Bontragers and Bowers 3: Kittens Having None of Their Shit

[mango_fandango]

What exactly does a “communications” degree involve? I don’t think we have them here in the U.K., not that specific name anyway. But then the way our degrees work over here is pretty different to the US.

[AverageGiraffe]

3 hours ago, Syriana said:

Alison Bontrager is suddenly taking a break from her blog and won't be back until June, she'll apparently be filling her time with work, family, cooking, the young women's retreat and preparing for the summer tour...

I suppose it's a break from her chatting about essential oils!

I've been wondering why she wasn't keeping up on her blog. She hasn't posted as much on IG either, just long stories shilling her oils. Her last proper insta post gave me a sad, struggling vibe. The language was typical fundie-ese about needing God and his wisdom and all that, but in conjunction with her blog posts since Chelsy got married that are clearly about her struggling to be content with being single, losing all her siblings/bffs to marriage, and touring, it struck me as someone who's a little bit forlorn and lost. I can't help but think that might be the real reason she's taking a blogging break. 

[SassyPantswithASideofClass]

On ‎4‎/‎20‎/‎2019 at 4:53 AM, JermajestyDuggar said:

It’s ok Micah. We understand.

Poor Micah, little man looks so thrilled. *insert sarcasm*

[SusanAtTheLastBattle]

On 4/26/2019 at 8:01 AM, Syriana said:

Alison Bontrager is suddenly taking a break from her blog and won't be back until June, she'll apparently be filling her time with work, family, cooking, the young women's retreat and preparing for the summer tour...

I suppose it's a break from her chatting about essential oils!

She did just get back from visiting Chelsy and baby Axton in Maxhell. Maybe her older sister/actual best friend (as opposed to her much younger sister/forced current “friend”) gave her good advice on taking a step back. Blogging about being miserable seemed to make her more miserable; it wasn’t a good feedback loop.

[Aithuia]

In other "pressures on fundie women" news, Carolina Bontrager posted that her daughter Jubilee's favorite book is called The Little Mommy.

Never too early to teach your daughter about the only thing she's allowed to do with her life, I guess.

[lilith]

This is from Joshua’s latest profoundly pompous blatherings.......

Maybe I’m misreading, but I find it interesting that he lists “slave prostitution” as one of the evils of Ancient Rome and not, you know, slavery in general. Why is it that I suspect young Mr Bontrager would be just fine with slavery so long as there was no extra marital sexual activity involved? 

I also love how he blames the games at the Colosseum  for distracting Romans from the serious issues of the day. “No Nero, I can’t listen to you fiddle now, I need to see how many Christians this lion eats!”.

Edited April 29, 2019 by lilith

[Aithuia]

9 hours ago, lilith said:

Maybe I’m misreading, but I find it interesting that he lists “slave prostitution” as one of the evils of Ancient Rome and not, you know, slavery in general. Why is it that I suspect young Mr Bontrager would be just fine with slavery so long as there was no extra marital sexual activity involved? 

That's one of those pesky Bible problems; some parts of the Old Testament quite explicitly condone slavery and establish the proper way to practice it. Maybe he doesn't consider slavery itself an evil, then. Yikes.

I would consider slavery one of the main examples of why taking the Bible literally is a terrible idea, but apparently Josh doesn't. I guess if he's so dead set against gay marriage to advocate taking the Bible at its word, he's willing to stomach a few horrible things that God technically "said" to keep believing and discriminating. 

Also, when did Jesus ever "penetrate" anything???

[VVV]

11 hours ago, lilith said:

This is from Joshua’s latest profoundly pompous blatherings.......

Maybe I’m misreading, but I find it interesting that he lists “slave prostitution” as one of the evils of Ancient Rome and not, you know, slavery in general. Why is it that I suspect young Mr Bontrager would be just fine with slavery so long as there was no extra marital sexual activity involved? 

I also love how he blames the games at the Colosseum  for distracting Romans from the serious issues of the day. “No Nero, I can’t listen to you fiddle now, I need to see how many Christians this lion eats!”.

Isn't it interesting that he admits that "sodomy" and abortion were well known in the ancient world and yet Jesus never mentioned either one?

