Pearls 2: Michael, Shoshanna, et al

[Giraffe]

Wtf? Michael & Debi* did quite a number on all their daughters! Not that I expected otherwise because of how anusive Michael is but to see Shoshanna's bizarre posts and then to hear about another daughter living off grid in a decidedly not enjoyable way? Their daughters don't seem capable of living in the mainstream. I know that's the point, but damn, even at 40something (?) they're still drenched in this bizarre "other" that's odd even for fundies. 
 

* I'm including Debi here because while Michael groomed her and began sexually abusing her at least by their wedding night, just like Zsu she can be both abused and abuser and I don't want to leave her out. 

8 hours ago, klein_roeschen said:

Are Shalom and her husband the ones who lived years ago in the middle of the desert in a trailer without running water and electricity while having a lot of little kids and fighting the local tribe over water rights? I read her story years ago and nearly got whiplash from all the head shaking.

 

Edited May 8 by Giraffe

[hoipolloi]

Re: Rebekah Pearl Anast and husband Gabe. There is a lot on them in the FJ archives. At one point, after several kids, Gabe announced that he would not be working at a regular job any more but would instead stay home studying the Bible 24/7 because that's what God told him to do. Consequently, he & Rebekah started openly requesting monetary donations. They also ran an absolutely crazy website + forums called 7Xsunday. 

I somehow missed this when it came up on FJ years ago but here is an old interview* with Mike Pearl's nephew (his sister's son). It will give you an idea of what it was like to grow up in or adjacent to Mike Pearl. 

*CW for descriptions of corporal punishment.

[TrueRebel1]

Shoshanna "sets the record straight" after getting questions about her relationship with her parents and their books. 

What I learned from this is that:

--divorce is ok if you "care about your generations" and your husband is a Pharisee

-- she continually misuses the phrase "generations before me" to mean her descendants, not her ancestors

--public school was not her choice for her kids, but her ex-husband's 

-- she is a little scared that her 18 year old son is engaged (does not acknowledge that to the public eye she's groomed him to marry as a teen/very young i.e. her "To Date or Not To Date" series).

-- she has nothing negative to say about "Created to be His Helpmeet" but indicates that reprobate minds and pornography in the church are to blame for abusive marriages, not her parent's teachings. (This angers me, as I can directly and specifically link the teachings in CTBHH to enabling and prolonging abuse (and my co-dependency/subservience) in my own marriage and at least 6 close friend's marriages.)

[hoipolloi]

If the family court judge read or heard any of her "poetry," I can see why they ordered that the kids be educated in public schools. 

[TrueRebel1]

37 minutes ago, hoipolloi said:

If the family court judge read or heard any of her "poetry," I can see why they ordered that the kids be educated in public schools. 

I'd be surprised if Shoshanna provided a good homeschool education to her kids, considering that she seems pretty under-educated herself. By her own admission she spent most of Jeremiah and Penelope's younger years sick in bed and shilling her herbs/Plexus when she *was* well. I just don't believe she could have been homeschooling those kids appropriately.

[JermajestyDuggar]

2 hours ago, TrueRebel1 said:

Shoshanna "sets the record straight" after getting questions about her relationship with her parents and their books. 

What I learned from this is that:

--divorce is ok if you "care about your generations" and your husband is a Pharisee

-- she continually misuses the phrase "generations before me" to mean her descendants, not her ancestors

--public school was not her choice for her kids, but her ex-husband's 

-- she is a little scared that her 18 year old son is engaged (does not acknowledge that to the public eye she's groomed him to marry as a teen/very young i.e. her "To Date or Not To Date" series).

-- she has nothing negative to say about "Created to be His Helpmeet" but indicates that reprobate minds and pornography in the church are to blame for abusive marriages, not her parent's teachings. (This angers me, as I can directly and specifically link the teachings in CTBHH to enabling and prolonging abuse (and my co-dependency/subservience) in my own marriage and at least 6 close friend's marriages.)

The cognitive dissonance is working overtime in her brain. 

