Introduce Yourself - Part 2

[SusanAtTheLastBattle]

Hi all,

I'm a long time lurker fascinated with toxic religion. I'm actually a grad student in religious studies in the Northeast U.S., but I focus on ancient religions - American fundies are just for fun.

I'm also a liberal Jew who read the Chronicles of Narnia as a girl with no idea that they had religious content. Keeping Susan's archery skillz out of the Last Battle because she started wearing makeup or whatever was so puzzling and maddening!

Really glad to be here, and hoping to contribute.

[nausicaa]

Hi! Sorry to be waaay late to the game in the whole introduction thing. I was looking for a thread like this when I first started posting but couldn't seem to find it anywhere. I am a late 20s technical/free-lance writer who lives in the DC metro area and have been interested in different religions since I was a kid, though I was brought up pretty mainstream/nominal Catholic. I'm agnostic now and have been since I was fourteen, though I have recently begun to go to an Episcopalian church because it's a way to socialize since all of my friends have done gone had a bunch of babies and can't hang out with me anymore. I think of it as a way to meditate and have a weekly tradition to ground the passage of the months.

I lived overseas in the Middle East for awhile and became really interested in Islam and Islamic architecture in particular. My latest interests were Seventh-Day Adventism and Romanichal gypsies. I love that on FJ I can nerd out about these things without someone asking me why on earth I know such and such, and that there is always someone else on here who is more obsessed and knows way more. Right now I don't have a particular group I'm fascinated by, so we'll see which one grabs my interest next.

[setzme]

Hi all! I've lurked here off and on for about a year or so, and joined because I need another timesuck now that TWoP is closing. I enjoy good snark, and had planned to join over here a long time ago but just...didn't. I'm 35, mother to one son, age 8, and one stepdaughter, age 16 (she is my ex-husband's daughter, not my current husband). Confusing blended families for the win!

Anyway, I'm going to probably lurk a lot till I get the overall feel of the place, but wanted to introduce myself at least.

[LogansMama]

I am so excited to have found FJ! This is exactly the forum I didn't even know I needed. I am fascinated by all things Duggar/fundie/polygamy/LDS. I've always had an interest in these topics, but never had a venue to discuss them and as sweet as my hubby is, I KNOW he's sick of me talking about the Duggar/Bates and Brown families!

[HeatherFeather]

I've lurked since Yuku and finally decided to join because I saw something on the 'net that puzzled me and I thought members might have some insight.

[Ave Maria]

Hi All!

I'm a traditional Catholic (Latin Mass goer) who is fascinated by the protestant fundamentalists and polygamy types. Their "family culture," to borrow a phrase from Sister Wives, is so very different from the large Catholic families we know.

[Honeysuckle]

Hi! I had a fascination with large families starting in childhood (nearly every piece of fiction I wrote in elementary school was about a family with 10+ kids) and as I got older and realized that many such families were quite religious, I became fascinated by fundies. I've lurked around here on occasion for ages and finally decided to take the leap and register.

[Vivi_music]

Hello freejingerers. I decided to re-join the forum after so long. I wasn't a lurker on the Yuku board. I actually used to be a member on Yuku! I had the same username and used to have 100 and something comments only. I wasn’t the most vocal member so you might not remember me. And I might not remember you either. (Oops) ;)

As for information about myself: I was raised catholic but I’d say very very very liberal Catholic. Nowadays I'm not very religious, but I do believe in spirituality (if that makes sense). My fascination with the fundie world actually started through the Duggars and their TV show. I'm still a student. Not married, no kids, finishing my masters degree in a year if all goes well. I'm from Quebec, Canada, so English is not my first language. Excuse my grammatical mistakes from time to time. I hope to contribute a bit. :-)

[Et Moi]

Hey all, I'm a grad student, sometimes FJ lurker who decided to sign up now that the TWoP forums have been sadly taken from us.

