came (in) our direction.

  
  

  MP: No.

  
  

  FHPP: No. I was expected to call once a month, and all that.

  
  

  MP: Well, that was another thing that I got tired of. When gas prices shot back up, it was much more difficult, I remember.

  
  

  FHPP: Yeah, that was one thing, too. Them being all wealthy, they didn't know that for us to dig up 80 bucks, to go on one of these trips – that could mean no groceries for that week.

  
  

  MP: Yeah. So that became an irritant to me, at the end. I'd be thinking, “Well, you can do this yourself. You can come this way once in a great while.” Because felt, “I'm tired of putting my hands in my pockets, every single time” –

  
  

  FHPP: Yeah, that's true.

  
  

  MP: To make it work. No, I don't miss any of that. Well, and as for the magazines, I like the old ones, better, anyway.

  
  

  FHPP: Yeah, that's true (laughs).

  
  

  MP: I haven't seen that many new ones that have impressed me, to be really honest, so...

  
  

  FHPP: All right, one last question. What do you think of Peep's recent writings? Like, I wrote on Coronavirus, and what's happening there...

  
  

  MP: Well, let's see – well, you've written some stuff about religion, of course. There's that aspect.

  
  

  FHPP: Yeah, oh, yeah. What did you think of Peep's deconversion (from Christianity)?

  
  

  MP: Well, it didn't bother me, because –

  
  

  FHPP: Well, you never believed that way, so, it was like –

  
  

  MP: No, but I mean, I never said, when you did go that way (to born again Christianity), I never said, you shouldn't do it.

  
  

  FHPP: Yeah. Well, we were both married in the UU (Unitarian Universalist church), so I'm glad we're both back in the UU.

  
  

  MP: But I wasn't going to tell anybody what to do. I don't want anybody telling me what to do.

  
  

  FHPP: I'm glad I never did try to tell you what to do, either. I think, when you see a married couple split up over religion, they're trying to tell each other what to do.

  
  

  MP: Yeah. Well, but the way that that works best, I think, is everybody has their spheres of influence.

  
  

  FHPP: Yeah.

  
  

  MP: Because I don't believe in the absolute dominance model, like Fred Mertz bawling at his wife, for instance, on I Love Lucy. I don't believe in that. And I don't believe in total laissez-faire, either.

  
  

  FHPP: How do you think Peep's changed since the deconversion?

  
  

  MP: I would say, well, let's see – well, you're exploring a lot more things that probably would have been deemed to be off limits (as a Christian).

  
  

  FHPP: Yeah.

  
  MP: I've seen you sort of that doing a bit. And, of course –

  
  

  FHPP: Well, before Coronavirus hit, life had gotten more enjoyable, especially music-wise.

  
  

  MP: Well, exactly. Think of the dilemma, I think, that Christian kids must go through, because they know – let's say they were living in a really restrictive household, where Mom and Dad said, “Well, you can only listen to Christian rock, or Christian hip-hop, or whatever.”

  
  

  FHPP: Yeah.

  
  

  MP: And then, they see what their classmates are listening to, and that stuff seems a hell of a lot more exciting and relevant, you know?

  
  

  FHPP: I know. Well, you know, I kind of cheated on the music thing, all the time (laughs).

  
  

  MP: Yeah.

  
  

  FHPP: I was always listening to this stuff. And then, I was told, “Oh, it's all the Devil's music,” and it was messed up. I'm glad to have left all that behind.

  
  

  MP: But there are a lot of people, I think, in Christian households, who probably have to walk that tightrope.

  
  

  FHPP: Yeah, it's too much control. How did you think she got drawn into that, Peep got drawn into that? I know I'm talking about myself in the third person – how do you think she got drawn into that?

  
  

  MP: Well, it coincided when you got sick. That was a big part of it, I think.

  
  

  FHPP: Yeah. I talked about on there a little bit, that I thought it was trauma induced.

  
  

  MP: Well, usually, people –

  
  

  FHPP: And I was told, if you turned to God – you know, you think about having all that stuff we went through, with the poverty, and the illness, and stuff – I guess I thought it'd make life better, or I thought I was doing something wrong.

  
  

  MP: People are rarely going to do it when things are running well. It's usually when things are looking a little questionable, that people are more likely to be more receptive to that idea.

  
  

  FHPP: Yeah, I agree. They do prey on people, who have health problems or money problems, or they don't feel like they have control of their life. And it's kind of like, they sell a product to you, even though you might not necessarily pay them any money.

  
  

  It's like, “If you do this and that, your life will come together.” Or, at least it'll have, “Your sufferings will have purpose, or some kind of meaning to them, and it'll be brought into order.” And it's just, all false. It's falsehoods.

  
  

  MP: Well, this is the central idea of the Resurrection, that often gets overlooked. Because the implication is, “If you buy into this, it's not only about Jesus overcoming death, and rising again, you're gonna get to do this with him.”

  
  

  FHPP: Yeah.

  
  

  MP: So there's the idea of, your redemption is tied to his redemption.

  
  

  FHPP: Yeah. Yeah, I would say, that's true.

  
  

  MP: So I think that's a central tenet, for sure.

  
  

  FHPP: Well, I mean, that's probably what makes it appealing to people. All right, let's sum up. What do you think of Peep's latest articles?

  
  

  Let me try and think – I did, “They destroyed the world with Coronavirus.” I know, I'm so paranoid (laughs). I haven't been writing about them (Peep's family members) much – there's been more cultural stuff, I would say, lately.

  
  

  MP: I would say, it just shows, Peep's doing a lot of listening and reading, and engaging with the world. Peep still wants to do that, even if Peep's behind four walls, so that part of Peep didn't really change.

  
  

  FHPP: All right, that's a good summation. Just leave it at that. My voice is getting tired from talking.

  
  

  MP: Yeah. Oh, great – now, I've got a lot of fucking work to do, now, I've got to transcribe all this! (MP, FHPP both laugh loudly at this point.) But that's all right. It's work I don't mind doing, if you do it for yourself.

