Real Life Fundie Encountersâ„¢ Part 2

[PennySycamore]

Hane,

I'm not judging your Vermont Country Store flannel nightgown. I'm jealous! I'd like to have one myself. In fact, the VCS catalogue is beside my computer as I type.

[jozina]

I'm so glad to have found FJ; ya'll are hilarious. Maybe you can help me identify a religious group in my area. The women and girls wear long denim skirts and long sleeved shirts and have LOOOONG hair (not curled or styled at all) with little crocheted triangle kerchiefs on their heads. The men and boys tend to dress like the Duggar males did in the early days, kinda super clean-cut 1950s short-sleeved button down or polo shirts and pants with ultra-shirt hair (not buzzed) with the front wave.

The only thing I "know" about them is just something I heard and that that is the kids (not homeschooled- they go to our local elementary) are not allowed to eat lunch at school- something about not being permitted to break bread with non-believers- so they go home for lunch. I don't even know if this is true.

Does anyone know what denomination these people might be?

Exclusive Brethren for sure. The little scarves/triangles, long hair and not being able to break bread with non-believers is definitely them.

[It'sFunToRun]

On Exclusive Brethen:

{L_OFFTOPIC} :

For the most part, members who have left... are completely ostracised. Members are not permitted to live with those who have left and this causes families to break up; remaining members do not speak, eat or otherwise socialise with those who have left the group's membership.

Oh, constipated black poopy! Why are people so mean?

[ExLuther]

Just read up on the brethren. I never heard of them prior to this thread and am always fascinated by different brands of crazy.

[jozina]

I grew up with a lot of them (though not a member - yeech!) and now live somewhere without too many of them. My family and I play Spot-A-Brethren whenever one pops up. They dress so distinctively, yet fit in reasonably well if you don't realise their "style".

Properly mean when they exclude someone for sure. :shock: They almost always work in family run businesses too, so when you leave you lose your job as well as your family and friends. And they arrange marriages, trying to mix the blood around. Some of the smaller communities were getting inbred so now they seem to ship the women (always the women of course) all over the place to try and mix things up. One family I knew well had three daughters who were sent to Argentina, Australia and the UK to marry. In the 1990s they weren't allowed near TVs or computers because they were too worldly but they seem to be relaxing a little on the computer front. Quite big drinkers though, even at a young age. Lots with alcohol problems.

[anniebgood]

Just read up on the brethren. I never heard of them prior to this thread and am always fascinated by different brands of crazy.

My Mom grew up in an EUB church, which was Evangelical United Brethren. The church now exists as a Methodist church in the little village of Chili Wi. Her parents were Methodist and Baptist, so they sent the kids to a church which was closer to their beliefs than the Lutheran one or the God Forbid, Catholic one.

Garrison Keillor grew up in Exclusive Brethren but now is an Episcopalian. His stories are interesting.

[PennySycamore]

My Mom grew up in an EUB church, which was Evangelical United Brethren. The church now exists as a Methodist church in the little village of Chili Wi. Her parents were Methodist and Baptist, so they sent the kids to a church which was closer to their beliefs than the Lutheran one or the God Forbid, Catholic one.

Garrison Keillor grew up in Exclusive Brethren but now is an Episcopalian. His stories are interesting.

Garrison has a funny story in Lake Wobegon Days about how his grandfather had argued that pants vs skirts was really a cultural issue and that times changed. He argued that. of course, the swaddling clothes of the baby Jesus was more conducive to gowns, i.e., the baby Jesus wore a dress. He asked if people really thought that the baby's leg's were wrapped separately. When that argument split their branch of the Plymouth Bretheren even more, his granddad oddly became rather strict about dress.

I do love Garrison's description of their Sunday meetings. They held their service in his aunt's living room with her cats wandering in and out and the smell of the Sunday pot roast wafting in from his aunt's kitchen..

I wish I could find my copy of Lake Wobegon Days. I thought it was inaccessible* in the bedroom, but it's not.

*Inaccessible only because the ladder I'd have to use to reach the shelf freaks my cat out.

