Do you know any fundies in real life?

[alphaeta08]

My dad's sister, her husband, and their three kids are fundie Catholics. They only go to the Latin mass, no TV, homeschool, skirts only on my aunt and 12-year-old female cousin, no birth control (My grandma told me they've always tryied for more kids, but they haven't had any luck. Thanks for the TMI, Grandma.). They hang out with the rest of the family, who are mostly regular Catholic, but there's a disconnect, especially with my aunt. My uncle will hang out with the guys and talk about normal stuff, and the cousins all get along (the kids are 15, 13, and 12), but my aunt is just really into it all, which is ironic, since she used to be liberal and hippie-ish until her first child was born. I've always wondered what happened there...

All I know is, no one wants her to get their name in the Christmas gift exchange because that means religious books, CD's, or jewelry! :lol:

[lilwriter85]

I grew up near a fundie lite family and I have meet fundies through the years in the town I grew up in and I have met fundies through a couple of past jobs.

[slh12280]

Don't know if this woman is a fundie per say but her son does go to Pensacola Christian College. She told me once that Obama was a muslim. She really is nice though.

[ricky_ticky]

If you count Jehovah Witnesses as fundies, then yes. It's a tightly controlled, rigid group. You're watched very closely and if you go against the "rules" of the JWs, you will be punished by being shunned or hounded by other members. That's part of why I eventually quit. I was being hounded by phone calls, visits, letters and texts. They were saying that I wasn't attending enough meeting and that I should be handing out the JW magazines door-to-door. I finally had to quit by sending a text message because I knew if I tried to tell them in person or over the phone, they would drown me out with excuses as to why I'm wrong and I should stay.

Wow, I was just struck by the truth of this and my own experience. My ex-husband once volunteered to help redesign the interior of one of the local JW Kingdom Halls. He met with the elders a couple of times and then presented them with his ideas. They liked all of the plans and designs -- except for the colors. They thought that all of the options were too "feminine." There was some back and forth for a few months until finally ex-h told them he had done all he could do and they needed to make their decisions and take it from there. For over two years we were hounded by the Jehovah Witnesses calling and calling to try to get ex-h to do something about the Kingdom Hall. FINALLY I told the man, as tactfully and directly as I could to stop calling. I literally had to spell out, "Ex-h is not going to do anything more for you." "Ex-h is not going to talk to you on the phone or return your calls." "Please stop calling here." At the end of the call the man thanked me for telling him all of that.

Sheesh! It sure took a big hammer to knock some sense into them.

[slickcat79]

Now the other daughter has gone off the deep end. She is the total Queen Bee in her household. Her meek husband is the breadwinner while she sits on her butt all day tending to the newest baby. They have 8 kids the last time I heard. The oldest is somewhere around 14 now. He and the other older boys do all of the household chores because the only girl is the second youngest. The poor kid cooks and cleans while she directs. We sometimes wonder what would've happened if the Duggars didn't have the oldest duaghters. I think this would be it!

Ha, that sounds like my co-worker's family, except I'm not sure if his wife is quite the Queen Bee type. They just had their 8th a few weeks ago, and they identify as QF. I think they are some flavor of Baptist.

The oldest is about 12, and only #4 and #8 are girls so far. I doubt the older boys do much in the way of housework, since I'm pretty sure they should be evaluated for ADHD at the very least. They are the type to need way more structure and guidance (plus straight-up attention) than they are getting in that house. They are homeschooled as well. Everyone finds this guy extremely frustrating to work with because all of his demands at home mean that his work is consistently last-minute. It really is an example of what happens if you insist on having more kids than you can handle, and your oldest are not inclined to cover all your work for you.

[HowRude]

Surprisingly I do, my best friend had a choir teacher in middle school who had about 8 kids at least back then, his oldest daughter was 20 years old which was shocked us because she looked and dressed like she was our age 12. We would try to talk to them and they would know nothing about what we were talking about. The kids would keep to themselves and hang out with each other and they used the buddy system.None of the girls wore pants as well only long ankle length skirts. They also lived on a farm at least one hour away but came down here because they love to sing so much. Last year my friend ran into them doing a performance turns out they have had more kids since then and their oldest was SAHD this was about 8 years ago.

