Introduce Yourself- Part 3

[Palimpsest]

23 hours ago, Bob Mackie said:

Can't find the thread now to thank the poster.

Hi and welcome to FJ.  This may be the thread you wanted: 

If not, just go to the search box on the upper right and enter "Jessiqua" using the drop down menu to select "All content."  She seems to have been coming up a lot recently.

 

[starbuck3614]

Hi,

I wanted to introduce myself.   I was born and raised in a Duggar like, fundamentalist similar cult.  It wasn't Quiverfull, but I still consider myself lucky to have escaped somehow at age 29.  Now, almost 20 years later, I find I still have a lot of negative issues holding me back relating to this previous life.  I am finding some comfort in educating myself more about how these cults/religions/whatever name you prefer work and how they affect people.  I am looking forward to reading the comments of this group and interacting with all of you.

[WhatWouldJohnCrichtonDo?]

Nice to "meet" you, @starbuck3614.  Welcome to Free Jinger!

[MarbleRainbow]

Howdy, looong time lurker here. Finally decided I should make an account to join in on the fun. What finally brought me out of lurkdom? Wanting to share the utter silliness of a picture of Izzy Dillard with a tortilla on his head. Don't ask me why that of all things tipped me over into getting an account after all these years. 

Also, after being married for almost 5 years and doing a lot of reading and growing as a person, I feel a bit of an odd one out in my church circles. I feel waaaay more liberal and less fundie than most of the people I grew up with, and am significantly less conservative than most of the people currently at my church. It's hard not having anyone else besides my husband to talk really freely with. FJ has been a refreshing place for me to read interesting discussion and fun thread drift. 

[DesiLu]

Hey everyone, I'm DesiLu (huge I Love Lucy can since I was a kid).   I'm from San Francisco and have lived here all my life.  I was a teen mom and am now a young grandma with 2 very cute grandkids.  I'm also an atheist so the Duggars and their religious beliefs have always confused, fascinated and horrified me. 

I was actually one of the first people to register here back in the day. I think I was the 11th person to sign up.  I think my screen name was Beezus something but for the life of me I couldn't remember my sign in info so I started over.  

[Bob Mackie]

On 9/5/2017 at 9:09 PM, Palimpsest said:

Hi and welcome to FJ.  This may be the thread you wanted: 

If not, just go to the search box on the upper right and enter "Jessiqua" using the drop down menu to select "All content."  She seems to have been coming up a lot recently.

 

Thank you very much Palimpsest

[SongRed7]

Hi All!  knew about this site for a while, but never really checked it out until recently. FELL way down the rabbit hole. Spend most of my time on RVfull of Grifting.   Jill Rod makes the Duggars seem practically mainstream.   I was kicked off the Pickles site a while ago for being "truthful."  Hey I like snark as much as the next one, and I certainly disagree with a lot of the doctrine (or lack thereof) that many fundamental Christians adhere to.  Its too legalistic and judgmental, IMHO.   Any ways... I found that site to be just plain mean spirited and even scary at times -- and I felt like it often drifts into the realm of stalking/making fun of people who haven't willingly created or purposely entered the public arena where they become fair game (thru TV or public blogs, websites, etc). In stead of good-natured discussion/snark among intelligent human beings who could agree to disagree at times, it got to be downright scary and group think.  And being a former journalist, truth matters to me. So while I could snark along with some things, when people  pass out accusations, imaginings and outright lies as truth, that didn't seem fair.  Criticism just for criticism sake is pointless to me.  And goodness, knows there is plenty of REAL issues to be critical off. 

 

In the last two weeks since I've joined the following have made me LOL:  Pink Weenie gravy, a posters recap about what happens when people start discussion the food/lack there of served at Duggars weddings, and TONS of stuff on Jill R.   Mostly I feel sorry for the ROD kids. 

About me:  early 50s, PR professional (former journalist), grew up in conservative Christianity (still have lots of family and friends ) but not fundie-ism by any measure.  A church-going Christian and I love my faith. Believe that God is bigger than the name over the door (of whatever particular house of worship you attend)...currently attend a Catholic Church (and am very involved, although i don't like labels and don't consider myself Catholic either)...and I believe there is lots of room for discussion when it comes to "organized religion" 

So far I love the site, the witty banter and I think I'll stay!  

