Introduce Yourself

[Talika]

Finally mustered up the courage to say hello :)

I've been lurking here for year or two and wow, was it an eye opener. Once I started reading, I couldn't go back 8-)

I'm 30-something girl from Europe, living in sin with the most charming boyfriend of 12 years and we love animals (owned by two turtles and a parrot ;) )

English is not my mother language so there are some hiccups to be expected but other than that, happy to be here :D

[Savoring Samsara]

Hi! I've been lurking here for years, since the Yuku days, and finally made up my mind to join just as the transition was occurring - how's that for timing? I was raised fundie-lite and have family members at various points along the whole fundie spectrum. Coming to terms with my upbringing is what led me to fundie blogs and hence to FJ. Nowadays I'm pagan and attend a UU church. I'm a musician, married to a writer, with a one-year-old child. It's great to meet you all.

[Deloris]

Hello,

Long time lurker (gosh--I have been lurking for years--can't even remember how many) and finally decided to register after going through severe withdrawal when the the board was closed to all but registered readers. I grew up fundie catholic, and still associate with several groups of both protestant and catholic fundies and semi fundies. Free Jinger has kept me sane and realizing that I am not alone when I feel overwhelmed by the stunted belief systems of some of the people around me.

[BriMamai]

I am yet another lurker prompted to register by restricted access to the forums. I never felt knowledgeable enough to post, so I didn't register. I found FJ while looking for more commentary during the Jubilee fiasco and became addicted. My stats: 37 years old, female, physician, new mom of a beautiful 6 month old girl. My husband is a stay-at-home-dad. I have a bizarre fascination with subcultures like fundies, "gypsies", Amish and the like. I think this stems from my undergraduate work in Anthropology, or maybe that is why I majored in Anthro. Whatever ;)

[Buzzard]

I am yet another lurker prompted to register by restricted access to the forums. I never felt knowledgeable enough to post, so I didn't register. I found FJ while looking for more commentary during the Jubilee fiasco and became addicted. My stats: 37 years old, female, physician, new mom of a beautiful 6 month old girl. My husband is a stay-at-home-dad. I have a bizarre fascination with subcultures like fundies, "gypsies", Amish and the like. I think this stems from my undergraduate work in Anthropology, or maybe that is why I majored in Anthro. Whatever ;)

Woo hoo! We love it when real doctors (the opposite of Dr. Google) swings on by! Well, we love everyone but doctors are always fun to chime in on some of the fraktastic bullshit our pet fundies come up with. Join us over in snark, pretty sure there are atleast 3 medical bullshit threads going on!

[Ahavaleah]

Long time lurker- at least the last five years or so. I found free jinger while looking for places that fundie-watched. One of my majors in college was religious studies and American fundamentalism is so fascinating! I finally got around to joining because after the forum went members only a few weeks ago, I felt like I was missing out on a lot fundie stuff!

Me: late 20s, blue dog liberal, married, mom of almost 2yo son. MA in non-prof management. Currently in the suburbs of Atlanta. Convert to Judaism in college (conservadox-ish, I guess...). Happily doing the "crunchy" mommy stay at home thing with two part time gigs on the side after some hectic years working for a foreign government consulate.

[purplestar]

I've been a lurker for about a year, on and off, I think. I always meant to join, but never got around to it until the boards went member only! I went through some major snark withdrawal for a little bit there! ;) I just turned 27 and I live in the Pacific Northwest. I'm owned by a grumpy senior citizen cat.

I'm atheist, but religion - especially religious fanatics - fascinate me.

[ladyaudley]

Lurker for about two years, then when I finally wanted to register it went down! almost 25 year old prospective English teacher from Scotland; my fascination with trashy TV led me to the Duggars, who were my gateway drug into the fascinating world of fundies!

I grew up in a very catholic region, never had much to do with religion for most of my life (happily agnostic), but recently have turned towards being consciously rather than culturally Christian. Still think the fundies are mad though ^^ but where would we be without them to observe. Like bacteria. Or cobras. But probably closer to bacteria.