[LavenderSquare]

Not a true "encounter" but my mom and I were driving through rural VT yesterday on our way home from a baby shower, and saw a woman getting her mail at her mailbox. She was dressed in a green pastel dress, similar to the ones you see on Amish women (full skirt, puffy sleeves). Her hair was up and she wore a small white bonnet over her bun, and a brown smock-style apron (the type that covers front and back and ties at the sides). I live about 2 hrs from where we saw her, so I have no idea what type of fundies might live in the area.

Anyone know?

Edit: I just did a little research, and the style of dress was most likely Amish. It must have been before we crossed the VT border, so we were probably in Hoosick Falls NY (traveling from Albany to NH). Turns out there is an Amish community there. Who knew?

[PennySycamore]

Not a true "encounter" but my mom and I were driving through rural VT yesterday on our way home from a baby shower, and saw a woman getting her mail at her mailbox. She was dressed in a green pastel dress, similar to the ones you see on Amish women (full skirt, puffy sleeves). Her hair was up and she wore a small white bonnet over her bun, and a brown smock-style apron (the type that covers front and back and ties at the sides). I live about 2 hrs from where we saw her, so I have no idea what type of fundies might live in the area.

Anyone know?

Edit: I just did a little research, and the style of dress was most likely Amish. It must have been before we crossed the VT border, so we were probably in Hoosick Falls NY (traveling from Albany to NH). Turns out there is an Amish community there. Who knew?

If I was driving through Vermont and suddenly saw a woman dressed like the 19th century, I'd think that I'd run into some of Tasha Tudor's family. Tasha herself died in 2008 at the age of 92. Tasha, an author and illustrator of children's books, embraced a 19th century life and eschewed modern conveniences including her dress. Tasha was eccentric. but AFAIK, not fundie.

There's some nice pictures of Tasha here: http://www.tashatudorandfamily.com/who- ... tudor.html

[kimberm]

Not a true "encounter" but my mom and I were driving through rural VT yesterday on our way home from a baby shower, and saw a woman getting her mail at her mailbox. She was dressed in a green pastel dress, similar to the ones you see on Amish women (full skirt, puffy sleeves). Her hair was up and she wore a small white bonnet over her bun, and a brown smock-style apron (the type that covers front and back and ties at the sides). I live about 2 hrs from where we saw her, so I have no idea what type of fundies might live in the area.

Anyone know?

Edit: I just did a little research, and the style of dress was most likely Amish. It must have been before we crossed the VT border, so we were probably in Hoosick Falls NY (traveling from Albany to NH). Turns out there is an Amish community there. Who knew?

Sounds like she could be Mennonite. From what I understand the eoman dress the Amish part but they are more worldly in the sense that they live in the "real" world (the men dress normal, drive cars, etc).

[GeoBQn]

There's a new street preacher here who shouts so loud his voice practically shakes the windows. He also sounds like he sucks helium. I wonder how many decibels he would have to be to file a noise complaint. :think:

[mrs]

My husband and I went to a haunted hayride and corn maze Saturday night. I was incredibly surprised to see a fundie mother and daughter at a Halloween attraction. They had waist length braids and long denim skirts. They looked like they were having a good time! :D

[ILoveJellybeans]

One of my Facebook friends is friends with someone who has the same name as one of the Maxwell daughters. I just noticed this now when I noticed at the side thing that my friend liked her photo. I found it very amusing that she was dressed very immodestly, had dyed hair and a tattoo.

[Coco]

If I was driving through Vermont and suddenly saw a woman dressed like the 19th century, I'd think that I'd run into some of Tasha Tudor's family. Tasha herself died in 2008 at the age of 92. Tasha, an author and illustrator of children's books, embraced a 19th century life and eschewed modern conveniences including her dress. Tasha was eccentric. but AFAIK, not fundie.

