Fundamentalist Exchange: The evangelical pipeline between New Zealand and the United States.

Part 2: Nancy Campbell

Colin and Nancy Campbell

If you listened to the February 8th episode of the Yeah…Nah Podcast, then this profile should not come as a surprise.

If only because I gave spoilers for this and the next two installments.

Some call her the grandmother of the Quiverfull movement, but unless you are in the weeds of the fundie snark community, you would have likely never heard of Nancy Campbell. I would venture to say that her magazine, the long-running Above Rubies, along with her associated ministry, may make Nancy the second-most influential New Zealander writer to have ever lived.

(The dubious honour of first place could possibly go to Athur Desmond, aka Ragnar Redbeard. Desmond is likely to be the author of the Might is Right, an antisemitic, anti-christian, anti-egalitarian, racist, misogynist political treatise that had fans such as Anton LaVey, Katja and David Lane, and the 2019 Gilroy garlic festival shooter, to name a few.)

But that's a profile for another time.

Nevertheless, Nancy's patriarchal, dominionist christian message is awful but par for the course, her forays into medical advice dangerous, and she has no problem blowing hard on homophobic and transphobic dog whistles, stating that cross-dressing is disgusting, and that men wearing women's clothes are anti-god. Women are also admonished for wearing jeans, while Campbell's daughters and granddaughters wallpaper much of Above Rubies social media and online storefront, jeans included. Her promotion of the quiverfull movement, and cloying articles about being joyful wives and mothers to large broods, have been around since the mid-70s. While the circulation of Above Rubies (130,000-160,000 copies in 100 countries) may seem meager compared to the nearly 1.3 million eyeballs that catch The Hour of Power, her reach across generations of disenfranchised women cannot be underestimated.

Nancy Campbell was born Nancy Colene Bowen on May 25th, 1941. Her father, Ivan, was a world champion shearer, and at one point demonstrated his skills in front of the Queen and Prince Philip. It also appears that he had some involvement in youth ministry. Nancy grew up in Te Puke as one of three children: her brother lives in New Zealand and her sister, after some time living in Canada, currently lives near Nancy in Tennessee.

“The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh talking to competitors in the Golden Shears invitation shearing contest in Wellington. In the foreground are the noted brothers, Mr Godfrey Bowen (left), field director of the New Zealand Wool Board, and Mr Ivan Bowen”

During her youth, and before her marriage, Nancy was a teacher, and would spend her holidays working at Christian camps which included campers from unsaved homes. Nancy claimed that she wrote to nearly 100 female campers who came from such homes, to encourage them to maintain their faith and discipline them slightly.

Nancy met Charles “Colin” Campbell, a charismatic member of the Brethren church, at a family christian camp.They would marry in Palmerston North in 1963, and were involved in a ministry called “Tell the Nations Crusade”, led by Youth for Christ minister Campbell McAlpine. McAlpine was a controversial figure within the Brethren Assemblies. He was and remains a respected preacher in many circles, and was a popular speaker during his stay in New Zealand in 1959-1963. However, his inclination towards speaking in tongues and baptism in the spirit was closer to the charismatic movement/Pentecostalism than the Brethren liked - but that didn't hold him back in recruiting followers to his crusade to go door-to-door proselytizing about the gospel of John. It might be argued that McAlpine was a bit of a wet blanket when he interfered with their honeymoon with a scripture that instructed the newlyweds to pray and fast. They briefly lived in Whangarei in a property owned by the China Inland Mission, before spending a year in the Philippines working with McAlpine on his crusade. They returned to Palmerston North to start their family with six biological children and pastoring with the Christian Centre. In her own words, Nancy struggled with the demands of being a stay-at-home mother. One way she dealt with this was to find scriptures that were relevant to the issues facing her children, and pin them to the walls of the toilet.

In January 1982 the family relocated to the Gold coast of Australia, and spent the next ten years being judgy about swimsuits and pioneering a church. They moved to Tennessee in 1991, where they really hit their stride. The reasons for why they moved to the United States have become obscured over time, but they claim that they moved to minister to families there while Colin did pastor for a few churches.

When they were still living in New Zealand, the Campbells hosted regular Sunday dinners with their congregation, and Nancy led the weekly bible study for mothers. But, in 1977, Nancy began what would become the foundational work of their family ministry, publishing Above Rubies out of Palmerston North and continuing the magazine as they moved internationally. She had just given birth to her sixth child, and felt that she lacked guidance and encouragement for being a stay-at-home mother.