 

 

[coffeequeen]

I was a long time lurker, and joined and posted for the first time a few weeks ago.  I found FJ doing while doing some soul searching- basically coming to terms with how I was raised and wanting to do things a very differently with my own child.  I was raised fundy lite.  In the 90's...  My dad(not my bio dad) grew up fundy.  My mom did not.  My dad wanted something less restrictive than he had growing up.  My mom was a divorced teen mom when she met my dad.  We went to church regularly, but we could read whatever bible we wanted and were encouraged to ask questions.  We didn't celebrate halloween, or read harry potter or associate with anything involving witches- unless it was Disney.  We couldn't listen to main stream music, but we were allowed contemporary christian.  My parents encouraged reading, but we had to be careful about the content of our books. We were allowed to date, and spend alone time with BF/GF, but were expected to keep physical contact to a minimum. We were never beaten.  We never went hungry.  My parents limited family size.  My mom worked outside of the home.  I realize I had a much easier experience than others who were raisesd fundy lite.  All of this changed while I was in high school.  My mom had an affair, and my parents almost divorced.  The church basically didn't want anything to do with my parents anymore.  They went through several years of intense couples counseling and are still married and are actually happy again.  

When my husband and I got married, I knew he was raised a more fundy than I was.  But I didn't realize how severe it actually was.  We started attending a large contemporary church and he never really felt like it was home.  So we attened his families church.  At first I was drawn to their community outreach.  They touted themselves as helping the poorer families in the area by providing free meals, allowing a rehad group to come in, different things like that.  There were more traditional than I was used to, but I thought it was worth it because of the "ministry" they were providing to those less fortunate.   We became heavily involved.  MY husband was the youth pastor.  I started teaching.  We were there every time the doors were open. Until my husbands uncle pulled my husband aside and told him he needed to teach me to wear the right clothes to church.  That was the turning point for my husband.  He resigned.  We left teh church and didn't attend anywhere for year.  We recently started attending a different church.  One that actually believes in being kind and helping others because it is the decent thing to do without  expecting people to convert.  

I realize this is a lot of information.  But all the rules and regulations of how i was raised still affect me.  And I didn't want to do that with my child.  So I started googling and ended up here.  It's still very hard for my husband and I.  While my family has realized how stifling and restrictive our upbringing was and aren't fundy anymore, my husbands family is still very heavily involved in their own weird version of fundamentalism.  We have hard time dealing with his family and the backlash of the decisions we've made.  This site has helped me cope with escaping the restrictiveness that is fundy lite... 

[samurai_sarah]

Welcome! Jump right in and don't worry.

 

[Kolcatta]

I heard about this forum but never really thought about engaging in it until I realised I had nothing else to do and I needed a new hobby.

I'm in my 20s and a law student. Being autistic I have a variety of special interests and currently it's Christian fundamentalist families. It's been around for 2 years so still going strong. I'm curious as to whether it'll fade out or just stick by me. I'm a secular Hindu. I'm constantly sighing over the increasingly extreme Hindu nationalism occurring in India. I'm also a strong feminist and amateur writer. 

[Khan]

Welcome to FJ!

[zaq]

Hello everyone! Stumbled across this forum after watching Oprah's Where are they now with the FLDS and I started to Google. I was born into a Hasidic family in Rockland County NY and began to hate it all after becoming a bas mitzva. Realized I didn't believe in any of it at 12. Moved to NYC to live with my grandmother in Brooklyn and she isn't as strict although still Hasidic so no tv, internet, no secular books but she wasn't so down my throat. I only stayed with her for 2 years and left when I turned 18 and this was only 3 years ago. I got my GED and currently in community college. I talk to my parents regularly. I went by them for Rosh Hashana. So I'm grateful they haven't totally shunned me but I still have rules to follow when I visit them.

Anyways that's just a little bit about me  this looks like an interesting place. all the religion's fundamentalists are basically the same yet all claim superiority to others.

[psychicmom]

Hi! I've been lurking for a long time and am pretty obsessed with the Naugler saga right now.  I came originally about an Arkansas family that temporarily lost custody of their kids. Homeschooled, anti-vax, all the craziness. Since then I've found so many interesting families here!  I've never watched the Duggar show, but find reading about them fascinating! 

I'm a family therapist so I'm always interested in family dynamics. I don't have an interesting religious history. Grew up Methodist and we could do almost everything.  Joined a Southern Baptist church at 16 because a boy I liked went there.  We broke up when I went to college, but I pretty much stayed with the conservative religion to my parents' dismay. Took me a while to come to my senses, so there's hope for everyone.

 That's a bit about me.