When the Bottom Falls Out: Trump has Declared War on the American People

The above is a poster I drew in 2017 and carried in a local protest. It is ironic now, given what is happening....

Trump has declared war on the American people and his traitor lackeys are following lockstep.

He plans to order the military out on American people. Many Democratic governors are protesting including my own. I hope they refuse and disobey and stand against this dangerous man and joke of a leader. I saw the governor of Illinois express his outrage too on CNN. Trump ranting on about "dominating" the American people, showed his malignant narcissist nature. He hates us and wants to crush us. Think about that. He offers no solutions, no peace, and no problem solving such as advancing police reform and racial justice.

Everything is about control and compliance to him. Trump wants to crush the USA. He hates us. He is a racist, he will bring nothing but destruction and has already bought death to our shores via this pandemic. If you still support Trump or the Republican party, and I will say this to even friends of mine, what's wrong with you? It's time to get up and walk out, and take your vote with you.

Trump is a traitor, and actively seeking to destroy the United States of America. Every action he has has taken has incited more violence and more instability. Instead of standing against racism or calling for reforms against police brutality, Trump calls for more brutality. He has no empathy for the 40 million and growing unemployed Americans who can't even pay their rent or buy food from the pandemic he caused. I believe every Republican senator that failed to impeached acted as bad actors against America too. Putin must be jumping for joy.

I don't know if Trump can get away with turning American soldiers against USA citizens or even if they will obey. Here's an irony here, before most conspiracy people were turned into Trumptards, conspiracy websites used to warn about Fema and claimed one day American soldiers would shoot American citizens, well look what side they are on!

Maybe they wrote the Patriot Act and NDAA for a reason.

https://fivehundredpoundpeeps.blogspot.com/2015/02/this-is-result-of-ndaa.html

I used to get mocked as crazy and paranoid for years, when I brought up my distrust of 9-11 era changes in laws. My Nazi family almost seemed ready to tackle me one day when I said, "9-11 has been used to destroy our civil liberties."

Basically all dissenters, if Trump gets away with this, can be rounded up and blacked boxed. I warned for years what it meant to deny American citizens a trial, and naming them as "enemy combatants" for "homeland security". This is what Trump and his supporters lust for, a complete totalitarian police state with no barriers. I haven't seen any news commenters mention NDAA or the Patriot Act, but remember that's out there. Don't think a trial will be there for you, if you get rounded up in a protest.

The build up to full fascism has been going on for a long time. Trump is merely a step in the process. Things worsened with 9-11 and the "war on terrorism" almost 20 years ago. The country was bankrupted from endless wars that never ended in the Middle East. They created secret prisons, rewrote rules that destroyed basics of the Constitution like a right to a trial, militarized the police, set up surveillance systems they expanded on, infiltrated and shut down every group that wanted change. They made the job and employment world more oppressive, denied people work based on credit checks, lowered wages making life too expensive to afford, allowed bosses to fire on a whim, destroyed unions, and  tied health care to compliance at work so many lose their jobs when they lose their health and vice versa.  Trump has added to this attacking the press, breaking hundreds of laws, where Nixon was forced to resign over far less.  It's been going this way for a long time. I used to make comments about Trump's name while in conspiracy mode. What does the word Trump mean? Trump was a card game word, that means "beat someone". I suppose Trump is beating the USA now.

Yesterday, I and my husband were watching CNN, and saw Trump march in front of a church to appeal to his religious base and hold up a Bible up high. I joked, "If there was a God who cared, that bible would burst into flames and some lightning would solve our problems for us!".

Pondering bible prophecy too, I made another joke, "Everyone thought the antichrist would look cool and be styling to fool everyone, no one imagined it would be an ugly orange dope." Humor aside, it's gross to watch this sadistic fool pander to his legions of deluded religious followers.


Two weeks ago, I was watching Handmaid's Tale. This show was somewhat triggering given my fundamentalist Christian past though even though I never became a Republican and was against Dominionism. The Christian Taliban is as much a danger to America as any other extreme group. It looks like they've taken over just like on that show.

Two scary facts about the story line in Handmaid's Tale: A pandemic makes it possible for the "Sons of Jacob"--the religious extremists to take over, and secondly armed men with AK 47s take over various government buildings which allow the extreme religious cult to take over and institute an authoritarian government. Remember the intimidation by protesters in Michigan, making death threats against the governor there? Trump called them "very good people", while calling people at the recent protests "thugs".

Religion is often used as control by elites, and well the evangelical base of Trump, has literally brought hell to our country. They vote and stand for oppression.

I wonder if I will be a victim in Trump's purges to come. Dictators love those. When pro-fascist Trump recently came out against Antifa, or anti-fascist people, it made me wonder if I dared to wear my "Fatties against Fascism" t-shirt out in public, if I would get black boxed somewhere. I also belong on Facebook to the group Fat Rose/Fat Lib Ink. They are a fat rights group that have directly stood against fascism. I still will give them my support as well as other liberal causes.


It's interesting in World War II, American soldiers fought against fascism, but now the Orange Sociopath blatantly supports it. Antifa is a nebulous word or definition where Trump could round up any leftist he wants, claiming they are anti-fascist. This is one place where my disgust for his stupid followers is high, because they are basically admitting they are fascists supporting this man.

Don't forget Trump allowed the pandemic to come here, ignoring intelligence, setting the USA up for destruction. He has given no words of solace to those who have died from his willful failures to the American people. We have a nation of people who have been locked down for three months. The young can't go to school, they were forced home from college, their jobs and futures wiped away. Many do not have money to pay their bills. Some have lost loved ones.  Many have lost their jobs or even seen their businesses ruined. Unlike other countries that froze bills, this one in it's greed had every car insurance company, utilities, landlords demanding the same pay outs. Just wait until the now delayed evictions get in full swing. The number of homeless people will skyrocket. When you push people into the "nothing to lose" category, chaos is what you get.

The first 1200 was vaporized with rent and food for many last month and now this month's rent is due. There are 40 million and growing unemployed people and those jobs aren't coming back. I wrote weeks ago on my reddit account and Facebook that riots would be forthcoming. All it needed was on spark, and with the out of control racism, and police brutality in this country, it was only a matter of time.

