Close Encounters of the Fundie Kind

[tankgirl]

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???

I think I know what your laying down, that blogger is a super tough one to know what to pull out to safely say to them. I know the area nearish where they currently live not far from the wine and fog. If that is the who, you are speaking of hummmmmm, I do hope you come up with something!

Oh and we used to have a cross guy in our town too. He would drag that thing, on it's little wheels all over shouting at cars and people about Jesus. I thought it was rather lazy and kind of mocking towards Jesus to cheat out, his Saviors struggle.

[stonefruit]

A few years ago, I stopped at a lighthouse while on a road trip with my then-boyfriend. We noticed a group of people in what looked to me like fairly obvious FLDS garb (poofy sleeves on the bright pastel dresses, outlandish braided hair), and I noted that there wasn't at all a one-to-one ratio between the adult men and the women of childbearing age in the group. I wanted to badly to take a picture! I convinced myself that wouldn't have been polite, though.

[skrmom]

There were some men in suits passing out little books on my campus yesterday. I avoided them but saw one of the books lying around school later. It was called "New Testament: Psalms and Proverbs". Yeah. I at least expect the fundies to know which books of the Bible are in which section. Maybe "New Testament" is the name of a church in the area, but it just made me laugh.

That sounds like one of the Gideons. These men provide free Bibles to hotels and pass out New Testaments on campuses and public events. They do not ask for money,nor do they preach to people. However, they will answer questions if asked. My encounters with them have always been very pleasant.

[sissyintexas]

The New Testament published along with Psalms and Proverbs is a very popular edition of the Bible.

[fundyfunland]

As for Orthodox/Hassidic Jews - yeah, that's not worthy of being called an "encounter" here. It's just daily life. Every time someone here mentions "obsolete" rules from Leviticus, I'm tempted to take Google Maps and point out how I live within walking distance of a supermarket with a huge selection of certified pork-and- shellfish-free products, a facility for testing cloth for forbidden mixtures and a ritual pool for immersing after menstruation or seminal emission. :D

Really there are mikvahs EVERYWHERE in that area!

And, Ahhhhhh...I actually really like going through that area on a Friday eve when people are walking to shul, etc. It's even better when I get a shabbat dinner invite from my orthodox friends. I'm not Jewish, but I love shabbat :D

[GodsKnickers]

I quite enjoy our Hutterite friends. And holy hell, do they feed you. :lol:

Dh knows a ton of the men, as I've said before. We had supper with Andy and Bertha on Sunday. I met Andy several times before I met his wife, but we've gotten together with them a few times in the past couple of years. Prior to going to Andy and Bertha's, we were at Fred & Emma's. I'd met Fred once but this was the first time I'd met Emma. Omg, she is a pistol. :lol: Had a lot of fun with her and very little religious stuff was mentioned. I will probably go back out to visit with just her, one of these days. We had a really fun afternoon while the guys were out on the colony.

For such a patriarchal society, those men only think they run their homes/are the head of their households. ;) I mean, to a certain degree, they are, but Emma had Fred running but good. Dh and I giggled about it all the way over to Andy and Bertha's colony (different one than Fred and Emma's).

[RosyDaisy]

I'm surrounded by fundies and have them in my family. Liberals are a rarity in these here parts.

[Sumeri]

I see this too. It makes me mad.

Same here. You can spot the Hutterites because the men have to dress the old way too, but we sat beside 2 Menno families the other day at a restaurant with 5 little girls and a boy. The girls and two wives all had on homespun dresses and pathetically thin coats for the weather, and the two husbands and the boy were all dressed up in name brand, trendy stuff and Columbia coats.

I do have to say in this particular case that one of the men took a break from talking about farm equipment to interact with one of the youngest girls, who was getting bored, while his wife finished her lunch. You don't always see that.

[ofasingleheart]

Over the past couple months, I've been healing over a dispute I had with a fundie girl. We met through blogging and I was raised as a VF lovin', SAHD type of thing. I started rejecting that though in the later part of my high school years and my family studied on the fundie junk and stupidity that we had allowed in our home.

We became pretty close, calling each other besties, texting, Skyping often, etc. We met in person a couple times. It went on for a couple years. I wasn't exactly honest about some of the things I said about myself. When it came out, I apologized, but I got silence.

