Close Encounters of the Fundie Kind

[It'sFunToRun]

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We did foot washing at the Methodist Church camp I attended in the mid 90's. I tend to be a very private person and also squeamish so this was not my favorite camp activity. I found it creepy, not meaningful.

A few years later when my sister attended camp there they instituted a dress code of one-piece swimming suits for the girls.

I don't get that. You still see buttcheeks in a one piece, you just don't see belly which isn't a private part.

[Snarkle]

Snarkle, my friend from Girl Scout days who is now into American Heritage Girls is also Wisconsin Synod. But she is a public university grad, has her oldest daughter in public university now, and wears pants and sports cleavage in photos.

The AMG leaders I know are in the South. And one of my public university assigned roommate and several other college friends were raised Wisconsin Synod (WS) and went to WS schools, but wore shorts and bikinis and the like. They're more fundie-lite or simply conservative - my roommate, for example, was saving herself for marriage, had a best friend training to be a WS teacher at a special WS college, and went to church, but she also got a tattoo on her ankle and checked out guys. I was the heathen lapsed-ELCA-Lutheran with a long-distance Catholic boyfriend. My aunt and uncle are also WS and are the only people who send me Christmas cards with bible verses on them.

[Tiger Lily]

About 10 years ago, my husband and I met a family with five children. They were very kind and sincere yet different. We ran into them a couple years later and they had one more child with them. My youngest (of three) was a baby at the time and the wife and I developed something of a friendship by email. When I spoke of my husband's vasectomy, she inquired why we did that. You see, they believed in unlimited "blessings." She even told me that her uterus belonged to her husband and to God. Okaaay ... so we didn't hear from them in several years. I briefly spoke with her last year and discovered that the couple now has nine children!

I once thought this woman was a kind person and wonderful mother until she told me that if any of her children were gay, they'd have to leave the home so they wouldn't negatively influence the other children. IOW, the gay child would be shunned. I was stunned by this and asked her if she'd really turn her back on her own child. To that she responded that they were raised better and knew better. Floored is all I can say to that. Oh, and she once told me that she had no educational plans for her oldest daughter when she finished homeschool yet the son would continue on with his education (his father and his father's family are all well educated). When I inquired why since it's always useful to have an education or some skill, the woman told me the daughter would become a mother so there was no need and if her husband ever died, she could always work in a florist shop or something. SMH!

Another fundie family I met through friends. The mom was nice and the dad was very judgmental. They had about six kids. The man walked right up to my husband and I and asked us if we homeschooled. When we said no, he gave us the evil eye. Thing is, this man is a teacher in the public school system! * eye roll*

[Coco]

Oh, and she once told me that she had no educational plans for her oldest daughter when she finished homeschool yet the son would continue on with his education (his father and his father's family are all well educated). When I inquired why since it's always useful to have an education or some skill, the woman told me the daughter would become a mother so there was no need and if her husband ever died, she could always work in a florist shop or something. SMH!

Haha! So to be consistent they'd better be giving their well-educated sons tips on how to homeschool their own kids someday. Since they'll probably marry SOTDRT girls like their sister, right? The disconnect that makes those parents reluctant to give their own daughter a higher education that she could pass on or use to support herself is just inexcusable. :angry-banghead:

[NotALoserLikeYou]

The whole family got to experience a fundie encounter today. We were wandering Sam's Club (yes, I know, I feel like a complete ahole for going there, but I also have a mortgage and kids to feed) and I saw the top of some serious hair. Then I saw the rest. Complete, full-on FLDS wave with the tucked-in french braid. Full FLDS dresses. They appeared to be a mother with two teenage daughters. I seriously thought we were being pranked or they were filming some sort of reality show because they were the very first FLDS I have seen in our area of the country. But, no cameras that I could see. There are some polygamists around, but they're NEVER in the traditional FLDS dress. Mennonite families and other fundies frequent our Sam's Club, but FLDS sightings are a whole new level.