If a second stimulus doesn't come, expect the USA to burn and crime to skyrocket. Our supposed leaders were already arguing over giving people a second one. The whole system is jerry-built, the job system and capitalist system was falsely propped up and failing long before the pandemic came. No one had enough money to buy enough shit anymore.

Both parties don't represent us anymore. I am probably going to vote for Biden, this is a very hard and reluctant choice for me just because Trump is so much of a monster, but I don't expect oligarchy Biden or his VP to fix anything, I am merely trying to buy survival time or a pause in the chaos. That's if we even get to have an election. Sanders could have fixed things, and he tried, but rich assholes, conservative boomers and brainwashed people stood in the way. The young have been disenfranchised, and by young I mean 50s and under, and life in the inner city grew harder and harder. Poverty and despair have grown out of control. Racism has increased under Trump. People can't afford homes, or lives or families. The jobs don't pay enough or are near impossible to get. People are fed up.

The American people have dealt with one atrocity after another, and don't want to take it anymore.  Before as our leaders did their stupid shit, one still had their lives and one could live life. Now that they have taken that away [I support the lock downs to protect everyone] lets be frank, turning the country into a petri dish has added fear, horror and loss to everyone's life. This stuff is unforgiveable. They have enriched themselves while adding more pressure to the situation. Our own leaders have become abusers, who in their greed, have brought destruction, death and the ruining of millions of dreams. Some are wisely asking, who am I in this country? African Americans are tired of being treated like second class citizens and murdered by cops who get back up from corrupt court systems.

What will happen? Trump is setting up scenarios where America could collapse into war. All it will take is live ammunition being used by the military on protesters. Other countries like Syria have collapsed from internal civil wars. Rural and urban could divide. I live in a now Democratic run state, but live in a conservative rural enough area, where Proud Boys are now driving around with large blue lined black flags waving from their pick up trucks. Our state government was already intimidated by fascists with their artillery protesting the lock-downs.  Governors are expressing outrage at the insanity of Trump. If the protests are suppressed, the crack-downs will be harder. The racism and police state will grow in power.  If the protests continue, then Trump's violence could bring war and instability to the United States. Most protester were peaceful protesters, and that's another problem too with agitators and others probably doing their thing, with most of the mainstream news focusing on looters instead of the message. Some Black Lives Matter protesters and others made it clear, that agent provocateurs and white supremacists were entering the fray to bring violence and looting, to set up up the alt-right dream of  the boogalo uprising that will bring a second civil war to the United States.

Trump is a destructive force and evil to the core. Some brainwashed types will blather "Orange Man, Bad!" at me for telling the truth, but he truly is.

In my household, I have had midnight conversations about fleeing the United States. I never thought I would have these conversations. My husband doesn't want to leave. We don't have money and no one wants older and chronically ill disabled people.  I see bad things coming. Maybe it's reading too many history books, maybe it's knowing about my now deceased German mother in law hiding from snipers in the woods as a pre-teen. Maybe I've seen too much in this life time where I can't live in the usual positive thinking and denial bubble of too many Americans around me. My conscience is clear, I stood up against Trump, sadly he is taking America further down the road to destruction and evil and too many are allowing him. History probably will repeat itself. I don't support violence or looting of innocent small businesses, but I do support the protesters. I think when Trump won, we knew what he was and what he would bring. That poster of 2017? I was right. He is a fascist and now he's trying to destroy America.

George Floyd

People Who Refuse to Social Distance

I hate that term social distancing, it seems like a form of social engineering....

That said, I woke up in a cold sweat for running into this neighbor without mask having forgotten mine, and then stepping into an elevator [she was on] to try and take care of a laundry problem. Going into the elevator was dumb what if she cough in it?

I should put it on before I step out the front door but it being late didn't expect to run into anyone. I also forgot. My husband couldn't get money on the laundry card, and I was trying to figure it out and racing upstairs to the laundry room. The office was closed so the machine to put cash on it was inaccessible.  The process was Byzantine and supposedly you had to learn it by osmosis. Endless googling didn't tell us either.

One neighbor upstairs with a mask and after I had put one on in my pocket told me, you had to get a code on the computer to punch in to the machine to get money on your laundry card. We broke it down and figured it out, but it took too long. By the way how is anyone doing anything now without a computer or a smart phone? All the directions were smart phone ones too by the way and we don't own one. He had just tried to figure it out, I was going upstairs to give it a try. As usual my apartment had imploded, and he had been sick for three days unable to walk barely from gout. Since he is my caretaker this ups the stress levels to the zenith.

Anyhow even while walking to the elevator, I grimaced to see this neighbor in the hall, I managed to stay 10 feet or more away but then dumbly without thinking stepped into the enclosed empty elevator she had just been on without a mask.  All these people think I am rude or paranoid by the way as I turn around. Some of them walk towards me uncaring. Is this the result of a Republican area where they all think the virus is a hoax? I am dodging neighbors like a game of Predator or something.

This woman is a problem, it seems every other minute I am running away from her. Most of the time I have a mask on when doing so. I have problems breathing in the masks too which complicates their use, but I will put one on to leave here and walk slowly outside, but there's times they make me gasp from my COPD. I have a medical grade one so am not trying to breathe through too thick of cloth.

She smokes down stairs and is on the front stoop of the apartment building, 3 out of every 10 times, I try to go somewhere. Living in an apartment during pandemic is rough. One day the mailman ran the doorbell with my very expensive lung medicine. I had just stepped out of the shower and put clothing on and had to race out to catch him before he left to get the medicine. Now that the USA seems to be imploding I wonder how the mail system will do. Forgot the mask then too. He didn't have one on either. He at least handed me the box at the most distance possible.

In parks, one has to watch out for people who will walk right up on top of you. I don't get out where there's a lot of people but one day, I was in the car and wanted to take a picture of a scene in a park. Some people from behind tried to walk right up on me as I opened the car door. I hope I don't sound like a mask Nazi, but aren't these people afraid of getting the virus? I am high risk, and have made too many errors.

