Maxwell 43: Divesting from the First Church of Stevehovah Reversalist

[MamaJunebug]

On 10/4/2020 at 2:11 AM, Bethy said:

I do. It's absolutely forbidden. She got an impersonal text letting her know her friend had passed, as a courtesy so she wouldn't wonder why the friend's correspondence stopped. If she responded to the text at all, it would've likely been the type of ordinary sentiments you'd say as you shook hands down the line at a viewing (so sorry for your loss, praying for your family at this time.) And that's the end of that. I would put money on the fact that she's not going to be staying in contact with him and I don't see this being a potential match for any of the mothership sisters even if this widower is every bit as fundie as Steve.

Fundies (and even a lot of less-strict evangelicals) truly believe it's sinful to have any friendships with the opposite sex after you're married, and will even go so far as to discourage platonic opposite-gender friendships in high school and college, dismissing them as a waste of time. Many of these people truly believe you'll "fall" into an adulterous relationship if you are even talking to anyone of the opposite sex once you're married. This is where you get the rules followed by Billy Graham, Mike Pence, etc. where they won't be alone in any room or vehicle ever with a woman, Nancy Leigh DeMoss and her email rule (if she has to email a man, even for business purposes, she always copies his wife - and, I'm assuming now that she's married, also her own husband - on the email, which sounds like an annoying way to spam up your recipient's spouse's inbox) On one hand I see where some of that could provide protection down the road (no woman could ever accuse Billy Graham of groping her in an elevator, for example) but the email thing...sheesh. The thousands of emails and texts that go back and forth in our online world and these people gotta stop and copy everybody's spouse on it.

Especially since I think bedbug treatments are based on the square footage of the house! It would be way cheaper to take care of the problem in the split-foyer than this new place.

Oh my gosh, guys, of course!  How did I miss that AM's late friend was another patient in Washington but by no means a Steve-level fundamentalist lady? Well, there you go, AnnaOriginalVersion, back to balloons and Aunties' Park for you!

[Giraffe]

9 hours ago, CyborgKin said:

Okay this isn't good or neutral news but there's far more appropriate, descriptive, and interesting ways to title a post about bedbugs than 'very bad news'.

They missed the opportunity to title it “Very Buggy News.”

[IReallyAmHopewell]

2 hours ago, MamaJunebug said:

Fundies (and even a lot of less-strict evangelicals) truly believe it's sinful to have any friendships with the opposite sex after you're married, and will even go so far as to discourage platonic opposite-gender friendships in high school and college, dismissing them as a waste of time. Many of these people truly believe you'll "fall" into an adulterous relationship

I don't believe this is just a fundie thing. I think this is also a generational thing. Many, many people do not have opposite gender friends they would see without their spouse. I am 58. I cannot imagine any of my married friends saying, "Sorry, John, I'm just leaving to go bowling with my friend Bill. I'll see you when I get home." That doesn't mean they shun the opposite sex or that they are prudes. It's just how marriage is viewed. Of course laugh and have fun and vent with co-workers or the neighbors. Going to lunch in a very public place during the work day, sure. That's about it.

[usmcmom]

Regarding the “No contact with the opposite sex....” rule:

My sister and I were talking about birthdays and how our family is really growing - keeping up with cards, etc.  She said “I decided a long time ago not to send one to your husband because I wasn’t sure it was appropriated.  You know...picking out a card for a man who is not my husband.” I said, “Well, when I choose your husband’s card each year, it is with the understanding that it is from my whole household.”

And then I went home and removed her husband’s name from my birthday list; not because I agree with her but but because if she can’t make the effort for family, neither can I.  

[JoyfulSel]

11 hours ago, FreeKaylee said:

Ugh, I’m sorry you and your family went through that!  