[batwing]

Yep. My son was babysat by one until I realized how much they were screwing up their own kids and hightailed it out of there. She used to tease her 5 & 7 year olds for wetting the bed, but didn't bother to take them to a doctor or anything :roll: Then there was the fact that her mother hit hard times and had to move in with them, so she and her mother shared the king sized bed in the master bedroom and her husband slept on the sleeper sofa in the living room :? (her husband was totally creepy, but still... you're going to sleep with your mom instead of your husband?) The kids were homeschooled and could never test up to grade level, probably because she sat them around the dining room table (yes, SOTDRT) with their worksheets for all of an hour a day and expected them to figure it out on their own... even the kindergartner. Sometimes they would be doing spelling worksheets when I'd pick up my son and she'd try to get me to make fun of her children's spelling mistakes with her-- nevermind that their spelling problems were due to her "teaching". Truly a vile human being.

The catalyst was when I went to pick up my 18 month old son one day and some other crunchy permed, denim skirt wearer was watching him. Never met the lady, had no idea who she was. When I confronted the babysitter she said that it was OK because she was from her church. Um. No.

I also had a very good fundie friend until she got married and was forbidden to work or socialize with heathens by her youth pastor husband. I went to her wedding but had to beg to be invited to her baby shower, where she then didn't talk to me and her frumper friends gave me glares of disapproval.

[maybeizfundie]

Well, yeah. All along the spectrum of fundie-ness. Some great, some awful.

[CanadianHippie]

There are two people I've met that I can be sure are Fundies, one was a friend until she found out I was Agnostic, then she ditched me. The other was a young woman who I got into an abortion debate with me and she claimed that a D&C shouldn't be done for incomplete miscarriages because "it was still an abortion!" I don't think she actually understood what abortion means.

[luv2cheer717]

I currently know several fundie families since we attend a fundie/fundie-lite church. All of the families we know, including our pastor's family, wear pants (females), watch tv, wear swimsuits/go swimming and dont have an absurd amount of kids. Other than that we have a fundie church in the city that doesnt allow women to cut their hair, men dont have facial hair, there is no practice of birth control at all, women dont wear pants and skirts are almost always ankle length, and they dont do tv or mainstream music. I see the women at Walmart. Ironically, the church and their camp/retreat facilities are located right across the street from the high school in the county with the largest in-house daycare.

I also did know of an ATI Royalty family. I dont actually know the family personally, but the Staddons used to live in my Grandma's neighborhood and you could see their house from hers. The kids used to come help my grandma out with yard work when my grandfather was ill and I remember some of them coming and jumping on the trampoline when it was nice out. They used to invite my grandparents to all kinds of ATI/IBLP seminars, which my grandparents never attended. The family attended a local Southern Baptist Church here in the city but later moved on to home church. They invited my grandma to come worship with them several times but she always politely turned them down. She gets a family newsletter from them each year. Its kinda creepy. They moved away while I was in high school.

The most interaction I had with them was when I was young (maybe 9 or 10) and attended a "Character Camp" they held in the neighborhood. We were staying with my Aunt for a few weeks in the summer (she lived 2 blocks from my grandma and practically worshiped the Staddons) and she took us. I don't remember much from it but I remember playing with Esther on the playground (it was held at the neighborhood park) and thinking how strange she seemed in comparison with other children I knew. Other than that, we may have played on the trampoline with them or been there when the older ones helped with yard work but I dont remember much.

My grandma often talked with Donna and she always said she was really nice but very strange. The kids were always polite to my grandparents though. I'll have to pick her brain about them next time I see her.

[tehgoobster]

I don't remember much from it but I remember playing with Esther on the playground (it was held at the neighborhood park) and thinking how strange she seemed in comparison with other children I knew. Other than that, we may have played on the trampoline with them or been there when the older ones helped with yard work but I dont remember much.

My grandma often talked with Donna and she always said she was really nice but very strange. The kids were always polite to my grandparents though. I'll have to pick her brain about them next time I see her.

Oooh, very interesting! How were they strange? Were they kind of aloof?

[daharyn]

Ooh, this is exactly how I got into all this. When I was young my family used to be friends with what I would call a fundie-lite family. Their kids wear modern clothes, and some do sports, but they were all homeschooled, and the older daughters were married off young through courtship. And they had 11 kids, so... I'm pretty sure birth control wasn't in the picture!

They broke things off with my family when my parents split up. But they all have blogs, so I recently "rediscovered" them, & read for a while... it led to a growing fascination in all things fundie! ;)

[luv2cheer717]

Oooh, very interesting! How were they strange? Were they kind of aloof?

The only one I ever remember having any significant interaction with was Esther and at the time I just remember her being out of sync with what kids our age (we're the same age) were interested in. She never had been to the movies (or seen any of the movies I had seen) nor had she been to the local skating rink (it was a big deal at the time). She just seemed very sheltered.

