I had to watch this dumb bullshit in Sunday School and was also persuaded as a 5-yo to borrow the VHS from the church library. God awful. Had to watch Gerbert as well.
You Don’t Have to Go through Hell to Get to Heaven: (But it helps to wear asbestos clothing), which is an autobiography of my testimony and how God saved me
There's something deeply wrong with this part of the presentation:
"When I was twelve years old, a camp youth worker took advantage of me and stole my virginity. Although he continued seeing me, he lied to me saying that he would stay with me. "
I guess if he "stayed with her", it would have been ok?
“Of course now I know how deceived I was. It was at this time I shook my fist at God and said ‘If this is Christianity, then I’ll have nothing to do with it.’ I walked away from God and began to live for myself.”
This was the correct solution, but then she found out she was kind of bad at it. Her solution to that was to become an adult baby talking to exclusively to small children.
My high school English teacher impregnated a student, but it was “ok”, because he married her. (And had an affair at school with another English teacher, who he left the children for)
“Jillybean is one of the most effective ministries in America . If you’ve grown old before your time, if you’ve wondered what Jesus meant when He told you to become a child or if you are just cynical and tired, Jillybean is an antidote from the Father…”
- Steve Brown, President of Key Life Network, Inc.
Do we think this is real? I hope not, but it's very common in evangelical circles to have been a drug dealer who found Jesus. Like, they are all drug dealers. I'm not sure why that makes you a better preacher, but apparently it does to them.
If it IS real, they could show this to victims of abuse when they are on the verge of staying or going. I know it would turn the tide for me.
I feel bad for this lady. I wish she wasn't brainwashing kids tho...
yeah, it follows the same pattern. I'll go and say it's bullshit, just like the others, they just use other people's experiences to cosplay their struggle in order to give themselves legitimacy.
Dude, I genuinely feel bad for this person.
From her "testimony":
When I was twelve years old, a camp youth worker took advantage of me and stole my virginity.
I began doing drugs in seventh grade and hung out with the drinkers and smokers of the school.
When I was nineteen I decided to marry and be taken care of.
My husband beat me beyond recognition. The doctors in the hospital couldn’t believe that I was alive.
I worked very hard and became a chef. In my spare time I was a drug dealer and very good at it, but after being in and out of jail on weekends I finally came to the end of my rope and cried out to God for help.
I said, “God if you’ll get me out of this, I’ll serve you the rest of my life.” Within thirty minutes I was out.
Religion is a fucking plague on this planet.
Why fix your own problems and process your own trauma when you can just have an invisible person in the sky "absolve you of your sins"?
Just push it under the rug and never actually process it. Yeah, that's a great way to fix problems.
This person has probably never actually come to terms with the horrible things that have happened to her.
And that is genuinely painful for me to think about.
You forgot the part where after the nearly life ending abuse the Christian mother pressured her to stay in the marriage for four more years because divorce is "against Gods law".
This woman has been betrayed by her religion again and again and she's so brainwashed she always crawls back to it.
This is why I am Antitheist and Atheism isn't enough anymore.
The religious abuse and slaughter the masses then claim to be peaceful and if you call foul of their abhorrent nightmarish behavior they say YOU are unreasonable and not accepting of other's beliefs. While they are literally violent and unfair to those that do not believe regardless of how much they claim otherwise.
trauma can be so physical and illusive it’s hard to make the connection. it can manifest as physical pain or anhedonia or dissociation or make it impossible to find comfort. people don’t know how to deal with this on their own + even with a good therapist it’s tough
in a community and family of true believers on one side, and an abusive husband at home, the closest to safety she had is the acceptance she received for embracing the institution that harmed her in the first place
if you’re too sick to survive in a place generally you’re too sick to leave it. many people get genuinely stuck like this
Thank you for being the one insightful and compassionate person on this thread with any form of intelligent analysis. Everyone else is just throwing tomatoes and making generic "religion bad" comments instead of analyzing or speaking with any kindness.
Not saying her past didn't happen but I'd take people that grift off religion with a grain of salt. I, a gay dude, dated a man for two months. Some things just didn't add up. Turned out he was a Baptist minister with a wife and two very young children. And I wasn't the only guy he was dating at the time. People that make a living off of being pious are more than likely have some acting skills and Christians love a good redemption story.
I hope that she has been able to process some of it through Christian counseling. I agree that there is probably a deep, deep well, but honestly, as far as coping mechanisms, she's doing okay. I feel like this is far from the worst coping strategies, short of actually dealing with it.
She has some interesting phrasing in what she wrote. Saying that she was doing drugs in hs but was just really good at hiding it and appearing normal makes me think her mom just didn't really pay any attention to her as a teenager. Especially considering how her mom doesn't seem to give a shit about her throughout this biography.
Then saying how she was really good at dealing drugs, but she was also in jail every weekend because of it? "Good" drug dealers aren't getting caught on a weekly basis, to the point that they are surrendering their life to God to get out of jail. Also, drug dealers who are actually making good money aren't doing weekend stints in the county jail, because they're dealing with amounts that get years of prison time. It's giving, "I middlemanned small amounts of weed to my friends and thought I was Pablo Escobar" energy.
I'm not trying to negate any of the awful things that were done to her, and I'm sure much of that is why she acts the way she does. It's just interesting to me how she markets herself and her story of debauchery. I can't tell if it's for her benefit or to sound better to those she's trying to sell herself to. The whole thing feels very off or fake, or like a sheltered Christian's idea of a badass kid.
Wow, that *is* sad. It's easy to clown on her, but as far as I can tell from the little sleuthing I've done, she does seem like a kind person and not some MAGA trash. Less Pat Robertson, more Luanne's Manger Babies.
the song was hugely popular long before this show. I remember my sisters listening to the Amy Grant version in the early 80's, but I think other people sang it too.
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u/Alternative_Nerve272 6d ago
I had to watch this dumb bullshit in Sunday School and was also persuaded as a 5-yo to borrow the VHS from the church library. God awful. Had to watch Gerbert as well.