[Giraffe]

I'm impressed James got the kids in school! I wonder if they went through court ordered academic testing and the results were abysmal. Would a judge order kids attend public school if they were doing well academically? Idk. But kudos to James for admitting they didn't meet their children's needs and petitioning the courts. 

I could see one (or all, sadly) of the kids resenting him. I hope when they're adults they realize how much better their education was than if they'd continued homeschooling.

Edited May 9 by Giraffe

[JermajestyDuggar]

14 minutes ago, Giraffe said:

I'm impressed James got the kids in school! I wonder if they went through court ordered academic testing and the results were abysmal. Would a judge order kids attend public school if they were doing well academically? Idk. But kudos to James for admitting they didn't meet their children's needs and petitioning the courts. 

I could see one (or all, sadly) of the kids resenting him. I hope when they're adults they realize how much better their education was than if they'd continued homeschooling.

Only the youngest three seem to visit James. I don’t think I’ve seen Jeremiah with his dad in any pics or videos on social media since the divorce. The youngest kids won’t even remember their parents together all that much. So they might end up with a better relationship. It’s also possible Shoshanna was afraid to have them tested and just gave in. She might not want to see proof that she failed them. It might have been easier for her to just let them go to school.

[hoipolloi]

2 hours ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

Only the youngest three seem to visit James. I don’t think I’ve seen Jeremiah with his dad in any pics or videos on social media since the divorce.

Shoshanna has spent the last 1-2 years parentifying Jeremiah in a very icky way. Whatever went down with the divorce, Shoshanna is the one who is publicly criticizing her ex, her kidsʻ father. In any case, Jeremiah is now 18 so he doesn't have to see James unless he wants to do so.

Re: school. The only "homeschooling" that shows up on Shoshannaʻs SM is her reading her father's crappy books to the younger kids. If they are doing other things -- math, ABEKA, whatever -- neither Shoshanna nor Lauren has bothered to document it. So, yeah, public school might be a step up in the younger kidsʻ lives. Meanwhile, thereʻs Jeremiah, engaged at 18, with no visible means of support for himself or his future spouse. 🤷‍♂️

[TrueRebel1]

1 hour ago, hoipolloi said:

Shoshanna has spent the last 1-2 years parentifying Jeremiah in a very icky way. Whatever went down with the divorce, Shoshanna is the one who is publicly criticizing her ex, her kidsʻ father. In any case, Jeremiah is now 18 so he doesn't have to see James unless he wants to do so.

Re: school. The only "homeschooling" that shows up on Shoshannaʻs SM is her reading her father's crappy books to the younger kids. If they are doing other things -- math, ABEKA, whatever -- neither Shoshanna nor Lauren has bothered to document it. So, yeah, public school might be a step up in the younger kidsʻ lives. Meanwhile, thereʻs Jeremiah, engaged at 18, with no visible means of support for himself or his future spouse. 🤷‍♂️

I agree with the icky parentifying of Jeremiah. Coupled with a good bit of emotional incest it seems. It's beyond gross how she groomed him to be a child-husband while simultaneously ending her own marriage that she entered into similarly when she was young and naive. I looked through the fiance's IG and I worry that she's developing very codependent feelings --- or was picked because she's already codependent and easily molded to fit the family empire. Maybe it's just teenage angsty feelings (she IS only 17!), but writing poems about how her boyfriend fixed her is not a sign of a healthy relationship. I wouldn't be surprised if she was required to read Grandma Debi's helpmeet book.

 

[TrueRebel1]

Shoshanna mocks and threatens people who are asking if she trains her kids according to her parent's teachings -- and the next IG story is Lauren and Shoshanna talking more smack about the comments she received.

She could choose to respectfully and humbly explain that she does not use her parent's training methods, but no, she stoops to distasteful and gaslighting behavior. 

Quote from 1st edition of TTUAC. 

[JermajestyDuggar]

10 minutes ago, TrueRebel1 said:

Shoshanna mocks and threatens people who are asking if she trains her kids according to her parent's teachings -- and the next IG story is Lauren and Shoshanna talking more smack about the comments she received.