As for the rest of the family, I would really have to ask my grandma as she seemed to have known them well enough to talk when they saw each other, although I wouldn't go far as to say they were friends.

[Lillian]

I don't think I've ever met anyone close to being fundie. It sounds strange but I don't think I've met many religious people who aren't Catholic at all. I think that's what started my fascination with the Duggars, and thus my education of the broad range of Christianity and other religions.

[teddybear]

I've known several Catholic fundies and have relatives who used to be fundies of the more evangelical sort. The Catholic fundies I've known all had lots of kids, homeschooled and tended to belong to right wing Catholic offshoot groups.

[Patsy]

I currently know several fundie families since we attend a fundie/fundie-lite church. All of the families we know, including our pastor's family, wear pants (females), watch tv, wear swimsuits/go swimming and dont have an absurd amount of kids.

Mm, I think the extreme end of extremity displayed at this forum skews our perceptions a bit - you sure don't have to be ATI to be fundamentalist.

Other than that we have a fundie church in the city that doesnt allow women to cut their hair, men dont have facial hair, there is no practice of birth control at all, women dont wear pants and skirts are almost always ankle length, and they dont do tv or mainstream music. I see the women at Walmart. Ironically, the church and their camp/retreat facilities are located right across the street from the high school in the county with the largest in-house daycare.

I love that schools have daycare to help mothers finish their education. Ironic that a lot of fundies would be infuriated about it - the teen mothers not being punished for their sin, while their own teenaged daughters ARE being punished (by having to provide full-time care) for... um, being born into the family they were born into.

[Rainbowcolor]

Yes, I know a bunch.

[grateful1230]

Hello! loooong time lurker here, simply because I've always found everyone else to be funnier than I could hope to be. Also, normally I find that someone's already pointed out the humor I wanted to share :)

I'm another FJer from NC (we're on the coast here, specifically on a little known island!) originally from the bible belt thumpin SC. And yes indeed I have seen more than I'd have ever preferred to of fundies. My family was Catholic and then Southern Baptist (another long story for another post) I'm raising my three sons (my son, two nephews I adopted a long time ago) with my wife, yes we're gay (GASP). Our family has chosen to be "non-demonitional" and STILL we see fundies!

I actually logged on this morning we saw a LARGE family of girls and boys in swimsuits that my 9 year olds called "worse than those silly lacy long dresses at church". I got pictures on my phone to share with you all and now I'm in search of the cord to upload them! (no, I'm not obsessed...)

Thank you all for the years of amusement I enjoy daily here. I'll be signing back in again to join in discussion. You all brighten my day many times!

[Bookworm]

Hi grateful1230, nice to meet you! I also lurk a lot because other people say things better than I can :) Glad you finally signed up.

[Austin]

Welcome, grateful1230! I am really looking forward to reading your story and perspective!

[Olivia]

Oh yes, lots.

Like my mom.

[QueenMother]

We used to live down the street from a fundie family with 13 children in a 2 bedroom, 1 bath home. They drove the neighborhood crazy with their cars--they collected run down automobiles and fixed them up and had them parked up and down our street. Then they'd let the kids out at 6am to jump and play on the trampoline. The wouldn't speak to any of us, in fact they looked their noses down at us.

The fundie girl working at my Starbucks is super friendly, as her her mother and siblings who come in all the time. She is also attending community college. A very nice young woman.

[forever ago]

Hello! loooong time lurker here, simply because I've always found everyone else to be funnier than I could hope to be. Also, normally I find that someone's already pointed out the humor I wanted to share :)

I'm another FJer from NC (we're on the coast here, specifically on a little known island!) originally from the bible belt thumpin SC. And yes indeed I have seen more than I'd have ever preferred to of fundies. My family was Catholic and then Southern Baptist (another long story for another post) I'm raising my three sons (my son, two nephews I adopted a long time ago) with my wife, yes we're gay (GASP). Our family has chosen to be "non-demonitional" and STILL we see fundies!

I actually logged on this morning we saw a LARGE family of girls and boys in swimsuits that my 9 year olds called "worse than those silly lacy long dresses at church". I got pictures on my phone to share with you all and now I'm in search of the cord to upload them! (no, I'm not obsessed...)

Thank you all for the years of amusement I enjoy daily here. I'll be signing back in again to join in discussion. You all brighten my day many times!

Coastal NC, eh? I'm from around there! I don't see a lot of fundies, but I'm near the Virginia border and spend a lot of my time in Virginia. I have seen a few fundies every once in a while here in NC, though not very many. Now I'm curious as to what island you live on so I can go fundie-watching.