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Close Encounters of the Fundie Kind


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Edited to add: Speaking of Hutterites, has anyone read Mary-Ann Kirkby's book, [link=http://www.amazon.ca/Am-Hutterite-Fascinating-Journey-Heritage/dp/0978340515]I Am Hutterite?[/link] Interesting read. She was also a keynote speaker at our library system's annual conference - she's quite funny, and an excellent speaker.

I read the book not long ago - it was very intriguing and written pretty well. Interesting to read about especially now that I live in a place with fairly strong Hutterite history (Alberta)

ETA - spelling

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....I live in a place with fairly strong Hutterite history (Alberta)

Me too. :)

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Me too. :)

Yeah I thought so based on a few of your past posts. :) Been here long? It's a much more fundamentalist-filled place than my home province seemed to be.

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Pretty much my entire life. We lived in the US (born there) until I was 3.5 and came to Canada (mom's Canadian). My dad was a Pentecostal minister - he passed away 11 years ago. Aside from the first 3.5 years and an 18 month stint as 'missionaries' in the far NWT, I'm an Alberta girl.

You north, central or south? We're south.

Going to visit some Hutterite friends tomorrow - 2 different colonies actually. Dh met both of them through work. He helps them out with their vehicles, which is what he's doing tomorrow. I've gotten to be friends with the one guy's wife and we have coffee with them in town a few times a year and I go out to their colony 2-3 times a year, with Dh, and visit with her while they yap over the vehicles. They often stop by Dh's work and drop off fresh veg for us, or baking, when they know they're going to be at the shop. I don't complain, LOL - their dinner rolls are particularly awesome.

We've eaten with the entire colony a couple of times. Very segregated but good hell, the food is fabulous. Simple, but excellent.

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Pretty much my entire life. We lived in the US (born there) until I was 3.5 and came to Canada (mom's Canadian). My dad was a Pentecostal minister - he passed away 11 years ago. Aside from the first 3.5 years and an 18 month stint as 'missionaries' in the far NWT, I'm an Alberta girl.

You north, central or south? We're south.

Going to visit some Hutterite friends tomorrow - 2 different colonies actually. Dh met both of them through work. He helps them out with their vehicles, which is what he's doing tomorrow. I've gotten to be friends with the one guy's wife and we have coffee with them in town a few times a year and I go out to their colony 2-3 times a year, with Dh, and visit with her while they yap over the vehicles. They often stop by Dh's work and drop off fresh veg for us, or baking, when they know they're going to be at the shop. I don't complain, LOL - their dinner rolls are particularly awesome.

We've eaten with the entire colony a couple of times. Very segregated but good hell, the food is fabulous. Simple, but excellent.

Yup - south too -the big city of Calgary.

It's great that you have good relationships with those Hutterites - they sound like kind people. I don't know any Hutterites or Mennonites though a local friend of mine has grandparents who were practicing Mennonites.

My fundie encounters are much closer to home via my husband's family.

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I tawt I taw a domnionist .... ETask, what would any of you do if you actually ran into somebody you've watched online? Because I think the possibility is growing vewy, vewy good. :pink-shock:

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My daughter is marrying the son of a Baptist minister (SBC). I think I may have mentioned this before. Yesterday, she had shower that was hosted by one of the congregants. It was in a beautiful historic home. We had afternoon tea. The majority of the guests were members of the church. Most of the guests were fairly typical "southern Belle" types...Fox News, conservative, super feminine, but very mainstream. The attire was conservative, in an Ann Taylor kind of way. The Pastor's wife (my daughter's soon-to-be mother in law) actually had on a shorter dress than I did. There were women in pants and there were bare arms, knees and clavicals.

One of the relatives was there, a woman about 40 years old who stood out to me. Let's call her Mary. She was wearing a peasant skirt that was nearly to her ankles. It was a pastel floral print. Her shirt was a white, short sleeve button up blouse and she was wearing a very modest camisole (undershirt?) underneath it. She had Michell Duggar hair...bangs, a pouffy top and long crunchy curls. My fundie-dar was clearly pinged.

