Mortons 5: Terrible News from the Smith Home: Sitara Killed while Helping Bret Cut Down a Tree

[waltraute]

2 hours ago, Bassett Lady said:

Why oh why couldn’t his horrible decisions have killed him instead.
 

Situations like this are a part of what killed my faith. 

[fundiefan]

24 minutes ago, waltraute said:

Situations like this are a part of what killed my faith. 

I never had a strong faith to kill, but I did believe in a god even I wasn't religious and didn't think much of "faith" - being "Lutheran" was just part of who my famly was, like being Norwegian & English, for the most part. No strong Christianity, but culturally we were "Christians". 

Anyway, things like this were also driving factors in my thought process and decisions. I have never been able to get past situations where "bad things happen to good people" or "only the good die young". To me that's so effing twisted and there is nothing acceptable about it. 

I'd been pretty much done with anything having to do with Christianity by the time I was in my 20's. But, 9/11 put the nail in that coffin. 

I was livid with the stories of "he was supposed to be in the North tower but missed his train, God protected him and isn't god great" and "She should have been at work that morning but she had to take her daughter to the doctor. God kept her out of the tower & saved her, isn't he great". If some god intentionally kept people out of the towers on 9/11, by default it means he intentionally put everyone else in them, and on the planes. I cannot and will not get behind that; I do not accept such a vengeful, hateful deity playing games with human lives, deeming any life more worthy of a dr appointment at a specific time to save them than another. 

The same day, a man in my little town killed his wife and two young children. He was a dick - that much everyone in town knew; I didn't know  how deep it went but I'm sure some did. I was stunned that some god was too busy creating doctor appointments & making people miss trains to send someone to that house to knock on the door at the right time or send that woman to her sister's for the night or something.

I was pretty much full on fuck off "god" and get out of my life. 

Edited August 27, 2021 by fundiefan

[Coconut Flan]

11 hours ago, SolomonFundy said:

Arman posted a description of the event schedule for Sitara's memorial service. It's to be at their church on Saturday, with a "visitation to follow with the Smith family at the house". 

I get that it's tradition to host a visitation at the home of the deceased, but... holy hell it seems tasteless and needlessly macabre to host a visitation at the house where she was horrifically and mortally injured just a few days ago. The tree is almost certainly still there. Maybe I'm pearl clutching, but I would host the damned visitation literally ANYWHERE else.

Friends who had a death at home held the visitation in the church social hall.  I think that was easier on everyone.  

[Black Aliss]

12 hours ago, SolomonFundy said:

Arman posted a description of the event schedule for Sitara's memorial service. It's to be at their church on Saturday, with a "visitation to follow with the Smith family at the house". 

I get that it's tradition to host a visitation at the home of the deceased, but... holy hell it seems tasteless and needlessly macabre to host a visitation at the house where she was horrifically and mortally injured just a few days ago. The tree is almost certainly still there. Maybe I'm pearl clutching, but I would host the damned visitation literally ANYWHERE else. 

Oh, I can practically guarantee Bret would have finished the job of cutting up the tree and stacking it in the woodshed, probably within a day of Sitara's death. Heck, he probably even ground down the stump. "Let's just pretend this never happened."

[Red Hair, Black Dress]

I see Alan Smith is listed in the surviving siblings. Is he home now/ on probation/ still in jail?

[JermajestyDuggar]

18 minutes ago, Red Hair, Black Dress said:

I see Alan Smith is listed in the surviving siblings. Is he home now/ on probation/ still in jail?

As far as we know, he’s still in prison. 

[fundiefan]

24 minutes ago, Red Hair, Black Dress said:

I see Alan Smith is listed in the surviving siblings. Is he home now/ on probation/ still in jail?

He was sentenced to 30 years in 2019. Even the craziest of things done to reduce sentences (time served, good behavior, overcrowding early release) wouldn't have him out yet. If he were up for parole/probation, no doubt the Morton's would be witnesses and it would be mentioned even in obscure ways like when he was sentenced and they all celebrated "justice served" without saying anything else. And, Craptain Bret could not keep his big mouth shut and if his golden boy were out of prison the whole world would know how much their god loves them to redeem him, release him, blah, blah, blah.

