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draw your babygirl like this

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It's that time of year again! And I'm just here with a friendly reminder:

You are not responsible for Christ's death.

Each and every one of us is innocent of his death. None of us has committed any act for which his death was valid payment.

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A poem about realizing your family is the cult

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Uh oh! A Jehovah’s Witness is at my door!

A guide on what the fuck is happening and what to do about it as a never JW, from an exJW.

JW congregations have just been told to start doing door-to-door preaching (aka ‘service’/‘service work’/‘witnessing’) again this September. They stopped for the past few years due to…well. The whole state of things. But it’s starting again! Fuck!

So, to get you folks in on the Secret Inner-workings of a Cult:

JWs do service work mostly on Saturdays and Sundays, but any day of the week is fair game, just less of them will be out on other days. Generally it’ll be in the mornings (anywhere between 9AM to 1PM being common, my family did 10AM to noon Saturdays), but any time of day is also fair game. Evening witnessing is encouraged, to catch parts of the service area who didn’t answer during morning service, like people who were at work or asleep.

JWs are given ‘territories’: entire neighborhoods if they’re a majority language and can generally bet on most of the people in a given area speaking that language; SPECIFIC ADDRESSES if they belong to a smaller language demographic. These are on ‘territory cards’, which include areas to fill out once they’ve called on houses. They often pull addresses from the phone book or other such directory, pulling based on name, or get referred new addresses from neighborhood sweeps in other congregations and were told x language was being spoken, so if you get called on by someone speaking your language and wonder how they got your address, it’s because they’ve collected data already! On You!

On that note: JWs collect data on you! A lot of it!! Those territory cards they fill out? They can include any information they gleaned from conversation (age? gender? personal details like if you’re married, if you live with your parents, etc? what religion do you belong to? any problems in your life they can ‘help’ with? any ‘problematic’ details, like if you’re queer? all of it.); if someone was home or not (yes we can see you peeking out from behind your curtains! we looked in windows!); if the person answering the door was uninterested; if they were aggressive; if they have dogs; if we were able to leave any publications with them; the details of any conversations we had, like which topics we discussed and which seemed to interest you the most; when to call on you again. The areas to fill this in on these cards are rather small so they usually only write down the most important information, but it is the most important information for trying to indoctrinate you into a cult. DO NOT give them any personal information. It will be used against you.

So that’s the gist of it. Now, you don’t want them at your door, probably.

Please do not harass them.

I know they’re annoying. We always knew we were being annoying. They do it anyways because they think they’re helping you. They often have children with them - not only because it’s often families going preaching together, but also because it’s a well known tactic to get a softer response from people they call on, to have a child with you. Even if there are no children, please do not harass JWs - they are cult victims, and doing so will only enforce their ‘us vs them’ mentality, and discourages members from leaving. The outside world hates you so much, so how can you leave?

“But what if—“ Nope! Beyond the whole ‘don’t be fucking cruel to abuse victims’ thing, it doesn’t even work! I’ve been threatened with dogs; my mother has been threatened with machetes; others have been flashed, or physically assaulted - we still went back eventually. Usually someone else would get the assignment, and usually we’d wait a bit, but we still went back.

“Okay, but what the fuck do I do, then?”

You open the door (yes, open the door; if you ignore them they’ll return again, assuming they just missed you or you were busy), let them tell you what they’re there for, and before the conversation goes further, you simply say:

“I’m not interested. Please put me on your do not call list.”

And then you tell them goodbye. Nothing more. Don’t say you have your own religion. Don’t say you’re queer. Don’t try to use the ‘magic word’ apostate - actual former members can get harassed.

Unfortunately, despite this being the most successful and least harmful strategy, it isn’t 100% foolproof. They’re supposed to write ‘do not call’ on the territory card next to your address, but they’re human and forget sometimes (or might not mark it intentionally, though I haven’t seen that personally); the next person who gets that card might not see the mark, as well. On top of everything else, even if not forgotten, they will eventually come back. It’s policy to come by after some time to check on you, ‘just in case’: just in case you changed your mind, just in case you moved and there’s someone else there now, just in case, oh, you recently had a loved one pass away and suddenly find yourself in an emotionally vulnerable position in need of support and sympathy.

