Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

“If it also isn’t true for a poor Christian mom in Haiti, it’s not true.” - Jen Hatmaker

Did she really say that? Good Lord has she managed to stray far from her former self!

Also, I really loved her rebranding of "privilege" as a "grand gesture to yourself." That latest video is wading uncomfortably into Rachel Hollis territory.

I think that was originally a Sarah Bessey quote, but I'm not 100% sure.

I used to really like Jen. And as a more progressive Christian, it didn't bother me when she started speaking about social justice issues. I viewed it as part of the growth from the woman who once wrote 'Seven.' And yet I think that's also when she started to go off the rails. Her OG audience didn't like the new 'speaking up about issues' Jen. (And maybe she had some learning to do about HOW to speak up...balancing passion vs. coming across like we are scolding can be a tricky thing.) As her faith shifted she entered that territory of "Who am I now?" Most of us get to do that in private. But if she wanted to hold on to her platform, her writing, everything that she thought made her JEN, she had to work through it in public. It has not gone well. I see her as someone trying on different personas trying to figure out who she is, which has only been complicated by her divorce. Is she social justice warrior Jen? (I use the term in love, as I'm a bit of an SJW myself.) Is she Wine Mom Jen? Is she Author Jen? Is she Fab and Fifty Jen? (wait...how old is she?) Is she Influencer Jen? I think she is someone who is struggling with who she is on all fronts. Everything that used to define her is falling away, her platform, her marriage, her children (she's only 1 kid away from being an empty nester, and that's a weird place to be when you've spent almost 30 years with kids underfoot). So she's trying to figure out who her audience is now, and I'm not sure she's got the support she needs to do it in a healthy way. She's throwing stuff at a wall and hoping something sticks.

I do not expect her to be able to sustain this forever. She will crack sooner or later. She needs to set aside the platform, trust that if it's meant to be she will be able to rebuild it when she's ready, and go do some heavy work with a therapist and people who care about her to figure out who she really is. She can come back when she is a more mature, thoughtful Jen.

Are you in my brain? This is what I was thinking, word for word.

For only $300 you can take my course on how to write like you are in someone else's brain.

Anonymous wrote:She’s selling mugs now…

But you can get one free if you fork over money for parenting course!

She reminds me so much of Meghan Markle

The full Haitian mom quote

it isn’t also true for a poor single Christian mom in Haiti, it isn’t true. If a sermon promises health and wealth to the faithful, it isn’t true, because that theology makes God an absolute monster who only blesses rich westerners and despises Christians in Africa, India, China, South America, Russia, rural Appalachia, inner-city America, and everywhere else a sincere believer remains poor. If it isn’t also true for a poor single Christian mom in Haiti, it isn’t true. If doctrine elevates a woman’s married-with-children status as her highest calling, it isn’t true, because that omits single believers (whose status Paul considered preferable), widows, the childless by choice or fate or loss, the divorced, and the celibate gay. If these folks are second-class citizens in the kingdom because they aren’t married with children, then God just excluded millions of people from gospel work, and I guess they should just eat rocks and die. If it isn’t also true for a poor single Christian mom in Haiti, it isn’t true. Theology is either true everywhere or it isn’t true anywhere. This helps untangle us from the American God Narrative and sets God free to be God instead of the My-God-in-a-Pocket I carried for so long. It lends restraint when declaring what God does or does not think, because sometimes my portrayal of God’s ways sounds suspiciously like the American Dream and I had better check myself. Because of the Haitian single mom. Maybe I should speak less for God. This brings me to the question at hand, another popular subject I am asked to pontificate on: What is my calling? (See also: How do I know my calling? When did you know your calling? How can I get your calling? Has God told you my calling? Can you get me out of my calling?) Ah yes, “The Calling.” This is certainly a favorite Christian concept over in these parts. Here is the trouble: Scripture barely confirms our elusive calling—the bull’s-eye, life purpose, individual mission every hardworking Protestant wants to discover. I found five scriptures, three of which referred to….
Jen Hatmaker, For the Love: Fighting for Grace in a World of Impossible Standards

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/7245816-it-isn-t-also-true-for-a-poor-single-christian-mom

I will never understand why influencers insist on invading private spaces. And why they don’t retreat from those private spaces in the face of open mockery of the people reclaiming their space. At least stop filming!

Anonymous wrote:
But since she doesn’t have any education and anything new and concrete to offer - she’s flailing in these new worlds and isn’t up to par and experiencing the same kind of success she did in the small conservative evangelical bubble/ targetmarket.

I believe this is a real fatal flaw from a business management perspective. Can she actually compete in the secular market? As an author, is she even close to being comparable to Glennon and Brene? Nope. Is her social justice activism really backed up by anything? Legacy Collective seems too…… shady. She’s given up on the HGTV lane, but she was never on par with Joanna. Her cookbook is probably funny, but there’s no way it’s an actual contender with Ree, or even Trisha Yearwood. She’s shilling skincare - but it’s an MLM that EVERYONE ELSE sells. Who’s going to buy from Jen when they have 10 Facebook friends selling it too? And don’t even get me started on Able. Who is paying over $100 for I’ll-fitting dresses made from some sort of polyester mixed fabric that makes me itch just by looking at it?!

Someone asked above “What is Jen?”. I’m also curious as to “Who are Jen’s fans/customer?!”.

Brandon was very much already in the affirmation and progressive Christian side well before their divorce. Same as Jen.

It wasn’t like Jen’s marriage was the result of toxic evangelical purity culture at that time.