[leggajegga]

Like pretty much everyone else, joined because I lurked for a year or so and then went through major withdrawal when FJ went down.

Early 20's, college student. Not a religion major, but super fascinated by religion, particularly Judaism (although that's not really applicable to this board). Happily situated in a firmly blue state with the major life goals of graduating, moving back to my home city, getting a job, getting an apartment, and then getting a cat. Hopefully in that order.

[Rita]

Thank God this exists! (Too much?) Hi everybody!

I grew up very alone, and from the moment I saw the teaser for 14 Kids and Counting (2001, attending a socially-progressive women's college), I've been hooked. I wanted to understand how something that scares me so much (crowds of children) seemed to make them so happy. Thanks to FJ, I get that not everyone involved is happy. But, why do they do it? Especially, now that I know what loving childcare really entails, WHY?

Thank you to the community for continuing on through another ownership change.

[iloveevolution]

I've been lurking for over a year here, finally decided to start posting today. I'm a college student in the midwest studying biology and frequently frustrated by Catholic fundie obsessive pro-lifers at my Catholic university. The Duggars were my gateway to a morbid fascination with fundamentalism- I was on their website and clicked the link to the Vision Forum Beautiful Girlhood collection and have been appalled and fascinated ever since. My current faves are twirling Olivia of Fresh Modesty and crazy Catholic convert Cam at A Woman's Place as well as the Bateses and occasionally Zsu but I can't usually stomach her conspiracy theories enough to even read through them.

[Anny Nym]

Hi to everyone at freejinger.org #^_^

I too went from time-from-time lurker to registered member. A bit about me: I am in my 20s, student at University of Vienna, from a conservative roman-catholic background but a active "leftie";) I got quite fascinated with the "fundie-subject". So fascinated, I´m currently writing my bakk. paper about it ... So I´m honestly thankful for this wonderful discussion board:)

[Insertwittynamehere]

Long time Lurker.....since Yuku. I have been in Snark withdrawal for some time now. I'm not much of a poster on any forum. I love to read the threads and would gladly post if I felt I could contribute to the conversation. Generally, someone has already said everything that I was thinking. :P

Anyways, I'm 40ish, female, single mom to a 20 year old gay boy and an 18 year old straight boy (both of which, I absolutely adore and they are both as snarky as I am). I live in Oklahoma, so I'm pretty familiar with fundies. Parts of my family are southern Baptist (fire and brimstone types) and parts are good old Assembly of God. I've been to tons of different churches. But in the end, I'm an Athiest who only recently informed some uber religious relatives that *shock* I don't believe in their god. Needless to say, it's been an interesting couple of years at family gatherings.

In a nutshell, that's me. I probably won't post much but needed the membership to get over these withdrawals. Oh, and I suck at picking usernames, hence the totally generic one I now have. :lol:

[TheEnglishButterfly]

Hellooo! My name is Jenn, said I am from Colorado. Love it here! I have a 9 year old daughter named Lilyin. I have a BA of Education. I love to read. I loooove to debate ;)fif you want to know more... just let me know!

[lilith]

Welcome to everyone, it sounds like we have a diverse and interesting group of new posters.

Have fun and feel free to ask questions, especially in the SOTDRT, if you want or need to.

[Syd+Marky]

Im Sarah,&Im from the pacific northwest.Im married w/2kids.I have been fascinated w/reality TV for years,but the Duggars&Sister Wives really interest me.Art,writing&theology are my main hobbies(Im attempting to make writing more than a hobby).I began researching the Duggars online&came across all this great stuff about ATI&the Gothardites.Alot of the best info seemed to be on FJ,so I finally registered. ;)

[pudding]

Hello there!

I'm a 26 year old photographer from Germany and live happily unmarried and childless with my long-term boyfriend. (Although I want kids! Well, maybe next year...)

I've been fascinated about how someone would wear those big hair styles, arkward huge white collars, red-red-red lipstick and colorful vintage jumper-dresses with so much confidence and so I totally got into homeschooling (since it's not allowed here in Germany), the Duggars, Bates... and all those blogs and tweets, websites and books and omg I'm sooo obsessed!! I've been lurking around for a long time and now that the access has been restricted I finally managed to register! yay!