There's some nice pictures of Tasha here: http://www.tashatudorandfamily.com/who- ... tudor.html

She wasn't fundie, or even Christian. She truly believed that she was from the 1800's, and she had her own congregation of friends who met in her barn, iirc, and they had some interesting traditions. Sort of like nature worship, iirc. My mom loves Tasha Tudor's art and crafts books. I don't know a lot of the details, but she did believe in magical things, and she thought that the dolls she created had real thoughts. She even had a wedding for them. The dollhouse is the oddest thing about her, but in other crafts she was just amazingly skilled. She was very good at old-fashioned ways of doing things. Just like someone who had lived it already. She believed that when she died she would go back to the 1800's. Very interesting lady.

i should take my mom to the museum sometime :D thanks for the link about her, i didn't know there even was a museum until your post reminded me about all of that.

[PennySycamore]

Here's a link to a Yankee Magazine article about Tasha from the September/October 2014 issue.

http://www.yankeemagazine.com/article/f ... llustrator

Of course, there are at least four Corgis in the dollhouse.

[Andora]

For some reason I'm amused at the idea of fundie sightings. I live in Kentucky, where Christianity is the norm. We have Amish, Old and new order Mennonites, Fundie Baptists, JW's, Pentecostals, and Very Serious Non-Denominational Christians. They are all everywhere, all the time. Most of them are very nice and kind people, nothing super weird like the Duggar level of control. We also have an Arabic and Palestinian group here, including my daughter's best friend and some of my life long school friends. Imagining them as terrorists is laughable. They are funny, they make delicious food, and they are great for intelligent conversations.

My family hosts Ukrainian orphans during the summer break and Christmas break. This summer we took our two host kids to the local Ukrainian Pentecostal Church to help them ease their culture shock. The Ukrainian church only speaks Ukrainian during their services. The women cover their heads during the church services also, and they have a certain way they all dress. Nothing sleeveless or low cut, but they do wear tight fitting dresses and always high heels usually with a sweater. Modest, but pretty. At the church services they have two sermons plus a traditional choir. The servies are very long. They pray while speaking in tongues on their knees. (Funny: The first time we went there, before we learned a lot of Ukrainian, we couldn't tell the difference between Ukrainian words or speaking in tongues!)

They all have large families, and the kids are like the #1 most important thing at the church. Every mom has a nice stroller that she brings into the sanctuary with her baby in it. There are little kids everywhere. I loved it because we have three little kids, plus our two Ukrainian kids at the time, so kid friendly anything is a chance to relax, even at a pentecostal church service. :lol:

They do have certain ways they do things--women mainly stay home once they have children, they have their own private school at the church, men are patriarchs. They were all so happy though, and not dysfunctional in the least. In a way I kind of envy their customs and family structure. I will say that all the women were very intelligent, many of them have degrees or specialities that they are very good at like owning a high end bakery or a seamstress with a very upscale men's clothing shop.

We ended up befriending a family with six adult children. Some of the adult children also had large families of their own. I can't tell you all how kind these people were. They invited us to their house several times a week for meals, they brought meals to our house because they knew we were busy with our sad Ukrainian orphans. The whole church smothered us with donated clothes and shoes and gifts, including things for our own kids just to be nice. Not crappy donated things either. I'm talking name brand new with tags or barely worn items. Then, the kicker was when the entire church collected an offering of several thousand dollars (!!) for us in cash to take our whole family including our orphans on a vacation or to buy whatever we needed for the kids while they were here. They basically made us a part of their families and welcomed us into their tight knit community. It's really given me a different outlook on a lot of fundies beyond just the Duggars and that whole sect. I'm pretty sure I've never felt so loved in my entire life. Talk about restoring your faith in humanity!

[Andora]

We also have this college here and all the fun that comes with it.

http://www.commonwealthbaptist.org/

We knew kids who went there. They have very strict rules. No TV. In order to go to work you must work at an approved place and have a note from your manager saying when you arrive and when you left. No boys are allowed to talk on the phone alone with a girl. Two boys are not supposed to be alone in the bathroom together. :roll: No hair below the ears for boys, no short hair for girls.

