So, how did you all find Free Jinger?

[Daenerys]

I thought it would be interesting to see what led people here, considering how famous we seem to have become...

Personally, I was reading the Guiness Book of Records and found the entry about the woman who allegedly had 69 children. I wondered how big the largest modern family was, and that's how I came across the Duggars. After watching a bit of their show and realising they were really weird religious people, cus I'm from England where we don't have that kind of crazy, I realised that everything on the internet about them was just 'the Duggars', like they were some sort of weirdly inextricable units. I started googling the kids one by one to see if there was anything they had achieved individually, and when I got to Jinger this site popped up. The rest, or should I say the next 800+ posts, is history.

Does anyone have a more random story of discovery? It would be interesting to see how people who hadn't seen the Duggars on TV got here...

[muffynbear]

I believe I found FJ googling "I hate the Duggars" or some variation of that. I also read TWOP and decided to look up Gothard and Quiverfull.

[Third]

I watched the Duggars and liked the show...the thing to watch when nothing else was on. I used to like seeing how they got everything done etc. Then I realized that blanket trained their kids but then took the information off their website. I gotten into it with people at my church about how my son was manipulating me etc and I googled a term and found this place. I didn't join until a lot later. I read a lot though and followed lots of links to crazy.

[Seven Severn]

I came here via NLQ, which I found via My Sister's Farmhouse (currently Rechelle Unplugged: http://www.rechelleunplugged.com/).

[kpmom]

I had been reading the Maxwell's blog and Corners for several years. I couldn't believe any family could be so extreme in their beliefs, not to mention so weird.

Anyway, after Christopher got engaged to Anna, i googled something like "Christopher Maxwell engagement", figuring I'd find some fundy blogs talking about it.

Instead I found a site called Free Jinger talking about it!

I was so happy to find a group that had the same strange hobby I did-reading fundy blogs-and felt the same way about fundies, patriarchy, quiverful. It was like coming home.

[Boogalou]

I got here in a very roundabout way. I first started watching the Duggar specials which led me to TWoP. I found FJ throught TWoP and looked around a bit but there was so much non-Duggar stuff that I wasn't really interested so I abandoned the place. From TWoP I found Razing Ruth which eventually led me right back here. Again, I looked around a bit but it never really held my interest. From Razing Ruth I came across Emily. After I picked my jaw up off the floor I was reading her comments about some horrible snark board full of meanies and I knew I had to find it. And then I found FJ for the third time and that time it stuck. I lurked for almost year before joining and I haven't gotten anything productive done since.

[Dark Matters]

I was lurking at the Yuku FJ - don't remember how I found it. Then I followed you all here.

[ladypuglover]

I googled Josh Duggar is smug way back in 07 and found TWOP. After post awhile in TWOP and having to make new IDs because of getting banned on TWOP I was approached by several folks to said that I needed to join them over at FJ. So around the time of the Duggars getting their new TV show I joined FJ. I didn't really start posting until fall of 08 around the time Emily started becomeing bigger news. I didn't find FJ, FJ found me. :shock:

[melk]

I was Googling stuff about the show Amish: Out of the Order, which I had just watched. That led me to a thread about the show on FJ's old Yuku board, which in turn led me here.

[Minerva]

I became fascinated with fundies when TLC did a few specials on the Duggars and a couple other families similar to them. TLC was my favourite channel because I watched a lot of medical shows on it before it became all reality TV. My logic was: if it's on TLC I must be fascinated by it and learn more. So yep. Looked them up online a bunch, discovered NLQ and FJ. Only started avidly lurking on FJ since the new site, though. Then eventually made an account because it was irresistible.

[slh12280]

I started watching the Duggars and then I started looking into the quiverfull thing. After doing some research on that I found some of our favorite fundies, most notably the Botkins. Then somehow I got into reading stories about people that left the fundamentalist lifestyle, and I guess somewhere along this exploration I found Freejinger.

[melk]

Can I ask a question too? Is there a list somewhere to all the fundy blogs? Do you guys read fundy boards too, like Rapture Ready?

