Is that why you haven't answered the question about your arranged 5th century cult wedding?
. For a moment I thought you just chose not to and we were making progress.
***Long post! Story time for the sundowners!!***Dovey Lore****Enjoy! Or not!
Pentecostals dont do "arranged" marriages persay but as soon as you hit 18 and start "courting" it happens VERY fast and there is A LOT of manipulation involved.
What 19 year old WANTS to get married, and immediately start having babies? Do you think that was something i WANTED? All my friends get to go off to university and im gonna go squirt out future Christain warriors? No one WANTS that. But you are taught from childhood that "finding a husband" should be your entire life goal.
NO one....absolutely NO one understands the depths of guilt and fear involved. Even those of you, H Gay who bitch and whine about religion "controling" people with guilt and fear.....YOU mean sexual guilt. You dont like anyone making you feel bad for jerking it or fornicating or sucking off the pool boy at the senoir center. You still have no idea.
Im far from the only person to break away from a fundamentalist cult. I have some very dear friends i have met who have been through similar things and much much worse. I "rebelled" young. I was always pretty spicey. I was frequently called "mouthy". A "trouble maker". All for asking questions or sharing observations. I used to take that to heart.
Fun fact about the Pentecostal church, if you are married? There is no such thing as rape. Because your husband has "rights" to your body. It is a SIN to "deny" your husband. He can absolutely rape you and the church will literally talk to you about how sometimes we have to just "do what God wants" instead of what we want and we have to forgive our husbands like Christ forgives us.
In fact when i ran away from home at 14, and got attacked and raped, my church took the position that it was punishment for being a rebellious child and i should thank the Lord for just "scaring" me enough to make me stay home and not letting me get murdered. I never would have gotten the proper diagnosis or treatment for ptsd had the state not removed me from my family for two years. Because the church thinks mental illnessed are demonic possession. No im not kidding.
By the time i was 25 i had been divorced twice, had two little GIRLS that i fought in court and got full custody of....which cost me almost ALL the money i had, i took what i had left, packed my car and drove to the other side of the country ...ALONE with my babies...specifically to get away from my family and church community. I stayed gone until my great aunt passed away.
I do not have contact with any of my extended family to this day. I kinda have very light contact with a cousin i grew up with...but i was pretty well ostracized ages ago. No one has ever seen me talking about seeing my own extended family members on holidays or any of that....thats because im the devil and they wont talk to me. I dont even try. No love is lost there.
I have absolutely ZERO issue discussing any of this. I have had many many conversations about it. I have even spoke to audiences of women about abuse, survival and recovery.
Like i get it. Neither of you were raised religious like i was. Most people were not. So when you hear stories like this its dumbfounding. You think of marriage as two people who have fallen in love and have chosen to take vows and spend their life together. In the church the "greco roman myth of the one" and being "in love" are secular views. Worldly views of marriage. Marriage is a covenant with God in which a woman submits to her husband as symbolic of us submitting to Christ and its to have children.
It isnt the same views or motivations. You dont marry because you WANT to. You marry because God wants you too. Same with having crotch goblins. I followed the Duggars very closesly because their whole thing is A LOT like how i was raised (their beliefs).
Does that answer your questions adequately?
Ive shared the story of my first period a few times. How i was always told about my vagina to "just wash that. Dont monkey with it" and one day....i monkeyed with it. I looked at it with a mirror. I really checked that thing out, too. Then..i started my first period two days later and since i had NO idea what a period was, i was hysterical. I thought God was punishing me for monkeying with it. I was NINE. I was screaming and apologizing and confessing my horrible sin of looking at my own body.
And all my grandma did was help me clean up....give me pads....and tell me its okay and this will happen every month now. When i went to school the following Monday? The pastor said "I heard you became a woman this week! Praise God!" ....i....was...NINE.
I hope if you read all this, you are realizing that attempting to shame me is a VERY useless endeavor. I already know im going to hell. Im at peace with it. I went ahead and chose eternal hellfire over "satisfying" my exs so im not sure what you are expecting with that.