Has anyone else seen this? You Might Be a Fundie If...

[RandomTrivia]

Amy Grant will never be forgiven in the eyes of a lot of Evangelical Christians who all but worshipped her. She got divorced. Apparently if you are in the public eye and get divorced it's worse than a regular person getting divorced.

Westboro actually picketed a Vince Gill concert last fall (not sure if Amy was touring with him at the time) because of the double divorce; there is (or was) video online of him confronting some of the picketers.

Gotta say, we saw them in concert this month, and she looks pretty good for someone in her 50s (at least from the balcony seats). Definitely not a modest-wear shopper, though.

[Mama Mia]

I thought #7 was Michael Jackson in the video for Billie Jean, so I think this is all out of my frame of reference.

[August]

You met at the flag pole to pray before school. At one point our homeschool group met at a flag pole in front of a library to pray once a week. It was embarrassing and got old fast.

Why? Worshipping the flag or something? Because it's out front so lots of people can see you doing it? Doesn't the bible say you're supposed to pray in private?

"And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. "

[medimus]

I'm so far from fundie I can't believe I know anything on this list. But I hate to admit I was once in a production of Psalty's christmas calamity. Yes really, I think I was 11. My family isn't and has never been religious, but we celebrate christmas as a secular/cultural thing. It was put on in the local expat community for the English speaking kids in the area, as something fun, musical and christmassy. I had no idea it was an evangelical/fundie thing. Makes me wonder if my Mum knew that. I'm sure if she thought that it was in any way proseletising or evengelical she would have been very uncomfortable with it. It makes me feel a little uneasy now.

[formergothardite]

Why? Worshipping the flag or something? Because it's out front so lots of people can see you doing it? Doesn't the bible say you're supposed to pray in private?

"And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. "

I think it started by people saying that public schools were hostile to Christians praying and because the schools wouldn't sponsor public prayers. So basically people showed up to school early, stood around the flag pole and prayed. Yes, it was a big grab for attention. Not sure if schools still do it. I know it was hugely popular here during the 90's, which is ridiculous because even today each morning is started with a moment of silence so that students can pray if they want to.

The homeschool group meeting to pray around a flag pole was even more ridiculous.

[Kailash]

Number 7 is hilarious! I passed that one, but don't relate to a lot of the others, ironically because they were too mainstream for me. Reel Big Fish? Way too worldly to even penetrate. Audio Adrenaline? DC Talk? Don't they have a backbeat? Maybe? Must be of the devil, Gothard says so! I wasn't really raised ATI but our church was on the fringes of it.

Hahaha! Most of them were way too mainstream for me, too! Nothing to do with Gothard, just straight up strict Church of Christ.

[Black Aliss]

Why? Worshipping the flag or something? Because it's out front so lots of people can see you doing it? Doesn't the bible say you're supposed to pray in private?

I think it's to make the [entirely erroneous] point that they are not permitted to pray inside the school building. Persecution 101.

"And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. "

Speaking of which, it seems to me the Maxwell blog doesn't have nearly as many pictures of them praying as it used to. Got the hint, huh Steve?

[infooverload]

I remember the meet at the pole events back in the 90's. I graduated HS in 99, ugh I feel old. The school I went to was a very small public school. I remember doing the whole before school prayer thing my sophmore year, but not any other years. I do remember being uncomfortable and not wanting to do it again, because people would stare when coming into the school. In retrospect the whole thing was ridiculous since most everyone at the school were already Christians, so it was more of a stuip pious look at how much more Christian we're being.

[Terrie]

My private Christian high school had a group who did the annual "Meet at the pole" prayer thing. But, my school was a wide mix of liberal Christians (my own home life) to super fundies (I had a classmate whose mom talked about she'd been praying really hard about which curtains to put in her kitchen).

[slh12280]

Wow. I recognize almost all of those.

[Bookworm89]

I think it started by people saying that public schools were hostile to Christians praying and because the schools wouldn't sponsor public prayers. So basically people showed up to school early, stood around the flag pole and prayed. Yes, it was a big grab for attention. Not sure if schools still do it. I know it was hugely popular here during the 90's, which is ridiculous because even today each morning is started with a moment of silence so that students can pray if they want to.

The homeschool group meeting to pray around a flag pole was even more ridiculous.