I told them I was sorry and asked for forgiveness. I'm still completely ignored today. I've tried emailing just to keep up and whatever, and apparently, I'm a polluting influence. I've tried to keep emailing her and keeping in touch, but apparently since I stepped on her toes and hurt her, I'm second pickings. Plus, I liked her brother at the time and finding that out through it all probably made them feel like I was defrauding. :roll:

She was born into ATI and all that. She courted and broke off with the eldest Burnett boy - John Clay the SAICFF runner up filmmaker (ati royalty- she lives down the road from the Burnett family in OK- plus I've met them too. Def. ATI royalty). They live in a huge fundie-full area. I know she reads a lot of fundie blogs like Meditations of His Love, Kindred Grace, Altogether Separate (homeschool grad girls) Young Homemakers, and God's Daughter. Her own blog is (i misspell it here in case she is on here, which I doubt it, but you never know) radientpurrity&beuty at blogpost(dot)com

She has taken the past 6 months to go hemming and hawing on there and pinterest about "when people hurt me, I can love them" and all that. When you see "some people" on there it's more likely me she's talking about- I know she doesn't get out much at all and nobody in her area would hurt her, honestly. When i tried to enter a giveaway of some really cool stuff she was handing out, she deleted my entries. So I told my pinterest following in the pin about the giveaway she didn't let me enter. Truth. Cold, hard, truth. Then she started pinning about slander and libel! She acts like I don't exist. Shuns. So I let the truth out about how she treats me.

I made a brief mention in the comments of my own blog how some fundies like to get legalistic in their eating choices. She is strictly on the paleo diet, but I didn't have her in mind at all when I made that comment. So she posted about "who cares what I eat?" Apparently, she thinks all my online activity is about her!! :angry-banghead:

It gets bizarre when I comment on other people's blogs and she disagrees with what I say. She can't act like I exist, so she says "Hey {blog owner name}! This is something I was thinking about..." then she goes on, point by point, arguing against whatever I had to say." It ends with "But that was just something that came to mind when I read your post, I"m not sure if anyone actually thinks that way, but maybe it's helpful for you." Yeah, you 'd never commented if I hadn't commented right above that. Way to go. :clap:

She is all about "moving on" and "letting go" but she still stalks my online stuff ALL THE TIME. If I pin something that links to my blog, within SECONDS she is right there to see. I can go for days without viewing her stuff. It's just getting old. It's like her motto is "Keep sweet" and "don't judge me" but of course, "I'm free to judge you!" :dance:

[GenerationCedarchip]

I probably shouldn't be so excited about this, but my husband hired a quiverfuller for his office's internship program this summer. I guess I must spend more time than I thought on FJ because when he told me this, the headship was sure to mention that he's pretty sure Intern went to a famous fundie church. I'm torn between wanting to ask tons of questions and not wanting to freak these poor people out.

[LeatherCouch]

I saw a perplexing sight today. A woman covered from collar to toes, denim skirt, bun, full on Pentacostal Holiness, complete with very young daughters in jumpers and skirts. And she was wearing a VS Love Pink hoodie with the enormous logo on the back. I don't know, it seems like if one's goal is to be set apart and totally modest then advertising for VS is not the thing to do. It's not at all uncommon to see women dressed in the PH way around here, but the hoodie threw me for a loop.

[GodsKnickers]

Someone should tell her what 'pink' is slang for. :lol: Not that I think that's what VS intends with their use...

[thetabmeister]

Apparently, she thinks all my online activity is about her!! :angry-banghead:

...

She is all about "moving on" and "letting go" but she still stalks my online stuff ALL THE TIME. If I pin something that links to my blog, within SECONDS she is right there to see. I can go for days without viewing her stuff. It's just getting old. It's like her motto is "Keep sweet" and "don't judge me" but of course, "I'm free to judge you!" :dance:

The parts I quoted reinforce my view that possibly most fundies suffer from extreme narcissistic personality disorder.

[Marianne]

There were Mormon missionaries in the street (good luck to them, my city is very atheists, in a very secular region, where Mormon = TV series Big Love).

I'm in a wheelchair, and when I was next to them, he said, "pray to the Lord ! the Lord will heal you ! if you believe God, He will heal you!"

Yes, man, I'm sure God will go back up my genes... :mrgreen:

[ILoveJellybeans]

One of my friends has become a creationist after seeing a psuedoscientific wordy sounding article about creationism on the internet....before he believed in God, but wasnt part of a specific religion and believed in evolution and stuff, but now he has become a creationist. I can totally see him going fundie, he has the fundie mindset when it comes to everything else.