If you have the knowledge and mental/emotional energy and stability to, you can go about trying to debate them, maybe help some of them doubt, but it is no easy task and there is no guarantee of any success. It takes a lot of patience. They are undergoing some extreme brainwashing and ‘waking up’ is incredibly traumatizing, and you will face a lot of resistance in trying to deconvert any of them. Again, only attempt this if you have the energy, stability, and knowledge required - the delicacy required, too. Otherwise, remember, it’s

“I’m not interested. Please put me on your do not call list.”

Nothing more.

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ⓘ this user has been abandoned by god

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The Bible pledge of allegiance

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… all the tentacles complete — but no, the front one is not right! Some surgery required. Out comes the hacksaw, but only to the wire armature so the arm can be shaped into the correct curves. Then like Dr. Frankenstein I fasten it back together with staples and recover with more resin putty.

And now is time to sand …

and sand and sand and sand until it is time for the little sucker cups … M2, M2.5, M3, M4, M5, M6, M8, M10, M12 white nylon washers

I pulled out my collection of plastic seals and off we went for days of cupping  —15 days spent modeling the contours of each of the 663 suction cups 

The Blessed Virgin had to be sanded very delicately to give it back some of its immaculateness.

The happiness of some is the dust of others.

Take advantage of this white octopus, it seems that it is very rare to come across one. Shortly after I did my little experiments with paintings — 

A few days to finish the color, but because it will have to go through a few coats of a special glossy glossy varnish, which makes the viscosity so good… mmm yum. Given the size of the room I could not apply it in one go. The drying takes between 24 and 48 hours, so it will probably take me a week to complete the application of this varnish-resin.

If your head is spinning too much, don’t look at this indecent image.

Soasig Chamaillard (French, b.1977)

Notre dame du poulpe (Our Lady of the Octopus) - recovery statue with illegible signature, aluminum wire frame, plaster strip, polystyrene, resin (epoxy putty), plumbing seals (plastic washers), acrylic paint, resin varnish - 47 cm high x 70 cm wide - 12 kg - work-in-progress March 20 to May 31, 2015

“I grew up in a Christian Western society. My perspective on life has been a result of my environment and background. The playful interaction of society’s many icons, physical transformations, and the resulting improbable combinations, have culminated in my vision of a woman’s role and place in our society. This inner questioning of a woman’s role, has led me to use one of the most sacred icons in my work, namely, the Virgin Mary. Initially, I begin with damaged statues, either donated or discovered in garage sales, which I then restore and transform. I surely do not mean to shock those who believe but rather to move those who see.”  —  Soasig Chamaillard

http://www.soasig-chamaillard.com/sculpture-sainte-vierge

https://www.instagram.com/soasigchamaillard/

http://chamailleries.blogspot.com/

https://www.facebook.com/chamaillard.soasig

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fanfic writers will consume a whole ass franchise and be like "that was fun, now i will proceed to do it better"

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I hate having nostalgia for the cult, I hate wanting to go back, I hate feeling like it was a "better point in my life" it wasn't I was so extremely abused it was so extremely traumatizing and yet my brain won't stop trying to convince me to return

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That was a terrible idea. He was there. We made eye contact and he smiled at me. It would've been nice if I didn't know he was himself. I hate him.

He pledges to god, but then turns around and doesn't practice what he preaches.

I'm going to church today.

It's a Baptist church that mostly has kids, but I'm still terrified.

I'm the one that subjected myself to this. He's probably going to be there. Why did I do this to myself? My skin is crawling and I can feel his eyes already.

Why did it happen? Why was I so stupid? Why didn't I just go to bed? Me and her could've avoided that if we went to bed. If I hadn't drank that stupid water! I should've went to bed.

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I'm going to church today.

It's a Baptist church that mostly has kids, but I'm still terrified.

I'm the one that subjected myself to this. He's probably going to be there. Why did I do this to myself? My skin is crawling and I can feel his eyes already.

Why did it happen? Why was I so stupid? Why didn't I just go to bed? Me and her could've avoided that if we went to bed. If I hadn't drank that stupid water! I should've went to bed.

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pros of growing up christian:

veggietales

cons of growing up christian:

oh man where do i even fucking start

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𝖆𝖓𝖌𝖊𝖑 𝖜𝖎𝖓𝖌𝖘 𝖎

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reblog if you’re a member of the religious trauma gang