Maybe Fundie Sighting

[formerlyfundie]

I live in TN and see fundies ALL.THE.TIME. We have an Independent Fundamentalist Church about 3 miles from where we live, and there are numerous churches in my particular area, mostly some form of Baptist, so I run into them all the time. I agree with Aldi's being a hotbed for sightings, as well as downtown Nashville, fundies love the "good ole country feel" down there. The Southern Baptist Convention has a headquarters here, as well as the Free Will Baptists- that one is literally a mile from where I live. There is also an IBLP center in a nearby town, the one the Duggar girls featured last season when Jana had the infamous jewelry box incident speech, AND Gatlinburg is about 3 hours from here (which is one of my favorite places to go, we are actually going this May :D ) and if I thought Nashville was bad Gatlinburg is WORSE. My area is right outside Nashville and has a large Muslim population, even a new mosque (which the church beside it tried to "prayerfully" protest and they send people over there to evangelize :oops: :x ) so I see a lot of interesting religious dynamics out here.

[infooverload]

I reside in a suburb of Portland, OR so no real chance of fundie sightings. All though I do think there is a family that lives fairly close to me. I only know this because of my job and I was so tempted to drive out to their address on a nice day just to see gaggle of kids up close and personal.

[rezski44]

I live near Puyallup WA and have seen fundy families at the local WalMart. Even though the Greater Seattle area is rather liberal. I have also seen them in Ellensburg east of the mountains where my son lives.

[CrankyCatLady]

Oh, damn. :( How about near the Grand Canyon? We're thinking about driving over there at some point during our holiday.

That's at least a 12 hour drive, just so you know. Do-able, but not a day trip.

[Chibi Author]

Oh, please. ;) You guys want fundies, fundie-lites, and just plain crazy folk, religious or otherwise? Come to interior Alaska.

The church I grew up in (haven't been back in years; I finally realized that when my biggest pet peeve is the misuse of the word 'whore', I really don't fit in there anymore) was a far, far offshoot of the Mennonites, that was fairly progressive about the time my parents started going some 20 years ago, but in the past few years, has gotten much more fundy-lite.

One lady I know refused to take her kids anywhere near downtown, out of fear that they might see 'bad people' (AKA drunks). My mother's response was "who, the tourists?"

We do have at least one actual fundie church; most people there do dress somewhat stylishly, with long skirts, make-up, and no jeans to be found. It was a major blow when one of my old friends who goes there was happily telling me all about courtship, and how she wants to have her dad involved with her and her future husband's relationship, no kissing, etc. :( She was trying to make it sound as normal as possible, but when I asked her if she had another boyfriend yet (teasing her), and she said, "Shh! I don't want anyone to know that I used to be in a relationship!", and proceeding to explain her new courtship ideal, normalcy wasn't exactly what sprung to mind.

Sorry.

Seriously, though, it's not all gloom-and-doom here. There are bunches of Wiccans, several people I know of in plural relationships, lots of druggies, and sooo many Thai restaurants (it's amazing). And there are A LOT of people who wear skirts, not just the religious ones (warmth is a huge motivator, for one thing).

[LillyCat]

I just moved to the upstate South Carolina area a few months ago. Sounds like I need to do some people watching at Aldi!

[Joan of Snarc]

I was behind some fundies in line at the Birmingham (AL) airport over Christmas. Head coverings, homemade dresses, socks, and sneakers. It was about six young women and one young girl and no headships. The dresses were made out of the loudest, most obnoxious, attention-getting fabrics I have seen in a long time -- like neon floral patterns. All the headcoverings were exactly the same, sort of white lace things that really didn't cover much of their hair. One of them had a leather jacket on over the homemade loud dress with socks, sneakers, and lace headcovering! Really, I think they were just TRYING to stand out. They were successful.

[spinsterwv]

Kind of bummed. My household shops at Aldi a lot. I either see people from the local kinky groups or from work. Today was a lot of older ladies moving really slowly around the store. Strangely, I know several ex-fundies in the kinky group, but not any current ones.

[pookel]

I was behind some fundies in line at the Birmingham (AL) airport over Christmas. Head coverings, homemade dresses, socks, and sneakers. It was about six young women and one young girl and no headships. The dresses were made out of the loudest, most obnoxious, attention-getting fabrics I have seen in a long time -- like neon floral patterns. All the headcoverings were exactly the same, sort of white lace things that really didn't cover much of their hair. One of them had a leather jacket on over the homemade loud dress with socks, sneakers, and lace headcovering! Really, I think they were just TRYING to stand out. They were successful.

Sounds like they were following the letter of the law when it came to appropriate "modest" clothing for young women, while flouting the spirit of it as much as possible. Good for them.

[yetanothermeg]

Sounds like they were following the letter of the law when it came to appropriate "modest" clothing for young women, while flouting the spirit of it as much as possible. Good for them.

They sound like German Baptist Brethren, Dunker Brethren, or some kind of Mennonite. I've noticed on the blogs/websites of some of these groups that many women are switching to lace or polyester veil-type coverings for their hair. Also, they seem to wear seriously ugly clothes. Really large flower prints, dresses that look like they are made from really unfortunate tablecloths. And of course, the socks and sneakers. These groups differ from Gothard-fundies because they dress to be non-conforming to the world, but conforming to the rules of their particular church. So their church might have rules on hairstyles, the type of headcovering and the style of dress, but not the pattern on the fabric, so the women express their individuality that way. Gothard-fundies dress the way they do because they believe in "modesty" so as not to "tempt men".

[Joan of Snarc]

^ Interesting. The fabrics were just so much louder and brighter than anything the Seven Sisters, for example, would wear. And the leather jacket just really threw me. I never thought of it as a way of rebelling or expressing individuality -- I was just confused. If those women were rebelling, good for them!

[yetanothermeg]

^ Interesting. The fabrics were just so much louder and brighter than anything the Seven Sisters, for example, would wear. And the leather jacket just really threw me. I never thought of it as a way of rebelling or expressing individuality -- I was just confused. If those women were rebelling, good for them!

There used to be a blogring on Xanga that had a lot of teen and twenty-something unmarried women and they all looked like this. They shut down the blog ring a couple of years ago; I think their church made them (this was a German Baptist Brethern blogring). There also used to be a Dunkard Brethren youth site with youth retreat pictures from several consecutive years and I can't seem to find it now. I wanted to give you some links. Oh well.