Sweet Fellowship: Duggars and Friends (aka the Bates Family and Other Featured Families Thread)

[Micks Picks]

Make that legislation retroactive to when that picture was taken.  The clothes are absurd.  Awful, terrible, no good, horrible mess.  Plus there is a toy of something, red and white striped looks like a cane, and something sticking between the kid's left leg and the blanket.  And the dump truck isn't big enough and the blanket isn't thick enough.  It's grounds for a parental abuse lawsuit when the kid turns 18.  

I must say I'd also sue my parents if they showed nude baby pictures of me 20 years  later to friends or at a bachelor party.  I thought the naked kid in the bathtub was bad.  Hah, I had parents with no imagination apparently.  

[gingerandcloves]

That poor baby :(  Honestly, David and Priscilla have not a lick of common sense between them. Who knew that giving your baby a "manly" name was a sure ticket they would grow up hetero? And what about poor Davia? She got stuck with a boyish name, doesn't David worry she might turn out a lesbian? And who thinks it's a brilliant idea for a brand-new mom to be up and dressed and filming on cue right after birth? And who dresses their 2-day old baby in long-sleeve button-down shirt and sweater vest and khakis? The ignorance of these people maddens me.

[louannems]

On 10/24/2016 at 8:47 AM, Absolom said:

Davia and Phillip are the ones with the most sense in this one.

By'

You know, Davia looks beyond distressed here. She is probably willing mom's newest baby return to the womb.  She looks like her little world has immeasurably been changed for the worst.

On 10/24/2016 at 8:47 AM, Absolom said:

Davia and Phillip are the ones with the most sense in this one.

'

[Muffyn]

On ‎10‎/‎23‎/‎2016 at 10:24 PM, Sew Sumi said:

I always figured Prissy's squinting was because they always insisted shooting into direct sunlight. Holy crap, it's actually genetic! 

eta: That's an ugly plaid on TFDW. I wonder what poor Prissy is wearing to match THAT?

I expect Prissy was wearing a picnic tablecloth.  Only thing to match David's hideous plaid.

There is one man's man Waller baby photo Iike.  The little guy has a look like get that damn camera out of my baby face you fools, I'm trying to sleep.

 

[Churchhoney]

I was wondering that, too. And then it occurred to me that, since somebody obviously makes and sells these in newborn sizes, apparently quite a few people do.

Incredible.

[Portia]

11 hours ago, Muffyn said:

I expect Prissy was wearing a picnic tablecloth.  Only thing to match David's hideous plaid.

There is one man's man Waller baby photo Iike.  The little guy has a look like get that damn camera out of my baby face you fools, I'm trying to sleep.

 

"Imma go all Sean Penn on yo asses."

[Tabbygirl521]

The thought of stiff or scratchy clothing on newborn skin makes me want to weep. And as for Photoshopped pix that make it look like the newborn is holding its head up, etc - I don't get it. Why would a person want a commemorative newborn pic that is fake?? Wouldn't you want to remember what the child actually looked like? I have never given birth so who knows what I would have done. But that seems odd. 

[Churchhoney]

1 hour ago, Tabbygirl521 said:

The thought of stiff or scratchy clothing on newborn skin makes me want to weep. And as for Photoshopped pix that make it look like the newborn is holding its head up, etc - I don't get it. Why would a person want a commemorative newborn pic that is fake?? Wouldn't you want to remember what the child actually looked like? I have never given birth so who knows what I would have done. But that seems odd. 

Well, a lot of photos are trophies more than commemoration of what's real, aren't they? And photos intended for sharing and posting and such tend to fall heavily into the trophy category. So I guess people want something cool and "special." Not just some boring baby lying down looking like a baby.

[louannems]

I really think they plopped that newborn into that dump truck and onto that chopping block.  Sad, horribly true.

[Sew Sumi]

2 hours ago, Churchhoney said:

Well, a lot of photos are trophies more than commemoration of what's real, aren't they? And photos intended for sharing and posting and such tend to fall heavily into the trophy category. So I guess people want something cool and "special." Not just some boring baby lying down looking like a baby.

