What you find below the line was then. This is now. Since the blog is entirely in my hands at this point, it behooves me to point out some particulars. Things haven’t really changed all that much around here, except for the deed to the property being signed over in full. There are, however, some house rules:
- The first rule of I Survived Armstrongism is: NO PREACHING.
- The second rule of I Survived Armstrongism is: NO PREACHING.
Other than that, cuss up a storm, release whatever emotions you feel you need to release. Which brings me to the next rule: DO NOT, under any circumstances, make any attempt to invalidate or belittle, or otherwise piss all over, what someone says when they hit the keyboard and show the world a little bit of what it was like, being a child of the church.
That said, there have been some backhanded comments made elsewhere in recent days, giving the indication that this site exists purely out of anger. Maybe that was how it started, but that’s sure as hell not how it’s going to finish. Not on my watch. You can mouth positive platitudes, Biblical or newage, till the cows come home, but that isn’t a realistic reflection of the world. And it doesn’t do shit for telling the TRUTH of what it was like, growing up under Armstrongism.
This site is no longer about anger, and my posts have never been about anger, or fuelled by anger (despite what some might choose to think). That is a misconception on the part of the religious, who would like you to (mistakenly) believe that all atheists are amoral misanthropes. This site exists to prove that mistaken belief is not so.
The posts on this site are about justice, for all the lost souls of those who could not speak at the time, and perhaps cannot speak any longer. Justice, and closure, for one lost soul still trying to navigate its way through a universe it may never be completely familiar with.
Kilroy was here. We lived through that parallel universe, in a way that our progenitors and first-generation converts “called to the truth” will never, ever, hope to understand. But that’s OK. Because we’ve got each other. We know how it all went down, and we’re not going to tread softly on eggshells with that “Oh it wasn’t so bad after all,” bullshit. Because it was bad. It was bloody and it was hard and it was frightening and it was a very special limbo all on its own. It was our childhood. Any who would deny that, well, they’re reading the wrong blog.
Anger? No. It’s about turning up every rock and peering under every stone. It is about bringing the effects that church had on its most vulnerable members, into the light of day. For everyone to see.
Including ourselves.
This site is the ramblings of a survivor of Armstrongism – WCG, splinter groups, everything and anything I feel like talking about. Nothing more and nothing less.
I am a 33 year old computer engineer from Los Angeles. I spent many years in and under the WCG, in the Toledo, Ohio congregation, specifically. (You may remember me as Russell Miller, the immature, socially awkward kid who never quite fit in, even though he was trying very hard to).
Because I’m tired of all the rules, the comment policy is now as follows:
Your comments are mine. I can screw with them as much as I want. So can Aggie. If you’re not stupid, then we’ll probably let them through and have a nice conversation with you. If you are stupid, then you will probably be censored or mocked mercilessly.
And here’s the rub, we get to decide what stupid is. However, generally speaking: sympathizing with the WCG, any of its splinters, Armstrong, any abusive minister, etc., is stupid. Preaching is stupid. Testing us is stupid. Trolling is stupid. Basically, don’t piss us off. This blog has been around long enough that you likely have a general idea of what will do that. Just don’t do it and we’re cool. I think we’ve been fairly consistent, you’re not likely to be surprised and we’re not likely to be unfair.
Swearing is fine and even encouraged.
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