Introduce Yourself - Part 2

[Sunnyday]

Hi everyone, I ended up here when I started checking out the Duggars because my sister was always watching the show and I couldn't figure these people out. Really tried to think the best of them but I give up! I looked around here but couldn't find anything here about Ray Comfort from Living Waters. I had never heard of him but I was searching Youtube the other day and found a video of him behind the scenes with the Duggars on their bus. At the very end Josh touches Josie a couple times and it was pretty weird considering his history. I wish I had posted about it that day because I can't find it and it looks like Living Waters might have removed all their videos with them. Has anyone here ever seen that?

[monkee]

Hi, I thought I'd check in and introduce myself as one of the newbies from the newbie invasion of 2015. I read all the rules, read the abbreviations list, familiarizing myself with everything, because I don't like being annoying :lol:

Glad to make your acquaintance, for those who wander by this forum.

[suzy787]

Another invader from Joshley Madison, lurking since the first scandal. Admit to loving watching the show at first for the "wholesome freak show" factor that TLC serves up so readily. Me and my coworkers use trashy reality TV to make it through our crazy hours at work and the Duggars were my fave. After Josh-gate #1 got a bit of an education on what the family was really like, last few days have been spent lurking learning more about the other fundie fams covered here. Scary thing- have never seen anything close to it in my part of the world! (Probably ignorant to it mind...)

bit about me- Aussie- 24, female, work in finance. Baptised Catholic, went to religious primary school but never really had religion pressed on me- think my parents baptised me because they felt they had to. username comes from my car and the Boeing 787- in addition to reality TV I also love planes!!

[motelmum]

Hi another Aussie - we are taking over!!

I'm old, 2 kids, husband, self employed and an atheist, from an atheist family

Been having a quiet look around for a while, registered and then investigated the whole site. Not too up on the jargon yet, but getting there.

I only got interested in the whole fundy thing after joining facebook. I couldn't believe how zealous my American facebook buddies were. Pro guns, anti abortion, prayer mems every other hour or so, share this if you love Jesus, gays are bad, an angel is looking at you...blaa blaa blaa...just blew my mind.

I followed some link somebody had posted and happened across this weird family that looked stuck in the 80's and THEN when I was looking through our local pay tv (foxtel) guide book there they were on TV in Australia. To say I was gobsmacked the first time I watched the Duggars on TV is an understatement, I couldn't look away it was just like a great horror show.

Anyway long story short this interest finally led me to this site, how I wish I had found it earlier.

*oops edited cause I really am stupid and can't spell Angel..

[helenprev]

Hi, I'm Helen from the UK and I've been lurking here since Joshgate 1 but have been fascinated (in a trainwreck sense) by the quiverfull movement for years. I think I found FJ through a mention in the comments on Love Joy Feminism. I'm a mostly-non-church-going Christian and in the early 90s I was a member of a Pentecostal church which showed signs of being fundie-lite in some of its beliefs and practices (the first service we went to they had an unmarried couple up at the front to repent in front of the congregation because she was pregnant. Not sure why I wasn't as horrified by the church's actions then as I am now!) I also had two married women counselling me about headship before I married my (now ex)husband!

Though I stuck to the Duggar forum for the first few weeks, I then branched out and fell down the Rodrigues rabbithole as well as Lori Alexander, the Nauglers, Erika Shupe and Alice's pregnancy journal. Completely sucked in now!

I put my first post in the JRod thread last night so thought I'd better come and introduce myself properly! Hi everyone and thanks for all the fab posts and snark which has kept me enthralled since May! I've also learned loads :)

[CrackerbackJocks]

Hello. I've been reading on and off for a while. I've never watched the Duggar show because I live in a country that doesn't have it on TV. But there's no place like FJ to savour a train wreck :popcorn2:, and fundies are the gift that keep on giving. So I signed up.

[TheChickWithGlasses]

So hi, another lurker here. I've been obsessed with cults and fundies for what seems like forever and stumbled upon FJ thanks to Google, of all places. I've read everything for the new members and the FAQs and family histories blah blah blah so I hope that I won't be one of the annoying ones if I ever do post. I'm 33 and live in Texas, unabashedly atheist and raising my kids religion-free. Glad to be around people who are snarky and twisted :D

[TL;DR]

Hello! I've been lurking here since I don't even know when, and finally decided to register. I wish I had known about FJ back when Emily was still posting - shaking your head at the crazy all on your own just isn't as much fun as snarking with others. :dance:

[Themiscyran]

Hello FJ community! I first encountered the Duggars when JB ran for federal office the first time. I was living in Arkansas, holding my first job out of graduate school. I couldn't believe anybody would take that guy or his quiverfull of patriarchy seriously. I guess I still can't, but that shows what I know! I left Arkansas behind but lo and behold, the Duggars kept getting more and more famous. I don't remember when I first heard of FJ, but I was very relieved to find I wasn't the only one who thought their misogyny/homophobia was beyond belief!