My husband has gone into stores, with a mask, and I have stayed out of stores except one since March 9th. I see the people without a care in the world, no mask, they don't even try to stay away from other people walking into the stores and rest.

I hope I don't catch it. All of this has not been good for someone like me with anxiety disorders and lung problems. I've made my own mistakes too. One thing to be noticed is it is always me trying to avoid some of these people. I don't blame the mailman, but the rest, they all walk towards me without a care in the world.

George Floyd

Just like Eric Garner....another black man killed by police and he said, "I can't breathe" too.

I couldn't watch all the video when that cop killed George Floyd, it was too much. Watching the other evil cops stand there too while the man begged for his life, barely able to talk, was too much. They should be charged as accessories to his murder.

America becomes a worse fascist and racist hellhole everyday. Trump the traitor is making it happen.

Watching the Orange Monster incite more violence and crow on Twitter about his Secret Service doing violence against Americans was disgusting. In the 19th century, Trump would already have been tarred and feathered and driven out on the rails.

I wrote some time ago, riots were coming. We have 40 million plus and counting unemployed and a non-contained pandemic. One spark is all it took to set it off. There's so much police brutality in this country, it was going to happen somewhere. Sadly George Floyd is one man among many black men and women killed by police brutality.

Our elites don't care, this is why they keep pushing people to the brink, destroying their lives and doing genocide on them-COVID 19 IS GENOCIDE and the African American community is one of the communities suffering the worse--as well as Native Americans without some push back.

Republicans with too many Dem enablers are responsible now for civil unrest in America. The fact nothing is being done about Trump even as he incites violence means the system is probably beyond repair. One can have hope with the good police who quelled violence in their communities like the Flint sheriff who marched with protesters, but sadly most are promoting as much violence as possible, even shooting at people with paint canisters as they stand on their porches in Minneapolis.

"The Rise of the American Idiot"

"The world’s idiot army is being desensitized, habituated, to mass death, to violence on a surreal scale. The world’s demagogues — Trump, Bolsonaro, etc — they aren’t letting death on a mass scale happen and regretting it. They’re revelling in it. Why? Because they know if they can get people to cross this last line, then anything is possible.

It’s one thing to get people to vote against their own healthcare, retirement, education, income, savings — as Trump, Putin, Bolsonaro, Farage all did. It’s another — much greater one — to bring people to the point that mass death doesn’t register anymore. Then, if you’re a demagogue, you can manipulate and twist a country any way you like.

Once people have accepted the level of degradation of mass death, there is no further kind of degradation left. They have been dehumanized fully, finally. That is why the demagogues of the world are letting the pandemic rage. Just as any abuser knows that his victim being hurt is good for him, so too the demagogues know that a pandemic is a powerful weapon, too."

The Rise of the American Idiot

Guest Blogger: Toxic Christianity has Its Roots in Slavery, Capitalism, and Middle-Class White Supremacy

Here is a new guest post. This poster is a friend of mine and we enjoy talking about religion, sociology and life together.  This article was one she wanted to do when I was discussing the article "The Deconversion Community:Why People are Leaving Christianity."

She was great support to me during my deconversion from fundamentalist Christianity. One topic we have discussed for a long time is the negative effective of the religious right in America. We live in very dangerous times now, and racism is a poison that has taken over this country. The desire to dominate, control and oppress has now entered insanity territory, where human lives are now put as a lower priority then making money. That said, the poor, and working class and African Americans who are among their number are suffering the worse in this pandemic.

I do not think the word "genocide" is too extreme to use in examining Trump's actions in ignoring intelligence warnings to keep the virus from spreading, horrific handling of supplies, and early re-openings forcing poor and working class people to return to their service jobs working with the public and crowded warehouses while a pandemic rampages. They literally will have the choice between working and risking death from Covid19 or quitting and facing homelessness no longer qualifying for unemployment for 'refusing work'. It has personally astounded me, watching conservatives and Christians on Facebook still cheering for Trump and demanding the economy be re-opened. I understand the economic problems here, but let's not forget people carrying Trump 2020 signs to protest on behalf of their haircuts, and for Red Lobster and their giant megachurches to reopen, have done everything they can to deny fair wages, social equality, universal healthcare. They also have advanced racism and classism on multiple levels.

 My friend has taught me a lot. I asked her if she wanted to post on this topic on my blog since we were discussing the latest controversies with COVID19. There are historical elements to how we came to where we are today and race has played a huge role. Religion and politics have combined to form a toxic stew.  While there are liberal churches and historically African American churches that stand against the right wing political evangelical poison, sadly religion has often served as a vehicle for racism, and served negative purposes for power and domination. White supremacy and racism forms a lot of the core of the position we now find ourselves in today with Trump and the religious right. It also has formed many of the false teachings and harmful positions of the evangelical church where authoritarianism has led to the loss of freedom in America and here too, I can point to that book "Dying of Whiteness:How the Politics of Racial Resentment is Killing America's Heartland'. Racism has led conservative whites to their own self-destruction even. Aren't we seeing this now in this plague?

Toxic Christianity has Its Roots in Slavery, Capitalism, and Middle-Class White Supremacy

Have you wondered how and why some poor whites, people of color, and African Americans embrace or support a religion that harms them more than helping them?  Why are most evangelical Christians in the United States supportive of President Donald J. Trump and his policies that are not biblical?  Why are some Christians racist, classist, and bigoted?  Why do Republicans of the 1980s to the present decades call themselves Christians who are doing Lord’s work when you see that the policies they created work against people Jesus meant to reach?  I came up with my answers to these questions below based on my observations while I read about the history of the United States from the pre-Civil War era in the nineteenth century to the present.  

Conservative bullies and anti-stay-at-home activists recently use excessive forces, weapons, and threats of withholding financial resources to force and coerce others to give them what they want.  If you follow the news of protests in the state of Michigan, you probably notice that protesters held Confederate flags and carried rifles.  Republican legislatures in Michigan bullied, coerced, and forced Governor Gretchen Whitmer to curtail some of her policies.  Most conservative middle-class whites in Michigan are descendants of Confederate soldiers and Southerners who moved to Michigan for a job in the car making industry in the early twentieth century.  These descendants of Southerners know how to coerce and intimidate people into giving in to their demands by using weapons and taking “stepwise legal actions.”  Yes, they claim that they are evangelical Christians, and God-ordained President Trump to run the United States.