She was generally pleasant and quiet, but she did interact and made a point of mentioning that her two older children (early teens) had gotten involved in politics. Nobody encouraged this conversation, which I thought was interesting. Later, the pastor's wife approached her to say that she was disappointed that Mary's family would not be attending the wedding. Mary apologized and said that the problem was that there was no one to mind her children. Mary pointed out that school was not an issue because she home schools. My daughter told her that this should not be a problem because the hotel had babysitting services. Mary looked pretty horrified. She stammered and said that she would discuss it with her husband. Later, my daughter told me that Mary bakes her own bread and that they do not immunize and that she preferred homebirthing. They were letting "go plan their family", but there was a medical problem that led to an emergency hysterectomy. She has 4 children.

The pastor's wife later apologized about Mary. She said that Mary was kind of "weird" and that they don't even let other family members have unchaperoned contact with the children. She also mentioned that they taught creation only, which is really adding to their disadvantage educationally.

I found it interesting that this crowd of very Republican, very Christian, very old fashioned ladies found the fundy in the family to be odd and inappropriate. Mary and her family are not members of the church, but are members of the family. It made me think that perhaps there is a growing rift within the conservative crowd.

For me, however, it was fascinating to be in the company of a real life fundy! And to think that she will be a member of my daughter's family!

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My daughter is marrying the son of a Baptist minister (SBC). I think I may have mentioned this before. Yesterday, she had shower that was hosted by one of the congregants. It was in a beautiful historic home. We had afternoon tea. The majority of the guests were members of the church. Most of the guests were fairly typical "southern Belle" types...Fox News, conservative, super feminine, but very mainstream. The attire was conservative, in an Ann Taylor kind of way. The Pastor's wife (my daughter's soon-to-be mother in law) actually had on a shorter dress than I did. There were women in pants and there were bare arms, knees and clavicals.

One of the relatives was there, a woman about 40 years old who stood out to me. Let's call her Mary. She was wearing a peasant skirt that was nearly to her ankles. It was a pastel floral print. Her shirt was a white, short sleeve button up blouse and she was wearing a very modest camisole (undershirt?) underneath it. She had Michell Duggar hair...bangs, a pouffy top and long crunchy curls. My fundie-dar was clearly pinged.

She was generally pleasant and quiet, but she did interact and made a point of mentioning that her two older children (early teens) had gotten involved in politics. Nobody encouraged this conversation, which I thought was interesting. Later, the pastor's wife approached her to say that she was disappointed that Mary's family would not be attending the wedding. Mary apologized and said that the problem was that there was no one to mind her children. Mary pointed out that school was not an issue because she home schools. My daughter told her that this should not be a problem because the hotel had babysitting services. Mary looked pretty horrified. She stammered and said that she would discuss it with her husband. Later, my daughter told me that Mary bakes her own bread and that they do not immunize and that she preferred homebirthing. They were letting "go plan their family", but there was a medical problem that led to an emergency hysterectomy. She has 4 children.

The pastor's wife later apologized about Mary. She said that Mary was kind of "weird" and that they don't even let other family members have unchaperoned contact with the children. She also mentioned that they taught creation only, which is really adding to their disadvantage educationally.

I found it interesting that this crowd of very Republican, very Christian, very old fashioned ladies found the fundy in the family to be odd and inappropriate. Mary and her family are not members of the church, but are members of the family. It made me think that perhaps there is a growing rift within the conservative crowd.

For me, however, it was fascinating to be in the company of a real life fundy! And to think that she will be a member of my daughter's family!

I attend and am even a Sunday School teacher at an SBC church and can tell you that Mary would be very out of place at my church. Most women wear pants and a few (ME!) wear jeans every Sunday morning. I think that you might be surprised how liberal some of us are.