[CrankyCatLady]

Hi there...I'm, well, old. 46. Living in Massachusetts. Gainfully underemployed as an editor part time. I came here via the GOMI thread about Sparkling Adventures.

[yewchapel]

Hi everyone :) I'm almost 24 (birthday is next week) and from the UK (living in the East Midlands area). I'm a 'mature' student studying Politics and a liberal Anglican (Episcopalian), possibly entering the priesthood at some point if I can get through this degree :D

[AnywhereButHere]

Hey all. I'm 42, living in NY. I discovered you all when I was randomly trying to find information on why the Bittner family blog went dark. It was amazing how horrendously Stepford they all were. Like a train wreck, it was hard to stop reading... And then I foud here and realized there were more of them. Fascinating! :D Anyway - it's been fun lurking, so I registered.

[Maia68]

Ok, I may be duplicating a post, but I am a 44-year-old female who has a son who just turned 18. I am an MSW who does intake for child and adult protective services. My baby has just signed for a full scholarship with a D1/FCS school(his father had a good college football career). After years of a bad marriage and being focused on taking care of my child, I am in a position where my child is set to move on to the next level, and I can start my second life.I can even retire as a state employee in less than four years. I am getting over depression due to the situation that my former marriage left me in, but I feel very hopeful about the future. I am fascinated by Fundy families, especiallythe Arndts.

[ThatSnark]

Hello everyone! I have been a reader here for a long time and feel like I "know" many of you already. I am a US Southern anomaly, in that I can't answer Baptist or Methodist when I'm asked which church I attend. :) My dad's side of the family was Dutch Reformed, which is a very Calvinist sect. Thanks to my mother, though, I grew up not realizing I was being raised as a fundie/fundie lite in the LCMS church-- I was (am?) something like 10th generation Lutheran, so it didn't amuse my family when I discovered the Unitarian church in college. None of the patriarchal theology sat right with me, and I was glad to find the UU community, where I've been a happy participant for almost 20 years. I feel relieved that my children are growing up in the UU church without prejudice, judgment, or creed.

I'm happy to finally be participating here! My gateway fundie was Lady Lydia, or maybe Candy right around the same time. The homemaking stuff was what drew me in because I was a new at-home mother at the time; then the crazy Jesusing made me draw up a chair and stay awhile for the show. Thanks for existing, FJ, so I can talk it all over with you all!

[rbella627]

Hello all! I am 29 and from Ohio working as a librarian. Married with a baby on the way. :)

I'm just facinated by fundies and all of their craziness. I started watching the Duggars on TV and it went from there. I grew up Catholic but also have some experience with the Baptists (on my mother's side and going to youth events with friends). The area I grew up in was also an Amish area (Swartzentrubers, very conservative even for Amish).

I, too, was in Snark withdrawal, so I decided to register. Looking forward to getting to know you all!

[Rita]

HI, coming out of lurking. I've been lurking for about a year I think. I found you by looking up Vision Forum. I grew up fundamentalist but have had some life experiences that got me out of it. I am still struggling with it and thats why I haven't post much here because I worry I will say the wrong things. I will keep lurking and maybe try to say something now and then. :D I live in California and have grown children. I am divorced.

Hi! It sounds like you have interesting things to say. Say the wrong things! Maybe they are just a different perspective - that can't be wrong.

[JingerBells]

Hi! I have been lurking since yuku but I never got up the courage to register. FJ is an almost daily part of my life and I am fascinated by Christian fundies, FLDS, and scientology. My gateway fundies were Emily and Dna, Kelly of Generation Cedar, and the Duggars. I am scared of the influence of groups like vision forum, Gothard, Driscoll, and Ken Ham.

I am a SAHM to 4 children and live in the south. I was raised Cathoilc but am now non-denominational. I almost got sucked in to homeschooling and a more legalistic church. I even received the vision forum catalogue for a while :oops: Thankfully my children attend public schools and are thriving. I don't know how much I will post but I appreciate reading and enjoy the diversity of opinions here.