Real Life Fundie Encountersâ„¢ Part 2

[greycat]

Yay my first post!! :D

I live close to eastern Kentucky and the Fundies have increased so much over the years. I work in retail and a group of Fundie women; skirts bellow the knee, and long long hair up in a bun, bunch of out of control kids, will come in. (Their men never with them really, just realized that) They are my most rude customers that I have to deal with. They come in and expect me to somehow give the reduced prices just because they are good Christian people. It seems that there is always one older woman that is the leader who is in charge and who hassles us to the point that they made a young co worker of mine cry. I know working in retail that we have to put up with a bunch of crazy customers, but none have ever touched on how demeaning and cruel these women (of GOD) are to me and my coworkers. Of course they justify their behavior in the name of God. It's miserable.

I kind of wonder if they are taking it out on us because of how they are treated....

Oh as a side note, we also have a lot of Amish, maybe Mennonite, come in also. (Which at first surprised me where we sell mostly electronics and such) and I have to say they are so kind.

[HereticHick]

I seem to be spotting fundies everywhere these days in DC. Friday I saw a bunch on Capitol Hill--teen girls & their chaperones, all in full length denim skirts & tshirts from some "Christian" academy. Some of the denim skirts had bedazzled back pockets, which I think wouldn't fly in a strict Gothard family.[Hey! Look at my butt!]. Yesterday I saw a young woman in long loose chambray skirt, loose cotton blouse, black stockings (in 80 degree weather) & a big kerchief, working with some homeless people. I'd guess she was some sort of Mennonite. And I don't even count the Jehovah's Witnesses that I see posted every day at the metro station & on Capitol Hill. Yeah, they seem to be going with a real passive soft sell nowaways. Usually I can walk past & they don't even speak or try to hand me a brochure!

[nausicaa]

I see this all the time in/around Philly train stations. I wasn't sure if it was a local thing or new JW policy.

(Also! First post! Long time lurker, brand new poster. Hi everyone!)

That makes sense. There are some JW women with a big display who stand outside the metro stop I pass by every morning for work. I always used to cringe a bit and wait for them to do their hard sell but they just smile and let me pass. I always figured they were just really not into it and were being forced to meet their monthly hours quota. :lol:

[ILoveJellybeans]

Theres a couple who always stand with a display and some tracts by the town hall. Only talked to them once, but theyre not pushy or anything.

[EmiGirl]

The past few times we've come back into tennessee from visiting my in laws they've been set up at the rest stop too.

[MrsYoungie]

Saw the same setup in Toronto a couple of weeks ago.

I pass a pair of JW women with display board at Bay and Adelaide in Toronto. Same ones?

[Snarkaluffagus]

Yup, as a Muslim you'd be surprised at how label conscious and fabulously dressed some Saudi/Gulf women are under their abayas. Other Muslim Moms I know are basically in yoga pants or shorts underneath.

Want to know one of the secrets to determine just how funny a Muslim woman is? Check the eyebrows. The super fundies will have unibrows/unkept brows....and may/may not have other facial hair because waxing, threading, etc. is viewed as "haram" (forbidden). Though as many Muslim women have lots of facial hair, only the very super religious usually follow this. :)

A friend of mine is Muslim and from Egypt. She told me that in her culture, waxing is expected. She always wears long sleeves and long skirt/pants, and covers her hair with scarves that match her outfits, but her clothes are anything but frumpy.

For her graduation party, the women in her family had their hair uncovered until men from outside the family started showing up - then they disappeared and came back out with their hair covered.

It's funny, but I don't think of her as a fundie.

[FloraKitty35]

I went to Target the other day and as I was walking, there were two young Mennonite women with their headcoverings and maxi-dresses, drinking their Starbucks and talking on their I-Phones.

[Mom-mouth]

My son is dating a girl and spending time getting to know her family. It's a little odd for me because they are church people and I run screaming from vehicles heading towards one. (They stopped to let me out. I was having a panic attack. I know, therapy once a month.) Anyway, he comes home yesterday and giggles and tells me how the grandma sat him down and talked to him about god and jesus and being saved, etc. He said he told them he doesn't dig the whole snake thing. I nearly died laughing.