 

[Jasmar]

3 hours ago, fundiefan said:

I never had a strong faith to kill, but I did believe in a god even I wasn't religious and didn't think much of "faith" - being "Lutheran" was just part of who my famly was, like being Norwegian & English, for the most part. No strong Christianity, but culturally we were "Christians". 

Anyway, things like this were also driving factors in my thought process and decisions. I have never been able to get past situations where "bad things happen to good people" or "only the good die young". To me that's so effing twisted and there is nothing acceptable about it. 

I'd been pretty much done with anything having to do with Christianity by the time I was in my 20's. But, 9/11 put the nail in that coffin. 

I was livid with the stories of "he was supposed to be in the North tower but missed his train, God protected him and isn't god great" and "She should have been at work that morning but she had to take her daughter to the doctor. God kept her out of the tower & saved her, isn't he great". If some god intentionally kept people out of the towers on 9/11, by default it means he intentionally put everyone else in them, and on the planes. I cannot and will not get behind that; I do not accept such a vengeful, hateful deity playing games with human lives, deeming any life more worthy of a dr appointment at a specific time to save them than another. 

The same day, a man in my little town killed his wife and two young children. He was a dick - that much everyone in town knew; I didn't know  how deep it went but I'm sure some did. I was stunned that some god was too busy creating doctor appointments & making people miss trains to send someone to that house to knock on the door at the right time or send that woman to her sister's for the night or something.

I was pretty much full on fuck off "god" and get out of my life. 

It was posts like this one, here at FJ, that finally got me started deconstructing my faith. I couldn’t come up with a reasonable answer to questions like this, found I agreed, and eventually ended up leaving Christianity altogether. There were a lot of other factors involved as well, but this was a big one.

Edited August 27, 2021 by Jasmar

[llucie]

16 hours ago, hoipolloi said:

Here is the obituary for Sitara:

Fundie wiki was way off with her birthday, which makes me wonder how acurate they are in general (i was assuming they were until now) but they did get she was 18. How sad that she was so close to moving to college and starting her life away from her toxic parents (even if it was to a wacky supernatural university). I looked around at some of her siblings facebooks and she was very loved. Sadly it seems they are all still very into the fundie kool aid, but at leasts their faith seems to be giving them comfort in this difficult times.

[fundiefan]

13 minutes ago, llucie said:

Fundie wiki was way off with her birthday, which makes me wonder how acurate they are in general (i was assuming they were until now) but they did get she was 18. How sad that she was so close to moving to college and starting her life away from her toxic parents (even if it was to a wacky supernatural university). I looked around at some of her siblings facebooks and she was very loved. Sadly it seems they are all still very into the fundie kool aid, but at leasts their faith seems to be giving them comfort in this difficult times.

I wonder if fundie wiki has her adoption month in there as her birth month. Pretty sure she was adopted in June 2010. 

I like to think she was the most adored & worshipped little sister of all her adopted brothers. Two are younger than her, but that still gave her plenty of older brothers that I tell myself thought she hung the stars so they hung the moon for her. 

[hoipolloi]

Not entirely sure but I'm guessing that this what Craptain Bret had to say at Sitara's funeral service:

[Bastet]

45 minutes ago, hoipolloi said:

Not entirely sure but I'm guessing that this what Craptain Bret had to say at Sitara's funeral service:

She was beautiful. 

[Mudgie]

I find this entire story so incredibly heartbreaking. 

I am appalled at how he turned her eulogy into his own personal sermon. It's all about what she did for him, what she did for her Mother and how they made sure she turned to God. 

But none of it is really about Sitara herself. 

It's truly tragic. All of it. 

[Nikedagain?]

Bethel??

Yall, Bethel gets into some fucked up stuff. She would have traded one cult for another. Their supernatural school? It's supposed to teach folx how to do faith healing and actual resurrections. I am really surprised the Cap'n would allow this, or maybe I just don't know enough about the Smith belief system. 