She could choose to respectfully and humbly explain that she does not use her parent's training methods, but no, she stoops to distasteful and gaslighting behavior. 

Quote from 1st edition of TTUAC. 

Honestly she’s always been a self centered asshole. So none of this is surprising. She’s one of the many fundie princesses of fundieland. I bet her older sisters secretly resent her. 

[hoipolloi]

1 hour ago, TrueRebel1 said:

Shoshanna mocks and threatens people who are asking if she trains her kids according to her parent's teachings -- and the next IG story is Lauren and Shoshanna talking more smack about the comments she received.

Saw that and it's pretty disgusting. Either Shoshanna is really fucking stupid or lying through her gaslighting teeth. Guessing the latter which means she knows exactly what that commenter is talking about. Also going to guess that in fact she has used her parentsʻ methods of repetitive & sustained child beating as well as blanket training. Would like to know if any of this got highlighted in her divorce.

 

59 minutes ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

Honestly she’s always been a self centered asshole. So none of this is surprising. She’s one of the many fundie princesses of fundieland. I bet her older sisters secretly resent her. 

The Pearl family dynamics are quite something. Wouldn't surprise me if Shoshanna is the golden child who has always been favored & allowed to do what she wants with no repercussions.

[JermajestyDuggar]

Shoshanna tried to make a rebuttal video to the abuse question. It made zero sense. She seriously meanders all over the place. Like she will start to talk about one then and completely change to a different topic and then go back to the original topic. It’s hard to watch. She literally won’t even say if she spanked or not. She just says she believes the Bible. And she said she didn’t blanket train because she didn’t confine her children. Then she talked about rolling up a child in a blanket and beating them. She said that was abuse. She’s trying to take the most heinous thing she can think of and say, “I don’t do that! Don’t do that. It’s abuse!” But she won’t say if she spanks her kids. She’s ridiculous. She has had to deal with court and she knows what not to say. Because she doesn’t want her ex to get custody of the kids. 

[noseybutt]

2 hours ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

Shoshanna tried to make a rebuttal video to the abuse question. It made zero sense. She seriously meanders all over the place. Like she will start to talk about one then and completely change to a different topic and then go back to the original topic. It’s hard to watch. She literally won’t even say if she spanked or not. She just says she believes the Bible. And she said she didn’t blanket train because she didn’t confine her children. Then she talked about rolling up a child in a blanket and beating them. She said that was abuse. She’s trying to take the most heinous thing she can think of and say, “I don’t do that! Don’t do that. It’s abuse!” But she won’t say if she spanks her kids. She’s ridiculous. She has had to deal with court and she knows what not to say. Because she doesn’t want her ex to get custody of the kids. 

So I haven't watched the video, but I wonder if her ramblings are related to real legal cases? Because there have been several murder convictions of parents beating (usually adopted) children to death. I am pretty sure one of the cases involved a child wrapped in a blanket.  See here: https://www.wral.com/story/3013647/

I don't doubt that Shoshanna is scattered and tangential when she speaks, I just doubt she is dreaming up the worst case scenarios. I suspect the scenarios she mentions are very real.

[JermajestyDuggar]

6 minutes ago, noseybutt said:

So I haven't watched the video, but I wonder if her ramblings are related to real legal cases? Because there have been several murder convictions of parents beating (usually adopted) children to death. I am pretty sure one of the cases involved a child wrapped in a blanket.  See here: https://www.wral.com/story/3013647/

I don't doubt that Shoshanna is scattered and tangential when she speaks, I just doubt she is dreaming up the worst case scenarios. I suspect the scenarios she mentions are very real.

I still think it’s a deflection. She didn’t say anything about spanking at all. She just threw out the really horrible beating and says she doesn’t agree with that. 

[KWLand]

I can’t imagine Michael and Debi didn’t spank the grandkids, so even if Shoshanna didn’t, they were probably spanked and for ridiculous things.   

[Howl]

I'm completely fascinated that James got the kids in public school.  It's HUGE.  These people (Pearls, et al.) adamantly believe public education government school is demon infested, soul destroying, mind control anthema. 