[Jenny]

I saw some type of fundie today. She was wearing a jumper and a head covering. Her covering was a taupe colored scarf tied under her chin (like a babushka), but the top was pushed about halfway back her head. I've seen a couple of girls dressed like this in the past - they are college students (at a large, public, non-religious, party school :pink-shock: ).

I'm not sure what religious group she might belong to. Does anyone have ideas?

[yewchapel]

I saw some type of fundie today. She was wearing a jumper and a head covering. Her covering was a taupe colored scarf tied under her chin (like a babushka), but the top was pushed about halfway back her head. I've seen a couple of girls dressed like this in the past - they are college students (at a large, public, non-religious, party school :pink-shock: ).

I'm not sure what religious group she might belong to. Does anyone have ideas?

Could be a whole number of Protestant groups. If this is in the US, I'd guess some kind of Anabaptist or Pentecostal group, but outside of the Amish/Mennonites/Hutterites (and members of religious orders) Christian groups tend not to be identifiable by headcovering and dress. Jumper and kerchief/babushka-type headcovering is pretty standard wear for a Protestant woman into non-anachronistic 'modest dress' and headcovering.

[Mellanya]

Over the past couple months, I've been healing over a dispute I had with a fundie girl. We met through blogging and I was raised as a VF lovin', SAHD type of thing. I started rejecting that though in the later part of my high school years and my family studied on the fundie junk and stupidity that we had allowed in our home.

We became pretty close, calling each other besties, texting, Skyping often, etc. We met in person a couple times. It went on for a couple years. I wasn't exactly honest about some of the things I said about myself. When it came out, I apologized, but I got silence.

I told them I was sorry and asked for forgiveness. I'm still completely ignored today. I've tried emailing just to keep up and whatever, and apparently, I'm a polluting influence. I've tried to keep emailing her and keeping in touch, but apparently since I stepped on her toes and hurt her, I'm second pickings. Plus, I liked her brother at the time and finding that out through it all probably made them feel like I was defrauding. :roll:

She was born into ATI and all that. She courted and broke off with the eldest Burnett boy - John Clay the SAICFF runner up filmmaker (ati royalty- she lives down the road from the Burnett family in OK- plus I've met them too. Def. ATI royalty). They live in a huge fundie-full area. I know she reads a lot of fundie blogs like Meditations of His Love, Kindred Grace, Altogether Separate (homeschool grad girls) Young Homemakers, and God's Daughter. Her own blog is (i misspell it here in case she is on here, which I doubt it, but you never know) radientpurrity&beuty at blogpost(dot)com

She has taken the past 6 months to go hemming and hawing on there and pinterest about "when people hurt me, I can love them" and all that. When you see "some people" on there it's more likely me she's talking about- I know she doesn't get out much at all and nobody in her area would hurt her, honestly. When i tried to enter a giveaway of some really cool stuff she was handing out, she deleted my entries. So I told my pinterest following in the pin about the giveaway she didn't let me enter. Truth. Cold, hard, truth. Then she started pinning about slander and libel! She acts like I don't exist. Shuns. So I let the truth out about how she treats me.

I made a brief mention in the comments of my own blog how some fundies like to get legalistic in their eating choices. She is strictly on the paleo diet, but I didn't have her in mind at all when I made that comment. So she posted about "who cares what I eat?" Apparently, she thinks all my online activity is about her!! :angry-banghead:

It gets bizarre when I comment on other people's blogs and she disagrees with what I say. She can't act like I exist, so she says "Hey {blog owner name}! This is something I was thinking about..." then she goes on, point by point, arguing against whatever I had to say." It ends with "But that was just something that came to mind when I read your post, I"m not sure if anyone actually thinks that way, but maybe it's helpful for you." Yeah, you 'd never commented if I hadn't commented right above that. Way to go. :clap:

She is all about "moving on" and "letting go" but she still stalks my online stuff ALL THE TIME. If I pin something that links to my blog, within SECONDS she is right there to see. I can go for days without viewing her stuff. It's just getting old. It's like her motto is "Keep sweet" and "don't judge me" but of course, "I'm free to judge you!" :dance:

I used to read her blog years ago, but she privated it at some point. Smart me of course managed to get a hold of it anyway. I think she sounds deeply depressed in her posts (or maybe just posts when she's depressed) and should maybe get some help... or live some...

