Safe at Home 4: Where the thread names change, but the Arndts stay the same

[MarblesMom]

Adding that their live tonight was ALSO from the driveway.   Rick mentioned it was like a "space mission" because they were FB live from two different FB pages.

NASA would be impressed.

[church_of_dog]

Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain driver's seat (wish I could morph Rick's face into the Wizard's)

Edited February 7, 2019 by church_of_dog

[Carm_88]

On 2/6/2019 at 11:41 PM, MarblesMom said:

Adding that their live tonight was ALSO from the driveway.   Rick mentioned it was like a "space mission" because they were FB live from two different FB pages.

NASA would be impressed.

I'm pretty sure Rick is an alien...sooo...

[Suz8710]

I finally watched the majority of one of “Pastor” Rick’s drive/talks. This was Friday night I believe, going to DQ with Mary and later stopping at a cemetery(?) before hitting the backroads to home. In it, Rick talks about hosting the FamTeam Classic in late April as a tie-in with his 40th wedding anniversary. He plans to use that time to host many of the people who are a part of that fb prayer group.

Usually when someone says “host” and the guests are coming from all over, that generally means they would stay with them. While sort of nice, where on earth would they fit all these people? Some of the women in the group do not appear to be well off, so I can’t imagine they would pay for a hotel to be a part of this event. It’s strange. 

One other thing of note, in the comments from that video (public FamTeam), I found this gem:

Happy Birthday Luke, get it! ???

Edited February 11, 2019 by Suz8710

[JenniferJuniper]

I'll dance with Luke!

I don't get the invites either, but I really don't think he has any intention of having these poor women stay at the house.  He has mentioned a nearby Hampton Inn several times. 

I can't tell who is a troll and who isn't, but some of these women have serious problems, especially with the men in their lives.  But "Pastor" Rick will never conclude that it's important for women to be able to support themselves.  No, he just think if he prays for their alcoholic, drug addled, abusive partners all will be well.  ?

[Lisafer]

Is it awful that when I saw the mention of girls dancing with the Arndt boys, I immediately thought of the Old Testament book of Judges chapter 21, v. 20-23?!!! I mean, that's one way to get a wife...

Okay, just kidding. Unless any single FJers would like to volunteer.

[Black Aliss]

On 2/12/2019 at 5:33 PM, Lisafer said:

Is it awful that when I saw the mention of girls dancing with the Arndt boys, I immediately thought of the Old Testament book of Judges chapter 21, v. 20-23?!!! I mean, that's one way to get a wife...

Okay, just kidding. Unless any single FJers would like to volunteer.

Are any of the Arndt boys named Benjamin?

 

[anjulibai]

12 minutes ago, Black Aliss said:

Are any of the Arndt boys named Benjamin?

 

Peter's middle name is Benjamin, and Seth's second first name is Benjamin. 

[Petronella]

6 hours ago, anjulibai said:

Peter's middle name is Benjamin, and Seth's second first name is Benjamin. 

Wait, uh... "second first name"? But it's not the "middle" name? Whoa...

[anjulibai]

11 hours ago, Petronella said:

Wait, uh... "second first name"? But it's not the "middle" name? Whoa...

Yeah, they all have a hyphenated first name and one middle name. And all the boys share at least one name with one of their brothers. Here's their full names:

Paul-Matthew Joseph
John-Andrew Michael
Mark-David Timothy
Luke-Joseph Peter
Jude-Peter Matthew
James-Michael Philip
Philip-Thomas Luke
Seth-Benjamin Mark
Jacob-Timothy John
Nathan-Stephen Paul
Mary-Elizabeth Anne
Caleb-Nicholas David
Peter-John Benjamin
David-Paul Andrew

Also, I was bored one day, and decided to break it all down. 

Here's the breakdown of how many each of their names they share:

And here's the breakdown of how many times a name is repeated:

Edited February 14, 2019 by anjulibai

[gustava]

That's beyond icky...something very wrong.

[HerNameIsBuffy]

20 hours ago, anjulibai said:

Yeah, they all have a hyphenated first name and one middle name

So do I ...be nice!!   