[melk]

I became fascinated with fundies when TLC did a few specials on the Duggars and a couple other families similar to them. TLC was my favourite channel because I watched a lot of medical shows on it before it became all reality TV. My logic was: if it's on TLC I must be fascinated by it and learn more. So yep. Looked them up online a bunch, discovered NLQ and FJ. Only started avidly lurking on FJ since the new site, though. Then eventually made an account because it was irresistible.

What is NLQ?

[Juliakitty]

I came here from NLQ, but I've been following QF families for over a decade mostly 'cause I'm fascinated by large families, but the ones I've followed aren't nearly as crazy as the ones people follow here!

NLQ = No Longer Qivering

I'm amazed that someone can leave the movement with 7 children. That's just...wow.

[ladypuglover]

What is NLQ?

No Longer Quivering

[Coconut Flan]

Someone gave me a link to the old board way, way back when. I would read but didn't register until recently.

[ShadowyOne]

As a brand-noob here, I will chime in. I was aware of the Duggars peripherally, and from what I knew, didn't care for them at all, but am not a big reality TV watcher at all, so didn't pay them too much mind. My husband, on the other hand, luuurves the reality TV (see, Duggars, not all families are monolithic monstrosities whose interests can't be separated from one another!). So he wanted to watch the show Tuesday about the miscarriage, and I went along with it. Even though he, too, tends to take the Duggars with a large grain of salt, and make fun of them, he was very moved, and even cried a little. Meanwhile, I was arguing for how fake/non-sincere/edited it all seemed, and went a-googling to try and find some defense for my points. So here I am! I am enjoying this snarky little community so far, though i anticipate it being more of a time-suck than I can really afford! :doh:

[OohLaLa]

I was a mostly lurker on The Nest forums (I think it was politics and current events that lead me here) and they occasionally enjoy a good fundie discussion themselves. Someone posted the link (it was still on yuku then) and I lurked here and occasionally posted ever since!

[meow139]

I was just googling around, I looked up Jinger Duggar and found this place. Ha, I was an awkward newbie.

[browngrl]

I heard Queen Raina of Jordan speak and she said something that caught my attention. She said the conflict that we are facing and will face in the future will be between the moderates and the fundamentalists. She articulated something I had been mulling about since Bush was elected. After that I started googling around. I think the first fundie thing I saw was the "prairie muffin manifesto". From there I found other fundie sites and eventually found my way here. It was good day when I found FJ - no one in my circle of friends/relatives is as obsessed with fundies as I am - and it was a treat to meet people who shared my obsession.

[tropaka]

TWOP got me over to the ezboard then Yuku

[Minerva]

No Longer Quivering

Remember that acronym post we had going awhile ago? This is why it needs to be stickied.

This one: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=8852

[Witsec7]

I'd been following the political rise of the religious right and doing a lot of research on how the money flows from fringe groups to political parties prior to super PACs. Then fundy SAHMs started populating the blogosphere. I'd also been reading Titus 2 and following Seppi's political antics down in CA. My head was about to explode and I found the old site and TWOP. Problem with TWOP was I was getting a lot of nastygrams from the mods about my bad attitude :roll: I looked for the old site again and it had been raptured. Then one day I got a pm on TWOP from a mysterious FJ person who gave me the link to this house.

[ilovetchotchkes]

I think I typed in "I HATE THE DUGGARS" into google and boom. There the hive vagina was, a shining beacon of beautiful snark...

[lilith]

I found "Are they all yours" cause someone posted on Facebook about a religious nut who was encouraging the assassination of the president and, always having had an interest in religious lunatics, I googled his name. Once I discovered Zsuzsanna I was hooked and read through her archives.

Then I kept reading about "Free Jinger Hags" in the comments, and had to see who you all were.

I've been lurking here ever since, only registering this week.

The scale and influence of the Christian Patriarchy movement is scary and fascinating, and has even surpassed fundamentalist Mormonism as my main area of religious interest. I've been watching the old Duggar episodes and discovering other blogs, and I find it scary that these extremist ideas hide behind a wholesome, pretty PR image.