And David Waller certainly wants everyone to know that he's been laid three times. These are literally fuck trophies for him. 

On another subject, I think Susanna Keller is back living in Florida with the boyfriend; she posts some pictures of her with Ma and Pa from time to time. [eta: She's private, can't the new pic] This is the second time she's acknowledged one of her younger brothers' first sermon. But is it really a sermon? She actually said he "preached a message." Nathan was about a year ago, give or take.  Remember, these are the boys that Ma and Pa are holding onto tight as hell to make sure they don't make a run for it. Right now, they're 50/50, although it can be argued that Esther just changed the flavor of her kool-aid. 

At any rate, I put Suze in the Famy category: the look is anything but conservative (and Suze dresses both her daughter and stepdaughter in pants all the time), but their views are at best fundie lite. 

Edited October 27, 2016 by Sew Sumi

[sometimesy]

1 hour ago, Sew Sumi said:

And David Waller certainly wants everyone to know that he's been laid three times. These are literally fuck trophies for him. 

On another subject, I think Susanna Keller is back living in Florida with the boyfriend; she posts some pictures of her with Ma and Pa from time to time. [eta: She's private, can't the new pic] This is the second time she's acknowledged one of her younger brothers' first sermon. But is it really a sermon? She actually said he "preached a message." Nathan was about a year ago, give or take.  Remember, these are the boys that Ma and Pa are holding onto tight as hell to make sure they don't make a run for it. Right now, they're 50/50, although it can be argued that Esther just changed the flavor of her kool-aid. 

At any rate, I put Suze in the Famy category: the look is anything but conservative (and Suze dresses both her daughter and stepdaughter in pants all the time), but their views are at best fundie lite. 

This is one of the most accurate terms for the fundies ever!! That's it in a nutshell. OMG Genius!!

[Arwen Evenstar]

1 hour ago, sometimesy said:

This is one of the most accurate terms for the fundies ever!! That's it in a nutshell. OMG Genius!!

Yes..I love it too.

[Catlyn]

On 10/25/2016 at 2:38 PM, CatS said:

Newborns sleep a ton...our session lasted about three hours, my daughter slept through 90% of it, and had no idea anything was going on, which is exactly as it's supposed to go, no crying involved. The photographer had the room warm, a sound machine going, and was damn near a baby whisperer when it came to positioning her. All of the props were set up on a big cushy bean bag that was comfy for baby to lay on. 

Reminds me of when my sister and her daughter in law decided it would be cute to make a lasting memory of grandbaby/daughter. She wasn't new born, but a few weeks/month old and still slept a ton and hard. They started encasing her tiny fist in some sort of goo that would solidify and make a mold, whereby they could fill it with plaster and have a lasting memory of grand/daughter's tiny fist.  They put her fist in the goo and baby woke up fast! My sister said for the remainder of the visit, baby always looked at them warily.  

 

 

I wonder if this also affects children who have been photographed in the Geddes mode.

 

Quote

You know, Davia looks beyond distressed here. She is probably willing mom's newest baby return to the womb.  She looks like her little world has immeasurably been changed for the worst.

Such a poor sad face on that little girl. You really want to rip her out of that picture. She looks shell-shocked.

Edited October 27, 2016 by Catlyn
added Louannems quote.

[lianau]

10 hours ago, Sew Sumi said:

And David Waller certainly wants everyone to know that he's been laid three times. These are literally fuck trophies for him. 

 

Perfect . 

[Lemur]

On 10/25/2016 at 11:58 AM, sometimesy said:

The chopping block is just beyond common sense. Find another stump of a tree if you must, but a chopping block in front of a pile of wood? How does that evoke any sort of emotion except horror? The background for the Waller little ringed feet, c'mon!

You mean the "reenactment" of the Binding of Isaac didn't warm the cockles of your heart?  

[lianau]

May I present you Timothy Isaac Waller , son of David's brother Adam and his wife who looks just like Adam  . He was born in July and scroll down until you see it . It's not nearly as bad as  poor Phillips outfit but , yeah . . .

[NewDigs]

 

Kid looks kind of disgruntled. Like he's planning payback.

