Post-Rapture Introductions

[O Latin]

I'm O Latin. I'm 21 and a senior in college, but two years ago I was a skirt wearing, wannabe stay at home daughter. Since then I've gone completely anti-fundie, but I still sometimes stick up for them because I can sort of see where they're coming from.

I attend the Church of the Holy Choir Practice. Aside from my choir, which I love above and beyond anything else in the world, I don't really know what I believe. As my mom would say, music is my religion.

[tehfanglyfish]

I don't think I ever actually introduced myself on the old board (I just jumped into some conversations), so I guess I should do that now. I am actually a habitual lurker (I feel like the Talamasca from the Anne Rice novels - "We watch. And we are always there.") I suppose it shows because I've been following FJ for almost 2 years now and hadn't made it out of "Born to be Plaid." :lol: I'm in my late 20s and have failed horribly at debt-free living as I'm in a PhD program, but I hope to be done in just over a year. I'm a happily married atheist who has pet idols in place of human children. We don't do traditional gender roles at my house, either. If shit needs cleaning, building, paying, etc., the person with the time, skills, money, etc., gets it done.

The Duggars were my gateway fundies. My early childhood was spent in a benign Protestant household, but when I was around 10, my family got involved with a New Age religion. While they weren't Christians at that point, there was a lot of what I can only classify as "weirdness" stemming from their beliefs that they were more spiritually advanced than everyone around them. It also kind of became a kind of cult around my then-stepfather. It was not a fun time and I moved out when I was 16. It's taken me years to deal with some of the shit that went down. Bad things happened at my house because of religious obsession, which is why I think I'm partially so obsessed with fundies.

For what it's worth, FJ is one of the sites I visit first thing each morning before I get started with work (like I'm doing right now ;) ) FJers are some awesome people!

[contrary]

props for the Talamasca reference! i just found the mayfair witches trilogy for my kindle, and i can't wait to re-read them!

[GenerationCedarchip]

hi! I was Generation Cedarchips at the old board, but they took my "s" when I signed up over here.

I'm in my early 30s and was raised fundie. I grew up in an Orthodox Presby church that later merged with a PCA church, so it was the reformed brand of fundie. The fundies had completely taken over the school board in my county at the time, so you could tell who at church lived in which county by who went to public school and who homeschooled. In case you're curious, even in the 1990s, there were public schools that featured the Bible on the required reading list and no one batted an eye.

I'm married (to a refugee from the IFB!) and we go to a PC(USA) church nowadays. By most standards, we probably tend toward the fundie-lite way of things. Oh, and I'm a lawyer.

And I love: :animals-cat: And this smilie just cracks me up because it actually does make me think of fundies: :auto-camptrailer:

[Grace]

I was Divine Duchess of Giggles on Yuku because that's my name on another Yuku board. It sort of makes sense there but honestly I was kind of embarrassed about it :lol: I chose Grace as my new name because it's the thing I cherish most about God as a Christian and the thing I think most fundies are totally missing the boat on. They go on and on about Grace in reference to themselves but they never stop to think that it just might extend to people who don't believe the way the fundies do. Plus I just think it's a pretty name!

I'm a newlywed living under the headship of my husband ( :lol: :lol: :lol: ) in the Duggar's neck of the woods. But I have never once seen a Duggar in nature and it irks me to no end. It seems like everyone around here but me has a Duggar story! I think they might lose their train-wreck type allure if I actually got to see them in person though.

Also, I haven't really noticed the Neighborhood Market by the Promenade being all that different from the others except they try out new products and fixtures and signing there.

[Shirley MacLaine]

hi! I was Generation Cedarchips at the old board, but they took my "s" when I signed up over here.

I grew up in an Orthodox Presby church that later merged with a PCA church, so it was the reformed brand of fundie.

I went to a PCA wedding last year and there was all kinds of submission talk. The pastor said that the bride's natural urge was going to be to usurp her husband's God-given authority BUT SHE MUST NOT SEEK TO LEAD! Haha. I was the maid of honor, but luckily I was facing away from the audience so no one could see the epic sickface I pulled.

[treemom]

Hi Ya'll

I am Treemom, mid thirties mom to just 1 quiver in my arrow. I live in Memphis where I work for a Canadian company that I am not a huge fan of. I work in IT but this is my second take at a career. I have a masters in law and my concentration is copyright and fair use. Want to get me worked up? Use the term plagiarism when you really mean copyright violation. (And usually are referring to something that isn't a violation anyhow because it is under fair use) I am married to an IT badass who used to work for the federal government but is now private sector.

