Churchhoney

So in other words, Ben was interested in the hot girl who might get him on television, and with very little trouble talked his father into going to extraordinary lengths to get on television. Bin was thinking with his little brain and Mike was salivating at the chance to get a piece of that famous-fundie pie. .. And they both justify it by writing blog posts that explain how it's really all for Jesus. They may not be very rational but they sure have rationalization down pat.

He's not bright or sophisticated, either. To his eye, the strand of perfectly matched fake pearls may have looked more impressive than the different-sized real ones. Like all these people, he's a child in most ways.

I expect that in their minds the funds they're asking for aren't personal funds but funds that will be used to bring more people to God by providing additional support for "missionary" work. Looked at that way, you wouldn't see any mission-related fundraising as double-dipping or as excessive. For people to give more to missionaries is an increase in charity, and that's always a good thing. Ergo, it's a good thing in this case. That the rest of us may see their solicitations crossing the line into greed at some point just doesn't occur to any of them, I imagine. Some combination of naivete, ignorance, stupidity, denial, self-delusion and arrogance (and larceny?) prevents them from seeing it that way. And I very much doubt that SOS discourages any of their "mission" associates from any sort of fundraising, since they're obviously well into the exact same mindset. This is a whole grifty little subculture that justifies all its actions by averring that they're bringing souls to Jesus.

Same rule as for intra-family molestation, seeking affairs with married people online, etc. -- It's just people knowing about it that matters. Ben currently thinks it leads to becoming a person who gets along well with everybody.

Yeah, could be! As I understand it, though, it's an old tradition in quite a few Protestant sects (not all, though) to refer to all church members or believers as "saints." It's basically another way to set the every-person-in-direct-relationship-with-God Protestant theology apart from what many Protestants over the whole history of the reformation have seen as the wrongheaded hierarchy of the Catholic church, which they view as putting a lot of layers -- including the layer of Catholic saints -- between the individual human and God. The New England Puritans used the term "saints' in that way, and you find it in various pieces of Protestant literature used that way.

In fundiespeak I think it means "continue preaching to and 'encouraging' people who've already 'committed their lives to the correct version of Jesus.'" In other words, keep close contact with the people who've already converted, don't just keep trying to convert more of "the lost" (read -- in this case, at least -- "Catholics.")

I think the fact that this does happen, or at least start to happen, is one big reason they have things like Alert, Journey to the Heart, frequent Mother-Daughter retreats and so on. Most of the adult men in these groups probably love the "principles" -- since they're all for their benefit -- so they're very unlikely to figure out that any of it's wrong. (and if they do, they probably just take their families and quietly go elsewhere and change their ways...) But it looks to me as if there's a whole mechanism of events and organizations and classes and so on that's been created to head off any copping on that may arise among the women and the younger generation.

Lawson has long earned his own money. He bought the family's groceries at times when Gil didn't. This is the wonderful umbrella of protection that the sainted Gil has put up for his family. His kid has had to buy their groceries at times because Dad wouldn't work in the evil world. When you look at the things that the famous patriarchal families go through, it's horrifying to think what must go on in some of the homes of the rank and file. I expect JB is a lot like some people who start their own businesses or schools or other enterprises. Certain kinds of personalities who do that never ever groom anybody as a successor, or they pretend to and then undercut those people. Imagining somebody else running the enterprise -- let alone preparing somebody to do so -- is too much for the old ego in a lot of people, it seems.

Well, there aren't theoretically, but I think that in practical terms even many of these hardliners get busy and tired and don't go after every single instance. I've read this kind of admonition to such parents from the various leaders such as the Pearls and Gothard and they all stress -- as these horrendous asses are doing -- that you can't get tired or busy and let the seemingly lesser things go. Or else some kid may emerge with part of its personality intact.

