Introduce Yourself- Part 3

[TheAntiTheist]

Hi There. I just discovered this place doing a search for the Andersons from the hate group, Faithful Word Baptist Church in Arizona. I am an anti-theist (against all religions) but I won't be discussing my views here... just want to try to understand what in the heck drives fundies like the Andersons - especially since I am the same age as Zsuzsanna Anderson and can't even begin to imagine what life is like for her and how she wound up hitched to that cult leader, Steve Anderson the PP.

[Argounova]

Hi everyone. I'm new here and I'm a 26 year old woman from Canada. I've always had an interest in odd religions and the people who follow them. Look forward to participating.

Edited November 1, 2016 by Argounova
Phone was not cooperating!

[Fenchurch]

Hi all,

I've also been posting for a while, and a member for ages, but have never done one of these (I don't think).

I'm a 40 year old single, working mom.  I was fornicating before I got married, and my child was a wonderful accident (born out of wedlock - oooh.)  I am the anti-fundi.

I'm not religious, but do believe in a higher power (I'm still discovering and questioning my beliefs).

My daughters father is fundi-light (Halloween is satans birthday, magic is evil, etc.) and we chuckle about it regularly.

The Andersons brought me here.

[HeathenBlondie]

Hello! Long time lurker here and came out of hiding once I figured out a name. I found this website a few years ago and followed along after hate watching the Duggars, but forgot about it until the first Smuggar scandal last year. So, I've been lurking again ever since. Didn't know much about the fundie lifestyle as I'm not religious, but have been horrified by all I've learned from reading here. 

While exploring, I found the Nauglers, fell down that hole and am disgusted by those parents. Now I need to start reading about other families to distract myself through the rest of this election.

Looking forward to reading more and participating as well.

 

[TeamDefraudinSquad]

On 11/2/2016 at 8:40 PM, HeathenBlondie said:

Hello! Long time lurker here and came out of hiding once I figured out a name.

 

Me too, haha! I wanted to have a snarky name picked out  before joining Free Jinger, and I was drawing a blank for awhile.

Hi Everyone!

I have been hearing about Free Jinger for years now in random places on the internet, but didn't start lurking until Joshley's molestation & cheating scandals surfaced last summer. The first place I ever heard about Free Jinger was in the comments section on Jezebel back in '09-ish (I actually remember!)

I am a 28 years old, and live with my husband and our quiver of three furry cat babies . My interest in fundamentalism started when I was a teenager, around 14 years old. I was raised in a new age-y church that was teaching (basically...) the ideas "The Secret" before "The Secret" was published. As a kid who was diagnosed with depression, it was hard to "make positive affirmations", and thought my life would always be awful, because there wasn't a second of the day I didn't have negative thoughts and feelings. I felt let down by my own spiritual leaders for blaming me for being depressed when I needed legitimate medical help (which thankfully, I got as an adult), so my "rebellion" () as a teenager was going to mega churches/Mormon church with my fundie-lite friends from school on Sundays.  Going from Sufi dances and kirtans to the megachurch (and sometimes the LDS church) was a huge culture shock for me, but the patriarchal beliefs (i.e. purity rings/balls) fascinated me at the same time because of how repressive it all seemed. I was never taught to wait until marriage to have sex, or that Jesus was the only path to spiritual salvation, or that I was going to hell for reading multiple holy books,  so experiencing those beliefs as an outsider was a mixture of horrifying and fascinating at the same time.  Those experiences are still a big part of why I became a vocal feminist, and majored in Religious Studies.

As a lurker, I have already fallen down the Arndt rabbit hole (just....WOW ) and the John Schrader (sp?) rabbit hole (his poor wife and kids, holy crap....) , and I look forward to falling down more!

Cheers everyone!  The commenters here all seem like fun, intelligent people. I look forward to posting more, and falling down more rabbit holes! I will be sure to bring some of this with me before I go...

Edited November 5, 2016 by TeamDefraudinSquad
Details

[BlackberryGirl]

Hi, all! I've been posting for a while, reading/lurking a bit longer than that.  I've told bits and pieces of my story, but figured I'd put it all in one place.

I'm 63, married for 42 years. Had a very short lived teenage marriage that produced a daughter in 1972. Due to weird circumstances, I lost custody of her when she was a baby and never had a real relationship with her. However, now I do have a good relationship with her children. (All adults) she committed suicide in 2004.