These people are very dysfunctional, at least the ones that we've known growing up. The dads are very harsh. One girl we knew was kicked out of her family and labeled as a slut for talking on the phone alone with a boy. Another kid we know (who actually lived with us for a year) was kicked out when he was 17 for kissing a girl. He ended up homeless and living behind a dumpster. We helped him get his GED and move on with his life. He told us all kinds of stories about their lives that would make the hair on your neck stand up. :cry:

[jerkit]

We also have this college here and all the fun that comes with it.

http://www.commonwealthbaptist.org/

I went to UK. Occasionally, I'd run into one of these or from Asbury around town and my public university little head nearly exploded.

[PennySycamore]

We also have this college here and all the fun that comes with it.

http://www.commonwealthbaptist.org/

We knew kids who went there. They have very strict rules. No TV. In order to go to work you must work at an approved place and have a note from your manager saying when you arrive and when you left. No boys are allowed to talk on the phone alone with a girl. Two boys are not supposed to be alone in the bathroom together. :roll: No hair below the ears for boys, no short hair for girls.

These people are very dysfunctional, at least the ones that we've known growing up. The dads are very harsh. One girl we knew was kicked out of her family and labeled as a slut for talking on the phone alone with a boy. Another kid we know (who actually lived with us for a year) was kicked out when he was 17 for kissing a girl. He ended up homeless and living behind a dumpster. We helped him get his GED and move on with his life. He told us all kinds of stories about their lives that would make the hair on your neck stand up. :cry:

Bless you, Andora, for helping that kid out.

Of course, Kentucky used to have Shakers. It's interesting that I read an article some years ago that Kentucky was the most unchurched state. I know that my dad from south central Kentucky (Cumberland County, to be exact) did not grow up in the church. It was just too inconvenient to join a church when they lived out in the country. My grandmother joined the Methodist Church after my granddad died as it was in the next block from the house she bought in town. My aunt did tell her NOT to join the Church of Christ even though she'd become a member when she got married. She knew it would scare the hell out of her mom.

[snickerz]

I just saw a large van (12 passenger?) with the license plate "QVRFL".

[Andora]

Bless you, Andora, for helping that kid out.

Of course, Kentucky used to have Shakers. It's interesting that I read an article some years ago that Kentucky was the most unchurched state. I know that my dad from south central Kentucky (Cumberland County, to be exact) did not grow up in the church. It was just too inconvenient to join a church when they lived out in the country. My grandmother joined the Methodist Church after my granddad died as it was in the next block from the house she bought in town. My aunt did tell her NOT to join the Church of Christ even though she'd become a member when she got married. She knew it would scare the hell out of her mom.

I'm sure it varies by region. Central Kentucky is very Christian in general. The town of Wilmore has a seminary, and the entire town is Christian based. We used to live in that county, it was a really great place in an Andy Griffith episode sort of way.

[Walking Cat Bed]

This guy is on my campus today: tomthepreacher.com/

I'm not going to be in his vicinity much (lots of work to do, and I've already claimed a desk in my department's Grad Student Cube Farm), but yesterday he had huge, full-color signs about how Christianity is TOTALLY TRUE. The Secular Student Alliance had a table set up about fifty yards away (within line of sight, but not close enough to *deliberately* antagonize him).

I didn't hear the usual Shouty Preacher Guy, though, so.

*Edited to ACTUALLY break the link.

[longskirtlotsakids]

The university in my town gets regular visits from street preacher Brother Jed. I overheard the students I work with talking about how students at another university created Brother Jed Bingo.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyat ... jed-bingo/

The best part is that it doesn't take very long to win.

God, he's still alive and at it? What about the Witch of the West lookalike Sister Cindy??

[Hane]

Last night on my way home from work, I saw something that I thought was fundie--but wasn't: Dozens of camping tents were set up in the parking lot of the Chik-fil-A that was opening the next day. Turns out that people were just queuing up for a chance to get free Chik-fil-A for a year, or some such.

[jerkit]

Last night on my way home from work, I saw something that I thought was fundie--but wasn't: Dozens of camping tents were set up in the parking lot of the Chik-fil-A that was opening the next day. Turns out that people were just queuing up for a chance to get free Chik-fil-A for a year, or some such.

Yeah, they did this when the Chikfila in my town opened. The first 50 customers or something to a year of free Chikfila. And probably diabetes.