[Mom-mouth]

I seem to be spotting fundies everywhere these days in DC. Friday I saw a bunch on Capitol Hill--teen girls & their chaperones, all in full length denim skirts & tshirts from some "Christian" academy. Some of the denim skirts had bedazzled back pockets, which I think wouldn't fly in a strict Gothard family.[Hey! Look at my butt!]. Yesterday I saw a young woman in long loose chambray skirt, loose cotton blouse, black stockings (in 80 degree weather) & a big kerchief, working with some homeless people. I'd guess she was some sort of Mennonite. And I don't even count the Jehovah's Witnesses that I see posted every day at the metro station & on Capitol Hill. Yeah, they seem to be going with a real passive soft sell nowaways. Usually I can walk past & they don't even speak or try to hand me a brochure!

Lucky you. They kept showing up at my door every Thursday and Saturday. I finally flipped out when tried to open my door wider and my cat ran out. I guess yelled a string of profanity followed by "SPAWN OF SATAN! GET IN THE HOUSE!" did it. They haven't come back since.

[Lazuli]

Most of my encounters with the Mormons have been respectful and pleasant. Usually I tell them I'm not interested and they leave me alone. But I had one experience that scared me half to death. I was walking down a darkly lit road alone at night, not far from the downtown core, but still quite isolated. I know it was risky, but it was a shortcut and I took a chance. (Which I will never repeat.)

A white van drove past me and did a U-turn and pulled up to the curb near me. I sped up just as two guys jumped out and started running after me, saying, "Can we talk to you?" I thought I was about to be kidnapped. I started running. They ran harder. Finally I spun around, taking a stand, and noticed they were Mormons. haha They wanted to talk to me about God. haha I was so mad. I said, "What the Hell is wrong with you two, chasing a lone woman down an isolated dark street? What part of you thought that was a good idea? I thought you were going to rape me or worse." They immediately apologized, and got back in the van and drove away.

[chuff]

I was a patrol officer in Prince George's County, MD patrolling the Landover/Palmer Park area...aka "the ghetto" when I saw 2 Mormon missionaries on bicycles, riding through the neighborhood. I got out of my cruiser to ask them if they knew anything about the area, and if they knew that they stuck out like sore thumbs and were basically moving targets. They responded with the standard "God will protect us". I replied, "Yes, that's why he sent me to warn you about this area."

I felt sorry for them. So young and clean cut, wearing button down shirts w/ties and it was in the upper 90s that day. They were sweating bullets - pardon the pun.

An aside - Oxon Hill, MD, where Josh and Anna Duggar rented a house, is part of PG County but in another sector. There's a reason why we call it "Oxon Hole." I nearly died laughing when I read he had moved his family there.

[3BluBs]

A car with a benevolent Jesus painted on the side, an inspirational message scrawled across the trunk ("Give your life to Jesus" or something like that), and a license plate that read "Yeshua2" headed down the highway.

[Inky]

My neighbour has been bothered one too many times by the JW's knocking on her door so she made a small sign and stuck it on her door "No Jehovah Witness Visits Please. Thank you."

They came up the driveway once more, read the little sign, turned around and left, and haven't been back since. If they get too pesky at my house, I'm going to try it.

[JuyuShoga]

I saw a JW table set up outside a Walmart in Rohnert Park, California a week or so ago. My shopping pal didn't recognize their materials--they had Watchtowers laid out--and said she had seen them on her recent trip to Australia too. I don't remember for sure, but I want to say she said they used the same posterboard displays. What's with the new tactics, JWs? :think:

Oh wow.... I thought it was a particular thing for the JWs here in Japan - kind of low key and not terribly effective, but dedicated.

Recently a conservatively but nicely dressed middle aged lady has been standing outside my train station next to a sandwich board and/or holding an open file of JW literature - clearly displayed.

She never interacts with anyone or hands out anything, just stands there silently.

[ILoveJellybeans]

The boards that mine are standing next to have things that do not sound religious on, like about common struggles that people have. Kinda sneaky.