Other important things, I have two mentally ill parents and grew up in a very mentally, emotionally and physically abusive home. I love my parents to the extent that they are ill and I understand how much that played into my really unstable childhood. I have had a series of devastating pregnancy losses some of which are related to the abuse I received and I terminated a pregnancy due to a prognosis incompatible with life. All of these things come up when I am discussing things here. I also talk about my mental illness sometimes too.

My fundie cred is limited. My parents were crazy religious zealots but not consistently. My grandparents who I lived with a lot were Jewish and I view that as my religious culture. I am not practicing and often describe myself as atheist or agnostic. I absolutely believe in a soul, but I do not believe in an after life at all. I think that idea is actually incredibly dangerous.

My real cred is I went to Liberty University (Jerry Falwell) and I know the Jeubs.

Also, my biggest joy and accomplishment on FreeJinger was when Jessica(of Jessica and TheChad fame) Latisha left me a nasty message on my blog telling me I was ugly and a gossip.

Anyhow, that is me!

ETA: Oh yeah I travel a lot, which I really, really love.

[persuas1ve]

I too delurked for the rapture! Emily and Dna were my gateway fundies:)

[Buzzard]

Soldier of the one - is this a caprica reference?

[Fat Actress]

I'm Fat Actress just like on the old board. I'm in my 20's, an Agnostic (former Christian), married to Christian, mom to one adorable toddler and 6 months pregnant with my second. I grew up in a spiritually abusive, hardcore Calvinistic church. I first discovered free jinger because if my Dugger obsession. After hanging around and learning about Quiverful/ATI, I began discussing with hubby the crazy Gothard stuff. Low and behold I find out HE had attended conferences as a teen!!!!!!!!! Yeah, suddenly my crazy moth-in-law made sense. In one instant I understood why she wanted to control who her sons married, expected us to live on the family "compound", considered higher education harmful at best, and looked down her nose at any jobs that weren't a home business.

Thanks Free Jinger, for making sense of my crazy life! :lol:

Edited to include my blog: www.thekangaroolife.wordpress.com

[tylerite]

Hi, all.

I'm tylerite. I have lurked at the other board for a while and decided that the move was a good opportunity to sign up and introduce myself.

I'm married with two grown sons. I consider myself a Christian but I don't go to church. I believe in live and let live and love thy neighbor.

I can't remember how I came across FJ but it has been very interesting and enlightening.

[kaetrin]

Me too! It's so ~edifying~

I LOVE calling things "edifying." It's one of the fundie-jargon-words that I actually laugh at instead of being triggered.

[ppmath]

Hi, I'm ppmath, and I mostly lurk here. I love all he brainy posters on this forum. I grew up in a fundylite/evangelical home, not nearly as extreme as the fundies we snark on here - pants ok, college for girls ok, etc. Alcohol and smoking were completely evil, movies, dances and playing cards were very suspect. Now the church I grew up in would not have a problem with any of those previous things they thought were bad. They've replaced that kind of legalism with a political legalism, i.e. conservative is good, governement is bad, gay marriage and abortion completely evil, Obama is the antiChrist. As for me, I mostly identify as an agnostic now. Moving away from evangelicalism is very difficult, though, and it often makes me sad to not relate to my friends and family spiritualy the way I used to be able to.

Am attempting to post :whistle: a smiley here just because they're so cute!

[Nothing2CHere]

Hi. Um, like I said in my username, there's nothing much to see here, but I've been lurking on the Yuku board for I forget how long now, which I found through some combination of TWOP-NLQ-RazingRuth, so I figured with the FJ Rapture I should finally say hi. I'm in my thirties, married for 5 years now, and I am an ebil Catholic of the Byzantine Rite. We "are in full communion with the Bishop of Rome" (aka the pope), but we like incense, lots of it, and chanting. And I got to wear a crown when I was married :dance:

Anyway, don't worry, I can think and pray at the same time. A relative was calling me a "bleeding heart liberal" before I even knew what the phrase meant. No human kids yet, but if they arrive, they better be good because that's what we were promised when we were married (there were seriously like seven references not just to children but "good children" in the first five minutes of our wedding ceremony). We do currently have two fuzzy feline children, who are not always good.

Jon Stewart and Connie Schultz are my self-appointed Fairy Godparents. Don't know how much I'll actually be posting, I usually prefer to sit on the sidelines and read about all the crazy. And with that...

