Real Life Fundie Encounters - Part 3

[HarryPotterFan]

9 hours ago, 19 cats and counting said:

In politics, it is common to ignore no soliciting signs.  (Some people don't and I won't get them in trouble for it-- but I hold the standard higher for paid canvassers or staffers than I do for volunteers).

In 8 years of politics, I've never had the police called on me.  The person that pissed me off the most was a JW saying that we had no business knocking on people's doors.  Pot meet kettle.

I just feel like it's kinda shitty to ignore those signs, and you could easily piss someone off and annoy them out of voting for you (which did happen with this candidate because of cold calls, haha).

And wow, seriously? If a JW said that to me I would have trouble containing myself from calling them out on it.

[19 cats and counting]

With regards to the signs.  We tell people to ignore them, but for private homes, they're still fairly rare (as in maybe 1 per walk packet) so it's more of an issue we get to if we face it.

It is a little different when the sign pertains to a neighborhood (apt complex, HOA community, etc).  Usually we just go in until we are asked to leave (this assumes the apartments have outdoor entrances--- buildings you have to be buzzed into are another ballgame).  If it really comes to it, we look for someone who lives in the neighborhood to work it.  

I've been in politics for 5+ years and every year it gets harder to contact voters.  Even though it is my specialty, I'm unsure of the future of it (caller ID, landlines becoming obsolete, people not answering the door, etc).  My mom randomly says hi to anyone who walks down the street and I personally find that strange.

As for the JW.  I was working and therefore had to act professional.  If I was off the clock (figure of speech as you are never off the clock on a campaign) I would have told her where to shove it and called the Kingdom Hall about her remarks.

[nastyhobbitses]

5 hours ago, HarryPotterFan said:

I just feel like it's kinda shitty to ignore those signs, and you could easily piss someone off and annoy them out of voting for you (which did happen with this candidate because of cold calls, haha).

And wow, seriously? If a JW said that to me I would have trouble containing myself from calling them out on it.

I'm as staunch a Democrat as they come, and there were times when the cold calling was so relentless that I just wanted to yell into the phone "If you call me again, I'm going to vote for Ted Cruz!" I didn't, of course, but guys, I gave you money and have only ever voted Democrat. Go annoy people who are way more on the fence than I am.

[Pammy]

I don't really understand why it's considered 'good strategy' for a candidate to have people annoy voters in her/his name. In my area they even use recorded robo-calls... Is there a more annoying form of telemarketing?

Sometimes I wonder if it's all reverse psychology: maybe they claim to be from the opposing candidate, and annoy to create bad sentiment. (Of course not; these things are regulated -- it's just that it's such a bad strategy!)

[FeministShrew]

Emerging from lurkdom to report I found out last night that my ex-husband went to school with Kelly Bates. According to my son his dad is helping organize the Spartan High reunion & was looking through his yearbooks. His wife ( a huge Bates leghumper) spotted Kelly, then nearly peed herself when he showed her that Kelly signed his yearbooks every year. He says he remembers being in school with her all the way from first grade. Since we went to all the same schools and he was two grades ahead of me, that means I went to school with her too. 
I have absolutely no memory of her, even though our schools were pretty small and I knew most people in the grades above me. Unfortunately I have no clue where my yearbooks are so I can't look her up. 

 

[Rubaiyat]

Reading these JDub encounters makes me remember my own, from over 10 years ago.  We were renting a house in a great blue-collar neighborhood in Texas, which came with a "No Soliciting" sign tacked to the front door by the owner.  We left it there, because door-to-door salespeople were an astonishingly persistent problem at the time.  

One morning, I was home alone with my toddler and brand newborn and heard a soft knock at the front door.  It was a very kind-faced duo of Jehovah's Witness women, who cooed at the baby and pointed to the sign on our door.  One of them said "we saw your sign and wanted to know if that applies to words of faith" or something along those lines.  I gave her my standard "we are very happy with our faith" line, she told me my children were beautiful and to have a lovely day.  We smiled at each other, they left, and we never had a return visit.  It kills me the more I find out about the cult aspects of JW, because that was my one and only door-to-door experience with them, and they couldn't possibly have been sweeter.  They even knocked softly in case the baby was sleeping (there was also a "please knock softly, we have a small baby" sign on the door.)  

We used to get LDS missionaries when my family lived in Okinawa when I was a tween.  It was ungodly hot and humid in the summer, and those poor young men always looked half-drowned in their own sweat when they rang the doorbell.  They liked us, because we were the only English-speaking family for several miles, and they could take a break from their Japanese for a bit.  My mom, who is a rockstar, would invite them in for ice-cold lemonade, snacks, and any conversation that did NOT involved the Book of Mormon.  Poor kids were so hot and exhausted they'd come around about once a week, and stay for a couple hours.  Every subsequent time they'd show up, she'd say "remember the rules?"  They'd smile, give her a "yes ma'am" and come on in to sit under the air conditioner and talk about hilarious things like how tomatoes at the market came individually packaged in wooden boxes and were $15 each, and that the good pet store sold giant rhinoceros beetles in hamster cages.  (we LOVED living in Japan)  If they were particularly good, she'd send them home with dinner.  

