Stay-at-home daughters is often used as a peculiar description for a young woman who is able to live a lavish lifestyle off of her family’s wealth rather than getting a job of her own, but it turns out the term has a much darker meaning.
Ashley Easter, who grew up in what she described as a “cult within a cult within a cult within a cult” and was labeled a “demon” when she was younger, recently revealed how vulnerable women end up forced into submission, and That starts from birth.
“The stay-at-home daughters were basically single adult women who continued to submit to their fathers until he gave them away in marriage to another man,” Ashley explained to host Shelise Ann Sola on the Cults to Consciousness YouTube channel.
And he continued: “Then they would submit to [their husband] For the rest of your life, say yes to sex and have all your babies.’
Ashley Easter grew up in what she described as a “cult within a cult within a cult within a cult” and was labeled a “demon” when she was younger.
She explained that vulnerable women end up being forced to submit, and that this starts from birth.
Ashley, who was part of the Independent Fundamental Baptist Church (IFB), explained that the group wants to continue with their “200-year plan” until the world is populated with their “very patriarchal religious views.”
She described the moment she knew her “body wasn’t safe,” recalling that her grandfather bought a white carnation and put red dye on the stem before seeing it change color.
“That was a symbol of my change to being a submissive girl, and that moment changed my life,” she remembers.
Ashley, who grew up in Lynchburg, Virginia, said from that moment on she knew what could happen if she crossed the line.
‘Now I knew what could happen [if] I was too rebellious, you don’t deserve anything good and that can be taken away from you in wait a moment and that as a woman you have no power in this and if you are going to survive you have to submit eventually,’ she listed.
Both of Ashley’s grandparents were pastors within the IFB church, one in northern and one in southern Virginia, and she grew up in one of the strictest Christian churches.
‘We actually looked at Southern Baptists and people like Liberty [Baptist Church] or from Thomas Road [Baptist Church] as a liberal,” he admitted.
“We thought they were probably Christians, but they weren’t good Christians because we were much stricter.”
Ashley, who was part of the Independent Fundamental Baptist Church (IFB), explained that the group wants to continue with their “200-year plan” until the world is populated with their “very patriarchal religious views.”
According to Ashley, the main difference between the IFB and Southern Baptists is the structure of the church, with Southern Baptists being more separate from a larger corporation, while IFB churches are run very independently.
According to Ashley, the main difference between the IFB and Southern Baptists is the structure of the church, with Southern Baptists being more part of a larger corporation, while IFB churches are run very independently.
“So, just Southern Baptists, but much more extreme,” he guessed.
She also said that Southern Baptist churches allow women to lead some groups, while that would never happen in IFB churches.
Inside the church, Ashley said the dress code enforced differed from family to family, describing it as “creepy” because parents usually set the dress code.
“A dad can be more of a boobs guy than a legs guy, and you can almost hint at that by the way they’re allowed to dress their daughters,” she shared.
Ashley, who described her experience growing up as a mix between Shiny, Happy, People with the Duggar family and Let Us Prey, divulged that men had so much control that it even trickled down to the types of music they could listen to.
“We were allowed to listen to hymns and Southern gospel,” she shared, adding that the only secular music she listened to as a child was The Beach Boys because her father loved them.
Ashley explained that there were several “movements” within the church, including homeschooling, the patriarchal movement, and something called the “shaking movement,” which is an excuse to reproduce as much as possible.
“Many people did not use contraceptive methods, I personally know people who almost died in childbirth but continued to have children,” she recalled.
“It’s basically the idea of domination through overpopulation,” he said.
Ashley added that some of the abuse she suffered in her church and in her family is “very predictable from the outside,” but when you’re on the inside, she thought it was what “good Christians do.”
Ashley added that some of the abuse she suffered in her church and in her family is “very predictable from the outside,” but when you look at it from the inside, she thought it was what “good Christians do.”
“You don’t see many other examples and those you do see are portrayed as rebellious or less Christian,” he added.
‘They try to indoctrinate you [by saying] “Women need protection from men and that’s why we are doing this great service by telling them what to do and controlling their lives because men are the protectors,” she said.
As Ashley got older, she said she started to realize something wasn’t right.
“Patriarchy is a system of abuse, and it is a system of abuse because it systematically places men above women for the purposes of power and control,” he said.
Ashely said her religious suffering began when she was in the womb and has continued for as long as she can remember.
She was later told that her mother had not been feeling well when she was pregnant and that Ashley herself was restless as a child, so the group thought she had a demon inside her.
“Even before you come out of the womb, they already attribute the evil that happens to your presence,” he said.
According to Ashley, being rebellious is “like the sin of witchcraft.”
“Witchcraft is an alliance with the devil and the alliance with the devil throws you into hell,” he explained.
When Ashely was four, her parents sent her to live with her grandparents because she was “too difficult to handle” and it was there that they locked her in the basement for hours.
Ashely said her religious suffering began when she was in the womb and has continued for as long as she can remember.
Ashley said her breaking point came in her early 20s, after breaking off an abusive engagement and befriending someone who briefly attended her church, who encouraged her to talk to other Christians about their lives, which made her realize how oppressed she was.
In the end, she began to believe in the oppressive system and began to live by the rules that the men in her life were imposing on her; She even wrote a blog in her teens about being a perfect submissive stay-at-home daughter.
“I somehow decided internally that if I’m going to survive this I have to be able to work within this system,” he reasoned. “If they don’t allow me to preach well I can sing, if they don’t allow me to teach I can write, if I can’t teach men I can write a blog for women.”
Ashley said her breaking point came in her early 20s, after breaking off an abusive engagement and befriending someone who briefly attended her church, who encouraged her to talk to other Christians about their lives.
She was introduced to a man who was curious about her religion and asked her questions, which led her to investigate more about other facets of Christianity.
“The more I research, the more I think, ‘Oh my God, what’s going on,'” he recalled.
Ashley eventually told her family that she did not believe in the teachings of the IFB, which led to a long argument but ultimately saw her distance herself from the group.
She met her husband and married in 2015. Her family attended the wedding but described a feeling of relief when they were finally alone.
“He gave me this place to grow and therapy, encouraged me and believed in me,” she gushed.
Ashley recently gave a TEDX talk about her experience growing up and said her best advice is to trust your own intuition.
“You know, if you listen to your gut, it will lead you down the right path,” he advises.