Several online news articles and videos noted these white supremacists and conservative protesters receive funds and support by conservative organizations that funded the Tea Party movement and lawmakers in the 2010s.  The purposes of these protests were to maintain white supremacy and to show their disregard for African Americans and Latinos who died from the COVID-19 virus in higher numbers compared to whites and Asians.  Checking on the news closely, I noticed that the protests began since the news came out that a higher percentage of those who died from the coronavirus were African Americans.  

These white supremacists do not care nor love Black and Brown people.  They hold complete disregard for people of color’s lives that they do not care if people of color would die if they continue to spread the virus by not staying at home and practicing safe distancing.  If a majority of people who died from COVID-19 were whites, they would not have protested.   

Most descendants of the Southerners and Confederate soldiers have a family history that includes members of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) and lynch mobsters.  Many Klan members are Christians, and some evangelist Christians are members of hate groups.  I left Christian churches as soon as I learned that Christian churches preached against interracial dating and marriage, members of hate groups are Christians, and Christianity supports the system of white supremacy.

Ku Klux Klan members and their descendants knew how to win their argument against Civil Rights policies and equality for African Americans, the people of color, and poor people.  Their ancestors did not go to prison or faced execution for lynching African Americans and liberal whites who fought for civil rights, voting rights, equality, and citizenship for African Americans.  The stories of the Ku Klux Klan’s conspiracy passed down for generations since the 1870s.  Some anti-stay-at-home protestors who carry Confederate flags are descendants of members of KKK, Confederate soldiers, planters, and business owners from the South.  

Most KKK mobsters were members of Christian churches in the South, and some pastors of Christian churches were members of the KKK.  Some pastors were Grand Dragons or leaders of their local KKK chapter.  Members of KKK, Confederate, and hate groups knew how to make the system work for them and how to make law enforcement agencies look the other way when they commit violent acts against others such as lynching.  Christian churches helped KKK and members of hate groups to stay out of trouble with the law. At the same time, African Americans and Latinx spent years in prison for committing a less serious offense such as shoplifting or trying to resist a police officer who harassed them.

Many toxic Christian churches you see today are churches that preach slaveholder’s religion.  The argument that Black and Brown women are single because God does not want them to get married until they give up their lives entirely to the Lord and become humble is an example of slaveholder’s religion.  

During the slavery days, African Americans had to be humble, servile, thankful, compliant, friendly, cooperative, childlike, and subservient.  Slaveholders and overseers used a whipping rope to beat runaway slaves or slaves who did not act submissive.  Slaves who did not possess docile behavior, personality, and attitude worked in the field where they faced abuses from overseers daily.  Slaves who behaved themselves and stayed humbled worked in the house.  You heard the terms such as Uncle Tom, Aunt Jemima, mammy, house Negro, Uncle Ben, or contented Black people.  

Racist white people expect African Americans to be religious, resourceful, spiritual, thankful, compliant, malleable, physically and mentally robust for backbreaking work, and contented. African Americans face bias and discrimination in the healthcare system because healthcare providers and administrators still hold racist views that African Americans do not need help, because they are physically and mentally stronger than people of other races. If African Americans protest or speak up for their rights, white supremacists will demonize them as angry people who need lessons.  Decision making white supremacists would withhold funds and resources, lynch successful or outspoken Black people to teach other Black people from speaking out, or create an adverse decision on Black people’s applications for a job, loan, apartment, license to own a business or admissions to a program.

The tensions between former slaves and their masters began during the Civil Wars because some slaves fought for the Unions to gain freedom while former masters fought for the Confederates.  After the war ended, Confederate soldiers came back home to face their devastating losses, including their slaves.  Many slaveholders, planters, and business owners opposed Reconstruction policies and Civil Rights for African Americans who were free Blacks and slaves before the Civil War.  To recover from their losses in business and properties, planters and business owners took political action to recoup their losses.  Slaves were one of the plantation owners’ properties, as they paid for their slaves.  

Many field slaves left their masters by moving to the North, Canada, or West.  Some former field slaves stayed in the South for a variety of reasons.  Several reasons were the system of debt peonage and the Black Codes that came into existence after John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Abraham Lincoln in 1865, and Lincoln’s successor, Andrew Johnson, created the Black Codes. Planters and business owners prevented former slaves from leaving from the South by lynching, engaging in deceptive financial transitions, and taking former slaves to court.  Former slaves who stayed in the South suffered financially during the Reconstruction era in 1863-1877.  

Planters and business owners refused to sell their property, land, and animals to former slaves, especially former field slaves.  Some masters held racist, paternalistic, and narcissistic views that their former house slaves “betrayed” them by not staying with them, especially if they were “kind masters.”  These supposedly “kind masters” expected loyalty from their former house slaves who received free housing, clothes, foods, and pleasant things that field slaves and white indentured slaves did not receive.  

Masters expected their former house slaves to show their thankfulness and loyalty by accepting their offer of low-wages and free housing.  For example, a “kind master” asked a former head house slave who worked as a butler and a counselor if he and his wife would work for him for wage and free housing arrangement.  The butler was assertive about his rights, new freedom, and a life with his family.  The butler hesitated to take his former master’s offer because he did not want to be a slave.  He tried to settle down with his family, start a business, and enjoy his life as a citizen of the United States.  

The butler said he would not take the job offer unless the master pays him back wages for forty-plus years of work as a slave.  The butler also asked the master to pay back the wages of his wife, parents, children, and siblings worked for some number of years they worked as slaves.  The master “felt slapped in the face” and a “sting of anger” at his former house slaves’ “disrespectfulness” and “ingratitude.”  The Christian’s message of God wanting Christians and decision-makers to withhold financial resources from African Americans and poor people came from masters’ perceptions, attitudes, and experiences after the Civil War ended and at the beginning of the Reconstruction era in 1865 through 1868.