[19 cats and counting]

On 5/17/2016 at 7:22 AM, nastyhobbitses said:

I'm as staunch a Democrat as they come, and there were times when the cold calling was so relentless that I just wanted to yell into the phone "If you call me again, I'm going to vote for Ted Cruz!" I didn't, of course, but guys, I gave you money and have only ever voted Democrat. Go annoy people who are way more on the fence than I am.

I don't live in a swing district and don't get the calls.  I also do not have a landline.  

Have you volunteered before?  Especially towards the end, volunteer lists get so short the phone calls won't stop. 

As for giving money, until you max out, they're going to keep calling you.

I can give you the science of why on all of this, but I don't want to disclose info publicly, but will in a PM.

[Nashville92]

Prety sure I met a fundie a few months ago. I had to go to class for work and our teacher mentioned knowing a reality TV family, the Bates. He had known them since they only had Zach and had been around when they were filming because he had to sign a NDA. I also overheard him say his kids had gone to Alert although he described it as a wilderness/survival camp. He also mentioned his friend being on a Board of Directors that was being sued. I about spit out my drink. Over all I liked him as a teacher. He never brought up going to church with the Bates but I believe he might. I never put 2 and 2 together thinking he might be a fundie

[Swamptribe]

Was driving down the road and saw the "Prayer Van" the other day.  Big sign on the side instructing people to write their prayers on the side.  Also another big sign stating hat they were roving street preachers.  Forget their exact name.

[JesusCampSongs]

Living in Asheville, I encounter fundie street preachers on a regular basis. They like to come downtown, wave angry signs, and shout at all the heathens and sinners. They can be pretty obnoxious (especially since City Council allows amplification), but the amount of trolling that goes on is legendary. LGBT folks  love to get their pictures taken while making out in front of the street preachers, and the heckling can be pretty amazing, as well. 

[rosethorne]

Sitting in the airport, waiting on a plane.

A woman walks by in a purple plaid prairie dress and simple black head scarf. 

She's got salt and pepper hair, so I'm assuming the boy/man she's sitting with is her son. He's late teen to early twenties and he's sitting at the charging station, charging a couple cell phones and reading a daily devotional book!

 

Not something normally seen in our town!

 

They're on my flight, so they're heading to a place where that dress style is less noteworthy, but it makes me wonder what in the heck they were doing here!

[Angelic83]

17 hours ago, rosethorne said:

Sitting in the airport, waiting on a plane.

A woman walks by in a purple plaid prairie dress and simple black head scarf. 

She's got salt and pepper hair, so I'm assuming the boy/man she's sitting with is her son. He's late teen to early twenties and he's sitting at the charging station, charging a couple cell phones and reading a daily devotional book!

 

Not something normally seen in our town!

 

They're on my flight, so they're heading to a place where that dress style is less noteworthy, but it makes me wonder what in the heck they were doing here!

Maybe she is Mennonite or something like that. They dress simply but have been known to embrace a little technology

[Granwych]

On ‎5‎/‎22‎/‎2016 at 11:21 AM, Swamptribe said:

Was driving down the road and saw the "Prayer Van" the other day.  Big sign on the side instructing people to write their prayers on the side.  Also another big sign stating hat they were roving street preachers.  Forget their exact name.

Haislip, perhaps?  Any ukulele music wafting from within?

[Nashville92]

On Sunday, May 22, 2016 at 11:16 AM, JesusCampSongs said:

LivDowin Asheville, I encounter fundie street preachers on a reg ular basis. They like to come downtown, wsaid ve angry signs, and shout at all the heathens and sinners.  They can be pretty obnoxious (especially since City Council allows amplification), but the amount of trolling that goes on is legendary. LGBT folks  love to get their pictures taken while making out in front of the street preachers, and the heckling can be pretty amazing, as well. 

I went to the NHL All-Star festivities in Nashville back in January. The whole downtown area was crowded. There was a man standing on a pole outside Bridgestone Arena on a microphone/intercom shouting about people going to hell. One lady tried to hand me a pamphlet and i said no thanks she just walked on. Hockey fans were paying him no attention. There were a few others with him. Wonder if its some fundie I hear of. They all seemed to be in their 20's to 30's

[Tim-Tom Biblethumper]

These people seem to have plenty of time on their hands.  I bet they're the same people who bitch about the weekday Trump protesters not having jobs.  

[MarblesMom]

Tonight must have been Mennonite Nite at a local pizza place. 

The young couple (on a date, I am assuming - don't think they were married) were sitting at the table next to us (two middle aged non-Menno couples).  The couple  made no effort to stop staring at us, and basically taking in every word of our conversation.  He was dressed normally, plaid shirt, jeans and boots; she had on a calico plain dress and a black cap (as did every other Menno female in the place.)