[Lisa]

Hello, all! I'm Lisa. I've been fascinated by fundie blogs for a long time, particularly Ladies Against Feminism and their horrifying ilk.

[Kaytlin]

Hey, I'm Kaytlin. I've got family members who have escaped fundiesm, and some younger family members who are still stuck in it. My goal is to do whatever I can to pull them out. Reading the stories and hearing how people have used religion to control and crush people makes me absolutly sick.

[erkinai]

Hi! I'm Erkinai (so named by a friend from a totally different country), and I grew up not completely within the movements of Patriarchy and all that, but in a church that supported many of it's tenants, and with several family members who hold entirely to it... WOOHOO QUIVERFULL CALVINISTS!

I came to your page when I recently found out about Doug Phillips (is a tool) and his toolish ways, and have been reading all the commentary along the way... So I figured I might as well jump in as a former customer of VF, and recently hell-bound agnostic!

So hi!

[Fluffypaws]

Hi everyone! I've lurked on here a long time before becoming a member. I found this site looking for anyone that had the same opinions on the Duggars that I have. And I found the perfect site! I'm a 23 year old female democrat from Kansas, atheist, and a student. I have a special place in my heart for animals and think the Duggars are out of their Fucking mind. That about sums it up. :D

[Duff]

Hi - long time lurker here! This site is huge - I'm wasting a lot of time here learning about so many things other than Duggar.

Quick question - why do I get "you are not authorized to view" (or something like that,) when I click on certain topics. I even got that message when I tried to read the rules thread.

Leslie

[BeaSnarky]

Hi all - long time lurker who finally decided to join. Hate to say it, but I'm a reality TV whore who loves to snark, and I started snarking on the Duggars long ago. Was bored at work, found this forum, and boom...hooked.

[jailormoon]

Hello All,

tl/dr - Jaime, 35, mom of four, confused.

I'm Jaime, jailormoon - like Sailormoon but with a "J". Nothing to do with jail or moons. I just love anime, sci-fi, nerd culture. I found FJ through the Duggar TLC FB page - someone posted that the Duggars were affiliated with Gothard and I quickly swallowed the red pill. Glad I found this place! I was raised Catholic - went to church 2x a year. My mom was abused by the nuns; she became atheist and is now married Jewish, so some of my family is practicing Jewish, and because I am Christian, we don't really get along well. I married into a Christian family who attended a "fundie-lite" church, foursquare. Lots of tongue speakers and large families there. For many years, I had been friends with a fundie lite mom of nine. They are a great family, and I spent a lot of years *trying* to emulate her lifestyle. She gave me her Above Rubies magazines and got me into Trim healthy mama. I drank the koolaid, popped out some kids, but had terrifying pregnancy experiences. Similarly, I got into watching 19KAC because I wanted to emulate that. Then feel extremely guilty for all my failures. I drink wine, watch too much TV and I'm addicted to the internet! :)

I homeschooled my oldest daughter for three years and failed miserably, to her detriment. I am on a "journey of the heart" you could say. ;) Part of me wants to 'hate' religion, but the other part of me is terrified by that thought. I love reading this board and like others, I am intimidated and not sure I will have anything to add.

[Coco]

Hi, i'm just Another Survivor. The VF implosion brought me here. :dance:

I was raised on the headcovering and frumper side of fundie-ism. Both hubby and I are from big, semi-fundie families. My family was merely Pentecostal and strict until I turned 16. Up to that point they still allowed TV and media, then they jumped in whole heartedly and the family went under a rock lol. It truly is a slow progression. I don't think my parents ever intended to hurt us. Spiritual abuse is so deceptive. I was a SAHD and the oldest. Drank gallons of Kool-Aid :angry-banghead: I finally got out at age 26, burned NO bridges thank goodness, and married at 28. I still worked with fundies until 2008. My hubby and I were just part of the flock, holding VF and ATI as the shining goal. It seemed so perfect and balanced after all the rules we had growing up. Thank God we never got our act together enough to join before the evil underside was exposed. So glad too that our marriage is spared the stupid insane ideas in Created to Be His Helpmeet (etc. etc.) That book's taken a few flying lessons from me. We just got access to the internet in Oct. of last year. Perfect timing, right before the SHTF lol. We have two small kids and we're done. >whew<

So, now, totally confused and searching. But, I would rather figure life out over here on the Snark side instead of trying to wade through the mess clinging to fake perfection (mommy blogs!!!)