The whole thing is just incredibly sad and entirely preventable.

Fucking Smiths

 

[AmazonGrace]

BS confirms that Alan is still locked up

Quote

Sitara spent countless hours sorting clothes for the needy down at Impact Ministries in downtown Griffin. She would frequently minister to the sick, often going and staying for days at a time to tend to her aging grandparents. And she routinely ministered to those in prison, corresponding by mail with some of the inmates that Jacqueline routinely ministers to, and participating in phone calls with her brother Alan who is in prison.

Hmm:

Quote

Far too many churches today are built on this same foundation of self-righteousness and man-made rules, but the love and compassion of the Savior are just not there. To be honest, I think that ALL of us need to continually be repenting of our own self-righteous tendencies.

She sounds like a very hard working young lady but if they left her doing roof work all alone they should be beating themselves up in guilt just about now.

Quote

I want to tell you about what happened on Tuesday morning, the morning Sitara left us. Our normal routine for Tuesdays is for us to go to the morning prayer meeting at First Assembly of God Church in Griffin. But we had been replacing the roof on our house, and we were trying to finish that project before she left to go to school in Augusta. So she stayed home and was working on the house, including running the soffit on the cornice of the back porch. She wanted to do the whole job by herself, and so I was just checking her work and admiring how accomplished she was getting at carpentry work.

 

 

 

But they won't. I guess this thought may comfort the bereaved but it doesn't really sit right with me.  He sort of makes it sound like his work was done and it was all right for her to die now as she had gotten deep enough into his religion.

Spoiler

After she left us, Jacqueline and I came to realize that we had witnessed the completion of Sitara's healing. She came to us a very broken and wounded girl, but when she left us, she had become a healed and mature woman. Through forgiveness and compassion she had been released from the bondage of anger and bitterness, and had been the recipient of the Holy Spirit's gift of prophecy, enabling her to share God's rhema word with others.

 

 

[JermajestyDuggar]

23 minutes ago, AmazonGrace said:

BS confirms that Alan is still locked up

Hmm:

She sounds like a very hard working young lady but if they left her doing roof work all alone they should be beating themselves up in guilt just about now.

 

 

 

But they won't. I guess this thought may comfort the bereaved but it doesn't really sit right with me.  He sort of makes it sound like his work was done and it was all right for her to die now as she had gotten deep enough into his religion.

  Hide contents

After she left us, Jacqueline and I came to realize that we had witnessed the completion of Sitara's healing. She came to us a very broken and wounded girl, but when she left us, she had become a healed and mature woman. Through forgiveness and compassion she had been released from the bondage of anger and bitterness, and had been the recipient of the Holy Spirit's gift of prophecy, enabling her to share God's rhema word with others.

 

 

This just disturbs me. She was so close to having her own life. She was so close to leaving that hell house. She was so close to figuring out who she really is without Craptain & Jack telling her who she should be. Of course they pat themselves on the back for healing her. Fuck that. They didn’t heal her. I’m sure they created way more problems that she just learned to hide in order to make it through the day. Fuck them.

[fundiefan]

That drivel of Bret's is nothing but his ego. I wanted to vomit while reading it. It said nothing about Sitara as a human being, an 18 year old young woman.

His rambling is disturbing on many levels. He thinks so highly of himself he made his adopted daughter's death about him. He's so obsessed with his version of god he made that girl's entire existence a tool of his god. 

What was his BS about his grandfather? "Accusations" (I can imagine how much that fucker has been accused of). Sitara was "saved" he day she died, blah, blah, blah? It confirmed what we've always suspected - that girl suffered a life of being "wrong" and paying a price for it. 

I had a hard time reading the words themselves because Bret Smith is a fucking moron and I wanted nothing more than to smack him and kick him in the gut. I did more reading between the lines. 

And I despise them for what they did to that girl and how they forced her into their insane religious mold of survival. 

Bret, no god thinks you're anything other than walking excrement. The flies are buzzing and you stink. 

I want to parse his self serving screed but right now I am so angry. 