What I found so interesting with all the snark and observation *we* do of the Fundies on our planet, was that tonight the tables were obviously turned -- as they were inspecting US. 

I don't think they stopped staring and eavesdropping the entire time they were seated next to us.  From three feet away, it was hard to avoid.  Snort.

 

 

[Eternalbluepearl]

My fiance and I (who are getting married in one week!) Were pulling out of the grocery store parking lot yesterday when my fiance exclaimed "hey, look! Fundies!" Sure enough there was a large white van with 8 or so kids. The girls in skirts, the boys in khakis. The mother was in a demim skirt and a white head covering loading huge amounts of food into the van. There was a dad with a beard in khakis. The van said "Ave Maria" in big black letters and had the choose life license plate. My first real fundie family sighting.

[EmainMacha]

2 hours ago, Eternalbluepearl said:

The van said "Ave Maria" in big black letters and had the choose life license plate. My first real fundie family sighting.

Do denominations other than Catholics say 'Ave Maria'? I wonder could they be 'duggaresque' Catholics. 

Congrats on the impending nuptials. Hope you have a great day. 

 

 

[PennySycamore]

@Eternalbluepearl's post reminded me that I saw a van last night when we were out to eat with "Pray the Rosary" on the rear window.  I can't recall if they had one of those stick figure families with eleventy kids, too, though.

[Wenny]

I have a couple reports. 

Our town was hit by a bad storm and lots of flood damage. Someone posted on facebook blamed to Target. They had a review of the Pearls book :/ 

A co-worker pings my fundar. They met and dated for 9 months, married and are expecting the first. His wife is one of 13 and they kept the 5 youngest kids, they referred to them as "littles" 

[Hera]

In 2016, do people really change their minds about anything/buy what someone is selling because they get a cold call or a random knock on the door?  Thankfully, I live in a condo-type set up where you cannot get to my front door from the street without a key, so I am spared the random door knocks, but before I moved here, I used to get the JW all the time. And I never, ever answered the door because I don't want to deal with someone who is selling me something while I'm in the middle of my day doing whatever else I need to be doing.  As for the political donation calls, I get them all the time. I don't answer anymore.  And, even if I did, I wouldn't donate over the phone anyway.  I truly find email to be a much more effective means to get me to donate, to pay attention, to look at something, whatever.  Twitter, too.  Any form of electronic media, really.  If it has a brief message that catches my eye and/or a link, I'll probably read it.  But, I'm going to get to reading it, on my own time, when it's convenient for me and then donate if I choose through an internet format that I trust.  Even daily emails don't bother me.  They're more like a reminder that I haven't gotten to what I meant to do yet.  As for the religious conversion, a stranger isn't going to convert me in a quick conversation, phone call, email, etc. and it's creepy when they try.

[snowflake]

On 5/18/2016 at 6:42 PM, Rubaiyat said:

Reading these JDub encounters makes me remember my own, from over 10 years ago.  We were renting a house in a great blue-collar neighborhood in Texas, which came with a "No Soliciting" sign tacked to the front door by the owner.  We left it there, because door-to-door salespeople were an astonishingly persistent problem at the time.  

One morning, I was home alone with my toddler and brand newborn and heard a soft knock at the front door.  It was a very kind-faced duo of Jehovah's Witness women, who cooed at the baby and pointed to the sign on our door.  One of them said "we saw your sign and wanted to know if that applies to words of faith" or something along those lines.  I gave her my standard "we are very happy with our faith" line, she told me my children were beautiful and to have a lovely day.  We smiled at each other, they left, and we never had a return visit.  It kills me the more I find out about the cult aspects of JW, because that was my one and only door-to-door experience with them, and they couldn't possibly have been sweeter.  They even knocked softly in case the baby was sleeping (there was also a "please knock softly, we have a small baby" sign on the door.) 

I seem to only get visits from the JW people, or various other faith groups, when I'm home alone with my child. I don't let them come in and I always hate that I have to make up some lie so I can jet away to another part of the house so they'll go away.

[Suz8710]

@snowflake you are too kind in even opening the door. I never do, but probably should at some point. I'm usually home by myself when they come and in general prefer not to open the door for anyone unless someone's home with me.

[Stickboi]

There's a lot of old order Mennonites in my area(Southern ontario) I interact with them on a daily basis; it's completely normal here. 

Today, I went to a conservation area with my family. I decided to walk around alone and explore. I came upon a large Old Order family; probably around 15 people. It was beautiful out so I dont blame them for wanting to be outside. Later on, when I was going down to the lake to get my kayak, I fell and landed on my ass. A lot of people saw, including 6 of the kids. 

Edited June 20, 2016 by Stickboi
Missed a sentence

[Tim-Tom Biblethumper]

2 hours ago, Stickboi said:

Later on, when I was going down to the lake to get my kayak, I fell and landed on my ass. A lot of people saw, including 6 of the kids. 

Ouch!  Did anyone come to your aid?