Edited October 27, 2016 by NewDigs

[Arwen Evenstar]

1 hour ago, NewDigs said:

 

Kid looks kind of disgruntled. Like he's planning payback.

Fundy Misery Fashion starts early. The male uniform consists of polo shirt, khakis, and thrift store sneakers.

Thise pants are a travesty; they really are a pair of "ball bags".

[Churchhoney]

2 hours ago, Arwen Evenstar said:

Fundy Misery Fashion starts early. The male uniform consists of polo shirt, khakis, and thrift store sneakers.

Thise pants are a travesty; they really are a pair of "ball bags".

The joy of Gothard infancy --

"Failure to Conform -- 

"...remember my dad trying to find a parking spot for our family’s van in Knoxville during the national conference and watching a family get out of an even LARGER van than ours (which, clearly meant that their quiver was fuller). It was a Monday afternoon during registration, so that meant no-one was obligated yet to wear navy and white. In a valiant display for what a Proverbs 31 woman should be like, the mother had risen to the challenge by dressing all eight of her children in matching denim and khaki outfits–long khaki dresses and denim shirts for the girls and khaki pants and denim shirts for the guys.  But it wasn’t enough that they stood out for all wearing IDENTICAL clothing from the 1950’s on a state university campus in June. After filing out of the van, the children then proceeded to line up behind their mother from shortest to tallest and march down the sidewalk like little baby ducks. As much as I remember snickering a little when I saw this, most of me felt incredibly insecure and inadequate. I remember thinking, “If a godly ATI family acts like that, then what’s wrong with my family?” We never wore matching denim shirts and our system of exiting the van resembled more of an evacuation than a flock of well-behaved waterfowl."

Wallers -- definitely in the waterfowl category. That's why they're Gothard royalty, I guess.

http://www.recoveringgrace.org/2012/05/failure-to-conform/

[GeeGolly]

I'm not comfortable copy & pasting pictures of random people's babies, but if you Google infant pictures in dump trucks there are some really adorable pictures. Clearly the Wallers missed the mark.

 

Wanna all pitch in and get this for David?

 

He can replace this one.

Edited October 27, 2016 by GeeGolly

[Natalie68]

On 10/24/2016 at 6:17 AM, NewDigs said:

Good grief.

They have the baby on an actual chopping block.

Zounds.

The very first thing that popped into my head was Pris wondering 'now where did I leave that baby???'.

[Natalie68]

9 hours ago, Catlyn said:

Reminds me of when my sister and her daughter in law decided it would be cute to make a lasting memory of grandbaby/daughter. She wasn't new born, but a few weeks/month old and still slept a ton and hard. They started encasing her tiny fist in some sort of goo that would solidify and make a mold, whereby they could fill it with plaster and have a lasting memory of grand/daughter's tiny fist.  They put her fist in the goo and baby woke up fast! My sister said for the remainder of the visit, baby always looked at them warily.  

 

 

I wonder if this also affects children who have been photographed in the Geddes mode.

 

Such a poor sad face on that little girl. You really want to rip her out of that picture. She looks shell-shocked.

I am what you might call not a kid person and *I* want to rescue her and bring her to Chez Natalie.  I promise I won't dress her funky (unless she wants to) and she would only have to share her toys with cats.  Poor little girl.  

6 hours ago, NewDigs said:

 

Kid looks kind of disgruntled. Like he's planning payback.

Does he have a hairless cat?  He looks like Austin Powers gone fundy.

[NewDigs]

22 minutes ago, Natalie68 said:

I am what you might call not a kid person and *I* want to rescue her and bring her to Chez Natalie.  I promise I won't dress her funky (unless she wants to) and she would only have to share her toys with cats.  Poor little girl.  

Ditto the really not a kid person.

But Davia's little face and Phillip squalling and poor little Izzy and even the older kids I want to just grab them and run.

[BitterApple]

32 minutes ago, NewDigs said:

Ditto the really not a kid person.

But Davia's little face and Phillip squalling and poor little Izzy and even the older kids I want to just grab them and run.

It really is depressing. Spurge seems like the only one who's well cared for and we'll see how long that lasts once the money runs out and the blessings start piling up. 