[freealljs]

Mine happened a couple years ago. I was at the Atlanta Hartsfield airport, and saw a lady with long curly hair down to her butt, denim skirt to her ankles, and blue polo shirt with her husband who was wearing blue jeans and a blue polo. She was dealing with all the carryons while hubs was walking behind her holding his bible. She was struggling and I was about to help her, when they stopped and sat down.

[justoneoftwo]

When it comes to mormon missionaries they are often unwilling to leave. I had two follow me home from the L in Chicago, they only left because my building had security. I now live in mormon land and they stop by all the time. I will say I often feel bad for the ones here, there are so few people they can talk to, and not one of them doesn't know at least as much about their religion as they do.

[snick]

I'm a therapist and regularly attend conferences for continuing ed, and it's not surprising to see other conferences/conventions being held at the same time. Today was the last day of a major trauma informed care conference the organization I work for has every year. Mr. Snick and I (we work at the same place) got bored and started walking around the convention center to stretch our legs and happened upon the other conference being held - a large homeschooling conference. I've been lurking here for a VERY long time and immediately began googling the conference to see what kind of homeschoolers they were - and while none of the presenter's names pinged my fundie radar, it was DEFINITELY a fundie/fundie lite homeschool convention. Not everyone was in frumpers/super modest but a good majority of the people there looked the part. The largest bit of irony came from looking at their programming - they have a seminar on how to "protect your kids from social workers" at the same time as our conference, which had several break out sessions on how to better address systemic trauma that has arisen due to removing children from the home when it wasn't necessary.

It took all of my will to not go up to the organizers and say, "Guys, you know we're just down the hall, right?"

[December]

Mine happened a couple years ago. I was at the Atlanta Hartsfield airport, and saw a lady with long curly hair down to her butt, denim skirt to her ankles, and blue polo shirt with her husband who was wearing blue jeans and a blue polo. She was dealing with all the carryons while hubs was walking behind her holding his bible. She was struggling and I was about to help her, when they stopped and sat down.

He sounds like a real Prince Charming. :roll: Good on you for wanting to help her, though she probably couldn't have accepted it.

Also, for anyone who's never been through Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta, it's a HUGE airport with like basically a mini-subway connecting the terminals. Which makes me :evil: at the guy in this story even more.

[RebelYell]

He sounds like a real Prince Charming. :roll: Good on you for wanting to help her, though she probably couldn't have accepted it.

Also, for anyone who's never been through Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta, it's a HUGE airport with like basically a mini-subway connecting the terminals. Which makes me :evil: at the guy in this story even more.

Yeah, that guy sounds like such an asshole! I've been to Hartfield-Jackson and its massive. The terminal I was in had super long corridors that you had to WALK. No walking belts.

[zebra #13]

I guess yelled a string of profanity followed by "SPAWN OF SATAN! GET IN THE HOUSE!" did it. They haven't come back since.

Lol!

Long time ago, and another part of the country, I lived with my family (still in college). We had a "nest" of JWs just uproad of us. One Sunday, running late for church, there was a knock on the door. A pair of the lovely ladies wishing to speak to my mom. I left the door open a tad and went to get my mother. When she came into the living room, the ladies were sitting on the couch, unloading lit out of their bags onto the coffee table. My mom said we were just leaving for church. They continued unloading, and using their opening lines. My mom said, Look, I have a sister who's Jehovah's Witness, and I read Watchtowers all the time. If you'd care to come back some other time, I'll be glad to talk to you. But just now, I'm late for church. And picked up her handbag, motioned me out the door. When we got to the corner, we turned, and the ladies were exiting our front door, which they closed behind themselves.

My family's LDS, so maybe this is a Fundie Vs Fundie story?

Don't know--never *felt* Fundie. I was raised by a family who expected me to go to college, never dictated one thing about childbearing, or not. Half of every penny I made after age 12 went into my college fund. It was expected that skirts would cover knees, and no sleeveless blouses, or short shorts. One piece bathingsuits on adult females, but they could be nylon racers.