The argument that God wants some people to be single and childless partially came from masters’ experiences with their female house slaves whom they thought should be thankful for a better living condition than those experienced by female slaves who worked in the field.  Singleness and childlessness is a modern form of slavery by another name because most single African American women do not receive financial and emotional support from their husband.  Single women without children come home without a family.  They spend holiday seasons without their family.  African American women are lonelier than women of other races for many reasons. Examples of the reasons are poor support systems in African American communities,  societal pressures to wait for African American men to choose them, and racism in the dating market.  Churches fail to provide support for single women who seek a husband.  In the recent decade, it became apparent that singleness and childlessness are enslavement and cultural genocide in another name.  

 According to history books, “kind masters” had sexual relations with house slaves, other white women, or free Black women.  After the Civil War ended, some former house slaves who moved with their husbands and family became assertive.  For example, a master claimed it upset him when his former house slave named Penny packed her suitcases and said goodbye.  The master did not like Penny’s way of saying goodbye because she was not as smiling, sweet, and subservient as she was before the Civil War.  Penny moved out of state with her husband and her family.  The premise that God chose not to answer our prayers for marriage, children, high paying jobs, admission to college, financial aid, or affordable housing came from slaveholder religion.  Churches in the South created slaveholder religion during the slavery days and customized their theological concepts after slaveholders, business executives, merchants, and landlords complained about their former slaves’ “behavior” when they moved out.

After Reconstruction ended in January 1877, federal troops left the South and stopped protecting African Americans there.  Reconstruction era policies lasted for fourteen years because white supremacists in the South resisted changes.  After fourteen years of violent incidents in the South, lucky African Americans left the South, while Southerner whites engaged in lynching and legal abuses against Black farmers, business owners, and families who tried to settle down. The election of 1876 was so contentious that Reconstruction policies ended when the anti-slavery Republican Presidential candidate, Rutherford B. Hayes, had to compromise to take his presidency.  Rutherford’s opponent, Samuel B. Tilden, was a pro-slavery Democrat and anti-Black.  African American and Radical Republicans voters did not want Tilden in the White House and fought against the rigged election.  KKK attacked, lynched, and threatened African Americans and Radical Republicans during the year of 1876.  

After the Compromise of 1877, the Reconstruction era ended.  As soon as federal troops left the South, horseback riders and lynch mobs attacked and killed African Americans and their white allies.  African Americans and anti-slavery activists dealt with shotgun intimidation and death threats. White supremacist bullies forced Radical Republicans officeholders to resign, give up their property, and move to the North.  During the Reconstruction era, African American farmers became poor because they had to pay exorbitant fees for clothes and food and to rent land.  When their crops dwindled, African American farmers became poorer and deeper in debt.  White supremacist merchants and landlords took advantage of farmers’ financial predicament.  When Black farmers saw that landlord and merchant took advantage of their situations by taking their legal rights away from them in business transactions, they asked elite Blacks and anti-slavery white allies for help.  

Black farmers and their families had to pay exorbitantly high prices for foods and merchandise compared to poor white farmers.  Merchants and property owners held Black farmers to very rigid standards, making sure Black farmers and their families would not earn a profit and move out of the South.  When black farmers or their family members appealed against their contracts to the court, white witnesses, judges, and juries conspired to make sure Black plaintiffs lost their cases.  Landlords charged black farmers more for the rent of land than the price of the land.  In the 1870s, Black emigrants wanted to move to the West, because there they could earn over twelve dollars per month.  In the South, Black farmers made only six dollars per month unpaid in cash because they had a credit arrangement with the merchant.  At the end of each contracted year, farmers were usually in debt to white storekeepers and property owners. 

Churches in the South, especially Southern Baptist Churches, supported the system to re-enslave African Americans.  Churches changed their theological concepts and arguments to help planters, businesses, and white supremacists.  Also, churches set poor whites and non-Black people of color apart from African Americans by supporting business owners, planters, merchants, or landlords who offered African American workers lower wages for a job they held as slaves.  Before the Civil War, most poor whites and immigrants sought a position that slaves held and worked without pay.  During the Civil War, poor whites and immigrants “competed” with slaves for jobs, for example, manufacturing weapons and clothes for Confederate soldiers.  

 

After the Civil War, poor white job seekers still competed with former slaves for a job since most slaves accepted lower wages or replaced white workers who went on a strike.  Because of competitions for the job and African American workers’ apparent willingness to accept lower wages and replace strikers, poor whites held a hostile attitude toward African Americans that they agreed to take part in the system of white supremacy.  Some militant members of KKK and lynch mobsters were angry poor whites, planters, business owners, and pastors.  

Conservative Christian churches abused many poor people that most poor people left Christian churches.  Many poor people do not see that God has wonderful plans for their lives if they are poor, single, childless, unloved, ignored, rejected, and held back by adverse decisions.  During the Reconstruction era, when the South adjusted how they would treat African Americans, Christian churches contributed to the system of white supremacy and supported Jim Crow laws.  Ministers gave messages of hope to poor whites to set them against African Americans.  Powerful Southern elites did not want poor whites and African Americans to fight for their rights together, so they set the system of white supremacy to reward poor whites.  Some historians noted that most poor whites became violent KKK lynch mobsters in the 1870s.  

Since the COVID-19, (coronavirus) pandemic and people throughout the world stay at home to prevent the spread of the virus, racist incidents and speeches took place.  African Americans, African-descent people in other countries, and Asians face the worst kinds of racial attacks against them.  In mid-April, the United States experienced the most positive COVID-19 results compared to other countries.  It became apparent that the United States failed to flatten the curb compared to citizens in other countries because small numbers of Americans refused to practice social distancing and stay at home.  Several pastors in the South disobeyed social distancing and stay-at-home orders by hosting crowded worship services.  In late April, several Governors gave in to pressure from gun-toting white supremacist bullies by reopening beaches, golf courses, and some manufacturing companies.  A Governor in the State of Georgia reopened hair salons, barbershops, movie theaters, beaches, nail salons, and fitness centers.  People who disobeyed the orders claimed they had faith in God; therefore, they believe COVID-19 is a hoax or something like that.