FYI, Hi Laura, I have to say I don't think she HAS to forgive you, but then again, I don't believe in that wannabe-Bible-jibber-jabber where you have to forgive everyone and act all cool again. And maybe, just MAYBE, it's not all that good for you either to have a friend who is so deeply addicted to ATI and co.

[thebeautyunderneath]

I've been asked if I was fundie due to my clothing. I tend to wear either skirts or shirtdresses over pants. Nothing religious behind it. I just find my stomach and thighs unflattering.

Latest encounter was an Amish woman coming to my work. Her dress was made out of a fabric with pink roses that is identical to a bed sheet I own.

I work near the Amish community in Sarasota, so I see them all the time at work. I was surprised to find out that a few of them actually have my store's credit card.

[yewchapel]

I've been asked if I was fundie due to my clothing. I tend to wear either skirts or shirtdresses over pants. Nothing religious behind it. I just find my stomach and thighs unflattering.

Latest encounter was an Amish woman coming to my work. Her dress was made out of a fabric with pink roses that is identical to a bed sheet I own.

I work near the Amish community in Sarasota, so I see them all the time at work. I was surprised to find out that a few of them actually have my store's credit card.

Off-topic, but does that mean you're near the Amish restaurant that was on Man V Food? Those pies looked amazing! We don't have food like that at all in the UK.

[Jinger Jar]

Last summer my husband and I were in southern Central California and we happened upon a fundie group courtship/social gathering situation in an A&W. There were about two dozen young people, they looked to be in the 16-18 year-old range, and the group was pretty evenly split males and females. The guys were in long-sleeved white shirts and dark trousers, and the gals were wearing cape dresses in various pastel colors and kapps.

This was about 8 o'clock on a Sunday evening, and aside from me and Mr. Jar, they were the only people in the place. They'd commandeered the entire seating are of the restaurant, but in a quiet, polite kind of way. Some of the kids had paired off and were seated in booths away from everybody else, whispering and generally mooning over each other. There was a small boy-girl crowd next to the drinks dispenser - boys on one side, girls on the other - talking and eyeing each other. The rest of the girls were at one of the larger tables giggling and staring at the remainder of the boys, who were gathered around the jukebox pointedly studying the songs selections.

About 20 minutes after we arrived, a passenger van pulled up outside, and all the kids got in it and left. I assume this was some kind of church outing because of the commercial vehicle, but I have no idea the denomination. And I'd be curious to know if this was a weekly/monthly event for these kids. I will say that for an unsupervised group of teenagers of that size, they were very quiet and tidy. No shouting or shrill shriek-laughter, and they didn't leave even a straw wrapper on the floor.

[yewchapel]

Kapps and the use of a van makes me think Mennonite. Hutterite women wear headscarves, not kapps.

[thebeautyunderneath]

Off-topic, but does that mean you're near the Amish restaurant that was on Man V Food? Those pies looked amazing! We don't have food like that at all in the UK.

Yep! It's called Yoder's. The pies taste just as amazing as they look on TV! The fried chicken is also the most delicious fried chicken ever.

[Lillybee]

Last Saturday night about 9 pm there was a knock on the door. Since I do not open my door to someone that I don't know, I looked out of my window and there as a bushy haired, bushy bearded man with a lot of papers. He held one up to the window and it was something about God and women. I ignored him. Not sure if he was fundie or someone trying to get into my house but who would go out selling religion that late.

[blisterine]

lillybee, I had something similar happen to me. I was working from home one day and my car was in the garage. my husband was at work too, so with no cars in the driveway, I guess it appeared no one was home. I heard the doorbell ring and when I peeked out between the slats in the blinds, there were two men- one white and one African-American, both well-dressed but both were carrying big duffle bags. they continued to ring the doorbell and finally they stopped. then one of them tried to open the door, vigorously turning the knob- thank goodness for deadbolts. I watched as they left the porch and got into a white panel van and drove away, so it's not like they were going house to house.

I waited a few minutes and opened the door. there was a tract on my porch from a church nearby. I called the church and they said that tract was an old one they hadn't had available to the congregation in a few years. I called the police and they sent a cruiser out. I told them my story and they told me there had been a rash of burglaries in the next subdivision over and the white panel van had been reported as a suspicious vehicle. I gave them all the info I could remember about how they looked and they told me to keep the door locked and "just be aware".

If I don't know you're coming, I'm not answering the door!