I live in an apartment too.  It’s more like a townhouse though and I only share a wall with one other unit.  For various reasons I was pretty sure I had brought in the bug, but in the back of my mind I was afraid I was wrong and they were coming from my neighbor and it was going to be a huge problem because my landlords absolutely would not have handled it properly either.  I was so aggressive with treating it myself because I didn’t want to have to turn it over to them because I had no confidence they would do the right thing.  If the Raid and everything else I did hadn’t worked I would’ve had no choice though, I didn’t want it to spread or anything and become a whole infestation and I guess they would have had to do something.   

I reread the Maxwells post and I cant believe they put the pillows in the attic hoping for next summers heat to kill the bugs.  I missed that the first time I read it.  Why would you not throw them out or put them in the dryer??  Everything I couldn’t get rid of was double bagged and sealed tightly and went into commercial dryers at the laundromat on high for 90 minutes.  I wasn’t playing, lol.  

I think the Maxwells are going to have further problems with this, unless they get really lucky.  I don’t see how taping the door is going to do anything, they can travel through walls and electrical outlets and spaces as thin as a credit card...

Thank you! I'm so sorry that you had to deal with these things too, glad that you were able to take care of it. Not sure what the Maxwells are thinking, they need to be proactive on this, not stick things in the attic and waiting for NEXT summer, geez! We tried to DIY at first but it was clear my apartment building had a bigger issue so once the landlord got it through his thick skull and saw how many apartments were actually affected, he took it seriously and we all had our apartments treated multiple times with chemicals.

I'm lol'ing at a caption Sarah used on her baking post: Chocolate chips are optional but not optional. They add a great touch!

You better include those chocolate chips!

[Kelsey]

On 10/2/2020 at 2:13 PM, Eternalbluepearl said:

The rest of the world: Bad news. People are dying.

The Maxwells: Bad news. Anna found a bug.

Anna speculated a bug.

[Black Aliss]

On 10/4/2020 at 9:53 AM, Bethy said:

DDT wasn't available to quickly quash the problem as it had in previous generations.

Not here, but its use is still widespread in Africa, Asia, and South America. Not surprisinglythe  bedbugs on those continents have evolved to be resistant to DDT and many other pesticides. They are super-bedbugs and now that they've hitchhiked to North America, there's really no stopping them. It's not so much foreigners bringing them to this country as it is Americans traveling to more and more "exotic" places, and bring the bugs home with them.

[FloraKitty35]

that is one of the most appetizing looking recipies that's ever been on their blog 

[bluelady]

39 minutes ago, FloraKitty35 said:

that is one of the most appetizing looking recipies that's ever been on their blog 

Their baking is usually quite tasty looking.  Its everything else that looks like poo.

I'm having house guests this weekend.   I might actually try the oatmeal recipe 

[Hane]

@IReallyAmHopewell, I read something genius in an advice column: “Yes, you can be a friend of a married member of the opposite sex—as long as you’re first and foremost a friend of their marriage.”

[usmcmom]

13 hours ago, bluelady said:

Their baking is usually quite tasty looking.  Its everything else that looks like poo.

I'm having house guests this weekend.   I might actually try the oatmeal recipe 

I think I am going to try it too. Since I don’t care for the chocolate chip/pumpkin spice combination, I am going to put dried cranberries in mine instead of the chocolate.  
 

Enjoy your time with your guests! 

[CyborgKin]

Autumn is okay in my climate: it's not yet the miserable cold of winter but it's not the sapping heat of summer either.

[Austrian Atheist]

"Adoption: the loving option" - yet no Maxwell has ever adopted. Hypocrites!

 

[fundiefan]

Another "life chain". What, exactly, are they doing to help anyone, anywhere? They sit in the debt free homes and type away, behind their computer, telling everyone how to live. Yet, they don't actually DO anything to help anyone. 

Why haven't any of them adopted? Spent time at women's shelters? Fostered children born to unfit parents? 

I wonder what they think of tRump's use of experimental drugs that are being developed with the use of...embryonic stem cells? Their pro-life moron in chief using the cells of aborted fetuses (!). I can't wait to see their uproar, as well as that of all fundies who call themselves "pro life". 