[HereticHick]

Ugggh--here's the Little Mommy book. Its a Little Golden Book originally published in 1967.

https://www.amazon.com/Little-Mommy-Golden-Book/dp/0375848207

 

Here are some waaay better children's books from 1967:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_Bear,_Brown_Bear,_What_Do_You_See%3F

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bottersnikes_and_Gumbles

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mouse_and_His_Child

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drummer_Hoff

 

[Aithuia]

2 hours ago, VVV said:

Isn't it interesting that he admits that "sodomy" and abortion were well known in the ancient world and yet Jesus never mentioned either one?

Abortion in particular is weird for him to mention here, given that methods of abortion in the ancient world were not exactly known for being very effective. They were sort of like delayed extensions of contraception; herbs and jumping around a lot, with varying levels of effectiveness. Arguably, most abortions in antiquity would probably have complied perfectly with any of the numerous "heartbeat bills" being passed today, as midwives and physicians were well aware of the dangers of rudimentary surgical abortion given the risk to the woman from injury/infection and women tried to catch unwanted pregnancies ASAP. Many ancient physicians condemned the practice of abortion and only attempted it if it was clear that neither the woman nor the fetus would survive. 

[lilith]

5 hours ago, HereticHick said:

Ugggh--here's the Little Mommy book. Its a Little Golden Book originally published in 1967.

https://www.amazon.com/Little-Mommy-Golden-Book/dp/0375848207

 

Here are some waaay better children's books from 1967:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_Bear,_Brown_Bear,_What_Do_You_See%3F

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bottersnikes_and_Gumbles

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mouse_and_His_Child

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drummer_Hoff

 

I actually had that book as a child in the mid 80s. My parents had bought me a huge box of old golden books and that was included. I actually remember really liking it.

But I wouldn’t be seeking it out for my infant daughter in 2019 and claiming it was her favourite book. If a kid Jubilee’s age has a favourite book it’s one that makes noises or has sensory panels, not one that shows her how to be a traditional housewife. 

[Columbia]

18 hours ago, lilith said:

Maybe I’m misreading, but I find it interesting that he lists “slave prostitution” as one of the evils of Ancient Rome and not, you know, slavery in general

I wonder if he means something like sex slavery or sex trafficking, but doesn’t know how to describe it. 

[lilith]

9 hours ago, Columbia said:

I wonder if he means something like sex slavery or sex trafficking, but doesn’t know how to describe it. 

I think you’re being very kind with that possible interpretation. This is far from the first time a Bontrager has given me a neo confederate vibe and the Bowers are even worse - and Joshua seems to have a lot of respect for his Bowers father in law.

[HereticHick]

2 hours ago, lilith said:

I think you’re being very kind with that possible interpretation. This is far from the first time a Bontrager has given me a neo confederate vibe and the Bowers are even worse - and Joshua seems to have a lot of respect for his Bowers father in law.

Its not just a vibe. Joshua puts his dumbass love for the Romantic Lost Cause out there for all to see when he recounts this starry-eyed vignette from the life the sainted Robert E. Lee: https://joshuabontrager.com/2018/06/12/life-lessons-from-my-father/

Joshua, your Iowa ancestors were either pacifist Amish, or Unionists who rightly fought and died for this country. F**k off with your Stars-and-Bars humping.

[yes, some of my ancestors did fight for the treacherous Confederacy so as a matter of fact I do have standing in this argument]

Edited April 30, 2019 by HereticHick

[Lurky]

The thing that makes me angry about the phrase "slave prostitution" is it implies that the slaves got paid for it, which of course they didn't!  Slave rape is more like it.

[Briefly]

On 4/30/2019 at 8:59 AM, HereticHick said:

Its not just a vibe. Joshua puts his dumbass love for the Romantic Lost Cause out there for all to see when he recounts this starry-eyed vignette from the life the sainted Robert E. Lee: https://joshuabontrager.com/2018/06/12/life-lessons-from-my-father/

Joshua, your Iowa ancestors were either pacifist Amish, or Unionists who rightly fought and died for this country. F**k off with your Stars-and-Bars humping.

