S'Morton Alan Smith charged with incest, rape, child molestation

[picklepizzas]

another thought on the gofundme: i think it reveals, unfortunately, how fragile and grift-y the alan & katie smith family's existence must have been. if this were my family i would certainly only be turning to the public for support in desperation, in a wish to keep things as quiet as possible out of respect for the victim. if such an insular family as this (i mean, c'mon, these are hardly the nauglers we're talking about) has already turned to gofundme, katie's financial situation must truly be bleak. another troubling example to add to anna duggar's, of what happens when a wife with no career prospects and many children is suddenly deprived of her breadwinner.  except that katie doesn't have a reality show to keep paying the bills.  i'm relieved/happy to see katie's family rallying around her, though. hope this means there will be none of those blaming-the-woman shenanigans. 

[SolomonFundy]

2 hours ago, Black Aliss said:

What kind of fucked up bullshit is that to lay on a little boy, anyway?!? "You've got the penis, kiddo, so you're in charge of everything now."

I can't seem to grab your entire quote with the embedded quote too, so let's just pretend it's still there. 

Yeah, the crap about Critter being the de-facto head of the family didn't escape me. What's worse is that there is a 100% chance that one of his well-meaning uncles or grandfathers has already sat him down, and informed him of his new duties. Those kids are going to be traumatized by this for the rest of their lives in many ways. Laying MORE emotional responsibility at their feet during this fragile time is just nuts. Those children may already feel a sense of responsibility in their dad's arrest, particularly after the interview. If anything, they need to be reassured that adults are capable of protecting them, NOT told that they are now their mom's new headship.

 

Katie's situation is horrible no matter what options her family presents to her. She couldn't even make the decision to marry Alan on her own, let alone handle a choice to leave the marriage. Unfortunately, I think that Katie is just going to be treading water for a while, and frankly, I don't think that many fundy women could do much better under the circumstances. Her extended family will probably make decisions based on whatever will make taking care of her and the brood easier. If that means pushing her towards a divorce due to Alan's "deadly sin" (according to state law), then they will, tradition be damned. If preserving the marriage serves their interests more, then they'll do that. 

Katie's face in that GoFundMe picture is haunting. 

[hoipolloi]

15 minutes ago, SolomonFundy said:

Katie's face in that GoFundMe picture is haunting. 

Not sure which is more haunting -- Katie's face or the toddler she's hugging with her left arm.

[Newtothis]

Do any of y'all currently know the Smiths or Morton families?  What about the Lane family? Their kids seemed to be so cute. 

[Pixie_Ham]

Just thinking out loud. I think that the fact Michael Jnr made the gofundme page is a huge step. Perhaps even a little bit of rebellion? This is his sister and he seems to be thinking about how to support her and her children rather than how to gloss over it and put on a glossy face to the public. We obviously have no idea what's going on inside the family, but to me it's a positive move. 

I'm hoping that, at the very least, the crime has shocked them enough to realise that they can't just brush it under the rug. I am also hoping that perhaps M jnr has a sincere faith that is leading him to disgusted with the actions of Alan. I don't think I'm phrasing it right, but if he is someone who takes great pride in being the protector of his family he might have little tolerance for someone who doesn't.

Again, just thinking, and hoping, out loud.

[uber frau]

There's no zero sum game between the cuteness of the kids and the fundiness of their parents.

It's possible to have some extremely messed up beliefs and still have very cute kids.

[Newtothis]

15 minutes ago, uber frau said:

There's no zero sum game between the cuteness of the kids and the fundiness of their parents.

It's possible to have some extremely messed up beliefs and still have very cute kids.

Right, but I know someone that is close friends with the Lanes and they're a perfectly normal family. Yes, they were friends with the Smiths(and have basically cut ties with the main smith family) and oldest married one, but they're not like them at all

[JMO]

I'm wondering about the low amount of money asked for. I'm guessing they want enough to get through the next couple of months until they can sell the house? Someone posted on here that they have 2 and one is for sale. I'm betting she ends up taking over her parents' house and selling they two they owned.  She'd be near her brothers and their families and could live for a while off of the money from the houses. 