BlackberryBoy and I had 3 children. Our oldest was killed in a car wreck 12/23/99. We actually divorced for a short time, but remarried. We don't count the time apart.

We are raising our grandkids, a girl, now 14 and a boy, now 11.  We got her in Nov 03, and him Dec, 06. They are wonderful, smart, funny kids.

I have worked as a waitress (many years) a newspaper writer, teacher aide, independent living teacher in the foster care system in PA, and as a teacher. My degree is in elementary and special education, with Master's work in teaching reading.  I am one course short of the Masters, due to catatstrophic  health issues that developed in 2002. I  subbed for several years, teaching every grade and course imaginable. Me doing calculus was....interesting. I've taught everything from regular and special education pre k, to  senior AP English and even shop.

i was raised Catholic, consider myself a "recovering Catholic" I went to a Catholic school in 4th grade in Montana, which was a lovely school, and in 5th grade in Ohio, which was the 7th circle of hell.

when our kids were little I attended a Church of Christ with my inlaws. Blackberry Boy didn't go, but I was sort of ok with it. Loonies, but none of this Patriarchy crap. All the women worked, had stylish hair and clothes. Just no instrumental music or church suppers.

when we moved away from the Chicago suburbs back out here to rural upstate NY  I basically became agnostic.  BBBoy attends a united Church of Christ, "the hassle free church of the laid back redeemer" but I don't go. 

I became disabled in 2002, following exposure to the Coxsackie virus. It ran through the school I had a long term sub gig, I got sick, and 6 months later they were talking about a heart transplant.  I've improved some, but not enough to work any more. I got a pacemaker in February, but still have cardiomyopathy, chf, severe asthma, and fibro.  

I'm a long time, life long liberal Democrat, and apparently fall towards "lawful good."

I've loved reading FJ, and gotten some of the best laughs ever just keeping up with the snark.

[DaniLouisiana]

Hello, longtime lurker, first time poster. About me: left Louisiana as an infant, want to move back, hence the name. 3 kids-2 boys, 1 girl in the middle. 3, soon to be 4, fur kids. 1 dog, 2 cats. Profile pick is the new baby, Bastien. My daughter's cat had babies and Baz is a clone of my favorite of her many cats. Married forever.....Homeschooled the boys due to "socialization issues " seems the school didn't approve of the boys defending themselves. I am semi-disabled due to RA. Duggar snarking is my guilty pleasure.

[HerNameIsBuffy]

@DaniLouisiana welcome to FJ.  I heard a rumor there is Duggar snark somewhere around here. Plenty of other interesting forums, so don't forget to venture outside of Duggarville.  

[Fullfrontalhugs]

I guess I should have made my first post in here haha, oops. 

I've been lurking for years so I already know a lot of the top posters by username/avatar, but I'm feeling a little creepy all of a sudden for never saying "Hi I'm watching you, carry on!"

So I'll do that now. With a shitty poem I make up as I go along. Enjoy!

My name is Fullfrontalhugs. I came here to snark on the Duggs. I'm between the ages of 20&40 and I want the next M kid to be Morty. I won't tell my gender unless I go on a bender. And I don't hang with fundies because they don't like my undies. I don't believe in God, but won't call you a fraud and I live somewhere in North America. 

[NewOrleansLady]

Good Evening-  My name is NewOrleansLady and I am from...Ah you guessed it.  Born in N.O. and lived in XXXX ( which is  across the street from N.O.)  Katrina sent us  moving to a beautiful country town of 2,500 residents.  We stayed in the country for 11 years.  Our daughter and SIL were helped by a rescue group to fix up the  XXXX house and there they stayed until last year when they moved into a much larger house just the next streetover.  We were happy to move close to the grands.  Hubby (hereforth called"the old Geezer") and I are ebil Catholics.  He sings in the choir while I stay home and count the beads (also known as saying the Rosery) I have Fibro, Chronic Fatigue and a host of other  things and the old geezer took retirement early  to take care of me.  He really is a saint.

DaniLouisiana  and Blackberrygirl it seems we have some of the same interests.  FullFrontalHugs, I like your little ditty.