Josh's latest reveals prompted me to finally join in the conversation. As far as I'm concerned he isn't an aberration from the Duggar teachings, just the logical conclusion of their warped worldview. Very sad for his wife and children! :(

[Themiscyran]

Oh and I meant to say, big thanks to all the admins/mods/helpmeets who help keep this community going. I'm a moderator on a smaller, very different board and uh, yeah, I have a tiny inkling of what it takes to keep this place going. :worship: :worship: :worship: But it's really pretty amazingly on-topic considering the size and the periodic vast influxes of newbies! Thanks! (and to the self-regulating members as well! :dance: )

[Jessabelle]

I've been lurking for ages and just joined. All I know of the Duggars is what I have learned online, beginning here on FJ.

I've always had a sometimes rabid interest in cults, serial killers, etc. Especially the psychology of. I am a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner and also a professional astrologer and have studied the Duggars' birth charts intensively. I was thrilled when they posted the time of Israel Dillards birth so I could cast his chart. He has a very intense chart, and if anyone ends up becoming a rebel it will be him.

[Ellie]

Hello !

I am from France, a young married working woman (sadly with no children). I have been reading various topics since a while and I wanted to register so that I could ask any questions when I have some.

A catholic, I have relatives and friends who are evangelical and am interested in fundies, for even in Europa, we are sometimes - wrongly - associated with fundies and the worst of christianism they carry with them. As my country has a very weird relationship with christianism, some people think I am a fundie for I am going to mass regularly, but the real fundies I met used to think the worst of me and they are the people with whom I quarrelled the most.

Nevertheless, I am interested in fundamentalism, sometimes very curious, and curious too about american christianism. That's why I came here.

I am not a native English-speaker but I like chatting and discussing on English-speaking places. It helps me to improve my English-speaking.

[Kayel]

Hi,

I'm an on-and-off lurker. I really enjoy the great variety of people here all doing great digging. And let's face it, I love the snark.

It all started with the Duggars. I'm not sure how I first encountered them (being from Europe), but it was before Josh was married off married. Now I'm sucked into Fundieworld big time and am lurking in several directions. I can't keep myself from following Fundie-logic with great puzzlement and sadness for people being sucked/born into it.

[Satan'sFortress]

Hello! Very long time lurker deciding to join in. I have enjoyed reading here for many years. Not quite sure where my interest originated, but have learned a lot here & also been very entertained. Going back to learn & lurk before plunging in all the way.

[Greenie]

Hi, I'm Greenie. 100% new to FJ, no previous lurking here. I've followed the Duggars since before they were a series, and recently I started following some Duggar-centric blogs on tumblr, which is how I learned of this forum. I think everything around their radical lifestyles is interesting, but no one in my life wants to discuss them with me! (Or has/had cable to watch them...)

[Looneybun]

Hello! I've been lurking since joshgate 1.0 and I registered at joshgate 2.0 to help me keep up with what I have and haven't read. I was raised "strictly" agnostic, to the point that the time I went to Assembly of God youth group (to meet boys because I was at a girls school) was quite the rebellion! As a result my religious education is almost nonexistent, which makes fundamentalism all the more interesting to me.

I do have some quite devout friends from primary and high school and they are all lovely people who live good lives and genuinely look out for others even when their beliefs are different, so I know it is possible to be a good person while living out the Christian belief system, but the Internet has also opened up to me the big tangled world of religious cognitive dissonance and abuse. I am slightly ashamedly a fundie rubbernecker.

Things about me for reference:

I am from New Zealand but currently live in Canada.

I am not religious and am woefully ignorant of a lot of religious things. I tried to read the bible one time but couldn't get past the "begats".

I am married and have two and a half cats, two dogs and a fish, and I work at an animal shelter so there are often additional critters on a temporary basis.

My past includes sexual abuse, which lead to drug abuse, which lead to a spotty education and some very poor decisions, but I try to be a decent human being and I think I mostly succeed.

I live with a mental illness which is currently well controlled with medication,

I consider most edible things a vehicle for cheese.

I am in my mid thirties and have chosen not to have children. I like (most) other people's kids, but I do not feel that I would make a good parent.

I make a conscious, concerted effort to argue in good faith and to see things from other people's point of view.

I can also be pretty flip at times but I am not offended by being called out on it.

It's interesting and great to see the diversity of posters here. Given the newbie influx warning I honestly did not expect to be warmly welcomed but I already feel pretty included. Yall are good people.

[Jenesis]

Hi!

I've been following news of the Duggars for about a year.

I grew up in the bible belt and have had a lot of experience with fundamentalist christians and the cult types.