Well, we're all saying "The Dillards, the Dillards, the rotten rotten Dillards!!!" But it seems pretty clear to me that among the kind of "mission" groups that they hang around with, and the participants in those particular "mission" groups, which include tons of U.S. Christians, who take all those trips, the stuff the Dillards are doing is absolutely commonplace. The blurb on the house, for example, wasn't written by the Dillards. That seems to have been SOS, and it was massive hogwash. And they're participating in a "program" that clearly promises to be all things to all men in the areas it works in, when it's perfectly clear that the people running it aren't particularly trained or qualified to be much of anything to any men at all. The Dugg/Dills aren't making up the stuff they say. They're part of a whole subculture of "mission" -- and Jill's been part of that subculture all her life -- that consists of a lot of half-assed 'Mur'cans running around pretending to "save" people abroad in multiple ways without any particular skills to contribute and without any cultural understanding or desire to gain any. Just a lot of Jizm Bobs bringing sackloads of cheap hard candy and their uppity scared white-ass US offspring, standing around looking uncomfortable in tight knots of tee-shirted 'Mur'cans, and then flying back again proud as Punch about how they advanced Christ's kingdom and full of stupid culturally insensitive observations to publish online the way Jessica Seewald did. And not only are they proud of their role in the "missions" but it appears that the top "missionaries" who run these groups are proud of them and encourage their nonsensical "mission trips." And not just the Dillards but all these "missionaries" are donation-fueled -- although I'm not sure how much of a problem that is, since I expect that most of the donors both enthusiastically embrace the idea that these U.S. whiteys are doing great things and look forward to going on these "mission trips" themselves, where they'll imagine they are doing God's great work by eating at Pizza Hut and engaging in interpretive dance. All the stuff they're doing seems to be well accepted by a subculture that likely includes millions of people. That's kind of mind-boggling to me, but it looks as if it's the fact.

Well, it's the thinking yourself superior that kind of is the personality disorder in a lot of these cases, I guess. It's also interesting that they all think Jesus is really down with this.

Well, nobody on Pickles is missing it. What do you want to bet that it's flying right over the heads of about a million leghumpers, though?

Based on my experience, I would bet that the brainwashing started so early and has been so complete -- and they've all been infantilized so much by that fact -- that very few have ever raised that question so far. I'd also bet that, when someone shows even a hint that they might be thinking of such question, a trip to Alert or Journey to the Heart is instantly scheduled. See how much good Gothardom does for families!

And it's literal slavery. To support the mob, all the money has to go right into Jim Bob's pocket, so whatever labor they put in is uncompensated except for what they get back in the form of food and shelter, of which working likely nets you no more than goes to the nonworkers. Plus, you aren't allowed to take another job or leave.

Shhhhh! Don't ask that. ..... I'm pretty sure they emphasize it because these groups are founded and run by power-hungry, sex-mad guys who couldn't even imagine a life lived alone in a monk's cell practicing celibacy. What they want -- crave, absolutely must have -- is a woman and a bunch of kids for each of them to own and push around, obsess over the sexuality of ... And, as others have mentioned, form into an "army" to protect them against all those strange people who threaten their deep insecurities. As far as I can tell, they don't actually bother trying to justify any of the nutso ways in which they veer from other Christian practices (such as, you know, focusing on charitable practices rather than dictating hair and footwear styles). Why bother, I guess. All you need to say is "Cause Jeezus!"

I love the way they make it sound as if evangelism just spontaneously increased in the last two years, possibly by natural means, like a rising rate of rainfall or the presence of more kudzu, so that they now have to meet this need. The "evangelism mission" increased because you decided to make it increase, you lying boneheads. All people who remain Catholic are "lost," by the way.

Well, the kingdom may not use this criterion, but the upper echelons of Gothard's ATI, Dougie's Vision Forum and the other patriarchal cult groups definitely do.

Wow. Total focus on conflict, the need to be more patient, and the lack of a personality match already. Pretty much says it all. Yeah, Bin. You just go on thinking that being a good match with your spouse is an unnecessary frill as long as you're sexually attracted and she's best buds with Jesus. Surround yourself with people you don't get along with but who are Jesus's pals, why don't you? That'll be a test for your faith all right.