[sometimesy]

7 hours ago, NewDigs said:

 

Kid looks kind of disgruntled. Like he's planning payback.

He's middle management.

[farmgal4]

On October 24, 2016 at 7:04 AM, DangerousMinds said:

That poor baby.

Those pics just prove what I already suspected... Those people are crazy af.  

[DangerousMinds]

17 hours ago, Churchhoney said:

The joy of Gothard infancy --

"Failure to Conform -- 

"...remember my dad trying to find a parking spot for our family’s van in Knoxville during the national conference and watching a family get out of an even LARGER van than ours (which, clearly meant that their quiver was fuller). It was a Monday afternoon during registration, so that meant no-one was obligated yet to wear navy and white. In a valiant display for what a Proverbs 31 woman should be like, the mother had risen to the challenge by dressing all eight of her children in matching denim and khaki outfits–long khaki dresses and denim shirts for the girls and khaki pants and denim shirts for the guys.  But it wasn’t enough that they stood out for all wearing IDENTICAL clothing from the 1950’s on a state university campus in June. After filing out of the van, the children then proceeded to line up behind their mother from shortest to tallest and march down the sidewalk like little baby ducks. As much as I remember snickering a little when I saw this, most of me felt incredibly insecure and inadequate. I remember thinking, “If a godly ATI family acts like that, then what’s wrong with my family?” We never wore matching denim shirts and our system of exiting the van resembled more of an evacuation than a flock of well-behaved waterfowl."

Wallers -- definitely in the waterfowl category. That's why they're Gothard royalty, I guess.

http://www.recoveringgrace.org/2012/05/failure-to-conform/

Because Jesus wore a lot of khaki and denim?

13 hours ago, BitterApple said:

It really is depressing. Spurge seems like the only one who's well cared for and we'll see how long that lasts once the money runs out and the blessings start piling up. 

He should be well cared for. He has 2 unemployed parents who don't even have rent to pay.

[Arwen Evenstar]

47 minutes ago, DangerousMinds said:

Because Jesus wore a lot of khaki and denim?

He should be well cared for. He has 2 unemployed parents who don't even have rent to pay.

That doesn't always work...look no further than izzy's parents.

[Aja]

15 hours ago, GeeGolly said:

 

 He can replace this one.

*massages temples*

[Almost 3000]

On ‎10‎/‎26‎/‎2016 at 6:49 PM, Sew Sumi said:

although it can be argued that Esther just changed the flavor of her kool-aid. 

Oh, something new? I stopped following them at FJ after all the Smuggar bombshells. I just can't with cruel patriarchs anymore. Not many crazy Fundies to follow lately. aaaah for the days of Bathroom Baby, Pray the Gay Away, Life in a Shoe, meat sitting earth mothers and while ending up a big con my favorite was all the layers to Razing R.

[Churchhoney]

3 hours ago, DangerousMinds said:

Because Jesus wore a lot of khaki and denim?

 

Jesus and all the apostles. They walked in a line like baby ducks, too.

[sometimesy]

[Aja]

8 minutes ago, sometimesy said:

*massages temples*

[sometimesy]

Original manly dump truck baby.

Edited October 28, 2016 by sometimesy
Just wanna add, Ken Bone seems like a nice person, his outfit is just too similar to manly dump truck to resist

[Zahdii]

2 hours ago, Almost 3000 said:

Oh, something new? I stopped following them at FJ after all the Smuggar bombshells. I just can't with cruel patriarchs anymore. Not many crazy Fundies to follow lately. aaaah for the days of Bathroom Baby, Pray the Gay Away, Life in a Shoe, meat sitting earth mothers and while ending up a big con my favorite was all the layers to Razing R.

Yeah.  Esther was sold off to John Shrader who eventually decided that Gothard was too warm and fuzzy or something.  He rejected Gothardism, but I don't know what he follows now.  He seems to keep to all the Gothard rules about no birth control, being a controlling ass to his wife and kids, letting everyone else go without so he can follow his weird dream of converting the Christians of Zambia to the proper flavor of Christianity, etc.  Free Jinjer has whole threads dedicated to that ass.  Razing Ruth is probably jealous that he's living the fundy nightmare she only claimed to have lived.

