Pearls 2: Michael, Shoshanna, et al

[noseybutt]

33 minutes ago, hoipolloi said:

Well, we know what Mike said when James & Shoshanna married in 2004 & he seemed to think James was great then. Typically, neither Mike nor Debi has ever acknowledged Shoshanna's or Gabe's divorces, although they have been backpedaling on some of their hardline stuff in recent NGJ articles.

Shoshanna's IG reel is so garbled it's hard to understand but she seems to be saying that, essentially, her divorce was good because she wanted it. This comports with the primary rule of the Pearls' teachings: Do as we say and not as we do.

Re: Jeremiah's engagement. Not surprising and also not surprising that Shoshanna seems to have memory-holed all of her advice about not getting married too young.

Jeremiah's cousin, Shalom Brand's oldest, Janelle, got married at 17 in 2022. It's what these people do. 

Whoa. Since spouses now have rights, I give it 6 months to a year for a public change in the Pearl's divorce theology. 

 

Edited March 28 by noseybutt

[JermajestyDuggar]

To me, young marriage is usually about two young people who want to have sex but their religion tells them they can’t. So they get married. It’s too bad. There’s nothing wrong with premarital sex between two consenting adults. 

[TrueRebel1]

Shoshanna finally addresses her parent's books....by implying that there's nothing problematic with Created to be his Helpmeet, and that her divorce is justified...just because???

[JermajestyDuggar]

29 minutes ago, TrueRebel1 said:

Shoshanna finally addresses her parent's books....by implying that there's nothing problematic with Created to be his Helpmeet, and that her divorce is justified...just because???

Of course she would give this type of reply. Her mother only helps, never hurts women. And she is not looking at her own upbringing or beliefs any differently after divorce. Typical fundie. 

[hoipolloi]

WTF does the following even mean?

Quote

We live in a different world than we did, when my mom's book was written. There are chapters throughout a century. Times where certain things are needed.

She must be functionally illiterate. Even considering her (and her parents') belief in "rules for thee but not for me," does she even read what she writes? CTBHM was first published in 2004 -- the year she & James got married. IOW, the book was written in this century, the 21st century. 

 

[noseybutt]

Based on the quote posted by @TrueRebel1, I'm going to say her parents have changed their ideas on divorce FOR THEIR DAUGHTER already but of course won't preach it publicly. Michael Pearl is the cult leader and he will feel the need to pontificate on some bizarre and arcane reasoning when the truth is likely much more logical: he wants to keep the money and the power and the esteem and allowing for occasional divorce makes all that possible. To stay true to the teaching would mean distancing from half of his kids and that would be cruel.

Well duh. All of it is cruel.

23 minutes ago, hoipolloi said:

WTF does the following even mean?

She must be functionally illiterate. Even considering her (and her parents') belief in "rules for thee but not for me," does she even read what she writes? CTBHM was first published in 2004 -- the year she & James got married. IOW, the book was written in this century, the 21st century. 

 

I'm laughing at your summary. Because yeah. Apparently 2004 was the time for marrying and 2023 the time for divorcing. Women saved their marriages and now women are saved by fleeing their marriages. All ordained by the unchanging Bible.

Nothing to see here, people.
 

[hoipolloi]

4 minutes ago, noseybutt said:

Michael Pearl is the cult leader and he will feel the need to pontificate on some bizarre and arcane reasoning when the truth is likely much more logical: he wants to keep the money and the power and the esteem and allowing for occasional divorce makes all that possible. To stay true to the teaching would mean distancing from half of his kids and that would be cruel.

You are probably correct - as usual, it's about the money and the power. Jesus is a very distant third, if He is in the running at all.

Nathan Pearl just took over the NGJ business ministries. His daughter Ashley is running the NGJ social media. NGJ is also republishing TTUAC, allegedly a new edition with some changes:

 

[noseybutt]

4 minutes ago, hoipolloi said:

You are probably correct - as usual, it's about the money and the power. Jesus is a very distant third, if He is in the running at all.

Nathan Pearl just took over the NGJ business ministries. His daughter Ashley is running the NGJ social media. NGJ is also republishing TTUAC, allegedly a new edition with some changes:

 

Well now. Who is going to take one for the team and compare it to the original?

Nose goes.

[JermajestyDuggar]

I bet there are quite a few changes in the book that they will never publicly admit to. 