[elsiedindin]

Long time lurker, first time poster. I was raised in a fundamentalist homeschooling family, very attached to VF and the Pearls. Not ATI/IBLP but we had family friends who were. I'm now approaching my thirties and am in the midst of some big life/career changes. I'm still in contact with my parents but we have a limited conversational repertoire due to disagreeing on nearly everything! I'm still getting over the effects of educational neglect but I don't blame my parents as they genuinely did what they thought was best. Most of the teachers I had in co-ops were incompetent; at least one was a child rapist who is currently incarcerated. Despite all that I'm not entirely against homeschooling -- as far as I see it, the main problem was the irrational trust of everything Inside and the irrational fear of everything Outside. 

I chose my username because my mother bought me loads of Elsie Dinsmore books and I can't tell you how much I hated them. Those books were just the worst on every level.

[tysh]

Another long time lurker here. Had to sign up to keep following a certain sh!tstorm that I just can't look away from.

I was raised by divorced parents, one a lapsed Catholic, the other who kept dragging me to increasingly scary churches. I haven't had contact with the scary parent in over 15 years and the not-scary parent is moving in with my (also lapsed Catholic) huband and I next month. 

I'm pagan,  childless for reasons though I adore kids and am an evil working out of the home woman, though I enjoy all the traditional wifey things when not at my part time job.

I don't recall how I found this place exactly... I think it was when I became aware of the Duggars.

Anyways... Hi! I'm Tysh!

Edited September 30, 2017 by tysh
Missing words.

[WhatWouldJohnCrichtonDo?]

Hi, everybody! Those of you who are longtime lurkers have probably been around FJ longer than I have, so I won't say "welcome to FJ", I'll say, "welcome to posting!" We just had a fun new update and it's really exciting.  Glad to meet y'all!

[Meowkitties]

Hi wonderful FJ community!! I've loved reading the snark here and am always impressed with intelligent discussion of fundamentalism. I am particularly interested because Mr. Meowkitties grew up in a fundie lite family with 11 children. 

I'm a big fan of felines; I am a proud cat mom of 2, as well as a dog mom.  I have a passion for, and career in, women's health/reproductive health.  I ended up at FJ for the Duggars, was almost scared away by the Nauglers, and have stayed for JRod. 

[Botkinetti]

Hi everyone. Like most people I have been reading here for years. Decided it was finally time to join officially.

The Duggars brought me here but I have continued reading because of the humour and compassion of the posters.

I am Canadian. Retired. Mom of two grown sons.

Glad to finally be here.

[Hufflepuffpride]

Hello new friends!

I randomly stumbled across this site, honestly I do not remember what I was searching. I have a fascination with fundamentalists. I have no idea how they live the way they do or how they feel that what they do to their children is acceptable. I cannot seem to look away from the train wrecks. 

I was raised by strict parents, but nothing like anything I have seen here. I am a Christian, but more liberal with my beliefs. I am in my late 20's, work in an office and have a loving relationship with an excellent man. The relationship with my family is a little more strained, but I love them and they love me so I am lucky. 

I do occasionally have a hard time putting my thoughts down in writing so I mostly have been lurking or upvoting. 

Right now I am in deep with the Nauglers. I am BLOWN AWAY by the neglect and am trying to get up to speed. Mostly I want to see where the whole Nicole vs. Faith thing comes in and am trying to wade through the rest of that poop storm. 

I look forward to chatting with everyone else about this crazy group of people. 

 

[IamNIKE]

Hi.....Just got an account but I've known about FJ for a while. I think a search on the Duggars led me here but many reasons kept me lurking (off and on for a VERY long time, mostly off though). I'm a stay at home girlfriend, yeah....I think that's what I would be considered...I don't have any friends beyond mr. nike so some form of human interaction is a fueling factor. I also discovered, after many years of counseling and stumbling onto this great read ("I Fired God") that I was raised in an IFB church (I knew something wasn't right but couldn't put my finger on it and that's how things had always been, I didn't know my church wasn't like the others). I have mixed emotions on that and on the Duggars so exploring more into that little tidbit is quite intriguing to me. I tend to be a little snarky so this site is not only informative but entertaining. I have a long history of inappropriate life choices so I knew I had to work Nike into my name somehow....if the Duggars ever saw me you'd hear Nike muttered no less than 50 times lol. I am the epitome of their use of that word. No regrets.

My Duggar history: I watched all but maybe the last 2 or 3 seasons of the Kids and Counting (on Netflix). Have read a couple of the early books (not sure how many there are now). JUST got into Counting On and I'm not sure what season it's in now so I've missed a big chunk of the action (Josh scandal, Jill-Jessa-Jinger weddings, and whatever else I don't even know about). I want to like them but I know deep down what their life is like so I'm kinda caught between feeling a fondness for them (in a weird way) and feeling like I'm watching a car wreck but I just can't look away.

