22 Awesome things I used to think were sinful

[OnceModestTwiceShy]

One of the big reasons I became an Orthodox Jew for a few yrs was that I became convinced that my sexual predilections were sinful. Ironically I probably picked up that message from conservative Christian culture.

[VooDooChild]

Some things on the very long list at the Christian school I taught at that didn't make his:

--Girls volleyball uniforms

--Nail polish that is not in the pastel pink or peach color families

--The Chronicles of Narnia (seriously)

--Trading cards of any kind

--Fantasy sports leagues

--Watching sports like figure skating or gymnastics with girls wearing short skirts, leotards, etc... even if you are female.

--The Olympics

--Root beer in brown bottles or silver cans

--Slushy beverages of any kind

Okay, I'm stumped on this one. Is root beer acceptable in any other container?

[NotALoserLikeYou]

A missionary explained this to me. Your body is a temple, and bad things should not go into it. Caffeine, drugs, alcohol, etc... all of these will mess your body up. Using these is tearing up God's work. God created you, you should take care of yourself

Herbal teas are out. Just because its made from nature does not mean its good for you.

Basically that's it. I am not Mormon, but my room mate is, and missionaries come by quite a bit to see her.

I believe the ban is on hot beverages specifically coffee and tea. Mitt Romney ate coffee ice cream. Many drink sodas.

[Savoring Samsara]

Okay, I'm stumped on this one. Is root beer acceptable in any other container?

From what I have heard other ex-fundies describe, the problem is not the root beer itself, but the fact that someone who saw you drinking it out of a container that looked like a beer bottle/can might think you were drinking beer and that would "damage your testimony" because you should avoid "the appearance of evil." (Yes, really.) Thankfully, my family and church did not go in for that particular crazy belief!

[docmom]

Love this. Wish other fundies could have this guy's insight. This one is my favorite:

At my Accelerated Christian Education school, the pastor preached against girls wearing short skirts every week. He said they “stopped boys and girls from relating in a healthy, wholesome way.â€

What he should have said that he was a lecherous misogynistic prick who had to blame women for his own dirty mind and thought he had the right to tell other people what to do with their bodies.

Also, women look fantastic in short skirts. Or long skirts. Or whatever the hell else you want to wear. It’s your body.

[lemonhead]

From what I have heard other ex-fundies describe, the problem is not the root beer itself, but the fact that someone who saw you drinking it out of a container that looked like a beer bottle/can might think you were drinking beer and that would "damage your testimony" because you should avoid "the appearance of evil." (Yes, really.) Thankfully, my family and church did not go in for that particular crazy belief!

Yep, you nailed it :)

Then, you end up with that poor lost person's blood on your hands...all because you drank a root beer from a bottle.

[lemonhead]

Curiosity got the best of me and I had to watch the Deception of a Generation. Scooby Doo was dabbling in the occult and He-Man transformed minds from believing God's word to spawning disbelief. Wow. I feel really bad that this was your childhood. This is some crazy shit! I am only 30 minutes in and I can't take the stupid anymore!

Yeah, it was nuts. Thankfully, I was born with a rebellious and skeptical nature and started seeing through this stuff by the time I was a teenager. It took a toll on me, though, and if you read the Amazon reviews for the book you can see that kind of teaching did an enormous amount of damage to individuals and families.

[louisa05]

Yep, you nailed it :)

Then, you end up with that poor lost person's blood on your hands...all because you drank a root beer from a bottle.

Exactly. When a whole family is destroyed by alcoholism because they followed your ungodly example of what looked like drinking beer, you have to live with that guilt forever.

To answer the slushie question: same thing. A couple of people on staff got up in arms that frozen non-alcoholic drinks were probably made just to imitate alcoholic drinks and thus had the appearance of evil plus those consuming them were just replacing alcohol with something else which was also evil because they were wishing they could have alcohol. So there followed a lot of deep theological discussions about the morality of slushies/frozen drinks.

[redcurls]

Slurpies are of the devil???

I will gladly go to hell for Icees.

[Rachel333]

This is great, I can relate to all 22 of these!

I laughed at this:

Nightclubs were places of sin and debauchery where people got drunk, consumed illegal substances, and danced in an unseemly fashion before going home and fornicating.

Happily, the fundamentalists were mostly right about this.

[BornOKThe1stTime]

Oh what a lovely list! Yay for masturbation or unmarried sex instead of church on Sunday. And yay for gay friends! What would we do without our fabulous gay friends? :worship:

[OnceModestTwiceShy]

Exactly. When a whole family is destroyed by alcoholism because they followed your ungodly example of what looked like drinking beer, you have to live with that guilt forever.

To answer the slushie question: same thing. A couple of people on staff got up in arms that frozen non-alcoholic drinks were probably made just to imitate alcoholic drinks and thus had the appearance of evil plus those consuming them were just replacing alcohol with something else which was also evil because they were wishing they could have alcohol. So there followed a lot of deep theological discussions about the morality of slushies/frozen drinks.

No mocktail parties, then? :lol: (The undergrad Christian fellowship group at my university does those sometimes.)

[alchemy]

Exactly. When a whole family is destroyed by alcoholism because they followed your ungodly example of what looked like drinking beer, you have to live with that guilt forever.

To answer the slushie question: same thing. A couple of people on staff got up in arms that frozen non-alcoholic drinks were probably made just to imitate alcoholic drinks and thus had the appearance of evil plus those consuming them were just replacing alcohol with something else which was also evil because they were wishing they could have alcohol. So there followed a lot of deep theological discussions about the morality of slushies/frozen drinks.