[noseybutt]

3 minutes ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

I bet there are quite a few changes in the book that they will never publicly admit to. 

We need a graphic designer to make up a faux literary award for the new cover that acknowledges the number of times it has been entered into evidence in child murder trials.

 

[Antipatriarch]

On 3/28/2024 at 3:14 PM, hoipolloi said:

her (and her parents') belief in "rules for thee but not for me,"

On 3/28/2024 at 3:37 PM, noseybutt said:

her parents have changed their ideas on divorce FOR THEIR DAUGHTER already but of course won't preach it publicly. Michael Pearl is the cult leader and he will feel the need to pontificate on some bizarre and arcane reasoning

Same thing with Sovereign Grace Ministries (SGM) where the women in the pews were told to stay in abusive marriages, but divorces in the leaders' kids' marriages weren't commented on (but were in some cases tacitly abetted by those leaders). "Rules for thee but not for me" indeed. To me it also shows a real compassion/empathy gap, what you feel for your kids vs what you don't feel for those under your pastoral care.

[Smee]

On 3/28/2024 at 10:27 PM, JermajestyDuggar said:

To me, young marriage is usually about two young people who want to have sex but their religion tells them they can’t. So they get married. It’s too bad. There’s nothing wrong with premarital sex between two consenting adults. 

I think that's too simplified. I got married fairly young (21) while I was heavy into evangelical Christianity, and it wasn't about sex (we were already doing it, just lying to all our Christian friends about that). It was more about years of conditioning that being a wife and mother were not only highly praised life goals, but the ultimate markers of adulthood. Like most teens, I was in a hurry to grow up and be taken seriously.

[JermajestyDuggar]

28 minutes ago, Smee said:

I think that's too simplified. I got married fairly young (21) while I was heavy into evangelical Christianity, and it wasn't about sex (we were already doing it, just lying to all our Christian friends about that). It was more about years of conditioning that being a wife and mother were not only highly praised life goals, but the ultimate markers of adulthood. Like most teens, I was in a hurry to grow up and be taken seriously.

I was that weird teen who actually wasn’t excited to turn 18 and felt like I wasn’t ready for anything adult for quite a few years after I turned 18. Which is funny to think about now because I was probably more responsible than a lot of people my age. It was like deep down inside I knew how immature and stupid I was. But I never would have admitted that at the time. 

I also read that if you marry at age 25+ You are less likely to get divorced. I have no idea if that’s r true. But I read it somewhere as a teen in the 90s and decided then and there I would never marry before 25. And teen me chastised my older sister for getting engaged while still a teen. She told me I had no clue what I was talking about. Which was probably true. But hey, they are still married. So they beat the odds. 

[Hane]

I agree with @Smee. Young marriage (especially Back In The Day—I got married at 20 in 1973, and had several friends and classmates who did, too) sprouted from two main factors: Wanting to have “legitimate” sex, and wanting to be considered an adult. In my case, getting TF out of my mother’s house was a huge factor.

[Antipatriarch]

On 3/29/2024 at 7:28 PM, JermajestyDuggar said:

I also read that if you marry at age 25+ You are less likely to get divorced. I have no idea if that’s r true.

Absolutely. Age at first marriage is definitely correlated to the divorce rate... the later the marriage, the less likely to divorce. Look for a study by Glass and Levchak, but I've seen others.

It's tricky to tease the factors apart for religious folks. On the one hand, marrying earlier (and with less education and/or with less dating experience) makes divorce more likely... and I think that stands to reason; you're less mature, less knowledgeable about what you need in a partner, etc. But on the other hand, people who are faithful church participants are statistically also less likely to divorce... and I think that also stands to reason; people who can commit and be faithful in one area are people more likely to commit and be faithful in another, church frowns on divorce, etc. (That in turn raises the question: How many of those folks are in unhappy marriages and would get divorced if they weren't religious?)

Edited April 1 by Antipatriarch

[hoipolloi]

5 hours ago, Antipatriarch said:

How many of those folks are in unhappy marriages and would get divorced if they weren't religious?

Probably a substantial number, especially women. Thatʻs why the Christian nationalists & their allies are trying to ban no-fault divorce. 