Either that, or Ben left out [on TLC's orders] the part where he emailed Flame after TLC told him to because they'd arranged for him to be on the show. Bin may have just emailed the guy on his own, but where would he have found him? What would he have written to him about? What kind of first email would Bin write to make this guy pursue it enough for Bin to ultimately see them as "hitting it off," even if the guy was enticed by tv fame. I'm skeptible that this was truly Bin-initiated. TLC initiates pretty much everything else that the Duggs have done on their shows (other than get pregnant and act like idiots). So I think the odds are in favor of their initiating this as well, really.

Ah. Shrader. Another stellar pick by Pa Keller. Hard to tell who would actually win the bad-son-in-law sweepstakes in that family. Joshie truly has rivals. No wonder Anna's so confused. She can look at her sister married to John Shrader and her other sis married to David Waller and honestly wonder whether she may have gotten the best deal of the three. This is what comes of handing your future over to your dad, the Bill Gothard acolyte.

I think part of the "no money" idea that many of us have is more like "no money considering what they'll need money for in the future and how few ways they may have to earn it." If, say, they're pulling in 40 k per episode for this series -- which was what was widely rumored for the old series -- it does have to be split up among the group of people who live in their own homes -- so Jessa and Bin, for example, might score, say, 20 k. But then that would be subject to taxation -- probably both income tax and self-employment tax? -- which woudl take a fair-sized chunk out. And it's still right-now money, going to people who don't appear to have much chance to earn a lot -- at least not immediately -- if and when the show ends. I don't think most people see this series going on for more than two or three years. So in such a short time the young couples are not likely to have much saved (even if they're earning at the top end of what everybody imagines); they don't seem to have many concrete plans or to be making concrete preparations for the next income they'll need to keep supporting their families; And, meanwhile, even though JB may keep collecting money, he also keeps collecting dependents without -- apparently -- getting many new sources of income. The Smuggs are both pretty much jobless and unemployable now -- with four kids and Anna most likely hoping for a quick fifth. As the numbers of dependents pile up everywhere, and nobody in the family apparently developing strong plans for earning money beyond this potentially kinda short-lived national tv show, the money they're getting seems inadequate to the long-term task. At least for me, this is the big reason why I feel they just don't have much money. (this and the fact that they spend so much of it at Starbucks and casual dining restaurants. lol)

Well, I hope he's right. I would actually assume that TLC doesn't want it to fall because of liability issues -- Boob would probably go after them big time, since it was certainly a producer-generated idea -- so I'd expect them to have hired somebody who knows about the construction of these things to supervise. .... And a lot of treehouses and treehouse lites like this do look precarious but apparently aren't.

Only too true. And I guess that it's new technology facilitating something that's always been a pretty strong human tendency. In the olden days, we all still wanted to show everybody our stuff, but getting film developed was expensive and there were only so many people within close enough range to see our snapshots and sit through our boring vacation slide shows. "Here we are at Plymouth Rock!" Now there's next to no marginal cost for showing a nearly infinite number of photos to pretty much the entire population of the planet. So our apparent natural pent-up desire to show everybody everything is unleashed. And probably only more pronounced in the young because we older people still act in accordance with some of the leftover -- though now largely irrelevant -- constraints of earlier decades. Naaa! You paid enough attention. It's in the chicken-etti family!

Apparently the Dugg-Dills are of the opinion that no food staples at all are sold in El Salvador (or Guatemala, or wherever they were when Cathy went to visit). Maybe it was the Italian sausages, which could be harder to come by in some countries -- but chorizos would be just as good and would give it a little local flavor. Actually, that's not the chicken-etti recipe. The chicken-etti recipe features Velveeta instead of actual cheese and the big Duggar staple -- canned cream soup. -- http://www.duggarfamilyblog.com/2010/03/anna-duggars-chicken-etti-recipe.html When someone's brain is as vacuous as the brain of any given Duggar, you think pretty much everything is post-worthy, I believe.

Maybe he pretended to be St. George. He always comes in on a horse. Seriously, in India there are so many cultural and religious traditions living cheek to jowl, not to mention those 330 million Hindu gods, that they're used to doing mashups. In this case, it may be to put them in a pile of rubble at the bottom of a small ravine.