Some of you may recall the Jenny Erikson saga that made its way across the manosphere about 3 years ago. This was not exclusive to just the Christian aside of it. Dalrock had a post, ROK had a post, and many other blogs posted about it. Even the non-Christian sites destroyed her on it. I posted on it as well in she didn’t test the spirits.
Basically, what happened was that a conservative Christian mother of 2 was married for about 13 years. For some reason, she decided to blow up her family. She also claimed God gave her peace about it. So she was discussing it with some church women that she was going to divorce her husband. It eventually got back to the pastor, and the pastor went to her first. She went ahead with the divorce anyway, and then her Church excommunicated her. She posted the whole saga on her blog, including the Church excommunication letter and made light of it. (Googling will find it easily)
I was reminded of the scenario a few weeks ago when someone posted on Dalrock’s blog that Leif Erikson had eventually remarried. Anyway, as I was doing some digging I found this interview gem which was about 2.5 years prior to her divorce. Read it if you want to get the whole picture, but it shows many warning signs of things to look out for that likely played a large role in her eventual divorce. Here are some of the gems:
I got married to my best friend at 19 because we didn’t want to live in sin while we spent countless years being engaged. I graduated high school at 17, and after 3 years of 20 unit semesters and summer school, I graduated from Point Loma Nazarene University. I graduated with my B.A. while 5 months pregnant with Thing 1 because birth control doesn’t always work; and we bought our first home when we got a good deal from a relative.
[…]
Like I said above, I got married very young. I was 19, and I married my best friend in the whole world. Our wedding was perfect and beautiful and shortly thereafter, we (unexpectedly!) got pregnant with Thing 1. I finished my B.A., but decided to take some time out to be a mommy. Four years later, we decided to have another baby, and we were blessed with Thing 2.
Best friends and birth control are concerning. Women have this sort of fetish where they want to marry a man that is their best friend for some reason. There’s nothing ‘bad’ per se about it, but it’s elevated to idol level in many cases. While not a Catholic, I think birth control is something to be concerned about because of the lessened value on children and personal selfishness in most cases.
So is the Thing 1 and Thing 2 which we’ll get into as well.
I affectionately call my daughters Thing 1 and Thing 2 because I got some really nasty hate mail in my early days of punditry. I couldn’t stand people I didn’t know saying they wanted my daughters to die in my presence, while using their precious names. Ever since then, I’ve become ferociously protective of their names.
The explanation of Thing 1 and Thing 2 is one of weakness and insecurity. The irony is that she didn’t even have to be in the ‘realm of politics’ but doesn’t want to give it up in favor of her children. We can see where her real priorities lie: her career.
Being a conservative means being for equal opportunity. The amazing thing about our country is that it doesn’t matter where you came from, it matters what you do with you life. Our current President proves it – you can come from anything to become anyone.
I view my role as a voice. Too many of us kept quiet for too long, and it will take generations to undo all the damage. Sometimes, all you need in order to move forward is to know that you’re not alone, and I try to provide that. I’m no one special; I wasn’t trained for this, I don’t have a prestigious pedigree, and I know what it’s like to work and raise a family. Trust me, if I can fight against government oppression, anyone can. And I’ll be right there alongside you.
She’s actually a liberal under the guise of being conservative. Not that politics are an accurate judge of character, but as I noted liberals are farther off the mark.
5. Name some of your favorites: Books, movies, musical artists, vacation spots, holidays and a couple miscellaneous items of your choice.
[…]
As for books, I have to admit that I’m a romance novel reader. I so seldom get to read these days that I love knowing that the main characters are going to end up happy together. There’s enough bad stuff on the five o’clock news, and I consider reading my escape. In fact, I call most of my silly novels “mental margaritas.”
Women and their literary porn. Huge red flag. Now you know why I had to get out the women are as visual as men post on romance novels being mommy porn prior to this one.
No mention of the Scriptures. In hindsight, it’s obvious that the Scriptures do not play a large role in her life as she actively went against them when she divorced about 2.5 years later.
8. Piggybacking on the last question: You’re a busy stay-at-home Mom with 2 young children who still finds time to stay informed and involved in conservative activism. How do you do it?
Oh goodness! First of all, the laundry doesn’t always get done. But mainly, I make my kids a part of what I’m doing. If there’s an evening that I can’t get them to settle down for 20 seconds, I let them record the intro to my show. They also know when Mommy has an important interview and are usually pretty good about sitting in front of the TV when I need them to. J
My parents help me out a lot too, and I am so blessed to have them nearby. Thankfully, it seems they’ve been waiting their whole lives to become grandparents, and I openly admit that I take advantage of their adoration of my children as much as possible.
Of course, I couldn’t do anything without my amazing husband, Leif. He is constantly working his schedule around mine, telling me how much he loves me along the way. He’s my brainstorming team, my shoulder to cry on, and my hand to hold. He’s fantastic and amazing. The end.
And now we see the real Jenny. She’s running the show and life is about her. Her husband is her helpmeet. No surprise that wives get dissatisfied with a helpmeet “husband.”
Well, this is a pretty deep question, huh? I look at conservatism as a way to protect Christianity. There has never been a liberal/socialist/communist society that has not tried to stamp out religion. One of the reasons I’m so committed to restoring the founding principles of America is to protect religious freedom. God gave me the gift of being able to string words together, and I do what I do to protect those human rights that He gave us. It would be an insult to God to do otherwise.
As noted earlier, the irony is that she’s a liberal under the guise of conservative. When looking at it through that lens, her real “God” is politics.
10. Name three goals that would be on your “Bucket List.”
1- Watch my children grow up to be happy with whatever they decide to do with their lives.
2- Be close to my eventual grandchildren and spoil them rotten.
3- Dance with my husband on our 75th wedding anniversary – July 13, 2077.
Oops. The real zinger. I guess feelings change?
All in all, I don’t think any one of these signs in isolation is necessarily something worth writing home about except for literary porn and her marriage revolving around her as the leader. But those two big red flags in conjunction with several yellow flags definitely adds up into a picture of narcissism, and the lack of Scriptural focus and prayer means it is a train careening out of control.
Eventually the marriage ended up in divorce, but the warning signs were there.