 

More to follow if enough people are interested. ( Actually only one is enough)

Edited November 7, 2016 by NewOrleansLady
to change specific location to XXXX and because I forgot something

[Munichnark]

Well, hello there. Long time lurker, now taking the plunge.

Currently residing in Munich, I seem to be having a far too intense unhealthy interest in the Duggars and assorted other fundies. And I love to snark......

[RealLifeMidwife]

Hello! I am a long time on-and-off lurker who finally decided to make an account. I found FJ several years ago while trying to research Messianic Judaism. My husband was raised varying degrees of Messianic. We do not currently practice any religion, but he still keeps in touch with people from his past. 

As for me, I am finishing a graduate degree at the moment and should probably be studying rather than posting on FJ!

[Bretta]

Wow, welcome! Everyone here is SO interesting, especially background and faith-wise.

I might as well introduce myself. I'm a former fervent fundie and ATI-er, from before the Duggars were big. Read the Pearl's books, went to seminars, got involved with some Torah-keeping-type homeschoolers too... but...thanks to many influences including FJ, I'm still a Christian but pretty left-leaning and left-sympathetic, so much so that I go to college and admire Elizabeth Warren.  I'm here to talk about the issues and discuss beliefs mainly. 

[samurai_sarah]

Welcome everyone! Glad to have you here.

[Justmurrayed]

Whoa! Everyone has such an interesting story.

My husband and I just moved to Vancouver, BC from Toronto. We've been married for two years, were high school sweethearts and that's about as exciting as I get. We both grew up Catholic but we left the religion and although he never looked back, I had a hard time for a while using the word atheist to describe myself but while searching for something found out I have a fascination for the weird and crazy religions since I knew nothing about other religions growing up since I thought I had the "right religion".  I can't quite remember how I found FJ but I've been here a while, just finally delurking. 

[freejoy]

Hello to everyone!

So I've been lurking around on FJ quite some time now and now I've finally registered.

I'm really interested in these Christian fundamentalists and their lifestyles, especially the second generation.

I would say I've have become really obsessed with these Duggars and their friends. They are just so interesting to me and I'm looking forward to the upcoming events to discuss them here with you

Greetings from Germany!

 

[DancingPhalanges]

I've learned quite a bit lurking on FJ and have no clue how it all started for me. I do like how well this board treats each other as members, that's the reason I joined.

[Bethella]

Welcome everybody! @DancingPhalanges I love your user name! 

[Bellsie]

Hey!

I'm Sam, 22 years old, and I've always been really interested in culty Christianity sects, especially like the Duggars haha. I've been a lurker for something like two years (since Jill's wedding probs) and I just realized I should formally introduce myself.

Nice to meet you guys!

[DancingPhalanges]

15 hours ago, Bethella said:

Welcome everybody! @DancingPhalanges I love your user name! 

Thank You! I have an avatar to go with it at some point. My husband breaks out in the little song when I'm being way too literal. 

[SHERA]

I've been lurking for so long I'm not sure how long it has been. I usually come when something is announced to see what everyone says, but I'm finally ready to comment. My childhood nickname was Shera from the cartoon because I use to have long beautiful blonde hair, thus my account name.

I've lived mostly south of the Mason Dixon from California to South Carolina + England. I'm married to a goofy British dude. We are mainstream Mormon/LDS/The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but have been sketchy attenders because of our infertility journey (I have no problem throwing a hymnbook at someone if they same something stupid about infertility). I did serve an LDS mission to Africa (yep, go ahead and repeat the jokes from the musical). And we have 2 cats.

[WhatWouldJohnCrichtonDo?]

It's fun to see all the new members and hear a little bit about each of y'all. Welcome to FJ!

[MadeItOut]

Another long term lurker here.

I'm in my thirties.

I eventually managed a two-stage escape - from one fundie marriage only to be 'persuaded' into another. I get now how weird that sounds (ain't hindsight a wonderful thing), esp if anyone's been lucky enough to avoid it.
All I can say is - as my ex-MIL knew to my cost, by controlling my child, she and my ex were able to have me do just about anything. ...long to short in a messed up story, I ended up married to a 'friend' of my ex who was not of the same sect, but had just as dangerous a patriarchal streak as it turned out. I eventually got away from him physically, however over the years he has hounded not only me, but other members of the family too. 

