we’ve decided to close down the blog
Phew. After nearly five and a half years, I can’t believe I am actually writing this post. But here it is. For the past few months, we’d been discussing officially closing the Keeping Up With Fundies (KUWF) inbox for good. The combination of the increasingly busy lives of the admins with Josh’s conviction for possession of CSAM has led each member of the admin team separately to realize that it was time to close the inbox one last time.
So, here it is. We’re going to permanently close the inbox on April 17th, in the evening. After that point, we won’t be posting on this blog any longer. This is slightly anti-climatic, due to the lack of posts recently, but we decided we still wanted to take a moment to close this down rather than simply fading away quietly.
To be clear, though, we aren’t deleting the blog, or the blogspot or anything. We’re going to leave it all up. But there won’t be any new posts and you will no longer be able to send in asks.
Ok, end of announcement. I’m going to take a second just to share my own thoughts.
In some ways, this is bittersweet. This blog really has meant a lot to me over the years - especially due to the connections I’ve made with the other admins and other bloggers here on tumblr. The nights spent chatting on the discord, waiting for an announcement. The polls I worked hard on to entertain people throughout the early pandemic. Typing up recaps in between law school classes. Those early days on Skype with Annie, talking through how we wanted the blog to look. I have some really fond memories of my time as an admin.
However, ultimately, this decision feels very right. First, my life has changed pretty drastically. I was an undergrad when I joined the blog, and now I’m a practicing lawyer. And second, things for the fundies have also changed very drastically. I feel like 2016, when I joined the blog, felt like the beginning of the fundie influencer era with Jinger’s wedding, and now they’ve all got a vitamin or hair tool to sell you. The shows have come and gone. And Josh’s conviction has made it really difficult at times to follow these families. It is time to shut this door.
So, thank you for following along with us throughout the years. Even though it feels strange to say given the subject matter, this blog really truly was something special for a while there.
Below, each admin is going to share their own little piece about their time on the blog. Mary was unable to write an addition to this post, but sends her best wishes to all going forward. And if you’re looking for me, I’ll still be hanging out on tumblr at @keepingupwitht. But my season of life with KUWF is coming to an end, and it was really neat.
Thank you to the whole Fundie Tumblr community - collectively we’ve created a really cool place online where we can make friends while safely and kindly deconstruct toxic belief systems around us, be it in our own lives or in our media outlets. That’s super super cool. Thank you for letting me be part of that over the last few years, but most of all, thank you for being my friend. As the last year has unfolded with news from the Duggar (and the Bates) family, I’ve felt a sense of needing space to step out having to watch them so closely. To be able to shift my internal energy, as those families show themselves as a darker force.
I’ve been spending my time doing environmental work, nurturing my creativity, volunteering, and rescuing hospice shelter cats - all callings I need to follow.
I’ll be around here and there on my personal fundie blog @fundietrash and scrolling through fundie news every so often, but I’ll always be grateful for this super unique and wonderful experience ❤️
I am so thankful to have been a part of KUWF and to have worked with my wonderful co-admins. I’m thankful to the Fundie Tumblr community for the insightful discussions, mutual support, and compassion we’ve maintained for people in spiritually ab*sive situations. In the time that I’ve been a part of this blog, I’ve graduated from college and began a lifelong journey of land stewardship and farming. Social commentary on religious fundamentalism will always remain a part of my life, and I will surely carry my experiences from this blog with me. My mom used to lurk in Fundie discourse communities. She has since passed, so I’ve also been thankful to feel close to her through this process.
Many of us know the harms of religious extremism and were compelled to discuss these groups and families because of it. As the darker aspects of the families became more apparent, it became more difficult to analyze the reality of their lives and their actions. The hypocrisy, political extremism and ab*se became too dark to comfortably discuss.
There is hope for the children and adults who are stuck in spiritually ab*sive situations, and there is hope for all of us who have stumbled across this blog during our own religious deconstructions. I hope that this community and the relic of this blog will remain a safe space for people seeking solace in exvangelicalism. I will be around on my personal blog @echoesofthequiver and will remain a part of this community, although in a different capacity. Thank you everyone.
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