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You're not kidding. :? I've also found that a lot of my Pennsylvania German ancestors gave all their sons the first name of Johann and then a different name. Unfortunately, all the brothers in several 18th century generations gave their sons the same 'different' name, so I often find three or four 'Johann Conrads' and 'Johann Michaels' and 'Johann Peters', all cousins, to try and untangle. :angry-banghead:

My husband is from rural South Australia, in a region that was settled by German Lutheran immigrants (but think very conservative Lutheran, not like ELCA). Anyway, we've found the same thing with the Johanns... someone did a geneology book on his mother's family and a couple of generations back, they were Johann something Klemm... Johann Gottfried, Johann Gottlieb, Johann Karl, Johann Friedrich, etc.

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I tawt I taw a domnionist .... ETask, what would any of you do if you actually ran into somebody you've watched online? Because I think the possibility is growing vewy, vewy good. :pink-shock:

Aw, no fair! Putting out a teaser like that and not letting us know the story. :lol:

Seriously, I haven't run into any of the major fundies we watch, but some of my extended family's circles do cross with Boyers and on the one occasion I met them, I just tried to keep the conversation to surface sorts of things. I'm dying to ask most of the VF-ers all kinds of nosy questions, but they don't seem open to those questions so I'd probably just wait to see if they volunteered any info.

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Longtime lurker, first post. Not sure if this counts as a fundie, but definitely a crazy! Having lunch with my ds yesterday, we sat near a table full of men and women dressed up from church. One of the men began talking about the bible and what "scholars" think about different portions. So far, pretty normal. Then he launches into a discussion of a revival he was involved in several years ago in a another part of the country. He tells the group that they started having technical difficulties and discovered that covens of witches were engaging in "spiritual warfare" against their revival. He rails on for quite a long time about the evil covens and how they got believers to pray against the covens and ultimately the revival was wildly successful.

I live in a very conservative area, so I am used to the usual religious babble, but this one took the cake!

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Aw, no fair! Putting out a teaser like that and not letting us know the story. :lol:

Seriously, I haven't run into any of the major fundies we watch, but some of my extended family's circles do cross with Boyers and on the one occasion I met them, I just tried to keep the conversation to surface sorts of things. I'm dying to ask most of the VF-ers all kinds of nosy questions, but they don't seem open to those questions so I'd probably just wait to see if they volunteered any info.

I know! You think it's frustrating to you??

:lol:

OK, my immediate task is: think of what I'd like to find out, if ever a conversation arises. At present, the only thing that comes to mind is to say something like, "How 'bout them Cubs, huh?" NO, no, no! I want to be able to strike up a convo that will illuminate me/FJ to some part of The Life that we haven't previously known about! But what *is* that???

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Longtime lurker, first post. Not sure if this counts as a fundie, but definitely a crazy! Having lunch with my ds yesterday, we sat near a table full of men and women dressed up from church. One of the men began talking about the bible and what "scholars" think about different portions. So far, pretty normal. Then he launches into a discussion of a revival he was involved in several years ago in a another part of the country. He tells the group that they started having technical difficulties and discovered that covens of witches were engaging in "spiritual warfare" against their revival. He rails on for quite a long time about the evil covens and how they got believers to pray against the covens and ultimately the revival was wildly.

I live in a very conservative area, so I am used to the usual religious babble, but this one took the cake!

stellaluna! I love that story. Welcome to posting. :)

Your story reminds me of two small businesses that were side-by-side in a two-shop building. One was a head shop/magick retailer, the other offered shoe repair services. The cobbler was as religious in his own way as his business neighbors, and would let transients spend the night in his shop. He boasted of one such gent who would rail at the top of his lungs, play Christian rock music at deafening levels, etc., when there was an evening event next door.

For grins, I mentioned the situation to the other shop owner, who just smiled tensely, rolled her eyes a little, and said it really wasn't any problem. Can't remember if I murmured an apology on behalf of most Christians (I'm a Christian) but it made an impression on me!

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I know! You think it's frustrating to you??

:lol:

OK, my immediate task is: think of what I'd like to find out, if ever a conversation arises. At present, the only thing that comes to mind is to say something like, "How 'bout them Cubs, huh?" NO, no, no! I want to be able to strike up a convo that will illuminate me/FJ to some part of The Life that we haven't previously known about! But what *is* that???