Mind if I ask what state this is? FLDS have communes in NV, ND, OK, and other places. It's fascinating. (they're my pet fundies)

[BeaSnarky]

I just had a young fundie male show up at the door wanting to please lead me to Christ and take his literature. I told him I had plenty of Christian literature and a church. Her persisted. I told him I'd pray for him and made the Orthodox sign of the cross. He couldn't flee fast enough and almost fell off the porch. :) I'll have to do that first next time.

When we were first living together, my then boyfriend, now husband saw the local JW's coming up the driveway. He looked at me, and said, "Watch this..." Then he grabbed the dog and got her all wound up (she was a 120 pound lab/shepherd mix who like to wrestle) and then messed up his hair, got this crazy look on his face, and answered the door with the dog in playbow. Then he looked at the women and said, "Satan told me you were coming today..."

They took one look at him, and one look at my crazy dog (who wouldn't hurt a fly) and turned right around.

I was hiding in the hallway, laughing so hard I nearly wet my pants.

[paganhomeschooler]

Your daughters do Dress Revue? I had a good friend who did that and she was good at it, too. I just did Dog Care and Training. I used to like going to see the Junior Beef Show at the Upstate SC Fair.

ETA: There's a woman cashier at our local Target that always makes me think of Teri Maxwell. The big difference is that this woman looks happy and not repressed at all. I bet she even drinks Pepsi!

Yup, this was her first year! I am so proud of her. She did a great job. She did Clothes for Middle School, a cute white princess waist dress with fuschia flowers that are on vertical vines on the skirt and scattered petals on the bodice. It's kind of hard to explain, but we saw the fabric, and it was just perfect!! She's hoping to enter 2 projects next year. She got runner up for State Fair.

[PennySycamore]

That is so cool, paganhomeschooler! Tell her congratulations from an old 4-H er!

[ariel9]

So I was driving into class (college campus) today when I saw a group full of young women wearing long skirts. They looked like typical fundies . Orientation was going on so I wondered why would they let their future homemaker go to a secular institution. I remember that this school is largely for commuters and go about my day. Fast forward 20 minutes one of my classmates had a hard time parking because of a crowd. She works for the admissions office and said that there's a huge convention of Jehovahs Witness in our town and there's literally a million of them here. This was the same conference they tried to invite me to when I was so innocently trying to pick up things from home before jogging. I told them "I like Christmas" .

[IronicallyMaeve]

My roommate is a former JW. She feels cheated of all the birthdays she never got to celebrate.

[snark_bait]

Almost took out a young Mennonite girl at the National Zoo yesterday. I was taking pictures of the elephants. When I started taking the photo, I was alone, but when I went to leave, she was right beside me, with 3 men on her left. I saw an older woman, presumably her mother, when I turned back to make sure I wasn't cutting someone else off when I rejoined the walkway.

[nausicaa]

My roommate is a former JW. She feels cheated of all the birthdays she never got to celebrate.

I know two former JWs and both lament all of the things they feel they had taken from them as children: Christmas, birthdays, Tooth Fairy, dating, prom, girl/boy scouts, playing sports. I mean seriously, what do JWs fill their extra time with?

[uber frau]

Door knocking. And meetings.

[GeoBQn]

When my dad was an assistant principal, every year he had to field calls from JW parents who wanted the school's Halloween/winter holiday/Valentine's Day celebrations to be cancelled. My dad's response: "We are not canceling the entire school's plans just for one child. You are free to keep your child at home that day."

[AllisonWndrland]

Mind if I ask what state this is? FLDS have communes in NV, ND, OK, and other places. It's fascinating. (they're my pet fundies)

I'm sorry! I just saw this. I haven't been on FJ much lately. We're in northeastern KS. As I said, I know there are polygamist families around. I just had never, ever seen the FLDS dress around before. Most of the local polygamists are more like the Williams, Brown, and Darger families in their dress.

[happy atheist]

Time for Part 2: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=22722