I'd imagine that Papa Pearl and James Easling give each other a wide berth these days. 

What else is completely fascinating is that Shoshanna does not talk about this aspect of the divorce.  At all. 

I suspect she had to capitulate to numerous things to maintain primary custody. 

Edited May 12 by Howl

[TrueRebel1]

2 hours ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

Shoshanna tried to make a rebuttal video to the abuse question. It made zero sense. She seriously meanders all over the place. Like she will start to talk about one then and completely change to a different topic and then go back to the original topic. It’s hard to watch. She literally won’t even say if she spanked or not. She just says she believes the Bible. And she said she didn’t blanket train because she didn’t confine her children. Then she talked about rolling up a child in a blanket and beating them. She said that was abuse. She’s trying to take the most heinous thing she can think of and say, “I don’t do that! Don’t do that. It’s abuse!” But she won’t say if she spanks her kids. She’s ridiculous. She has had to deal with court and she knows what not to say. Because she doesn’t want her ex to get custody of the kids. 

Her rebuttle attempt reminded me of classic narcissist behavior -- mock, gaslight, pretend to be honest with word salad and never *actually* answer the question, make the questioner feel like a horrible person for asking. 

[JermajestyDuggar]

12 minutes ago, Howl said:

I'm completely fascinated that James got the kids in public school.  It's HUGE.  These people (Pearls, et al.) adamantly believe public education government school is demon infested, soul destroying, mind control anthema. 

I'd imagine that Papa Pearl and James Easling give each other a wide berth these days. 

What else is completely fascinating is that Shoshanna does not talk about this aspect of the divorce.  At all. 

I suspect she had to capitulate to numerous things to maintain primary custody. 

Yes, there’s hope for those kids. There were so many comments under her post about how awful public school is. Lol.

[hoipolloi]

28 minutes ago, Howl said:

I'd imagine that Papa Pearl and James Easling give each other a wide berth these days. 

James still seems to have a relationship with Gabe & Shalom, judging from their social media accounts. Have to wonder how the NGJ heir, Nathan, feels about his wackadoodle younger sister. 

 

[JermajestyDuggar]

9 minutes ago, hoipolloi said:

James still seems to have a relationship with Gabe & Shalom, judging from their social media accounts. Have to wonder how the NGJ heir, Nathan, feels about his wackadoodle younger sister. 

 

Gabe is also divorced so maybe he feels like they have a lot in common. It’s weird that Jill Rod seemed to get James as her up line after her divorce. She probably never liked Shoshanna and is glad to have James as her up line. Even if he wants his kids in Satan’s school. 

[KWLand]

57 minutes ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

Gabe is also divorced so maybe he feels like they have a lot in common. It’s weird that Jill Rod seemed to get James as her up line after her divorce. She probably never liked Shoshanna and is glad to have James as her up line. Even if he wants his kids in Satan’s school. 

Jill said something snippy to Shoshanna about the divorce, before it was facebook public knowledge, so not sure when the upline split was determined but after that comment I’m sure Shoshanna wanted nothing to do with her.  It could also have been, Jill was upset Shoshanna didn’t want her and decided to post.  Jills really good at being the Satan who attacks others.  

[Howl]

On 5/9/2024 at 6:41 PM, TrueRebel1 said:

I looked through the fiance's IG and I worry that she's developing very codependent feelings --- or was picked because she's already codependent and easily molded to fit the family empire.

That's the desired dynamic that defines a patriarchal relationship. And trust me, these people are into patriarchy.  Michael Pearl has been on the scene a lot (they have a house on the senior Pearl's farm now) and MP presumably has been the male influence on Jeremiah since whenever Shoshanna and James separated. 

I'd also presume that's why Jeremiah is seemingly estranged from James, who seems to be (RELATIVELY) woke! 

[TrueRebel1]

Today we have Eric at Shoshanna's house, yet again working on home improvements. Guess she's still stringing him along despite her poem about not falling in love with the new man in her life. Maybe for her it's all about making a statement to James, who she's insinuated wasn't handy with home improvements. It seems to me like a twisted relationship either way.