[Sew Sumi]

Shrader considers himself IFB. HIS father (also a preacher) is his biggest sponsor, so I expect their brand of crazy is quite similar. He doesn't follow any of the fundie cult leaders, calling them false prophets. As if  he isn't?

[Arwen Evenstar]

I don't want to get off topic, but could someone p,ease quickly educate me as to who Razing Ruth is?  Thank you.

[Zahdii]

1 hour ago, Arwen Evenstar said:

I don't want to get off topic, but could someone please quickly educate me as to who Razing Ruth is?  Thank you.

Razing Ruth started posting on Television Without Pity and Reddit, claiming to be a woman raised in the Gothard (Quiverfull) cult.  She claimed to have fled after her parents started pressuring her to marry a young man she didn't like, or something like that.  I think at first she used different names when she posted, while she worked out her story.  Then she emigrated to Free Jinger and No Longer Quivering, and spent three or four wonderful years posting and blogging all about her miserable life.  Her stories were detailed and well written for the most part, and fed into the hope that people caught up in cults can escape and build a better life.  At first, people who expressed doubt that RR was perhaps not telling the whole truth were shouted down, and eventually stopped bothering. 

Meanwhile, RR was posting and blogging about going to college and earning a degree, despite her poor SOTDRT education.  She had roommates that would suddenly turn against her for the most ridiculous reasons, jobs that wouldn't last because some horrible person lied about her or sabotaged her.  RR reeled from crisis to crisis; the poster child of bad luck. 

Then one of her younger sisters joined her after becoming pregnant and leaving the cult.  People following her waited for every new post about how she and her sister lived in a camper and struggled to make ends meet while baking in the hot sun.  She got a lot of support, advice on how to beat the heat, and although she claimed she didn't want charity, she had a button on her blog for people to donate money (but only because so many people insisted on helping her and she didn't want to give them her real name, physical address, or banking information).

Finally RR's sister gave birth and as an FU to her upbringing, she allowed a gay couple to adopt the child!  Much rejoicing while at the same time people were telling RR and her sister they were wonderful people and truly had the best interests of the child at heart.

Then word came that RR's father, a big deal in the Quiverfull movement died because he wouldn't accept medical help and tried to pray the cancer away.  Many of her followers tried to figure out who this man was, but no one could find any information on anyone who fit the bill.  More people started wondering if RR was for real. 

Then RR posted that her older brother had taken over the family and had traveled to California to meet with RR and her sister.  He took them out to dinner and out of the blue RR's sister said she'd like to come back into the fold.  Big brother immediately took the sister and they rejoined the family, leaving RR alone again.  Poor Ruth.  She was bereft and stunned that her sister would just run back to the hell that was Quiverfull.  How could that happen?  To make matters worse, she soon revealed that her errant sister was quickly married off to a nice cult member and was already pregnant again!  Ruth consoled herself by going to Disneyland with her sister's kid and the gay couple that had adopted him/her.  She took pictures, but couldn't show even the most innocuous one to protect their privacy.

More of her readers were starting to question if she was real.  RR was aghast, as you can imagine.  She was wounded that anyone should doubt her.  She mused that maybe she should shut down her blog, stop posting on other sites, and just go her own way.  Alone.  Again.  The faithful begged her keep them updated.  They believed in her!

But wait!  RR has found a new job working in the library of a university of a state I don't remember the name of.  Colorado?  Whatever, she's moving there this weekend, and posts at stops along the way.  At one point she claims that due to her description of the camp ground she came to rest in for the night (she can't afford a motel room and is sleeping in her car), fans showed up with dinner and she was gratified and delighted to see them.  But don't ask her for proof, because she values their privacy as much as her own.  God, here we go again...

RR was exposed not long after as a hoax, written by a woman who was also posting on other sites pretending to be a woman who was so sensitive to sunlight she had to spend most of her time locked in her dark bedroom, only coming out at night to interact with her husband and children.  Except for the times when she would suddenly be able to go hiking with them in full daylight. 