[snarkopolis]

Or maybe these folks realized there was no way in hell they could support Katie and the kids AND support their growing herd of kids. Hard to survive on pennies AND pay for your sister/in law and family whilst hubs is in the greybar motel. They might have to (oh noes!!!!) ask for ebil gubmint help like the welfare and such.

[dramallama]

16 minutes ago, Newtothis said:

16 minutes ago, Newtothis said:

Right, but I know someone that is close friends with the Lanes and they're a perfectly normal family. Yes, they were friends with the Smiths(and have basically cut ties with the main smith family) and oldest married one, but they're not like them at all

On Captain Bret's channel, 48 minutes of fundie word salad preaching from the Lane Patriarch.  Apologies for the messed up quotes, I had trouble deleting the first one.

[Newtothis]

Yes, but I'll also say. The father doesn't speak for the whole family. His daughters are quite independent, two are married and doing really well. Not fundie at all. All I'm saying is that y'all don't know all of the facts and could be assuming that they don't change.  

[Howl]

I was completely disheartened by the "pray for the victims" hashtag, indicating that the family is aware of the likelihood or reality of multiple victims.  Also hoping that Katie has access to real counseling to help her deal with this and grow emotionally for perhaps the first time in her life. 

Also hoping that zero Smith family funds go to his legal defense.  The amount spent mounting a defense could easily tide his wife and 8 kids over for a year or two....or three. 

[Newtothis]

No money is going for Alan's defense, he's in jail because they want him in there and he needs to be. (informed info)

[LurkerOverThePond]

If Katie & her kids aren't whisked off to Paraguay, Ma and Pa Morton might send Addie back home to help Katie with her brood.

[Lurky]

56 minutes ago, JMO said:

I'm wondering about the low amount of money asked for.

This is purely gut feeling, but from what the few things I've seen the family saying, I'm guessing they've started the fundraiser not as a grifting opportunity, but as a genuine response to the situation, and to people asking them "how can we help?" - and this way Katie doesn't have to deal with it, and friends/family can chip in a little bit that adds up - so I think the low amount is so they're not pressurising their community.  It could also relate to something specific, like the hospital costs.  And if they get more than their goal, that's great for Katie.

Of course, I'm as horrified as the next FJ member at the social experiment of bringing up girls to have no skills, and aim for a baby a year, because while this is a really terrible, vile example of what could go wrong, it's a precarious existence, supporting a family of 10 on 1 person's salary, as any illness/injury/economic downturn could leave them destitute.  And I'll always criticise these families for willfully doing that to their daughters (and heaping the pressure on their sons) - BUT from what little we've seen (and all the caveats that go with that) I feel like the Mortons are handling this as well as they can.  They seem disgusted at the crimes, rather than Gotharding them away (edit:  while maintaining the privacy of the victim(s), and are all about supporting Katie and the children, and praying for the victims, whether directly affected by the crime, or damaged collaterally.  

(Of course, this is conjecture, and none of us know the full story)

[Jana814]

How horrible!!  That poor woman and her children. 

[AmazonGrace]

58 minutes ago, Howl said:

I was completely disheartened by the "pray for the victims" hashtag, indicating that the family is aware of the likelihood or reality of multiple victims. 

Even if there's just one person that got targeted for sexual abuse, one might easily  see the whole family as victims I think...  the after effects of the investigation and arrest  may be very traumatizing for them all, and who knows what other traumatizing things  have been going on behind closed doors. If the headship of this family  really has been a child-raping bastard all this time there is a very good chance that he's been an emotionally abusive asshole in lots of other ways.  

I'm glad at least her brothers seem to be rallying behind her.  But I wonder about the patriarchs. It seems like they have more at stake here because Alan and Katie's marriage apparently was largely their idea to begin with and Katie took some convincing.  If the Lord told you that he's such a good man, and then it turns out he wasn't, either you have to admit that you were wrong and perhaps  you don't always know what's best for your family or engage in some  mental justification gymnastics to prove  that you weren't wrong and you still have a  hotline with God and it  still makes sense for you to micromanage your adult children's lives because as the headship you know best about everything. 