The name of the magazine was taking from Proverbs 31:10 - “A capable, intelligent, and virtuous woman who is he who can find her? She is far more precious than jewels, and her value is far above rubies or pearls”. The initial issue was mostly written by women from Palmerston North, but the purpose of the magazine has hardly changed in the 40+ years of its publication: to encourage women in their high calling as wives and mothers, as it is a vocation that is inherent within women. Stories would go on to include women who turned their backs on their careers and same-sex relationships to be obedient wives. Despite her call for women to stay at home, some online gossip hints that Nancy didn't necessarily practice what she preached - much like other ultraconservative/right-wing/trad wife influencers who make a career out of telling women to give up theirs.

The magazine was, and remains, a “free” publication, although donations are strongly encouraged. This has limited the publication of the magazine to only 100 issues in 47 years, with the sporadic distribution being delayed until enough donations are available to print a full run of the 32-page full-coloured missive through their in-house publishing company. Despite the decreasing returns of their print and compact disc offerings, Nancy has adapted to technology, with her newsletter, podcast, and social media (Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter) output far exceeding the original magazine in both reach and quantity. Campbell also takes on a handful of young, female interns (called Ruby Girls) to manage the office. The Campbells are not above reaching out and touching the faithful, embarking on multiple retreats and family camps in the US and abroad, including frequent trips to New Zealand.

The quality of Campbell's offerings is unsurprisingly dubious and offensive. In 1985, Campbell would argue for her belief that gays and lesbians should not be allowed into influential occupations such as teaching. In a 2023 podcast, she advises homeschooling mothers to buy old dictionaries for their children, as the definition of the word woman/women is becoming more inclusive:

_Now they are including a transgender meaning of the word “woman.” This is now printed in the dictionary. I would encourage you, dear ladies, to make sure you buy up a few old dictionaries. When you're homeschooling your children, it's good for them all to have their own dictionaries. Dictionaries are wonderful things. We constantly need to be looking up and learning new words. Each child needs their own dictionary.

But I would caution you now about buying any updated dictionary. I haven't checked them all, but we know especially, the Cambridge [Dictionary] has already changed, and others will be following suit, we know for sure. I think it would be a good idea, when you're looking in a Goodwill store, second-hand store, a place where they have second-hand books, just look for some older dictionaries. Buy them up for your children so that you make sure you're not going to have these deceptive dictionaries in your home. Amen?_

Nancy then goes on to decry, misrepresent and demonise gender-affirming care, abortion/reproductive health, and the mother v. birthing person debate. She is also not shy about publishing articles which advocate one putting their faith in God above medical professionals. One podcast touted the benefits of manuka honey in treating infections, and included a story of how manuka honey healed an infected hemangioma on the leg of one of her infant grandchildren that had ulcerated. Said ulcer was allegedly so bad that it went down to the bone, and medical professionals recommended surgery alongside a year-long regimen of beta-blockers.

Nancy has also put out anti-vaccine rhetoric, and made her support of the Canadian trucker protest public. The ongoing pandemic did nothing to prevent Colin and Nancy from traveling to D.C. on January 5th, 2020 and sharing a video of their perspective at the January 6th rally.

You would be naive, dear reader, if you thought that this was the extent of Campbell's influence.

In 2013, Kathryn Joyce followed-up her book Quiverfull, with the equally dire The child catchers: Rescue, trafficking, and the new gospel of adoption. In it, Joyce points out that as far back as 2002, Nancy was promoting international adoption as another way to conduct missions. In 2005, Liberia drew her particular attention, after a mission trip to several orphanages; it also helped that the instability caused by the civil war meant that thousands of children were “available” for adoption through unlicensed adoption facilitators at a fraction of the cost of more reputable organisations. While far from the first or only evangelical christian to get interested in international adoption in the early 2000s, Campbell was one of the more influential for the short time she was involved. According to Joyce, an estimated 1100 Liberian adoptees entered the US between 2005-2008 while Campbell was heavily pushing the project. Unlike her admonishment about jeans, Nancy did put her money where her mouth was, and adopted four orphans from Liberia, while her youngest daughter, Serene, adopted six.

Similar to countries like Ethiopia and India, complaints soon emerged that many adoption facilitators were not operating ethically or legally. Parents were told that these were temporary education programmes, and didn't learn until too late that their children were illegitimately and irrevocably separated from them under false pretenses. Compounding the issue was the inability of both Liberian groups to follow-up on adoptees once they left the country, and of the government in ascertaining whether facilitators were licensed.

