FREDA & FANNY – A Pharisaical Farce

This article by Sarah Leslie and Melanie Fields was written during a time period when discernment and education researchers were coming under attacks by Internet critics who were rushing to judgment, spreading rumors, spreading gossip, mischaracterizing us, and publishing accounts about us that were not truthful. Melanie and I took some stories from our own experiences, and those of our friends, and tweaked them into this “pharisaical farce” — a satire about how conspiracy theories are invented and spread. As such it is one of the earliest warnings about the slander that would become commonplace on the Internet, especially with the rise of social media.