[Howl]

Looks to me like Shoshanna is amping up her game to get more followers and  become a mega influencer. None of her social media currently has an income stream, does it?  Is she still active in the Pink Drink MLM pyramid scheme? 

The photos of the son and fiance at the beach -- Is she also trying to launch an online influencer career grift for her son? He's gonna need some way to support his family. 

Interesting that the brother, not Shoshanna, is taking over the Pearl's  To Beat Up a Child industry. Is this the brother that was living in Hawaii?  Or the one that married an Amish wife?

 

[hoipolloi]

7 hours ago, Howl said:

None of her social media currently has an income stream, does it?  Is she still active in the Pink Drink MLM pyramid scheme? 

She blue-checked her IG & FB accounts so I assume that means she is monetizing them or wants to do so.

She hasn't shilled Plexus recently but mentions the MLM periodically. Can't tell if she is still going to Plexus meetings & conferences. It's also possible that she still gets a lot of residual income from her downline without putting in constant work.

 

7 hours ago, Howl said:

He's gonna need some way to support his family. 

You would think so. Will they be living at her house or her parents' place? They seem to be in the area or maybe in Nashville.

 

7 hours ago, Howl said:

Interesting that the brother, not Shoshanna, is taking over the Pearl's  To Beat Up a Child industry. Is this the brother that was living in Hawaii?  Or the one that married an Amish wife?

Not surprising. Men rule in the Pearl-o-sphere so it makes sense that Mike & Debi would hand the business over to Nathan. Gabe, whose second wife is "... Elizabeth Schrock Pearl, a saved Amish gal who truly loves the LORD," lives in OH. Nathan was the "pastor" who lived on Kauai for some years.

Don't want to give the child beaters any money but it would be interesting to know whether or how much the new edition of TTUAC has been changed. I'm guessing that very little is different.

Edited April 2 by hoipolloi
Clarity & adding info

[Howl]

A little wake-up for Candice Owens leg humper Shoshanna: 

 

[JermajestyDuggar]

24 minutes ago, Howl said:

A little wake-up for Candice Owens leg humper Shoshanna: 

 

Shoshanna won’t care a single bit. She would probably see that as a positive considering a lot of fundies are anti education. 

[KWLand]

Was 2004 the first marriage, second marriage or third marriage she and James had?   Which one was the bad recap Michael did that read like teen fan fiction?  I think a horse was involved.

My copy of TTUAC has been trashed.  Didn’t even finish reading the book before I threw it away.  If I remember correctly DH dug it out of the trash because he couldn’t handle throwing a book away, but it did eventually end up there for good.  Can’t remember before or after he read some.  Several other copies were also trashed, even though it was painful exchanging money for them at used book sales.  But, hey at least they were being sold and not saved.  

I can’t remember has Lori Anderson mentioned the divorce?  It’s gotta be exhausting sitting on her high horse criticizing all the fundies around her.  

[hoipolloi]

5 hours ago, KWLand said:

Was 2004 the first marriage, second marriage or third marriage she and James had?   Which one was the bad recap Michael did that read like teen fan fiction?  I think a horse was involved.

1 & 2 were in 2004 and #2 involved the horse, as described by Mike Pearl. The 3rd & only legal marriage was in 2018. 

 

5 hours ago, KWLand said:

I can’t remember has Lori Anderson mentioned the divorce?  It’s gotta be exhausting sitting on her high horse criticizing all the fundies around her.  

Don't know about Lori but Jill Rod mentioned the divorce 2-3 years ago in a comment on one of Shoshanna's FB pontifications about marriage, dating, etc.

Edited April 4 by hoipolloi

[hoipolloi]

Shalom's husband, Justin Brand, has been diagnose with lymphoma, as reposted by James Easling.😟

They intended to "take all the natural steps" but got a call from the medical team to get into a treatment program immediately and are doing so. Hopefully, it will work. 

[Howl]

7 hours ago, hoipolloi said:

They intended to "take all the natural steps" but got a call from the medical team to get into a treatment program immediately and are doing so. Hopefully, it will work. 

"Rare" and "aggressive" are two words you never want to hear in a cancer diagnosis.  That said, there are some excellent cancer therapies;  hoping he will be able to watch his kids grow up. 

[Giraffe]

Fast growing, rare, & aggressive aren't hopeful in the best of cases. Hopefully they take the real medical doctors seriously and do anything and everything to eradicate it.