I'm reminded of some dumb story that was included in one of my Sunday School handouts. It was about a guy who always drank ginger ale when he was at work parties because it was served in a cocktail glass and he didn't want his co-workers to know he was a religious teetotaler. One day he found out one of his young co-workers had become an alcoholic after starting to drink at office parties. The ginger ale guy blamed himself because if only he'd made it clear that it was okay to be a non-drinker the alcoholic might never had started drinking. So yeah, the appearance of evil totally destroys lives. :lol:

[formergothardite]

Okay, I'm stumped on this one. Is root beer acceptable in any other container?

For us it was. The brown bottles and silver cans gave the appearance of sinning.

[lemonhead]

The ginger ale guy blamed himself because if only he'd made it clear that it was okay to be a non-drinker the alcoholic might never had started drinking. So yeah, the appearance of evil totally destroys lives. :lol:

I really believe, having grown up with this, that some forms of Christianity teach and encourage codependency. This is a good example; as well as the teachings about modesty and working/shopping on Sundays. Under these teachings, we are all responsible for other peoples' thoughts, behaviors, and mistakes. No wonder there is so much guilt.

[EyeQueue]

Though I've never been fundie, I did grow up in an area that was Mormon-dominant, and recall one amusing example of how they tried to protect the public from teh ebil profanity. When the 1995 remake of the classic "Village of the Damned" came out, the movie marquees in town would only list it as "Village of the Darned," or maybe "Danged"...can't remember which. :lol: :lol:

[Ms Jess]

Yes to so many of these! Add to the list "myself" because we are all terrible filthy sinners with nothing good about us. What a great self image to grow up with.

Yes!! So much of the time as a kid and teenager I heard sermons on constantly giving of oneself or being selfless in some way or another. Now, I consider myself to be a pretty compassionate and unselfish person but there are some times when I just want to do what I want to do because I want to do it. And you know what? That pretty fucking okay. No guilt!

[Ms Jess]

Yep, you nailed it :)

Then, you end up with that poor lost person's blood on your hands...all because you drank a root beer from a bottle.

Yup. My parents didn't outright stop us from drinking root beer from its original container but it made them uncomfortable. And we could not have candy cigarettes.

[Dinaberries]

My mom believed a lot of these were sinful but she would pick and choose. Harry Potter, martial arts (at least until my step dad made friends with this Christian karate teacher who said he was taking back martial arts for Jesus.), anything having anything to do with gay people (unless it was something my mom and/or step dad personally enjoyed), Halloween and yoga were all evil. But since my mom loved showing my sister and me off, short skirts and bikinis were fine.

I read Harry Potter for the first time when I was 22. I had recently moved to Australia to be with my then boyfriend (now husband), and one night he made a joke that referenced Harry Potter, that I didn't understand. He was shocked that I hadn't read the books, and since he owned them all, he gave me the first one that night and said I really should read them. I thought it was silly for me to read a children's book, but I absolutely loved it. I read the entire series in a few weeks and felt like I got part of my childhood back. I wish I'd experienced those books when I was a kid, especially since the first book came out when I was 10 so I was a good age to have grown up with them.

[fun2beme]

Not a fundie but had a strict Catholic upbringing so several of these are familiar.

May I add:

- KISS and Ozzy Osborne

- Males with hair touching the top of their collars - to this day, when I see a guy with long hair, I automatically assume he's a bad boy ;)

- Smoking (even when of legal age)

- Motorcycles

- Wearing leather

- Girls who chew gum and/or whistle (it made Mary cry)

- Using Procter & Gamble products (does anyone else remember the supposed tie-in to Satanic cults?)

[Rachel333]

Once I was a teenager my mom decided to let me make my own choice about Harry Potter. Still, once she found out that I had chosen to read the books (thanks to some toddler siblings who went into my room and brought her all my library books), she acted like she had caught me with drugs. She was almost in tears when she confronted me with the books.

It's no big deal to them anymore, like most of the people who used to think Harry Potter was evil. My dad even bought the 7th book for me and took me to the 5th movie.

- Using Procter & Gamble products (does anyone else remember the supposed tie-in to Satanic cults?)

Didn't they make ouija boards? That's one that not only was a sin, but could even lead to demon possession.

[alchemy]

- Using Procter & Gamble products (does anyone else remember the supposed tie-in to Satanic cults?)

Their little logo had a sun & moon and our church had some notion they were connected with the Rev. Moon cult. Bwa ha ha.

It still amazes me how many people make nutty assumptions about packaging. These days I've seen people say the K for kosher has something to do with the KKK :lol: and the color marking on toothpaste for the automated packaging machines have something to do with the purity of the product.

[hellbound]

Not a fundie but had a strict Catholic upbringing so several of these are familiar.

May I add:

- KISS and Ozzy Osborne

-

Was that because you were told that KISS stood for Kids in Satan's Service? That rumor was passed around among my mother's friends at church and they all decided that their kids would never go to a KISS concert. Not that any of us were allowed to go to any concerts - they were for bad kids who did drugs.

[EyeQueue]

Was that because you were told that KISS stood for Kids in Satan's Service? That rumor was passed around among my mother's friends at church and they all decided that their kids would never go to a KISS concert. Not that any of us were allowed to go to any concerts - they were for bad kids who did drugs.

:lol: :lol:

That's similar to how AC/DC supposedly stood for "After Christ, Devil Comes." :dance: :dance:

[August]

Excuse my ignorance here, but I really have to ask: are ALL of these for real? Power Rangers? Martial arts!? What else is "sinful" that wasn't on the list!?

I'm glad those who have gotten out have been able to enjoy most of these things. FSM knows that we all must go through passing out on the toilet (not the urinal) or puking in a bucket at least once in our lifetime.

Or passing out while puking on the toilet. Huzzah!