[mausi]

Hi hi, all. I am fairly new to the old here. Honestly, I just wanted to post some smilies. :banana-skier: :orcs-cheers:

[Red Molly]

yay! and welcome! I have always wanted to be raptured!

[gardenvarietycitizen]

I'm just a gardenvarietycitizen, same as on the old board.

I haven't much fundie cred at all, grew up in Japan where Christianity is barely a blip on the radar and the "general cultural that's just the way it is" leans Buddhist/Shinto/Confucian, so a lot of the basis behind the fundie (the basic ideas that they then take to crazy extremes) are already foreign to me, but that's why it's interesting.

I'm 40, married (very late!), no kids. I am quite a leftist, and very much not religious. From a young age I resented the gender expectations put on me, the idea that I was "supposed to" marry someone, retire from any job I might have had, and be a helpmeet (though not stated that way), as that's what my parents did. I went science track, have a career as a programmer, married late, and am the main earner in my household. As someone on another forum put it, I'm a woman on the outside, a human being on the inside, I guess. Yeah, I wear pants!

I found this board in particular from the TWOP board, where I'd gone to look up the Duggars (after seeing the old "It's not a clown car" picture for the 1491496 time and thinking, hey, I wonder if they are quiverfull?). In the Duggar thread I saw mentions of ATI and was enjoying the "off topic!" talk far more than talk of the show, which I've never seen. Someone mentioned Free Jinger and that was it.

I came to the fundie obsession via homeschooling. At the time I tutored language and found a lot of great ideas from homeschoolers, and still subscribe to the idea that a healthy person is "homeschooling" all the time. From there I noticed there were Christian homeschoolers, looked into it, and was fascinated and horrified at the same time. This was back on USENET. They talked about courtship and sheltering, and it struck me that for all the rhapsodizing about how "traditional" and "conservative" these families claim to be, they're inventing a new culture wholesale, every bit as radical as some of the things they despise. Robotkin's 200 year vision starts with him. Ditto the Maxwells. They didn't grow up fundie. Similarly a lot of the modern charedi chumras have only been adopted in the past 20 years or less - just look at old photos.

Currently I mainly follow the Maxwells, the antics of Vision Forum, charedi stuff on imamother, and ex-religious tales on unpious.com. The rigid gender hierarchy just makes my toes curl.

[Guest Anonymous]

YAY for delurking! welcome ! :D

[justakitten]

Hi everyone!

I've been following FreeJinger at Yuku for a little over a year, so figured I would finally register. I'm from Minnesota- 29, married, a WAHM with two girls (2 & 1), and with one hyperactive beagle mix. My husband and I are semi-occasional church goers at our ELCA Lutheran church. Looking forward to reading here more and finally commenting!

[kpmom]

I was kpmom on the old board too. Been on fj close to a year. I LOVE that we have smilies now.

Been following the Maxwells for about 6-7 years now. Not sure why, since they are not the most exciting people. I guess I can't quite wrap my mind around the fact that people like these actually exist.

[justakitten]

Hi!

I also delurked for the rapture. Anyone want to buy some pet insurance? :)

[LynnKaboom]

Hey guys, I'm LynnKaboom. I'm relatively new to FJ, came here about three months ago, I think? I'm 19, studying information technology and political science, a non-crazy civil libertarian, agnostic, involved in fandom, a blogger, and all-around lazy-ass. Started following the fundies a few years ago when I accidentally stumbled across Zsuzsu's blog while I was looking for recipes.

My fundie cred is basically limited to a couple of random relatives, and in more recent years, my mother, but overall I've not had much direct contact with the kind of nuckin' futs fundies we snark on here, although I find them fascinating. And kind of disturbing, but who doesn't?

[bbfreethinker]

I was bb on the old board but the new one doesn't like 2 letter usernames so now I'm bbFreeThinker. You can still call me bb if you want.

I became a christian of the evangelical flavor in high school and went to an (accredited) christian college. Now I'm a free-thinking, skeptical, humanist atheist. (Yeah, quite the turn-around). I'm here because I'm fascinated by religious beliefs of all kinds, the wackier the better.

Politically and socially, I'm a bleeding-hearted liberal.

I'm single and live under the authority of no one but myself. My arrows are of the feline variety. I work for a small children's museum.

In addition to fundie watching, I enjoy art, history, science, nature, hiking, travel; I'm a regular renaissance woman, I guess.

[whit1213]

I am delurking as well! Welcome to all the delurkers! I've been reading for a couple of months now and have learned so much.

[SinInTheCamp]

I lurked the old boards for a very long time but I decided to come out and play on the new ones. :dance: