spurgie-cousin

[spurgie-cousin]

[spurgie-cousin]

Wait til she hears about the Unification Church cult

#jesus shooting the pain out of people's hearts with a AK might be the most evangelical thing I've ever heard #exvangelical #deconstruction #unification church #cults

[spurgie-cousin]

there's actually 2 levels of heaven regular and VIP, and the only requirement for VIP is the lady gaga dance from Judas (no mistakes)

#Jesus's favorite song #i mightve just spent my entire morning watching the same tiktok over and over to learn it

[spurgie-cousin]

i'm trying to make a "worst of" compilation for both the Rodrigues and Collins family, does anyone have a good source for clips, or even just individual clips?? for the Collins family i'm specifically focusing on the parentification of Karissa's daughters.

I've been combing through reddit for a long time and it's really hard to search for specific video clips, so I've just been scrolling through all of them 😩 and only gotten like 2 or 3 in an hour I'm at my wit's end

#i miss the notnurie youtube!! #cult book club #the rodrigues family #the Collins family

[spurgie-cousin]

So I’m rewatching BUB, and on S1E12, they get a fan question “will there ever be a bates/duggar wedding?” Carlin looks super flustered and smiley and says, “we hope!” But all the boys tease Tori saying, “Tori hopes!” And they’re all laughing.

Idk if there was ever concrete proof that Tori or Carlin ‘dated’ a Duggar (probably Joe), but this is pretty solid evidence!

Oh man that's a throwback...... I'm pretty sure it was Carlin who was talking to Joe right? There was some other pretty solid evidence of that but it's been so long I can't remember, I don't think I even had this blog back then.

Maybe Tori had a secret talking stage with someone? Or just a crush? I'm trying to think of who is around her age... (edit: Joe and Josiah are both within a year or two of her age, Jed and Jer were about 3 years younger than her exactly, so they were probably 16 or 17 the year before she started courting Bobby. And then John David's like, over 4 years older).

[spurgie-cousin]

I've been out of evangelical Christianity for a long time and I still get like, random midday epiphanies realizing just how nonsensical and insane the things I wholeheartedly believed were.

OP's point makes a lot of sense now but I think if you would've asked me this back then, I would've given you a very confused look and something along the lines of "well, God *can't* be appeased or reasoned with, his mind doesn't change. His plan is immovable and he doesn't care what I or anyone else who believes in him thinks about it. If we don't get it, then it's bc of our limited human understanding."

And those are incredibly contradicting thoughts considering that I also believed God/Jesus loved humanity more than anything, but even though they're the same two entities (kinda) it was very much presented as like, Jesus is the more chill uncle that will at least hear you out, God is the strict father you tiptoe around and fear. But Jesus was like, the vice president, he really couldn't get anything done that his dad didn't already want to do.

Idk I'm rambling but essentially I don't think anyone of my old flavor of evangelicism who is an actual believer would even consider it possible to "reason" or push back against something they truly believed was God's plan, even if deep down they agree it sounds kind of evil, because 1. they're afraid of the eternal consequences of rebeling or questioning and 2. They're taught our opinions of his actions don't matter to him. For most evangelicals and a lot of other conservative denominations, the relationship is very much tyrant and his subjects, you're just brainwashed to believe that it's God acting in higher ways beyond your plebe human understanding, and if you question any glaring contradictions or you're just too stupid to really understand him and will spend eternity suffering for questioning him. Like an abusive relationship.

Listen, i dont mean to sound like a reddit atheist, but... You ever think about how evangelical Chriatians very literally believe that there will be a genocide in which billions of humans, mostly just innocent everyday people, are condemned to suffer in hell?

And, like, that's the end. That's the finale. Of everything they believe. That's their solution for the world. A final one, if you will.

And they don't rebel. They don't say "hey, wait, that's a bit much" and appeal to their God to maybe reconsider. They don't even seem to really mind.

Instead, they worship. They conjure up an image of a genocidal maniac, and they worship it. The word "praise" is bandied about a lot. Praise. For a leader whose endgoal, very transparently, is genocide.

Suddenly a lot of history makes a little more sense.

#it's hard to describe #a lot of fear involved and a lot of exploitation of that fear #and when you're presented the information as a kid and the consequences for not accepting it are the worst thing your child mind can even #conceive you just try your hardest to go with it #exvangelical #again I'm just talking about actual believers not like scammer pastors or something

[spurgie-cousin]

#i don't actually believe they're like. heaven's gate lol but they do meet enough of the criteria for a cult for it to be funny #this post brought to you by i listened to some of the new t swift and posted ONE thought about it online

[spurgie-cousin]

[spurgie-cousin]

A late family member gave me the best political advice I have ever received. "Most times it isn't about voting for who you like more.... its about voting for who you dislike least." I wish it weren't that way in our country, but it is.

That's kind of been my philosophy since I started voting tbh, I think the only politician I was ever excited to vote for was Obama's second term, which was the first time I ever was able to vote in a presidential election. Every election since then has just been an exercise in harm reduction.

I think it's the same for many people who are getting fed up with not even being able to sort of *like* the person they're voting for, let alone be excited to vote for them. You'll never agree 100% with any politician but they should be able to represent at least some of your interests, sometimes...

#politics

[spurgie-cousin]

I would keep an eye on your mom, I think if the Scientology channel is available to her it means she chose it as part of her package. I could be wrong, though.

I appreciate the concern lol but no it's included with her plan, as are a lot of evangelical channels tbh. She basically lost her sister to a smaller west coast cult and has a lot of contempt for cults bc of it so I think it would be a cold day in hell before she gave the scientologists even a dime of her money.

Her reaction literally was like "is this legal?? Should we call someone?" like she was prepared to sick the law on them 😭

#also sorry for being gone the last few days and sorry in advance for not being here a lot this week i had a grandparent pass away #it was one of the those situations where we were live of expecting it so I'm ok I've kind of pre-grieved but i will be doing a lot over the #next couple of weeks #💔

[spurgie-cousin]

Marriage is WORK but I wouldn’t trade my hubbie Chud for the WORLD he is a NIGHTMARE but he’s MY nightmare thank you GOD for this PIECE OF SHIT LIFE. ✝️

[spurgie-cousin]

this video perfectly encapsulates my rant about feeling like normal people care and do more about Palestine while millionaires and billionaires could put forth a tenth of that effort and make so much more of a difference. And how that has just got me to a where I'm so disillusioned with influencers and celebrities and shit like I really just can't watch them any more.

And it's like on one hand I know private citizens are not responsible for these atrocities happening but on the other, all these influencers who say they don't want to be "political" could afford to clear out a fundraiser for a family to escape the war and not even bat an eye and they just choose not to........

#and its just like...... why don't they WANT to............

[spurgie-cousin]

The fact that Kelton first took interest in Josie when she was a minor and essentially laid in wait for her to become a legal adult before making his move—AND that her parents seemingly saw no issue with this—will never sit right with me.

I totally get what you mean but in her parents' defense, they actually did see an issue with it and essentially made her stop talking to Kelton when they first started getting close (when she was 14 and he was I think 19).

The whole situation gives me hella red flags.....Kelton was 19/20 when he became obsessed with basically an eighth-grader and it was an intense enough obsession that it made her parents uncomfortable about the relationship (fundie parents at that....the kind who are usually ok with marrying off daughters young). 

I feel like the normal person thing to do in that situation would be to respect that decision and maybe leave your 14 year old crush alone, try to move on, etc. But he didn't and, like you mentioned, just sat around waiting for her to turn 18 so her parents wouldn't have a legal say in anything she did (her bday is August 4th and he asked her on the 10th the year she turned 18).

Now I don't think Kelton did all of this knowingly tbh, I think he really believes it was all genuine and that he was being romantic, but that doesn't make it any less unhealthy or inappropriate.

!!!*NOTE*!!! because this *always* happens to me when I talk about age-gaps: I don't need to hear about your parents who have a 20-yr age gap and are the happiest people alive or whatever. At best it isn't relevant (it matters how old they were when they got together), at worst it's also creepy and I don't want to have to tell you that lol.