[Zaverin]

Hey guys! I've been a lurker for awhile and I love the discussions you guys have on 19 Kids and on these fundie internet bloggers and whatnot. I have a fascination with 19 Kids in a "I'm so disgusted by what's happening but I just can't stop watching" sort of way but people around me either like the Duggar family(wow) or dislike them to the point of where they don't want to talk about them. So here I am!

[BMGO_4]

First time poster & long time lurker, I'm excited that there are a whole mess load of people who are interested in fundies as well as other weird religions!

Edited: misspelled word due to fat fingers

[lilyanne]

Hey all! I'm Lilyanne. I've been a lurker for a long time before I figured I might as well join in. Lol

[Cats B4 Quivers]

Hi, I'm Laura and I've lurked here for about a month or so. I was directed her from a post on Jezebel's Duggernaut subsection in Crosstalk. The Duggars have been feeding my fascination with large families for the past few years. I don't have cable tv but thankfully YouTube has many up loaders who kindly share their recordings. That's let me sit at my desk and gawp at their life (yes, life. They live only JimBoob's life). :popcorn2: :popcorn2: :popcorn2:

My interest with large families started innocently with The Walton's, the expanded Ingalls family (after they adopted Albert and James and Cassaundra the Whiny), and my favourite guilty pleasure reads, "The Family Nobody Wanted" and "Spencer's Mountain" (the basis for The Walton's, except they were the Spencer family, the oldest son was Clay Boy, and there were a bunch of sons not at all imaginatively named Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and a daughter called Patty Cakes).

My first real life experience with a big, fundie family happened when I was 7 and I knew their was something wrong in the air with this bunch. Long story short, my mom's foray into alternative churches led us to a Pentecostal church that attracted a small but vocal fundie population. There was one fundie family who lived near us and gave me a ride each painfully early Sunday morning for about 2 months. The parents were young, maybe in their mid 20s, and they already had 5 kids ranging in age from 7 years old to a handful of months old. The mother kept whispering things to the kids like "Jesus says to be kind to each other" and "Jesus loves you even when your words make me cry". The father was more direct and said he'd yank down underpants and give any kid a paddling. I hated Sundays. The kids were more like hyenas than kids and they ate candy all day long. Their teeth were brown nubs. The babies drank sweet tea. The car smelled and it was crowded in the back with me and the hyenas and their bags of gumdrops. I'm pretty sure the mom was trying to arrange a marriage between me and her eldest hyena the entire time. It was weird how she kept correcting me when I'd tell off the jerk when he pinched or tried wrestling me in the backseat with 4 other kids. She told me to be sweet to hyena boy because he carries God's mandate to lead. Pure crazy talk :cray-cray: . Thankfully, the family finally found a church with more people just like them and I never saw them again.

[Geechee Girl]

Greetings, FJ! My extended family runs from heathen to fundie. My own journey went from Southern Baptist, IFB, snake-handling, Pentecostal and SDA (all under the umbrella of patriarchy) to pagan. I've lurked here and on TWOP for years. I found FJ when searching online for others who shared my opinion of TTUAC. At one time, I had 3 copies gifted to me by my godmother and well-meaning church ladies. FJ was the place that validated my intuition & disgust with the Pearls' methods.

[Just Looking]

Hi. I'm new. I probably will mostly lurk.

[happy atheist]

!	{TEXT1}:
	Greetings to all of our new members!

[Just Looking]

!	{TEXT1}:
	Greetings to all of our new members!

Thank you! :)