[yes, some of my ancestors did fight for the treacherous Confederacy so as a matter of fact I do have standing in this argument]

Some of mine did, too.  Mr. Briefly's ancestors had slaves.  I went to Robert E Lee High School and we learned about Lee's life, but we were NOT taught that his wife had slaves, etc.  But we aren't our ancestors and I have since learned a more truthful history of Lee.  However, I do have a picture of however many times great grndfather in his Confederate uniform (he was elderly by the time the picture was taken and it's actually him with his sons) and I will keep it because it is part of my family history - I don't like to sanitize history, family or otherwise.  But I get the feeling that Joshua is trying to reinvent his family into what mine has tried to get away from, even though it was a few generations ago.

[nvmbr02]

On 4/30/2019 at 11:59 PM, HereticHick said:

Its not just a vibe. Joshua puts his dumbass love for the Romantic Lost Cause out there for all to see when he recounts this starry-eyed vignette from the life the sainted Robert E. Lee: https://joshuabontrager.com/2018/06/12/life-lessons-from-my-father/

 

Has this link been deleted? I can't pull it up..

[Lgirlrocks]

@nvmbr02 I had to go back and look for it. Here it is: 

https://joshuabontrager.com/life-lessons-from-my-father/

[VVV]

1 hour ago, Briefly said:

Some of mine did, too.  Mr. Briefly's ancestors had slaves.  I went to Robert E Lee High School and we learned about Lee's life, but we were NOT taught that his wife had slaves, etc.  But we aren't our ancestors and I have since learned a more truthful history of Lee.  However, I do have a picture of however many times great grndfather in his Confederate uniform (he was elderly by the time the picture was taken and it's actually him with his sons) and I will keep it because it is part of my family history - I don't like to sanitize history, family or otherwise.  But I get the feeling that Joshua is trying to reinvent his family into what mine has tried to get away from, even though it was a few generations ago.

Sidebar: My older two kids graduated from Robert E Lee High School, but the name was changed a couple of years so that my daughter will be graduating from LEE High School (yes, our district is completely lame). In a wonderful twist of irony, oldest child now teaches math at U.S Grant High School (different city, obviously).

Sorry, carry on.

 

[JermajestyDuggar]

Oh look. A family picture of just the men in the family. Even John (a non Bon) is included. Because penis.

[JermajestyDuggar]

I’m assuming they threw this early surprise party because Chelsy was in town. 

[SPHASH]

On 5/4/2019 at 9:30 AM, JermajestyDuggar said:

Oh look. A family picture of just the men in the family. Even John (a non Bon) is included. Because penis.

I hope Stud John doesn't influence his in laws to quit enjoying sports.

1 hour ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

I’m assuming they threw this early surprise party because Chelsy was in town. 

No men allowed?  The Bontragers really like to segregate.

Edited May 5, 2019 by SPHASH
ETA

[Aithuia]

3 hours ago, SPHASH said:

No men allowed?  The Bontragers really like to segregate.

Goodness gracious, no! What would this world be coming to if our manly men wanted to join in our feminine frivolities?

Sarcasm aside, I would guess that any kind of gender segregation occurs with all of the agency on the part of the men. They exclude the women from the serious decisions and conversations they make and have, and then avoid the women's activities. If the men aren't there, it's not because the women have excluded them, it's because they believe that whatever the women are doing is beneath them.

On 5/4/2019 at 10:30 AM, JermajestyDuggar said:

Oh look. A family picture of just the men in the family. Even John (a non Bon) is included. Because penis.

Good lord. I just realized that Carson isn't holding a child because they wouldn't even let Jubilee in the picture.

[lilith]

I’m sure the women are hovering just out of frame to grab the babies the second the photo is taken/to catch them if those silly manly men drop them (and Mitchell looks like he might).

I could understand excluding Jubilee if they were doing a “3 generations of Bontrager men” thing, but why would John be included? 

Its a pity Chelsy is squished into the corner in the ladies picture - I wanted to see if her knees had reappeared as she entered Iowa.

[lilith]

Axton’s face......