Building the Fundie Network

[GenerationCedarchip]

Reading the various fundie blogs (I'll admit I read the VF/reformed crowd the most since that's the flavor of fundie I fled) makes me wonder about something - how do all these people find each other? Some of it makes sense (they were in the same college at the same time, went to seminary together, etc..), but there seems to be some sort of semi-underground fundie world beyond just what we see on the blogs and I have to wonder how all these folks somehow just happen to find each other. Even when I still attended fundie church, it wasn't networked to quite the extent that it is now.

[lilith]

They often go the the VF and ATI gala events. The "star" families, at least, meet on the speaking/performing circuit.

[GenerationCedarchip]

They often go the the VF and ATI gala events. The "star" families, at least, meet on the speaking/performing circuit.

I figured the fundie royals(Phillips, Botkins, et al.) went to a lot of the same speaking engagements, but it does seem like even the others that we see in blogland have all of these interconnections. Networking at the galas would make sense; I'd just wondered if there was more to it because they do seem to build lots of ties pretty quickly.

[ThatSnark]

Don't forget the homeschooling conferences, where they all find each other from toddlerhood on up. These folks meet in person frequently enough that it's to be expected that they're all interconnected.

[gravelmonkey]

And the feminine dress and post your recipe link ups!

[YPestis]

The Christian homeschooling circuit is probably a huge place to network. Families go there anyway to get homeschooling info so it's an economical way to also network with other "like-minded" families. The Maxwells seem to know network that way until they started their own "ministry". As others noted, VF and ATI have many conferences. I also think online forums and blogs allows the women to interact while at home. There are many ways for these fundie families to get to know each other. Theirs' is an active subculture complete with it's own school curriculum, businesses and family associations.

[ILoveJellybeans]

They have regular homeschooling conferences and stuff, I imagine how thats how they know eachother.

I wonder how many generations it will take for everyone to be related to eachother. They are a fairly small group of people, in their own little isolationist bubble, made even smaller by how everyone has 10 kids each.

[infooverload]

The interesting thing about networks is they are everywhere with little effort. A perfect example I went to a very, very liberable college in Washington State, but there was still this underground well know about conservative Christian movement. I had a good laugh one day out in the large gathering area a "yelling street pastor" was going on and on; and right next to him was a young student down to his tightie whities holding a sign with an arrow pointing to the pastor reading "He gave me a great blow job last night." It was the middle of the winter and people kept giving him coffee which was great. People would also argue with this guy and that was always entertaining if you had a few minutes to kill between classes.