Glad that I moved away.

I feel sorry for the kids in that family. Especially the girls. I knew a lot of people growing up that had lifestyles similar and they lived in ignorant bliss. On the outside they were perfect but the hidden side was 100x worse than a "normal" persons life.

[CabinetPolisher]

Hello all. I decided to introduce myself should I feel the urge to post. Like many others, I've done my share of lurking, but I'm also doing my best to read through all the introductory tips.

I'm a long time fundie watcher, which is my personal bird watching (only less soothing). I think it all started when I discovered a forum for moms of many young siblings, and so began my spiral down the rabbit hole... :D Eventually they started to weed out lurkers, but not before I could become better acquainted with my all-time favorite fundie family: The Maxwells! They are my everything.

I also had a brief stint at "R@ising G0dly Tomat-es" f/k/a "A Trip to the W--dshed." (I don't know if they're out there, so to speak. Some of them scared me!) That was one hell of an education; however, their devotion to the likes of blanket training and worse led them to become increasingly wary of evil lurkers....and authorities lol. I do have other activities in my life, so unfortunately I never built any kind of presence and was kicked off.

Eventually I realized that it's much more fun (and slightly less depressing) to come to a place like Free Jinger to enjoy snark, play my own Where's Waldo game with Maxwell pics (Waldo = Diet Pepsi empties), and read some good commentary. I'm definitely familiar with all things Duggar, but they're exhausting me like Paris Hilton circa 2005!

Generally, I love to spend time with my headships (I assume male cats have greater standing than me), traveling when I can afford it, and kicking back with a nice glass of wine. I have no kids (can't), and that's ok. I love my nephew and best friends' kids. I'm also a heathen who was raised by lapsed Catholic heathens like me. They taught me well. :) Thank you for this site, all the fun and thoughtful discussion. You even brought a new family into my life...The Rodrigues. One look at Jill's makeup, and I was sold. I need not go on.

[fortunecookie]

Hi - I've been lurking on FJ for a few years, but came out of hiding for Joshgate. I watched the Duggars on and off since the 1st special

I knew nothing about any of the other fundies and man has it been an education here!

I kept reading about "The Pecan Thief" here and couldn't figure out who this was. After doing some searching and reading, and Googling, I happened upon "The Pecan Story" and thought "this is it!"

Oh My Ever Loving God! I LOL'ed for real! What a hysterical story! I can't stop laughing!

[QuestioningQuivers]

Hello! I decided I had to join when all the scandal stuff broke! I used to go to a Independent Baptist Private school (fundie light), but my parents had to pull me out when I was in 8th grade because it was no longer about learning and more about indoctrination. Ever since then, I have always kept an eye on the fundies of the world in hopes they would see the truth and walk away.

[47of74]

Hello!

I came across this site due to Gawker's story about Josh Duggar possibly checking into a rehab place about 90 miles east of me near Rockford, Illinois the other day and their mention of this place. (gawker.com/is-this-where-josh-duggar-is-in-sex-rehab-1726687142)

So I came over to check this place out and found it was interesting enough to sign up, so here I am now.

[thoughtful]

Hi everyone, I ended up here when I started checking out the Duggars because my sister was always watching the show and I couldn't figure these people out. Really tried to think the best of them but I give up! I looked around here but couldn't find anything here about Ray Comfort from Living Waters.

We have a whole section on him in the archives! I highly recommend the archives to anyone, new or old, who is looking for the back story on the fundies and others we discuss.

viewforum.php?f=131

Welcome, new folks -- you sound like you will fit right in!

[happy atheist]

Welcome everyone!

[enine]

Hey there :)

I'm not sure I'll write frequenty, but I still want to introduce myself because it is possible that my addicton to Free Jinger gets worse, now that I'm registered.

I'm a frequent lurker since the time Benessa started courting. I googlesearched the Duggars because I didn't think Jessa really liked Ben all that much, and stayed here because of all this wonderful snark.

I'm a former roman catholic, 27 year old woman from Germany (so apologies for spelling and grammar mistakes). I left church a year ago because I don't believe in god. I foud out I didn't believe in god when I did my major in catholic theology *lol*. I had both great and horrible experiences with church, but the bigger part is on the great experiences.

Another thing I want to say (to make Curious and happy_atheist a little happy): Your posts for new members are indeed read. I read most of the SOTDRT thread, all the rules (I also understoop everything except the nail polish maneuver and the testosterone takeover).

Edited for mistakes (there might still be a trillion others though)

[Lucky Canuck]

Hi,

I live on the west coast of Canada. I call myself a progressive Christian: I grew up in the church - not fundie but definitely not progressive.

I have lurked on the Duggar threads sporadically for a couple years. Since Joshgate 1.0 I have read everything and started reading up on the families (currently working my way through Razing Ruth).