I've been surprised at how hard and deep her death hit me - I'm enraged at how much vitriol that piece of shit brings out of me and how much anger I have. 

[AmazonGrace]

I wonder if the way he went on about you can't get Jesus to respond to accusations was a slam against those who believe Alan's charges again.

[fundiefan]

1 minute ago, AmazonGrace said:

I wonder if the way he went on about you can't get Jesus to respond to accusations was a slam against those who believe Alan's charges again.

It was a slam to everyone who has ever looked cross eyed at the perfect piece of shit that is Bret Smith. 

No doubt there were whispered accusations over Sitara - not everyone in south Georgia is enamored with his brilliant light. 

Notice how when he said he was going to tell what happened Tuesday morning - he only told what HE & Jacquie felt/thought. He did not say what happened to her. He did not say what she was doing, how/when the tree fell, where she was, who was with her. He ignored her death as much as I presume he ignored her life. 

[JermajestyDuggar]

Bethany is probably the only one who can go to the funeral/memorial and I bet her parents will use it to try to suck her back in. I hope they don’t. Cutting off from them was probably one of the best decisions she’s made. What’s horrible is that once the older ones moved out, some of them seemed to have a relationship with bethany and her kids. I bet if Sitara had made it out, she could have made a relationship with Bethany again. 

[JermajestyDuggar]

It’s not surprising she was interested in Bethel. I’ve said this many times on FJ but statistically, if you’ve joined one cult in you life, you are more likely to join another at some point. Meaning if cults are normalized to you, red flags won’t go off if you are exposed to another cult. Obviously Christian cults were normal to the smiths. So if Sitara wanted to join one of the cooler and hipper ones in the US today, I’m not surprised at all.

[Bassett Lady]

My husband is gentle, kind, bookish, sweet, and thoughtful. Our son got a new mountain bike last night and came to our house so the two of them could check  over that everything was properly tightened and then adjusting the brakes and other safety equipment. 
 

I see my husband teaching our children, including the young adults,  skills and instilling values of safety, forethought, planning, and prevention. 
 

When they do work around the property he always goes over safety guidelines and requires work boots, sturdy gloves, adequate eye protection, ear protection, and ventilators if necessary. 
 

This last year we needed tree work done. He and the kids trimmed all the small trees and bushes. However, my hubby decided the large trees were outside of his abilities and safety window. We hired the work out to licensed arborists. The bill was $700. 
 

I am so thankful we paid that $700.
 

A $700 check Is much more emotionally satisfying than a funeral. Paying a bit of money to professionals with years of training, thousands of dollars in specialized equipment, and proper licensing seems like one of the best investments we have made in recent years. 

For the men like Bret Smith,  perhaps knowing that a tree service is cheaper than a funeral might tug at their wallet. It seems their patriarchal hearts and minds can’t be moved by any other issue. 
 

I think of Alan’s victims and Sitara’s death and my heart aches and I am overcome with despair and rage. I want to grab them and shake them by the shoulders and scream, “WAKE UP!” This madness is torturing and killing your children! 

 

[hoipolloi]

3 hours ago, fundiefan said:

Notice how when he said he was going to tell what happened Tuesday morning - he only told what HE & Jacquie felt/thought. He did not say what happened to her. He did not say what she was doing, how/when the tree fell, where she was, who was with her. He ignored her death as much as I presume he ignored her life. 

I also noticed that. I really, really  hope that there is a legitimate investigation into Sitara's death. 

Bret and Jacquie Smith are fucking monsters. 

 

[AmazonGrace]

Wondering how the tree managed to fall on her if she was alone working  on the soffit. 

[JermajestyDuggar]

38 minutes ago, AmazonGrace said:

Wondering how the tree managed to fall on her if she was alone working  on the soffit. 

I suppose someone else could have been messing with the tree. I think that’s what some people don’t think about with trees. They may not seem that tall but when they fall, you can see how long they are. And a person without experience can easily misjudge how big a tree is. 

Edited August 28, 2021 by JermajestyDuggar