When my dad died, leaving her with six still under 18, the first thing she did was go to college, and got her degree in social work. I was raised with encyclopedias in the house (three sets by the time I was a college freshman). Of nine kids, all but two got college degrees, four have more than one degree.

When I was 12, my dad paid me $20 to read the Book of Mormon, whole. When I'd done that, he paid me to read Caesar and Christ by Will Durant. In 1952, $20 represented 80 hours of babysitting money to me. Just me, but I always felt he was more pleased by the latter than the former. And he supported me fully when I left the church at 21, never to return.

I never knew a man who loved his fellow man better, or in more ways than he did--including bringing down and out families home, and letting them camp in our living room while he found them jobs, housing, and car repairs.

So guess I'd have to say: Fundies is as Fundies does. . . .

[mallallory]

Tonight, Sunday evening, I saw what were very obviously a pair of Mormon missionaries, young women, which was cool. They were walking, no bikes, on a thoroughfare between two main streets. I think they must both have grown up somewhere warmer, because it's mid sixties in my neighborhood of southern California this evening, but they were both wrapped in mid-thigh trench coats with their knee length skirts peeking out below.

My fundie-ish sightings are few and far between since my husband left the military and we moved back here. Two that stand out in my mind when we were living in Japan are: At the exchange (Walmart like store on base) a woman was shopping, khaki skirt, oversized t-shirt, pregnant, 5 boys under 8, and she couldn't have been more than 26 or so herself. The second isn't so much a sighting, there was a large Baptist church in our area off-base, Koza Baptist, that tons of families attended. A couple of my friends attended and came back telling me that one of their teenage daughters was shamed/singled out/talked about by the other teenage girls for wearing Groucho style culottes (super wide leg capris) instead of a skirt. There is a lot of fundie-lite in the military community.

[PennySycamore]

Tonight, Sunday evening, I saw what were very obviously a pair of Mormon missionaries, young women, which was cool. They were walking, no bikes, on a thoroughfare between two main streets. I think they must both have grown up somewhere warmer, because it's mid sixties in my neighborhood of southern California this evening, but they were both wrapped in mid-thigh trench coats with their knee length skirts peeking out below.

My fundie-ish sightings are few and far between since my husband left the military and we moved back here. Two that stand out in my mind when we were living in Japan are: At the exchange (Walmart like store on base) a woman was shopping, khaki skirt, oversized t-shirt, pregnant, 5 boys under 8, and she couldn't have been more than 26 or so herself. The second isn't so much a sighting, there was a large Baptist church in our area off-base, Koza Baptist, that tons of families attended. A couple of my friends attended and came back telling me that one of their teenage daughters was shamed/singled out/talked about by the other teenage girls for wearing Groucho style culottes (super wide leg capris) instead of a skirt. There is a lot of fundie-lite in the military community.

Back in the 80s, lots of women in our fundie-blighted neighborhood wore those culottes. That pretty much turned me off ever wearing culottes.

[Hane]

Tonight, Sunday evening, I saw what were very obviously a pair of Mormon missionaries, young women, which was cool. They were walking, no bikes, on a thoroughfare between two main streets. I think they must both have grown up somewhere warmer, because it's mid sixties in my neighborhood of southern California this evening, but they were both wrapped in mid-thigh trench coats with their knee length skirts peeking out below.

My fundie-ish sightings are few and far between since my husband left the military and we moved back here. Two that stand out in my mind when we were living in Japan are: At the exchange (Walmart like store on base) a woman was shopping, khaki skirt, oversized t-shirt, pregnant, 5 boys under 8, and she couldn't have been more than 26 or so herself. The second isn't so much a sighting, there was a large Baptist church in our area off-base, Koza Baptist, that tons of families attended. A couple of my friends attended and came back telling me that one of their teenage daughters was shamed/singled out/talked about by the other teenage girls for wearing Groucho style culottes (super wide leg capris) instead of a skirt. There is a lot of fundie-lite in the military community.

Those are gaucho pants, not "Groucho" pants (sez the woman who saw them come into fashion in her youth).