At the same time the real life woman was posting about her own life, on her own blog, but in a sanitized version.  Real life woman claimed her ex-husband somehow got the kids in the divorce, moved out of state and was able to keep her from having visitation for a while.  But after a couple of years she finally got visitation and was going to go see her kids.  This happened the same weekend RR was going to move to her new job and both women were following the same route, but they never saw each other because both were traveling alone and didn't know the other woman even existed.  But RR and the real life woman posted one right after the other from the same places, and someone who was able to track the IP addresses was able to verify that, and the whole thing came tumbling down.

So ends the sad tale of Razing Ruth, the world's Ultimate Victim, yet the Plucky Survivor.  And the even sadder tale of the real life woman who made her up.

[Love2dance]

Wasn't she also Wanderwoman on this site's Small Talk: The Prayer Closet?

[Zahdii]

1 hour ago, Love2dance said:

Wasn't she also Wanderwoman on this site's Small Talk: The Prayer Closet?

I don't know.  The name sounds familiar, but I came upon RR in the last year of her reign.  I initially believed her, not so much at the end.  But when she was exposed I heard a lot about all of her other web aliases.

[Arwen Evenstar]

@Zahdii -- thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day to explain all of that to me...I really appreciate you doing that.

[Absolom]

2 hours ago, Love2dance said:

Wasn't she also Wanderwoman on this site's Small Talk: The Prayer Closet?

Yes, indeed.

[FakeJoshDuggar]

2 hours ago, Love2dance said:

Wasn't she also Wanderwoman on this site's Small Talk: The Prayer Closet?

Shut the front door. RR reared her batshit crazy head again?!

RR was up there with the AriaStar debacle.

[Churchhoney]

37 minutes ago, FakeJoshDuggar said:

Shut the front door. RR reared her batshit crazy head again?!

RR was up there with the AriaStar debacle.

 I expect that once you've been a troll on that level, you're pretty darn addicted to it.

[Almost 3000]

1 hour ago, Absolom said:

Yes, indeed.

I thought W sounded a lot like RR. More the way the story was building than anything else and also not engaging with other posters except for a few times it furthered her story.

@Zahdii, you did a good job of hitting the high points of that saga...

[Sew Sumi]

Before Razing Ruth, I also believe she pretended to be someone who knew a relative of the Gosselins, and she fed that group made up tidbits about Khate that were even worse than the real thing. I think this woman just loved the attention, plus she bilked RR followers for something like 12 grand in the process. 

She was headed to Chicago to work in a library, but the story was something like she had problems with her boss. She knew that her identity was being sussed out and one day during her turbulent troubles at "work," her blog disappeared. WW appeared not long thereafter, living in the same general area as the woman behind these false identities (WW put herself up in the Sierras, near Lake Tahoe, the woman in question lives/d in the Central Valley). When the WW tragedies started coming fast and furious, and she revealed (at least to me) just enough information to put together where she supposedly lived, I became suspicious and never responded to her drivel. Not that I really did in the first place. But I definitely was not surprised when it was revealed that WW and RR were one and the same. 

We should probably go back to talking about Erin Bates Paines' flea-ridden puppy before we get into trouble with the mods. :D

[Farmfam]

2 hours ago, Absolom said:

Yes, indeed.

Thank you! I was on here awhile back just  reading, and was so invested in WW and her sick child as my daughter was in the NICU at the same time. And was shocked she was gone. Not long ago I asked in Small Talk what had happened. 

[frenchtoast]

2 hours ago, Sew Sumi said:

We should probably go back to talking about Erin Bates Paines' flea-ridden puppy before we get into trouble with the mods. :D

Gotta admit, that's a fabulous idea. Or take it to Small Talk but it seems to have been pretty much covered. We have some leeway for little straying now and again.

[kalamac]

That picture of all the people in khakis and blue shirts looks like a staff photo from a hardware store. And do I spy girls in pants there? I'm so defrauded.

Edited October 29, 2016 by kalamac
clarifying which photo I was talking about.

[sometimesy]

16 minutes ago, kalamac said:

That picture of all the people in khakis and blue shirts looks like a staff photo from a hardware store. And do I spy girls in pants there? I'm so defrauded.

I think they are from a BestBuy electronics shop.