[anjulibai]

3 hours ago, HerNameIsBuffy said:

So do I ...be nice!!   

Oh, I don't think hyphenating the first name is an strange at all. I've known many people that do that, and if I ever have a daughter, I think I might as well. 

However, I do think it's weird how much they reused names. With all the male names in the Bible, why do that?! 

[HerNameIsBuffy]

35 minutes ago, anjulibai said:

Oh, I don't think hyphenating the first name is an strange at all. I've known many people that do that, and if I ever have a daughter, I think I might as well. 

However, I do think it's weird how much they reused names. With all the male names in the Bible, why do that?! 

And they were practicing Catholics for the first however many births so you’ve got saints names on top of biblical ...a lot from which to choose.

 

[Howl]

Don't know if I had already posted this.  It was sitting in new post box, ready to be sent.  

Don't know if this has been addressed before but there are numerous instances on zoos of male penguin couples successfully taking over an egg and raising the chick, or in one instance, stealing a chick from neglectful parents to raise and nurture. 

2014 Jumbs and Kermit in Kent Gay penguins in Kent zoo are 'the best parents'

2018 Sphen and Magic  The Gay Penguins of Australia  Two male penguins are raising a baby whose gender is unknown.

This is a very long article, but NYT is behind a paywall, so I decided to go ahead and copy and paste.  How Sphen and Magic paired up and formed a bond and then sang to each other for encouragement and to encourage their baby is really sweet. 

Spoiler

SYDNEY, Australia — It was a young penguin colony, and all but one of the couples were pretty bad parents.

They would get distracted from their nests, go for a swim or play, and so neglected eggs were getting cold, likely never to hatch. This was normal for inexperienced penguins, and the aquarium managers didn’t worry. Next mating season would be better.

One couple, though, was extraordinary. Not because they were the colony’s only gay penguins, though they were, but because Sphen and Magic looked like they would make great, diligent, careful egg-warming parents. They made the biggest nest, and they sat on it constantly.

Curious, the aquarium managers gave the two males a dummy egg. They took to it. And so then, when a particularly negligent heterosexual penguin couple looked to be leaving an egg exposed (females lay two, but usually only one survives), the aquarium workers figured they would give it to Sphen and Magic.

In October, that egg hatched. Now the chick of a gay penguin union is waddling around an ice enclosure by the touristy docks in Sydney.

When Sphen and Magic became a couple, Australia had just gone through a bitter battle about whether gay marriage should be legal. The human gay marriage debate had brought out thorny personal and religious tensions. These two diligent Gentoos, unaware of the political heat around their courtship, became a larger symbol for the country. If a penguin colony could figure this out, a human nation certainly could.

Australia is famous for having many dangerous creatures on land and in water: some of the most dangerous snakes and spiders in the world, kangaroos that look like bodybuilders, great white sharks patrolling surfers. Suddenly, though, Australia’s biggest animal celebrities were two gay penguins, which their keepers noticed with pleasure.

“Everyone likes penguins,” said Tish Hannan, the head of penguin supervision at the aquarium. “They’re so cheeky.”

“They’re not like sharks,” said the senior penguin keeper Amy Lawrie, her second in command. “No one’s had a bad experience with a penguin.” 

Penguin keepers cannot say exactly why one penguin chooses another, especially two penguins as different as Magic and Sphen.

Magic, a 3-year-old Gentoo born at the Sea Life Melbourne Aquarium, is excitable and playful. He chases after toys and anything that shines. He greets visitors.

Sphen, who is 6 and from SeaWorld, is taller and has a bigger beak. He’s quieter, more serious and less interested in toys and humans.

But it was clear early on what Sphen and Magic were doing when they met one summer day at Sea Life Sydney Aquarium.

First, as is the Gentoo way, they began to bow to each other.

They brought each other carefully selected pebbles for the nest they hoped to build together. If either had not been interested he would have rejected the pebble, pushing it away with a beak. But each admired the pebbles he was brought.

Ms. Lawrie described it as “consent.”

