So Much More [Hardcover]

Anna Sofia Botkin (Author), Elizabeth Botkin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 17, 2005

This book is not another Christian-teenage-girl ''survival guide.'' So Much More shows how Christian girls can wage war with the world and win. The Botkin sisters focus on how young women can rise above their God-hating culture and change it for the better. Today, countless young ladies face difficult problems and challenging questions. While many long for godly purpose in their lives, their bewilderment mounts when they observe broken homes, distant fathers, overwhelmed mothers, degrading college courses, and a lack of spiritual guidance --” both at home and at church. As hope for security and stability fades, it is no wonder that many young ladies feel orphaned, unprotected, and without hope for their futures. Within the pages of this book, discover practical, biblical solutions for the young woman who wants to do so much more than just ''survive'' in a savagely feministic, anti-Christian culture. Find the answers a girl is not likely to get from her church, her peers, or her culture.

Editorial Reviews

Review

I encourage fathers, mothers, daughers, and sons to read this book---and that covers everyone. --R.C. Sproul, Jr., Highlands Study Center (back cover of book)

Page after page, I laughed, rejoiced, wept, and felt ''hallelujahs!'' rising in my throat. --Jennie Chancey, Ladies Against Feminism (back cover of book)

Anna and Elizabeth Botkin have managed to expose the feminist lies that have indoctrinated our western culture. . . --Stacy McDonald, Homeschooling Today (back cover of book)

Anna and Elizabeth Botkin have managed to expose the feminist lies that have indoctrinated our western culture. . . --Stacy McDonald, Homeschooling Today (back cover of book)

Page after page, I laughed, rejoiced, wept, and felt “hallelujahs!” rising in my throat. --Jennie Chancey, Ladies Against Feminism (back cover of book)

Anna and Elizabeth Botkin have managed to expose the feminist lies that have indoctrinated our western culture. . . --Stacy McDonald, Homeschooling Today (back cover of book)

About the Author

Anna Sofia and Elizabeth Botkin, ages nineteen and seventeen, respectively, have observed the decline of Western civilization in both the United States and the British Commonwealth. They are the daughters of Geoffrey and Victoria Botkin and currently live on New Zealand's Seven Arrows Ranch with their family. For many years they and their five brothers have shared their family's vision for cultural reformation, and have actively worked with their father on projects affecting family, church, and state. They both share a deep concern about the momentous choices young, unmarried women will make at this very important time in history---choices that will not only affect the rest of their lives, but also the future of the West.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 333 pages
• Publisher: Vision Forum (October 17, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0975526383
• ISBN-13: 978-0975526385
• Product Dimensions: 1.3 x 6.2 x 8.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (61 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #383,820 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

100 of 113 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Some Really Good Points: Some Impractical Points. April 3, 2007

By Texas Gal

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

The positive elements of this book is that it really places value on women, something not seen in today's culture! It places responsibility on men to protect and cherish women. The advice to young women is exceptional and definitely raises the bar! Young women are encouraged in their relationships with their fathers. However, one thing I found to be very impractical is the stand they take against higher education among women. "So Much More" takes a huge stand AGAINST ANY college for girls and basically makes it sound like they will be ruined for life if they go. I disagree! It's an unpredictable world and I believe that women need something to fall back on--just in case. The authors believe (STRONGLY) that young woman are to stay under the protection of their father until they marry, not go to college and then transfer their dependency over to their husbands. This might have worked 100 years ago, but men are not the same "protectors" as they once were. I am not a feminist or believe in Women's Lib, but I do believe that a woman needs to be able to support herself, if needed...I've had several friends "trapped" in horrible/abusive marriages due to this very thing. The authors of this book support the idea that it's a woman's family or her church's responsibility to step up and support her financially. This might be true in a perfect world, but I don't live in that world. I've never seen a church step in and support single moms...maybe they should...but it doesn't happen. Another factor is that in today's world, many girls have absent dads in their lives and this book is geared towards the girls who have the traditional family. I have four children(ages 8yrs-22yrs.)who are blessed to have that traditional family...a father who loves them, a mom who stays home and home schools them, however, most kids aren't blessed with this. A girl who has an absent father might get the feeling as though her life isn't the "perfect life" and she's messed for good! Just my opinion:)

65 of 78 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars I have some concerns... November 5, 2008