In mid-April, the news revealed that most people who died of coronavirus were African Americans.  Several days later, conservative middle-class whites in Michigan, Minnesota, California, Florida, Ohio, Washington State, Oregon, and other states protested against the stay-at-home order and social distancing policies.  Protesters would rather reopen the economy and earn money than to keep people alive because they learned that the higher majority of African Americans were the ones who died of COVID-19 rather than white people.  I suspected these protests had racist and hatred intents because the protests occurred after the data revealed that the highest percentage of people who died from the virus were African Americans.  

Most ardent protesters in the Midwest are descendants of Confederate soldiers, KKK members, and Southerner whites who moved to the Midwest to take a job in the car-making factory or a manufacturing firm.  The first groups of Southerner whites were poor whites and immigrants who moved to the Western Territories and the North for a job in industries after the Civil War.  In the early twentieth century, Southerner whites moved to Midwest for a job in a factory.  During the twentieth century, Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and states where factory workers lived, the tension between African Americans and whites occurred because some white factory workers fought to maintain the system of white supremacy while they worked to become middle-class.  

In the 1920s, the Second Wave of KKK congregated and lynched African Americans who asserted their rights as citizens of the United States.  If African Americans were successful, angry white supremacists felt a sense of rage.  They had similar rages as narcissistic people’s rages against their victims who spoke up or discard them too soon.  The Second wave occurred in the Northern States, where Southern emigrants moved for jobs in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.  Lynching occurred in the Northern States, such as those in Indiana on August 7, 1930.  The lynching took place “to prevent African American men from marrying white women,” and African Americans from gaining freedom, citizenship, and equal rights.  Some white supremacists used white women as excuses to commit inhumane acts against African American men, women, and children.

Churches in the Midwest and states where many blue-collared workers lived held racist views on African Americans.  White supremacist churches hated African Americans because they held racist beliefs that Black people are genetically, socially, mentally, and physically inferior to whites and individuals of other races.  They held racist views about the way African Americans look (hair, skin color, lips, and nose).  Their racist views about African-descent people’s beauty colored their attitude when they deal with Black people in their everyday lives.  The white supremacy and the Jim Crow laws in the South later influenced makers of eugenic laws, creators of racist scientific theories and standardized exams, and Adolf Hitler’s policies during the Second War World.  Adolf Hitler claimed he was a Christian!

Christian churches preach against interracial marriages, and it left many African American women single.  Many African American men chose women of other races.  Churches provide bad dating and marriage advice.  I was suspicious when I noticed many single men stayed away from churches, so I have not been an active churchgoer for years.  Several Black women told me they attend church because they have faith in God, and they do not want to be angry or hopeless.  I noticed young African American adults left churches after they left their parents’ homes.  

The lynch mobsters during the Second Wave committed horrific crimes against African Americans, but the authorities did not prosecute them.  Examples of appalling crimes are kidnapping, mutilation of bodies, burning bodies, cannibalism, cutting off body parts, showing public displays of murder victims, and taking pictures of lynching victims to use it for postcards.  Some pastors took part in lynching because they hated African Americans.  In some lynching incidents, pastors of Christian churches preached a sermon about lynching that would take place.  This is an example of white supremacists’ deep-seated hatred for African Americans.  Their hatred was so palpable that they invited small children and babies to watch lynching incidents on progress, to join them in the “BBQ” and cannibalize Black people’s bodies.  They taught white children to hate and desensitized their souls before they started kindergarten.  

Conservative Christian churches, including predominantly Black churches, are there to preach and convince poor people of all races, Black and Brown people, and marginalized groups to cooperate with the system of white supremacy and to accept their lots in life.  Every Sunday, pastors preached about why God did not answer people’s prayers.  Pastors claimed God did not help people to find their spouse, job, financial resources, homeowner loans, or favorable decisions, because God wants them to give up their lives to him completely.  Pastors claimed God wants people to give up their plans and goals, and let God control their lives.  Conservative pastors who lacked empathy claimed that God wants people to talk to him and accept his plans for their lives without questions asked, including giving up their plans for marriage and children.  Surrendering your life completely to the Lord means a life of slavery and abuses from Christians.  Many people could not meet these demands.

Thinking about a former butler and a house slave named Penny who did not stay with their “kind master,” I raised my eyebrows when pastors claimed God want poor people to be humble, get a thankful heart, and get along with people who made adverse decisions.  Most poor people and African Americans left Christian churches that preach slaveholder religion if their life situations never improved.  Many single adults left the church because pastors who talk about family denied single adults of gatherings or events where they could meet their future spouses.  Married Christian men or women refused to help single adults find their future spouses.  Churches talk about “faith” all the time when people complain about unanswered prayers.  

I left Christian churches two years ago after incidents with several Christians who spiritually abused and harassed me because I refused to give up my plans for marriage and children.  Since I left Christian churches, I felt free and a sense of relief.  I found liberal churches I plan to attend someday, as I am taking a break from churches.  Last year, when I got into an elite university without funds, I noticed that churches target poor people while I conducted a crowdfunding campaign.  Several people claimed that God was closing doors, so I could not go to an elite university that accepted my application.  I noticed I faced racism and classism for four months as I tried to raise funds for my education.

I also noticed liberal Christian churches like the ones Civil Rights activists joined compared to a conservative, predominantly black church I attended three years ago.  Prosperity gospel preachers meant to persuade African Americans and poor people from fighting for their Civil Rights or asking for funds.  It disturbed me when an African American member of a conservative church told me he did not believe in Civil Rights because he believes God would take care of his problems.  

The purpose of prosperity gospel churches is to calm down poor people and African Americans so that they would cooperate with the system.  Business owners and oligarchies do not want to deal with people who fight for their rights and opportunities.  They want poor people to cooperate with their profit-making schemes and oppression of poor people.  Thus, they paid ministers’ training for their positions with scholarships and full funding support in divinity school.  Wealthy powerful elites would not provide financial assistance to future Civil Rights activist ministers like Martin Luther King, Jr.  