Then they started to sing. Standing close together, they sang to each other until they had learned each other’s voices.

Penguin keepers cannot say exactly why one penguin chooses another, especially two penguins as different as Magic and Sphen.

They alerted aquarium leadership that there were going to be two male penguin parents. The aquarium executives embraced it.

The aquarium put out a video of the pair singing to each other. There is a video of them making their pebble nest.

Visitors now come just to see the new gay parents, and ask tour guides which were the gay penguins.

There were those who objected to use of the word “gay.”

“The word ‘unnatural’ was used a lot,” said Samantha Antoun, the aquarium’s public relations manager. “People said we shouldn’t call them gay because maybe they’re just friends.”

The penguin keepers said they would bring no politics onto the ice.

“We’re not going to discourage any companionship for our penguins,” Ms. Lawrie said. “Love is love.”

?

The first sign of a good Gentoo parent is that they’re able to recognize an egg has hatched and that the chick is slowly breaking its way out. This can take days. Sphen and Magic noticed straight away.

“When it’s got its face out, it can start talking to its parents, and Magic and Sphen recognized this and started singing to the egg before it even hatched,” Ms. Hannan said.

Their chick — for now called Sphengic — was born on a Friday and weighed 91 grams. It was the only chick to have hatched of all the eggs in the colony.

For the first few months of a chick’s life, it stays close to its parents. Sphen and Magic feed and sing to the chick. They tuck it into bed at night. The chick needs to have its head faced toward the parents when it sleeps under them, so parents use their beaks to keep it in proper position.

Like any couple, Sphen and Magic did face challenges, mostly related to their age difference.

“Magic is the younger one, and he would try to pawn off the parental duties in the first couple days,” Ms. Hannan said. “Sometimes he would be like, ‘You feed the chick today’ and hop off and go swimming.”

But slowly he learned to co-parent. When Magic would feed the chick, Sphen would come over and sing to them.

“He was singing to encourage him,” Ms. Hannan said. “So Magic would know he was doing the right thing.”

SphengicCreditSea Life Sydney Aquarium

Now the 3-month-old chick is almost fully grown. He, or she, does not have a permanent name yet. Nor does the penguin have a gender. A penguin’s reproductive organs are internal, so sex can only be determined by a blood test at maturity. Orientation and identity are not Sphengic’s most pressing challenges.

One recent morning, Magic was playing with the other members of the colony, and Sphen was minding Sphengic, who is set aside from the colony in a crèche. Another penguin, Rita, came a little too close. Sphen flapped his wings and lightly jabbed at her with his beak. Sphengic, whose personality has yet to develop, was busy eating ice.

Lunch that day would be pilchards and squid.

The penguin keepers said they do not think much about the politics of Sphengic. But they do see that he is inspiring visitors.

“Penguins are born with the ability to raise chicks from start to finish whether they’re male or female, and that’s quite an interesting thought to keep in mind,” Ms. Hannan said. “We’re the same.”

Many of the other penguins are searching for new pairs for another mating season. But Sphen and Magic remain together. Recently, Sphengic began learning to swim. Sphen and Magic padded nearby, ready to dive in.

 

 

2018 Gay penguins stir up drama in a Denmark zoo by stealing chick from 'neglectful' parents

 

 

[church_of_dog]

5 hours ago, HerNameIsBuffy said:

So do I ...be nice!!   

Is it...  "Her-Name-Is" ??? 

[JermajestyDuggar]

And there are far fewer female names from the Bible. Imagine if they had 13 girls and 1 boy instead.

Mary-Elizabeth Anne

Mary-Anne Elizabeth

Anne-Mary Elizabeth

Anne-Elizabeth Mary

Elizabeth-Mary Anne

Elizabeth-Anne Mary

And then they might throw Catherine into the mix to honor Cathy. 