By Hannah G. Kissinger

Format:Hardcover

First, I want to say that I have nothing personally against the authors of this book. I really don't have anything against the book because God will use it to His advantage. However, there are some concerns that I have about some of the content. One of the concerns I have is that a lot of homeschoolers are falling into the trap of putting faith in their standards and beliefs as a measuring stick to how close somebody is to God. However, when life falls out from under your feet, dresses, homeschooling, women staying at home, daughters waiting for husbands, and any other standards cannot help you. There is no measuring stick to being close to God. It is only Christ living within a person that makes them positionally righteous before God. Sin is disobedience to God's commands. So what does God command? We can take the scripture and ignore it because we don't want to change or we can take the scripture and run with it leaning on our own understanding. The culture of Israel at the time was strongly against women. Women were viewed as lower then men. Jesus Christ raised women to a new level of respect and honor. (Mary was given the task of bringing the savior into the world.) (Note that her father knew nothing of this and wasn't even mentioned in the story. God spoke to Mary and Mary alone and chose her for this calling. Her family had nothing to do with it.) Women were mentioned frequently through out scripture as workers in the church. Even if they were not as prominate as men that is no surprise because the cultural view of women was so low. Perhaps women were not as brave as to answer God's call to service. The authors of this book state a few things that I disagree with:

1. That women cannot be missionaries unless they are married and even that is iffy. The view they teach is that by raiseing strong healthy large families and staying where you are at witnessing to neighbors etc. you are fulfilling the great commission. When Jesus gave the great commission he was meaning that each christian "as they are going" should make disciples of ALL MEN and to teach them everything that God has commanded. I am surrounded by kids from totally broken families. Most of them no nothing about Jesus. They barely know what church is. Their families are unbelievably wrecked by sin and foolishness. These children are so immersed in the godless culture that the average homeschooler would be SHOCKED. I tell you this because this is an example of people who need to be reached out to. They have no chance of even being discipled let alone raise a Godly family one day. If we didn't try and reach these children they would never be reached. Yes, I am a girl and yes I am a missionary to these kids. There is no command for women to not be missionaries in the bible.

2. Women should never go to college. Not everything about college is perfect. It is often very wicked. But to make a blank statement that no lady should go to college is to black and white. It isn't a sin to go to college. God doesn't like everything about college however he uses it in people's lives to work out his purpose even if the system isn't perfect. (Israel wasn't perfect either. For years they thought that having more then one wife was ok. Abraham for instance. However God didn't approve of it. In is long term plan he used the cultural views to accomplish his purpose.) God does call some women to go to college. God never says that women are not to be educated and what proof do you have that it is more godly to stay at home and learn housekeeping and business skills from dad?

3. Unmarried women are to remain at home helping their father and the family until they are married. Paul spoke highly of singleness and he stated that a single women is to be concerned with the things of God. (A married woman would be concerned with her family and her husband. So to be single you are free to focus on serving God in a way that is not an option if you have a family.)

4. Single girls of marrying age are to obey their parents and fathers like they were children. God gave two commands in the scripture. (Children "being brought up," (cit. Michael Pearl) obey your parents and wives submit to the leadership of your husband. When you become an adult you are now free to "submit" but not "obey." Submit means choosing to be under somebodies protection and leadership. For instance, we are under the President etc. We are not required to obey them only submit to their leadership as God leads.

In conclusion, I think the book needs serious prayfulness and thinking before you take these ideas as God's ideas.

25 of 30 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Charming but very damaging and unhealthy October 31, 2009

By K. Wilson

Format:Hardcover

So Much More is a charming book written by two quite lively and seemingly intelligent young ladies. I enjoyed their style. I didn't enjoy their message, as I believe it is damaging and very unhealthy to many young ladies.

I believe that their theology is way off base, which causes them to come to some weird conclusions. I believe it is damaging to young ladies to try to coerce them into doing things that the Bible does not demand of them in order to peddle a pet philosophy that works great for some who choose it, but not so much for the young ladies trapped in it. I also find the idea that a daughter needs to be a help meet to her father as disturbing and potentially abusive if the analogy is taken the whole way opens girls up to be abused by their fathers.

There were a few disturbing things in this book. Another was how much a daughters relationship with her father was elevated over her relationship with her mother, and how it was said she should be helping her father but with no regard to her mother.

Anna Sophia and Elizabeth also condone and encourage betrothal (with bride prices and all, selling girls as if they are property), girls not attending college (they don't think girls need an education because they are to be keepers at home and nothing else). There are many alarming things brought to light in this book.

As charming and endearing as this book is, it must be read with extreme caution if read at all. It really wasn't worth the money paid for it with all the error and the narrow minded, judgmental thinking going on.