[MamaB]

1 hour ago, Newtothis said:

No money is going for Alan's defense, he's in jail because they want him in there and he needs to be. (informed info)

Did you read it on someone's Facebook or something? 

[Howl]

7 minutes ago, AmazonGrace said:

If the Lord told you that he's such a good man, and then it turns out he wasn't, either you have to admit that you were wrong and perhaps  you don't always know what's best for your family or engage in some  mental justification gymnastics to prove  that you weren't wrong and you still have a  hotline with God and it  still makes sense for you to micromanage your adult children's lives because as the headship you know best about everything. 

So hoping for the former, but the latter (mental gymnastics) seems more realistic with these yahoos. 

 

1 hour ago, Newtothis said:

No money is going for Alan's defense, he's in jail because they want him in there and he needs to be. (informed info)

Newtothis, thank you for this clarification. 

I'm desperately hoping that this is NOT like the Stephen Sitler situation in Moscow, ID where a known pedophile was married to a naive and innocent young-ish woman, 'cause, ya know, marital sex "normalizes" people.  

[Guest]

No money is going for Alan's defense, he's in jail because they want him in there and he needs to be. (informed info)

I think the victim(s) deserve his/her/their privacy, but is there any way you can tell us who turned him in? A concerned family member having done it would make this story much different than, say, a doctor or even a family friend and would give me more respect for the Morton family.

[AmazonGrace]

@Howl

that's what I am worrying about too...

In any case the good Captain might have to face some unpleasant truths about his parenting skills because the fruit is  apparently not so good. How well does he even know his kids if his firstborn whose godliness he has praised gets convicted for raping a child?  But it would be worse if he knew Alan was a bastard and advertized him as such a godly specimen anyway to inflict him on an  unsuspecting woman, all the while helping him get access to lots of potential victims who are being taught never to question anything their father does.  

The impression I get from the videos is that he's not really the introspective kind who readily admits that he could ever be wrong about anything so I'm a bit worried that he might try to explain it away so that it's not Alan's fault after all. It's government persecution, the Satan made the victim lie, the family didn't pray and submit enough etc..

Hope he proves me wrong.

[Newtothis]

I'm just going to say that y'all should give the Morton family a little more respect. They're doing what is right. 

12 minutes ago, MamaB said:

Did you read it on someone's Facebook or something? 

Aren't their facebooks private? 

[Four is Enough]

36 minutes ago, AmazonGrace said:

  If the Lord told you that he's such a good man, and then it turns out he wasn't, either you have to admit that you were wrong and perhaps  you don't always know what's best for your family or engage in some  mental justification gymnastics to prove  that you weren't wrong and you still have a  hotline with God and it  still makes sense for you to micromanage your adult children's lives because as the headship you know best about everything. 

HELLO!!! He allowed Satan to build a fortress in his heart long after he was married! No mental gymnastics needed.... the patriarch did nothing wrong... (SARCASM ALERT!! SARCASM ALERT!!)

[picklepizzas]

35 minutes ago, Newtothis said:

I'm just going to say that y'all should give the Morton family a little more respect. They're doing what is right. 

Aren't their facebooks private? 

Good, i'm glad to hear this! 

Their facebooks are private - I'm pretty sure everyone who is making claims about the legal defense is going off the statement on gofundme. 

[church_of_dog]

2 hours ago, JMO said:

I'm wondering about the low amount of money asked for. 

I recently had the opportunity to learn just a bit about a site called Barnraiser, which is like GFM but for food & farm type projects.  I was surprised to learn that if you don't reach your goal, all the donations are returned.  So it sets you up to only put a very achievable goal.

I didn't like that -- our group needed a minimum of $5000 as matching for a grant we were applying for, but really would have liked to raise more like $20k -- but we set the goal as $5k for safety.  And we achieved it, but of course the momentum for people continuing to donate really drops off once they see you've met your goal.

Anyway, so if GFM has a similar rule, they might be familiar with that.  I suppose you can always make a new GFM to keep the momentum going if you plan to make it a long-term thing.