[Lurky]

The only positive thing I've got to say about their weird repetitive names is that at least they're not Courtney, who's aiming for a Cole, Colt, Cass, Cassie, Casey, Case, Callum, Cale, Callie, Caylie, Callena, Callia, Calliana, Clay, Clyde, Clayd, Cade, Caydie, etc etc

Edited February 17, 2019 by Lurky

[Hane]

Eh. To Catholics of my generation, name repetition—particularly middle-name repetition—is far from a big deal. In many families, all the girls had Mary somewhere in their names and all the boys had Joseph. One set of cousins were Elizabeth Mary, Joseph James III, Susan Marie, and Thomas Joseph II.  My sisters and I were baptized Jane Louise, Margaret Mary, and Mary Louise, each name after that of a relative.  A colleague told me that so many of her cousins were named after her grandma Vincenza that yelling, “Hey, Vinnie!”

at a family gathering would make half of them turn around.

  In my own family, children were given the names of previously deceased or stillborn siblings. Choosing not to name a child after a relative or a saint was unusual, if not offputting. 

In recent years, I was surprised to see how few kids in my niece’s and nephew’s First Communion and Confirmation classes had any saints’ names at all.

Historically speaking, enthusiasm for originality seems to be a pretty recent thing. Plays by Shakespeare and his contemporaries tended to be based on old stories. Look in most hymnals and you’ll find that many older hymns are lyrics set to the tunes of already-famous melodies.

Edited February 18, 2019 by Hane

[nelliebelle1197]

On 2/11/2019 at 8:23 AM, JenniferJuniper said:

I'll dance with Luke!

I don't get the invites either, but I really don't think he has any intention of having these poor women stay at the house.  He has mentioned a nearby Hampton Inn several times. 

I can't tell who is a troll and who isn't, but some of these women have serious problems, especially with the men in their lives.  But "Pastor" Rick will never conclude that it's important for women to be able to support themselves.  No, he just think if he prays for their alcoholic, drug addled, abusive partners all will be well.  ?

Hands off Luke. He's been mine for a long time.

[Lisafer]

On 2/18/2019 at 9:55 PM, nelliebelle1197 said:

Hands off Luke. He's been mine for a long time.

Well, Rick's apparently desperate for women to visit the compound. Go and get Luke! 

[HerNameIsBuffy]

On 2/15/2019 at 4:24 PM, church_of_dog said:

Is it...  "Her-Name-Is" ??? 

Exactly.  I don’t hide behind a screen name - this is exactly what’s on my birth certificate.

[FlamingoFlail]

I'm new-ish to the fundie world, and I must admit that the Arndt's fascinate me more than a nearly isolated family should. Rick and Cathy act somewhat similar to a fairly controlling family member of mine, so I do have probably too much sympathy for the manboys and Mary-Elizabeth. At the same time, it's not easy but breaking away can be done. After 3 years I'm still struggling, but that's neither here nor there. Sorry, I'm talking in circles.

These "Conversations with Dad" truly are a goldmine. I usually have at least one good laugh with every broadcast I watch. (On a semi-related note, does how he does his commentary remind anyone else of a kid's TV show host?) The interactions he has with his kids on them just seem strange to me. At first they act like crazy dad is up to antics again, then the next day they're front and center, throwing themselves into the conversation. It's remarkable the hold he has on his fully grown children.

I've fallen asleep during quite a few conversations, but this Sunday's "service" (my inner Catholic hurts) Paul talks about the new, nearby land they bought (in R&C's name) and the he and "the guys" were going to move to. Could it be progress? I think they should take the money they used to buy the land and buy it as far from there as possible, but if it happens, it could be a step in the right direction. Maybe they'll have their own rooms...

I wanted to include Rick's face when Paul said they were moving to the land. ? Not included is his partially enthusiastic "YEAH!"

[MiQ]

Could it be that they are waiting for the end-times? Maybe the dad has brainwashed them to think it will happen soon so no point starting a family. ( My first post ? ever on FJ) 

[Elegant Mess]

4 hours ago, MiQ said:

Could it be that they are waiting for the end-times? Maybe the dad has brainwashed them to think it will happen soon so no point starting a family. ( My first post ? ever on FJ) 

If that's true, then they really need to get a move on completing Vine Valley!