I'm left with multiple disabilities since my marriages and as a result could not care for my children. They are in a very supportive adoptive situation and totally safe from my ex. If I seem cagey at any point, that's why. I promise to cooperate with any necessary direct questioning from a Helpmeet at any time. If ever I seem to have forgotten anything, it's because I'm dealing with a brain injury, which sometimes makes me seem weird/forgetful. I do my best to monitor this and not be online when it's at its worst, but I'm never offended to be told to take a break the rare occasions I've not managed to detect a problem.

After getting out, I did a LOT of therapy. These days I still have PTSD but it's as managed as it can be. I am several years into a safe relationship with Mr MIO and we are due to marry next summer. I went back to school and got a degree relating to religion and spirituality from a tiny (very decidedly not Christian) college that has since been absorbed by a bigger one. It taught me A LOT and gave me a fascination for beliefs of any sort and particularly how belief has, and continues to shape women's history in particular.

School was how I found FJ to begin with. We had an awesome professor who taught us that we must all watch and read that which we find most challenging. School was aware of my situation as a need-to-know thing, so I was encouraged to seek out as much 'Christian' programming as I could. As I got into the degree and began towards my thesis, I was watching a show on extremely large families in Britain and as an exercise we were to compare/contrast to the Duggars who were out of the specials, into 19KAC and the TTH though I think not long since - definitely pre-Josie. In all honesty, I can't remember on the Jordyn and Jennifer front. They were definitely already mixing with the Bates as I vaguely remember becoming  aware of them around that time too.

I did follow the shows (and still do). It feels a little like rubbernecking, but also feels important because it's discomforting and unsettling, so I watch like my Professor advised. Also, I think there's some weird kind of 'survivor guilt' going on. It almost feels like, without knowing these people, keeping an eye is important somehow. I also keep an eye to the Bates family because of a similar feeling I can't quite put my finger on. It's also cathartic from time to time as Mr MIO and I can talk out things that happen that helps to open up IRL things too.

...and that's how I came to be lurking around this parts - and weirdly how I'm lurking no longer. I popped in and read a little several years ago, but wasn't in a healthy enough space, then sometime around 2014-ish I came back to read more regularly. I've always been too afraid to make a profile for fear of someone recognising and giving away my location or something. The one thing the CP world does RIDICULOUSLY well in my experience is Jungle Telegraph. Then, recent happenings in particular, most noticeably Jinger marrying Jeremy (doesn't help Jeremy is physically extremely similar to one of my exes and has similar mannerisms too) and Joy Anna's courtship are proving extremely intense and while Mr MIO is awesome and intensely against CP and all its related wrongs, I've felt more and more the need to come here with you guys and in the end I just got so cross with myself for allowing those people to still even now have me fearful enough that I was lurking instead of fully accessing the community here, I talked it through with Mr MIO and made a profile.
He doesn't feel the need so much at this point for online company. If that changes and he decides to come here at some point in the future, we'll talk to the Helpmeets first.

Wow that got long. Sorry.

Edited November 18, 2016 by MadeItOut
Spelling error

[pooplexed]

Hi! Thank you for this fun forum. 

I am a woman in her fifties, a divorced mother of teen-aged boys who works outside the home full time. We live in the suburbs of New York with our dog and cat. I have a live-away boyfriend.

I am not anti-religion but I don't practice a religion. I do believe in G-d, but I don't think she is anthropomorphic.  I don't believe that any perfectly excellent higher power could possibly accept racism, sexism, homophobia or child abuse. Nor could such  being quibble about which methods of celebrating beauty/goodness/love are superior; nor could such a being assert that one method of expressing gratitude for beauty/goodness/love is better than another. It's all good.

I had never watched any reality TV and had never heard of the Duggars or the Bates or any of these fundamentalist families until the Josh Ashley Madison story broke. I read some commentary that it would ordinarily be rude to release the hacked information about Ashley Madison site users, but the utter hypocrisy of this "family values" family made releasing that Josh was one of the Ashley Madison users fair game. I started digging around and got sucked into learning the culture.

Eventually, I found my way here---lurked for about a year---then finally started posting.

 

[HerNameIsBuffy]

@pooplexed I love your username so much I just asked each of my dogs if they were pooplexed!  They don't know what that means but it's cracking me up.

Smuggar helped you find FJ so guess he is good for something.  

seriously best name - how have I not thought of using this as a word while posting in poopistan?!