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About
The Short Description:
This site is meant to serve as an easily-accessible resource for locating pertinent and revealing quotations from the people & resources promoted by the now-defunct Vision Forum.
A Lengthier Explanation:
Vision Forum shut down over a decade ago.
Since then, many of us who grew up with their glossy catalogs in our homes have grown up and begun the process of deconstructing (or in some cases, “disentangling”) the culture we grew up in.
Locating specific quotes from the influential people of Vision Forum, however, has become increasingly difficult. This is largely due to many of the most vocal proponants of their teachings moving on, websites shutting down, and materials becoming scarce. Many of the quotes which are available can only be found by combing through lengthy books, sermons, cds, or other hard-to-find resources.
Sometimes this means that it can be tough to ensure that we didn’t internally exagerate or misunderstand the culture and teachings promoted by Vision Forum and other like-minded homeschooling organizations and ministries. It can be tough to explain to non-homeschooled peers what, exactly, we used to be taught. It can be tough to combat gaslighting, especially when so many of the former leaders of this movement have completely changed their own lifestyles while never publically stating that they have changed their beliefs.
This site endeavors to provide a resource wherein these opinions and sayings are easily accessible, while also letting the quotations (and screenshots) speak for themselves as often as possible.
Q&A
Who runs this site?
First off, for those who are curious, I am not anyone who is famous or well-known in homeschool or fundie or other groups. I did grow up in Vision Forum circles and personally knew/interacted with multiple people featured on this site, but the only folks who would recognize my name are those whom I know in-person.
That disclaimer aside–Hi! I’m Hannah. If you’d like to know more about my own personal story, I’m blogging about it over here.
Why Now?
Mainly because someone let his website domain expire and it was available to purchase.
But also because I have personally seen and experienced myself and other homeschool alumni being told that the teachings we grew up with weren’t actually as extreme as we remember them being.
Why do you care?
The teachings and philosophy featured on this site directly impacted my life for many years. During my youth, I personally did my best to adhere to the instructions and advice promoted by Vision Forum, Above Rubies, No Greater Joy, HSLDA, and similar organizations. I parroted the same narratives and ideas as a teen, and fully embraced the culture and worldview that was promoted by their teachings.
As a result, I have seen and experienced firsthand how these teachings ruin lives and enable abuse. To this day, I am still working to undue the consequences of this ideology from my own life, and I still have family members and friends who continue to subscribe to these beliefs.
How do you choose who is featured on this site?
At this time, this site is focusing on individuals who were given a platform by to author books, speak at conferences, or Vision Forum.
People who were minors during a significant portion of their involvement in Vision Forum, and who have since retracted their former opinions and/or expressed regret over their participation or promotion of Vision Forum are generally exempted from this site.
Others may be absent from the site due to my own inability to reliably source quotes from them.
Those who were not minors during their time with Vision Forum but have since retracted their former opinions and/or expressed regret will generally still be included on the site. However, their apologies, retractions, or other similar quotes showing a change of heart will also be included as long as I am aware of them.
In the future (if time permits) I may expand this site beyond the scope of Vision Forum and include other homeschool organizations promoting similar beliefs. At the current moment, however, it is limited solely to Vision Forum.