Last year, I discovered a book about slaveholder’s religion and felt relieved when I read Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove’s "Reconstructing the Gospel: Finding Freedom from Slaveholder Religion."  Wilson-Hartgrove noted that Gospel we received at Christian churches that preach slaveholder’s religion is not Good News for African Americans, people of color, and poor people.  Slaveholders’ religion is the opposite of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  The Gospel of Jesus Christ includes freedom, equality, Civil Rights, and full citizenship for everyone.  Jesus Christ demands those in power to look at their hearts and change the way they treat others.  White supremacists who enjoy the system that favors them have to give up their privileges.  As a white man, Wilson-Hartington gave up his white privileges by moving into the Black neighborhood and working with Poor People’s Campaign with an African American preacher, Dr. Rev. William Leroy Barber.  

Today, most evangelist Christians follow the paths of these white supremacists, KKK, and lynch mobsters of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.  Most evangelist Christians who support Trump and heartless Republican lawmakers oppose laws that could have helped them because they do not want African Americans to receive funds and resources.  Churches and racist organizations taught them about American history.  KKK, Neo-Nazi groups, anti-Black groups, and conservative churches taught their members about the history of the Reconstruction era.  

The Reconstruction era was a point of contention to white supremacists’ narcissistic wounds because Black people who left the plantation “slapped” their former master’s face.  African Americans voted for Black and Radical white Republicans in election campaigns.  Because some African Americans already left the South during the Civil War, the Freedmen’s Bureau occurred to encourage former slaves to stay in the South and take land from plantation owners who lost their land during the Civil War.  White supremacists felt resentful when they saw that the federal government provided free clothes, food, property, and education to former slaves.  They felt enraged when they saw few African Americans who succeeded in business, and prospered ended up leaving the South.  

One hundred fifty years later, President Barack Obama was the epitome of successful African Americans.  Although many white people voted for Obama, most middle-class whites felt a sense of resentment and anger at Obama’s success and elite status.  President Obama’s class, grace, and connection with President Kennedy’s daughter, Caroline Kennedy, enraged narcissistic white supremacists.  

After eight years of the Obama Administration, most white supremacists voted for Donald J. Trump for President.  Today, most white supremacists, evangelist Christians, and Tea Partiers support Trump regardless of his status with churches.  They still insist that God ordained Trump for the presidency when, in reality, gerrymandering, Citizens United law, and rigged elections helped Trump win the election in 2016.  Trump’s administration is a symptom of racist white supremacists’ attitude toward African Americans, people of color, and poor whites.  Their Christianity is a sham because they follow the slaveholder religion rather than the gospel of liberation from Jesus Christ.  

Works Consulted:

Baker, Kelly J.  "Gospel According to the Klan:  The KKK’s Appeal to Protestant America, 1915-1930".  Lawrence, KS:  University Press of Kansas.  2011.  

DuBois, W.E.B. (William Edward Burghardt), 1868-1963.  "Black Reconstruction in America." New York: Free Press. 1935/2011.

Foner, Eric.  "Reconstruction: America’s Unfinished Revolution, 1863-1877". New York:  Harper Perennial Classic. 1988/1989. 

Gates Jr, Henry Louis, Claude Steele, Lawrence D. Bobo, Michael Dawson, Gerald Jaynes, Linda Darling-Hammond, and Lisa Crooms-Robinson, eds. "The Oxford Handbook of African American citizenship, 1865-present". Oxford University Press, 2012.

Greener, Richard T.  “Southern Question II:  The Emigration of Colored Citizens from the Southern States, Read September 12, 1879.” Journal of Social Science, Containing the Proceedings of the American Association (1869-1909).  (May 1880) 25-37.  

Gilens, Martin. “Race coding” and white opposition to welfare.” American Political Science Review 90, no. 3 (1996): 593-604.

Painter, Nell Irvin. "Exodusters: Black Migration to Kansas after Reconstruction." Lawrence, KS:  University Press of Kansas. 1986. 

 

Patterson, Orlando.  "Rituals of Blood: Consequences of Slavery in Two American Centuries." Washington, DC:  Civitas/Counterpoint. 1998. 

Ransom, Roger L., and Richard Sutch.  “Debt Peonage in the Cotton South After the Civil War.”  The Journal of Economic History, 32, no. 3, (1972).  

Ransom, Roger L, and Richard Sutch.  “The Ex-Slave in the Post-Bellum South: A Study of the Economic Impact of Racism in a Market Environment.”  The Journal of Economic History, 33, no. 1 (1973).

Tisby, Jemar.  "The Color of Compromise:  The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism."  Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan. 

Tourgee, Albion Winegar.  "Bricks without Straw: a Novel."  New York: Fords, Howard & Hulbert. 1880. 

Tuck, Stephen.  "We Ain’t What We Ought to Be:  The Black Freedom Struggle from Emancipation to Obama." Cambridge, MA:  Harvard University Press. 2010.  

United States Congress. Joint Select Committee On The Condition Of Affairs In The Late Insurrectionary States. "Report of the Joint select committee appointed to inquire into the condition of affairs in the late insurrectionary states, so far as regards the execution of laws, and the safety of the lives and property of the citizens of the United States and Testimony taken." Washington, DC:  U.S. Government Printing Office, 1872. 

United States. Senate.  "Report and Testimony of the Select Committee of the United States Senate to Investigate the Causes of the Removal of the Negroes from the Southern States to the Northern States. In 46th Congress, 2nd session, Report no. 693, parts I, II, and III".  Washington, DC:  U.S. Government Printing Office. 1880. 

Williamson, Vanessa, Theda Skocpol, and John Coggin. "The Tea Party and the remaking of Republican conservatism." Perspectives on Politics 9, no. 1 (2011): 25-43.

Wilson-Hartgrove, Jonathan. "Reconstructing the Gospel:   Finding Freedom from Slaveholder Religion." Downers Grove, IL:  Intervarsity Press Books, 2018.