[Foudeb]

I think there is something very cruel in telling young children, who are too young to understand the difference between a blastocyst, an embryo, a foetus and a baby, that "some mothers kill their babies". It's like telling them they too, or their little sibling, might have been killed. Who tells a child that. It's psychological violence. 

Personally, I feel like telling them 25% of pregnancies will end in miscarriages - don't they realise that their god is the greatest abortionist of us all? And why are they not donating all they can to help science save those much desired, much wanted "babies"? 

If they were that serious about stopping abortions, why aren't they campaigning to make vasectomies compulsory for all males until they get written permission from their wife or life partner to get it reversed like his steveness once did. This way, no wayward baby-making from out of control men, no unwanted pregnancies, no abortions, problem sorted. 

In all seriousness though, can they not educate themselves about the reasons for abortion - ectopic pregnancies, rape, foetuses with a condition incompatible with life outside the womb, unsafe living conditions, poverty,... What gives them a greater right to pontificate about what should happen than the person who will have to live through with the consequences of its happening, when they are clearly ignorant of the most common contexts to those types of decisions. 

[SPHASH]

1 hour ago, Austrian Atheist said:

"Adoption: the loving option" - yet no Maxwell has ever adopted. Hypocrites!

 

They think aborted babies were conceived out of wedlock and since the sins of the father are visited upon the children they want nothing to do with it.  My response to the anti abortionists:

 

[Jana814]

They considered this a wonderful family outing.  They won’t take the kids to a park, or allow them to have friends who aren’t siblings or cousins but they thought doing a protest was a good idea. 

[Hane]

Flames are shooting out of my ears right now. Every time I start thinking that Nathan and Melanie’s kids might have some slim chance, something like this pops up.

No matter what your position on abortion is, kids have no place at an event like this—not even kids who have been educated about fetal development. It shows that their goal is indoctrination from the earliest possible age, damn the consequences.

[freejugar]

It's disgusting that they're bringing their kids to "protest" this.

They're all about sheltering and keeping their children's hearts, but they discuss abortion with children that are way too young to properly understand it.

[fundiewatch]

Pro-life moment spotted— AM and her family stayed home. 

[Jana814]

12 minutes ago, freejugar said:

It's disgusting that they're bringing their kids to "protest" this.

They're all about sheltering and keeping their children's hearts, but they discuss abortion with children that are way too young to properly understand it.

I just don’t understand their logic in doing that. I think they even took them to a protest once when it was cold & snowing after the kids were sick with colds. 

[SassyPants]

Abortion kills children...seriously with the hyperbole, so uneducated. You know what really kills children? Poor health care, lack of clean water and nutritious food, separation from their parents and putting them in cages at the border, cults, zealots...

[mango_fandango]

Adoption is not easy. I’ve said it before, but it’s so ignorant when people say “just adopt”!! I’m not going to go into the details. But even those adopted at birth can have issues later on in life, never mind those adopted at a later age. And even if the birth mother gives up her child willingly (as in, knew the child was going to be adopted during pregnancy, as opposed to the child being taken by authorities due to neglect or whatever) it’s not easy for her. She’s always going to have that child in mind, although people like the Maxwells wouldn’t think about the birth mother, unless in a disparaging way. 

Actually Christopher took the oldest four kids, looks like AM did stay at home with Elizabeth and Simon Peter though. 
 

 

[smittykins]

1 hour ago, SPHASH said:

They think aborted babies were conceived out of wedlock and since the sins of the father are visited upon the children they want nothing to do with it.  My response to the anti abortionists:

 

There is a small contingent of fundies who believe that women pregnant out of wedlock should raise their babies because punishment  natural consequences.

[SassyPants]

6 minutes ago, smittykins said:

There is a small contingent of fundies who believe that women pregnant out of wedlock should raise their babies because punishment  natural consequences.

But the guys walk away scot-free?