Just because it used to be common or because it happened in your family and worked out doesn't mean it's ok or should be happening in this or other situations. I am very happy for the couple in your life that had a huge age gap and had a happily ever after, but they are the exception to the rule please realize this.

#throwback

[spurgie-cousin]

Jill was looking at venues for Nurie’s baby shower and I’m dying to know if we’re talking country club/hotel ballroom type of venue or she’s just calling it that to make it sound better when it’s going to be in another church basement (or if she’s calling it that to compete with Heidi and Tim having a wedding venue)

Oh I missed it, honestly it could be an actual country club but just a small town Elks or something lmao. I used to love to brag as a kid that we were Elks "country club" members but it's like, the most unfancy and unserious type of country club and they always have a big area that you can rent for usually a reasonable price. The vibes are usually kind of church basement-esque, ironically.

#Elks had the only golf course within 20 miles and my whole family except me golfs. plus the public pool had uh one too many #e. coli situations and my mom started getting nervous so we switched to the Elks pool #definitely still a privilege but it wasn't what most people think of when they hear country club #also my first job was a lifeguard there and it was so easy i just read books 99% of the time i wasn't in the chair #also there totally could be fancier elks clubs out there i acknowledge that

[spurgie-cousin]

sorry the sun's kind of in the way but i was watching TV at my mom's and stumbled upon this channel on her DirecTV 😭 they've got a whole TV channel now??

#I'm watching a show called Destination Scientology which profiles scientoligsts around the world and it's very much giving prescription #medication commercial. or the hotel tv channel #scientology #cults

[spurgie-cousin]

Third parties are not going to succeed by only running people for POTUS every four years. Few people are going to take seriously a political party that doesn't even have seats in the US House.

If you want to build a serious third party option, you gotta start with local, grassroots campaigns and play the long game. Run people for city council, school board, state legislature, US Congress, etc. Many local offices and even US House seats, one candidate is running unopposed - where are the third party options for those races? That seems like a huge missed opportunity.

Even losing campaigns can draw quite a lot of attention to your cause and set the stage for a more successful run during the next election. Like I said, you have to play the long game and you have to put in a shit ton of work and it will likely takes years to see results, but it's still much more effective than only running for President every four years and doing nothing else. Third parties have been running people for President, and doing little else, for literally decades now and have achieved nothing but getting the complete opposite major party into the White House and therefore pissing off those who were most likely to support them.

Completely agree. It's like brand awareness, people are more likely to try out something if they've heard of it before. As much as I dislike them, libertarians did this pretty well (esp in rural areas) for a while, but they could never agree enough to make a solid movement.

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I'm Muslim and won't be voting for Biden in November. I have 2 degrees in polisci and work in advocacy, so it's not like I'm completely uninformed or politically naive, but Gaza is my hill to die on. Dozens of people in my brother-in-law's immediate family have been murdered in Gaza, and a Palestinian Muslim child was killed in his own home in Chicago after Biden publicly lied. I truly believe that my family already isn't safe in Biden's America.

I guess you could say it's apathy, but we have to get out of this 2 party system somehow and for me, the situation in Gaza is too much. "Vote blue, no matter who," but at what cost? I can't accept the literally live streamed massacre of innocent people by the tens of thousands, no matter what the alternative is. That alternative isn't even doing anything besides (maybe) paying lip service to other progressive causes. I'll definitely be voting in November, but I haven't decided yet if I'll vote 3rd party or just leave the vote for president blank.

I completely understand Palestine being the hill to die on. The only thing that makes me hesitate is worrying that Trump will not only support Israel but make that support more of a priority because it would be wildly popular among his white evangelical/conservative Christian base. Around here, it's such a popular thing that people and churches have pro-Israel signs in their yards and other people just.....allow them to do that.

#the bigger churches even hand them out #i remember being fed pro-Israel rhetoric at church from like preschool age. even after i left it took years to understand what Israel #actually was. which is very embarrassing in hindsight but like they reaaaalllyyy hammer it in you