Well, here's one thing I'd love to know: These folks seem big on "taking dominion" and wanting to see Christianity(or at least their own brand of it) in every sphere of life. So, why are they so unwelcoming of people who are interested in learning about them? I'd love to know what's up with taking all the blogs private, not engaging in debate w/commenters (I can see ignoring trolls but some folks just seem to have questions), staying away from all of us evil non-dominionists, etc...

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T

I attend and am even a Sunday School teacher at an SBC church and can tell you that Mary would be very out of place at my church. Most women wear pants and a few (ME!) wear jeans every Sunday morning. I think that you might be surprised how liberal some of us are.

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Mary is not SBC. She is a family member of the pastor and his wife. My point was that the church people, despite their outspoken conservative politics and their deeply held faith in Jesus, found Mary unusual and a little bit embarrassing.

It was also interesting to observe her word choices and the way she fielded questions about attending a family wedding. She, like the Duggar women, kept smiling and gave very practiced answers to the questions. It made me wonder whether these groups actually have training sessions for the parents with stock answers. It wouldn't surprise me. When the pastor's wife (her sister) told her that child care would be available on site, she hesitated for a moment and then went back to her sweet smile and a delay tactic, non answer.

Does anyone know if there is a book or tape with lessons for the parents to teach them how to answer questions from the worldly folk? This is more than just christianspeak, because honestly, the church people were quite adept at that.

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I just had one today! I'm a vendor for product that's stocked at stores around town. I was working my shelves when an old man driving an electric scooter-thing stopped by to ask about the product a few shelves over. Literally less than 20 seconds into the conversation he was asking if I knew Jesus. He was so sweet and cheerful that I replied, " I already do, dear," the way I do when my 3 -year-old drops a cute non-sequitur into my lap. Another question about where to find something else, and then he was inviting me to something that sounded an awful lot like a revival meeting at the Assembly of God church on Wednesday. (He was a visiting pastor.) This instant-fellowship thing really rubs me the wrong way, but then, I'm Lutheran by upbringing, Anglican currently, and introverted by inclination. If you're trying to get people to come to your get-together, put posters on bulletin boards or pass out flyers, don't use every single conversation as an attempt to get people to do stuff.

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I'm from a fundy-lite background myself, but we had a really weird encounter at a restaurant the other day. It was Sunday, and we had been to church, but we (me, husband, preschooler and baby) had all changed into play clothes for a beach party we were headed to. We were sitting near a big church or family group who were all very well dressed and talking churchy, mission-type things, but I wasn't paying much attention.

We were almost finished when a young lady came over and asked to speak with us. My first thought was she was offended by me breastfeeding at the table, but she started going on about how God had "highlighted" us to her as people to speak to, and started asking about where we go to church and whatnot. After we told her that we not only attend but are well involved in our church, she started to try to sell us on taking our family on a year long YWAM commitment.

We made some noncommital noises and then she asked why my husband had a bag of ice in his hand. He explained that he'd just injured it at church and we were concerned that it might be broken. She then asked to pray over us, and it was very full of the usual "we just..we just..." and "dear Father" or "dear Lord" every three seconds.

When she was done, she let us know that God had shown her a vision of the bones in my husband's hands growing back together. It was very weird.

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OK, I had a weird one on Saturday. There is a huge Korean supermarket, and I do mean supermarket, that is quite a hike from my place but that I try to go to once every months or so. Off topic, they have a fantastic produce department, not to mention hundreds of condiments from all over southeast Asia. Oh, and they sell Korean barbeque. Korean barbeque is awesome. :mrgreen:

Anyhoo, back on topic. I was getting a cart from the cart rack, and noticed there were three middle aged ladies from southeast Asia handing out tracts for a Chinese Christian church. They were targeting fellow southeast Asians, and when customers going in would say, "Oh, I'm not Chinese, I can't read Madarin." those chicks would shuffle their tracts and point out they had infor in Thai, Korean, Vietnamese, Indonesian, and English. I couldn't stay to get the full show, but man, the customer they had cornered when I went in looked like a deer in the headlights. Poor person probably never thought he would be proselytized in front of a Korean supermarket by older Chinese ladies.