 

I haven't been on an actual FORUM in at least ten years so I'm a little rusty on the lingo and how it all works but I've got lots of reading with the FAQ and rules so hopefully I'm up to speed soon.

 

[99bottlesofPlexus]

I’ve lurked on FJ for the past couple years, and just signed up. I mostly hang out on the Lori Alexander, Arndt and fundie encounters/marriages/babies threads. Other threads I check in on less frequently include the J-Rod fam, Maxhell and whatever else catches my attention. I’m also fascinated by the Hammers and look forward to any updates on Meredith and Co. (although I never got to read her old blog, as I didn’t learn about her until after it was closed). Hope to see you all around!

Edited October 16, 2017 by 99bottlesofPlexus

[SnazzyNazzy]

I'm SnazzyNazzy.

I was born on the Aquarius/Pisces cusp. I hate long walks on the beach, because it's exercise. I like cats over dogs, because they are assholes. If you die alone in your house, your dog will mourn your death, your cat will snack on your corpse. I get that, and I respect that, because when I'm hungry, I'll stop at nothing, to get food.

I also hate ice cream, with the exception of Ben & Jerry's Caramel Sutra (which I don't even know if they make anymore), Dilly Bars from Dairy Queen, and ice cream sandwiches. I hate crinkle cut french fries, steak fries, and waffle fries, oh and curly fries. I think cookies are gross. I think pie is better than cake. 

I prefer Miracle Whip to mayonaise. I would gladly drink mimosas all day long, because they are delicious. I'm a beer snob. I don't like kids, even though I have two of my own, that I DO like, but there are some days where they suck so bad, that I don't like them either.

I love to cuss, and don't care if my kids cuss. In fact, I found it quite hilarious than my youngest kid told his friend, whose parents are uber religious, that pussy was another word for vagina. Was it bad...yes. Was it inappropriate...yes. Was the mental picture of his friend's parent having an apoplectic fit hilarious...yes. Amazingly enough, they don't cuss at school, or in front of other adults, so I'm good. 

I believe in ghosts and aliens, but I don't believe Bigfoot exists. I'm glad I gained over 30lbs. While it sucks I have a gut now, it's great I have boobs and a butt now. 

 

[FundMe]

Hi.  Should have read this link before posting in "Encounters with Fundies"/  I'm a former fundie sort of.  Am surrounded at work, family, life in general with them.  I know the lingo (also know the snark thanks to long time lurking!).  I understand why people get drawn into it.  I even think I understand Michelle Duggar if that's at all possible.  Now, Jill R escapes me!  I've been fascinated with this subculture for a long time, especially due to having spent time there.  I could probably answer a lot of questions, good and bad.  Personally, I'm proud of my kids who have grown into open-minded lovely adults who are giving me even more lovely grandchildren to focus on, as life kinda sucks right now.  Looking forward to making new like minded friends here.  Thanks for the add, and the welcomes I've already received.

[Briefly]

I'm new.  I've lurked for a while but never joined until now.  Part of the reason is that I couldn't come up with a good user name.  OK, that's really a joke.  I just never got around to joining.  But I finally did!  I'm a Texan although we don't live there at the moment (we're in Oklahoma), I'm a redhead - wife, mother, granddaughter, cousin, aunt, of many redheads actually. I'm obsessed with crochet and Star Trek. My husband was laid off from his job a year and a half ago and he's pretty much self-employed now.  I work for a small oil company.  My user name comes from the fact that we briefly flirted with fundamentalism.  I am a Christian, but  our shortish spell with fundamentalism is something that I will always regret and hope to recover from one day.  It certainly caused our (only child) daughter to have issues, which I also am extremely sorry for.  She's ok, we get along very well now but it took a lot of work on my part.  But I regret with all my heart and soul that we ever even seriously considered it.  We did not join a fundy church, we were doing it on our own.  But it was probably the worst mistake we ever made.  Now that we've come to our senses, so to speak, I realize that I'm still a feminist, still pro-life but accept that others aren't and that is fine with me, I don't care what someone's sexual orientation is or what religion they follow or don't follow, and I also realize that we/I were becoming very judgemental in many ways so  I'm taking as many steps as I can to get away from that and to stop being that way.

I originally found this site from Kristina's blog - I've seen her referred to here as the Arby's girl, since there may be more than oe person discussed here with her first name.

[Fascinated]

Welcome, all. It’s so great to read about such diverse backgrounds.  Somehow we all ended up here together!  Looking forward to reading more from all of you.