Jen blew up her old audience in the hope of finding a newer, bigger one. This hasn’t worked out too well for her as she had a real voice within the Christian/Evangeical world. What’s her voice now?

One minute shilling crap, one minute bragging a lot about her life, the next minute a clanging gong of self-righteous anger?

She probably needs to get a real job pretty quick. This isn’t sustainable.

Humility goes a long way. Part of adopting new beliefs is seeing how and why you were believing what you are moving away from. Especially if you held those beliefs for the majority of your adult life, there has to be a sense of ownership and self awareness there. Mostly because Jen wasn’t being oppressed whatsoever in her marriage and church life, she had full reign. She hasn’t really processed or seen her part in these things and former ideas because if so, she’d be way more humble and connecting and less alienating to people from her past. Especially since she got all her money and platform from them. You have to sell your soul a lot to move forward in evangelical celebrity culture. She isn’t innocent and is and was part of the problem. Like others have observed - she’s just recreating the same patterns with a new groups of people.

But since she doesn’t have any education and anything new and concrete to offer - she’s flailing in these new worlds and isn’t up to par and experiencing the same kind of success she did in the small conservative evangelical bubble/ targetmarket.

Her rage and open hostility toward conservative Christians has been unrelenting for awhile. She’s said things that are inflammatory and relationship ending with a seeming lack of awareness the very fabric of her being was sown on that loom and still resides in her narrow. I felt some her overt hatred was projection of her feelings of utter betrayal by Brandon and the church. How she’d followed all the rules of evangelicalism yet found herself in a toxic marriage and feeling abandoned by the camp when her daughter was gay and her mama heart decided to embrace lgbtqia+ in solidarity with her child. Then her marriage exploded with some spectacular fireworks and she became completely unmoored.
My hope is she will calm down over time and reconcile many of the best parts of her childhood beliefs with her current worldview. She’s been drifting ever nearer to rocks but there’s always hope she will open her eyes and realize in her anger she sacrificed critical things she needs to be whole and healthy.

She absolutely hates the conservative/evangelical church. Her posture is entirely hostile and judgmental towards them.

I see it and I’m the farthest person from that world.

Sure, they rejected her after her public LGTBQ affirmation pronouncement but she sees that whole world as entirely corrupt and evil. Very simplistic black and white thinking and utterly in self-aware of her own participation and prospering in that world. Who does she think she is? Especially now that she’s grifting and scheming within whole new power centers? She can’t or won’t see her own hypocrisy.

I don't remember the issue that caused this statement, but I do remember her posting and ranting, "Dear Jesus, I hate exactly half of your people" (which was a direct shot at anyone who was Conservative/Republican) and thinking, "I'm one of the people she 'hates' and she doesn't even know me."

I thought at the time that if she did a cookbook and backed off of the political platforms, maybe she could do some damage control and get back some of her audience. Food brings us together, right? But the cookbook is likely the last thing that she's putting out that I'm looking forward to and if it's full of ads or snarky remarks toward conservatives, I'm going to be done. Because not every conservative is an evangelical, toxic white man. There are good people on both sides of the aisle and she's forgotten that.

That is a Jen quote and it was in one of her books. Maybe For the Love?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

“If it also isn’t true for a poor Christian mom in Haiti, it’s not true.” - Jen Hatmaker

Did she really say that? Good Lord has she managed to stray far from her former self!

Also, I really loved her rebranding of "privilege" as a "grand gesture to yourself." That latest video is wading uncomfortably into Rachel Hollis territory.

I think that was originally a Sarah Bessey quote, but I'm not 100% sure.

I used to really like Jen. And as a more progressive Christian, it didn't bother me when she started speaking about social justice issues. I viewed it as part of the growth from the woman who once wrote 'Seven.' And yet I think that's also when she started to go off the rails. Her OG audience didn't like the new 'speaking up about issues' Jen. (And maybe she had some learning to do about HOW to speak up...balancing passion vs. coming across like we are scolding can be a tricky thing.) As her faith shifted she entered that territory of "Who am I now?" Most of us get to do that in private. But if she wanted to hold on to her platform, her writing, everything that she thought made her JEN, she had to work through it in public. It has not gone well. I see her as someone trying on different personas trying to figure out who she is, which has only been complicated by her divorce. Is she social justice warrior Jen? (I use the term in love, as I'm a bit of an SJW myself.) Is she Wine Mom Jen? Is she Author Jen? Is she Fab and Fifty Jen? (wait...how old is she?) Is she Influencer Jen? I think she is someone who is struggling with who she is on all fronts. Everything that used to define her is falling away, her platform, her marriage, her children (she's only 1 kid away from being an empty nester, and that's a weird place to be when you've spent almost 30 years with kids underfoot). So she's trying to figure out who her audience is now, and I'm not sure she's got the support she needs to do it in a healthy way. She's throwing stuff at a wall and hoping something sticks.

I do not expect her to be able to sustain this forever. She will crack sooner or later. She needs to set aside the platform, trust that if it's meant to be she will be able to rebuild it when she's ready, and go do some heavy work with a therapist and people who care about her to figure out who she really is. She can come back when she is a more mature, thoughtful Jen.

Are you in my brain? This is what I was thinking, word for word.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"If you just tell yourself you'll be delighted, that is what will happen."

Uhhh, my former clinically depressed self begs to differ. Holy toxic positivity batman!

“If it also isn’t true for a poor Christian mom in Haiti, it’s not true.” - Jen Hatmaker

That is a deep cut and I am here for it. Jen, since you’re reading this. Read. This.