They were gone by the time I got out again, so I am assuming the management politely told them to shove it and move along.

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South Korea is a HUGELY Christian country which makes that very strange indeed! South Korea actually sends out the most Christian missionaries in the world after the US.

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I know! You think it's frustrating to you??

:lol:

OK, my immediate task is: think of what I'd like to find out, if ever a conversation arises. At present, the only thing that comes to mind is to say something like, "How 'bout them Cubs, huh?" NO, no, no! I want to be able to strike up a convo that will illuminate me/FJ to some part of The Life that we haven't previously known about! But what *is* that???

Ask about their kids and use it as a way to get into a conversation about child-rearing philosophies?

At the very least, there's a ton of fundie children we're concerned/wondering about, so that could be priceless information in itself.

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My cousin and her husband live up by Slave Lake, and the Maxwells were there a year or two back, and I suspected my cousin's family woul have attended. The kids - only 2, were home schooled, and not very well. My cousin has MS and as it progressed, and her daughter grew older, the mother/daughter roles were virtually reversed. It is an ongoing train wreck, with all the prayer and denial. Slave Lake is already the back of beyond, and they live in the country, miles from the town, with no MS resources accessible. The daughter - call her Watermellon - that is what her facebook name is today, went several years, after she was done her SOTDRT education, without being able to snag a husband (her goal). She spent lot's of time doing retail and underpaid child-care jobs, travelling with YWAM, and finally went to bible school. There, she found and married a very annoying 20 year old, about 5 years her junior. The first baby was born just a year after the wedding.

Today I find this link on Watermellon's facebook:

nowtheendbegins.com/pages/mark_of_the_beast/markOF_theBEAST.htm

I commented that it is a huge crock and is fearmongering and I thought God is love. Someone with her Dad's last name commented "That is a parody site, isn't it? I can't tell"

Then I go down a few pages and see this "wow did u know how many banks went bankrupt or were liquidated in the States from the recession?, 28 banks in 2008 and 97 in 2009!! Thats a lot of banks, and a lot of people who couldn't pay their mortgages and lost their house!! ouch! I don't ever want a mortgage.."

We are in Canada, in Alberta, with a strong economy - none of our banks have been liquidated. I would never have known about the anti-mortgage thing if it was not for Free Jinger. So, you are paying your landlord's mortgage? Or living off your parents??

Edited to remove my comment about Mennonite names until I have read the discussion about Mennonite names!!!

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i live in a town where there are a number of members of the particular religion called exclusive brethren. i actually live next door to their massive church (which is rumoured to have an underground bomb shelter!)

having went to school with a few of the kids, i know that they are not allowed to listen to radio, watch tv, the females are not allowed to wear pants, or cut their hair, and they would have to wear particular head scarves. one of the larger families at the school had around 8 kids, but i knew that the EBs were generally homeschooled and all of the kids always had to go home for lunch, every day. absolutely no friends over from out side of their religion, despite making friends at school who could be like, *gasp* raised agnostic! they were also never allowed to participate in school sports. most of the kids were well behaved, but i remember a couple of the kids were foul-mouthed little sh*ts!

this was in the 90's, and i hear their church rules have changed because i'm now seeing some of the females with considerably shorter hair (chest length, instead of down past their bottoms), some are even wearing pants and some are also wearing flowers or head bands, instead of scarves. i also hear they're allowed to use the internet and watch some tv now!

this is how the modern-day bretherns look:

Ron-Arkcoll-420x0.jpg

the head scarves:

248187-brethren.jpg

here is the church:

eb1_zps6b3914ac.jpg

eb2_zps607ddc71.jpg

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Awwwwww I thought I had one then :( My friend just added a David Waller on Facebook. I excitedly checked but it wasnt our favourite Pecan Thief. :(

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