Yep they still do "see you at the pole" AND "saw you at the pole" (big get together for all the students that participated at the different schools would meet up at one location in the evening. The one time I went to the evening event it was like a huge party) events in the city I went to high school and college in. They even had "see you at the pole" at the university. Last time I went was 2009...I can't believe I attended the "events" looking back on them it was over blown. At the college see you at the pole they bribed (not the word they used but seriously it was) students to show up by promising them donuts and hot coffee.

[salsa]

Why? Worshipping the flag or something? Because it's out front so lots of people can see you doing it? Doesn't the bible say you're supposed to pray in private?

"And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. "

Not worshiping the flag, but worshiping the country is part and parcel of American evangelicalism. So, meeting at the flag pole served 3 purposes: it was not "in" school and was before school started, to be all in your face about prayer not being "allowed" in school (it is; just not authority-led prayer), 2 - evanglicals are practically apopleptic about how the US is "no longer" Christian and how the evil liberals and/or Satan are leading everyone from the Christian utopia we're supposed to be. Therefore, meeting at the flagpole gives students an opportunity to pray for the country to be Christian again. and 3) it was an easily-identified place to meet. That they were visible was a plus, Jesus' admonition to go home to our prayer closets notwithstanding.

[Rescinded and Mended]

My kid went to a school where the principal organized the "prayer around the pole" event. It wasn't hugely popular, I never saw him out there with more than 3 or 4 people.

And, I'm behind on my rumor-mongering, but weren't Amy Grant and Vince Gill both married to other people when they started screwing around? They way I heard it, they each abandoned their respective spouses, and then got married and had another kid (both of them brought kids into the marriage).

Thanks to this thread, I'm gonna have "Baby, Baby" stuck in my head for the rest of the day...

[singsingsing]

I've seen this circulating on Facebook. I wasn't raised Christian so I could relate to pretty much none of it. I do love Veggie Tales, though. :)

[SoybeanQueen]

The Song of Solomon bit reminded me of this -

What, you don't want your lover to describe your boobs as woodland creatures?

[formergothardite]

My kid went to a school where the principal organized the "prayer around the pole" event. It wasn't hugely popular, I never saw him out there with more than 3 or 4 people.

And, I'm behind on my rumor-mongering, but weren't Amy Grant and Vince Gill both married to other people when they started screwing around? They way I heard it, they each abandoned their respective spouses, and then got married and had another kid (both of them brought kids into the marriage).

Thanks to this thread, I'm gonna have "Baby, Baby" stuck in my head for the rest of the day...

Amy and Vince were both married before but they deny all rumors that they messed around while they were married to other people. Sandi Patty is the one that admitted that she had an affair with her second husband while they were both married to other people.

[Rescinded and Mended]

Ah, I see. I remember there was a big stink about Grant and Gill back in the day, and it was published in all the trash papers (such as Enquirer and Star) that they were fooling around.

Normally, I'd say not my business either way, but if there is any truth to that scandal, then I think they're both filthy hypocrites for trying to peddle themselves as Godly Christians who make money from their own brand of gospel music when they chose to break up their own families.

[misslady]

I don't recognize a lot of these but My Father's House took me right back to summer camp.

I will admit to having prayed around the flagpole in high school with the rest of the Bible Club. None of us were really that hard-core though, except for Andy who went to Promise Keepers and stuff but we all thought he was a little out there.

eta: this list is also missing "chastity pledges".

[lagenialester]

Sad, I'm Jewish but grew up in one of those Christian college towns where people stare at you blankly when you tell them that you don't go to church. I could relate to more than half of these.

[Snarknado]

Amy Grant and Vince Gill are adamant they were only friends before their divorces. I know that Amy Grants ex husband had a drug problem that was kept under wraps during their marriage and contributed to their divorce.

[boxerlover24]

This made me smile. On the sad side, some of these are probably the most relatively "normal" (or at least within sight of the mainstream) things I recall from growing up fundie:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/jessicamisener/ ... vangelical

(not breaking b/c it's buzzfeed)

Edited because apparently my grasp of basic spelling and grammar went a little SOTDRT for a minute there

I grew up far from evangelical but my methodist youth group was led by more evangelical type hipster christians and yes I died a little bit reading some of these and realized they applied to me. I drank the koolaid for 2 of my HS years. I also started getting some traumatic flashbacks from HS and now I need to go drink some wine.