Both the Campbells and their daughter Serene were criticised by the very children they adopted. Serene's adopted children had difficulty adjusting to life in Tennessee: their home was a cabin on the larger Campbell compound that lacked running water; they claimed that they were hit with rubber hosing until they bled, or made to sleep outside on the porch without blankets, as punishment for not wanting to eat Serene's raw-food meals; and they were denied a traditional education, and instead assigned much of the household chores, including care of Serene's younger biological children. In Joyce's book, things only worsened for the older girls over time, especially for the eldest of Serene's adopted children CeCe. Serene was jealous of Cece's bond with her own siblings and another adopted toddler, and was also paranoid that CeCe was sexually interested in Sam, Serene's husband; while Serene herself is accused of inappropriate behaviour with one of the minor, male adoptees. Nancy stoked these fires further, and allegedly told a friend that Sam and CeCe were seen holding hands as if they were lovers. Three of the older children would leave Serene's care, while a fourth was illegally repatriated by the family to Liberia.

As for Nancy, she would rename her four adoptees, but was just as guilty of isolating and overworking her adopted children. Colin Campbell is reported to have told a contractor that in their native country, the adoptees were taught how to lie as soon as they learnt to speak. In the end, three of Nancy's four Liberian adoptions experienced serious difficulties. Reference to the adoptees was eventually scrubbed from the Above Rubies website, fuelling internet gossip about what went wrong, as other families, who used the same companies endorsed by Campbell, shared their own struggles and failed adoptions. In the intervening years, there seems to have been some rapprochement between the Campbell's and the adoptees. In the case of CeCe, she was finally allowed access to the younger siblings Serene and Sam had prevented her from seeing again. But, like the other adoptees, CeCe cut off communication with Joyce soon afterwards; the change led one professional who was involved in the case to liken the change to battered wife syndrome.

Above Rubies: The Next Generation

When one has 6 biological children, 4 adopted children, 52 grandchildren, and 31 great-grandchildren, chances are high that at least one is going to keep the faith.

And make a profit.

Wes Campbell: Eldest son of Nancy, and manager of the Australian Christian rock group, The Newsboys. He is also owner of the Newsboys trade name but in a suit against Warner Bros., the court determined that the trademark was only limited to “live musical performances of a religious nature rendered by the group”. The band released an album and single titled “God's Not Dead” and would also feature in the “Pawn-the-Libs/Own-the-Atheists/Christian-persecution-complex” series of films of the same name.

Wes made international headlines in 2021 when he and others in the cabin of a plane subdued a passenger from allegedly rushing the cockpit. It is unclear whether this was a terrorism hijacking or a mental health event.

Stephen Campbell: Tour manager of the Newsboys, alongside older brother Wes.

Pearl and Serene Campbell: Yes, that Serene. The two sisters were a contemporary christian music duo called Serene and Pearl, before changing it to Considering Lily between 1991 and (likely) 1997, when Serene dropped out to start a family. They had at least one hit on christian radio, titled “Cup”.

They would collaborate again with a series of motivational cookbooks under the “Trim Healthy Mama” banner, and have expanded to include supplements and skin care products. Neither sister has an education in medicine or nutrition, and they are not trained dieticians. It is essentially a low-carb plan with some very weird rules, along with incorrect information about food. Nevertheless, they have fans in the fundamentalist christian world including (at one point) Jessa Duggar of 19 Kids and Counting fame.

Zadok and Arrow Johnson: Grandsons of the Campbells through their second child and eldest daughter, Evangeline. They own and operate a combat training course for christians to prepare for the end days. However, due to ‘exciting expansion opportunities', they did not hold any training sessions in 2022.

Escape/Evasion Sniper course at Zadok and Arrow's Bible-Survival-Combat training course

Where from here?

Nancy has been remarkably consistent when it comes to her ideology within the pages of Above Rubies, and she still has buy-in from the fundamentalist, patriarchal christian community that she has inspired and sheltered all these decades. When internship scandals have weakened the IBLP and New Zealand mega-churches, families that have kept their daughters at home and away from the poisonous influence of the local school paradoxically see no problem sending them away for months at a time to a Tennessee homestead. The treatment of the Liberian adoptees has been largely forgotten, and no further scandals have come to the surface.

With travel restrictions easing, and vaccinations no longer required to travel to NZ, will Nancy and Colin grace our shores again? I consider it likely. Members of the family (i.e. Serene and Pearl) have been to NZ as recently as 2019, but no retreats have been announced just yet. However, Nancy does have a couple of long-term volunteers (and an NZ-based trust) who have run Above Rubies weekends in New Zealand on her behalf, so maybe we can expect an Above Rubies-lite offering instead.