Fundy, fundy-lite, evangelical, mainstream Christian

[AnnoDomini]

I'm really curious where you guys would put my family on the fundy spectrum, so ask me questions to determine where (I don't really know what info to volunteer or where to start).

[1004srs]

What did you wear?

Make-up or not?

Flip-flops, canvas tennis shoes, or regular shoes.

Were you allowed to cut your hair?

How many times did you go to church each week and for how long?

[finleeport]

How were women viewed as in your upbringing? What did they think of female saints and the Virgin Mary?

[AnnoDomini]

Skirts must hit below the knee

No cleavage; if someone looking down at my chest could see cleavage inside my shirt, the shirt was too low-cut

Skirts must be opaque; if you could see a silhouette/hint of leg if the sun was shining straight through the material, the skirt needed a slip

No makeup til I was 15, and no wild nail polish colors (anything other than shades in the tasteful pink spectrum counted as wild--no pale blue or bright red for me)

No regulations on shoes though if I'd discovered stripper shoes earlier in my youth they might have been prohibited

No strapless or off-shoulder tops

No backless tops/dresses or cuts that dipped low enough to show the bra band

No clingy/body skimming cuts (I think early on, my mother even disapproved of fitted sheath dresses)

No close-fitting jeans

No camis

No two-piece swimsuits of any kind

Swimsuit leg-holes must be low, not high cut. Really, really low.

(There's more to the modesty code in my house, but this is what I could remember off the top of my head.)

Supershort cuts were not allowed (the hair as headcovering thing) but we had some short haircuts on girls. Boys always had really short hair, even as babies.

Went to church every week, drove an hour each way to get there. Occasionally we'd go to night services too but mostly mornings, since we couldn't regularly take that hourlong drive twice a day and go home between services, and it wasn't practical to stay 8 hours between services, not with 8 children. Service was probably about 2 1/2 hours long, and the sermons were always at the college level and as such, incomprehensible.

We were taught that while women were equal to men in God's eyes, here on earth, the husband was the head of the wife and leader of the home.

We did not elevate the 'saints' above the level of other men; we viewed them as simply famous Christians, deserving of no worship or special veneration.

[CynicMom]

Did you believe that the Bible was the innerrant word of God? Did you believe in evolution?

[AnnoDomini]

Yes we did, and no, we didn't. Well, we believed in natural selection (microevolution through loss of genetic information) but not macroevolution, the Big Bang, old earth, etc.

[keeperrox]

How were you taught to treat people who believed differently from you?

[AnnoDomini]

I don't remember that ever being discussed, but a big reason why we weren't socialized was my parents didn't want us mixing with nonChristian, nonhomeschoolers more than we had to (though at least they didn't forbid my sister from playing with the next door neighbor boy).

[AnnoDomini]

I don't know if this is relevant, but no one in the family had pierced ears either.

[mirele]

Was your church part of a specific group? The preachers were trained at a specific college? Or something else?

[koolmom]

Back when I was accepted by a church couple/family as a boarder, I wondered where on the spectrum this couple was on the Fundie-Meter. He was in the military, she had a daughter as a teen but no subsequent children (kid was 12 years old), she worked, sent daughter to a private Christian school, and was watched by her grandmother. No TV was allowed (but didn't object when I brought my own TV into my room), he seemed far more involved in the Christian thing than she was, protesting local 7-11 stores who sold Playboy and Penthouse magazines. He argue with daughter over music; only grudgingly accepting records by Amy Grant as "liberal" music.

[JesusFightClub]

AD, I would probably score that as fundy, so far...it's the socialisation thing that is the clincher.

[AnnoDomini]

Was your church part of a specific group? The preachers were trained at a specific college? Or something else?

I don't know. Our church met in various rented hotel conference rooms and private schools. I don't think we were part of a group because it was just the church. There were no instruments and no women in charge of anything (though that *might* have had something to do with the fact that no one did anything except the pastor and the guy who taped the sermons, but I know my father disapproved of even the woman piano player in other churches), no Sunday School during the adult service, no nursury, and instead of hymns, we sang Psalms only, disapproving of hymns in church.

[Joykins]

Were you allowed to choose your own reading material and music?

I'm thinking you were raised fundy, "fundy-lite" tend to normal social lives and dress even though the beliefs may be similar.

[GenerationCedarchip]

Were you allowed to choose your own reading material and music?

I'm thinking you were raised fundy, "fundy-lite" tend to normal social lives and dress even though the beliefs may be similar.

I agree. This sounds more like fundy than fundy-lite, especially the dispproving of hymns in church.

[bananacat]

Sounds mostly fundie to me, but I am curious about two things.

Were you allowed to wear pants ever, or skirts only?

Did you ever home church?

[AnnoDomini]

Books were not all pre-screened; my parents were fairly trusting in that regard (though they did forbid me reading Harry Potter) but there were books at the library that, while not explicitly forbidden, I felt like they were 'forbidden'. I ended up reading them and was so glad I did.

Music again was not expressly forbidden or purposefully screened, but my parents made no secret of disapproving of 'secular music'--we stopped listening to even the little Christian music we had (I still love a few Michael Card songs). Classical music was encouraged instead. When I was thirteen I got my own radio and started listening to other music, mostly oldies from the 60s and modern country. I wore headphones all the time when I listened to it--it was my deepest secret for a long, long time.

My parents had no problem with me wearing pants that I remember, but we did have a church at home for a while.

[AnnoDomini]

The thing is, I read the stories here and on websites like NLQ and think, that's not my family at all. But maybe it's because we're toward the fundylite end, while still in the fundy meter if that makes sense.

[Joykins]

The thing is, I read the stories here and on websites like NLQ and think, that's not my family at all. But maybe it's because we're toward the fundylite end, while still in the fundy meter if that makes sense.

There is a spectrum of practice in fundamentalism. There are a LOT of fundamentalists who aren't quiverfull or patriarchal, and families will often take on some aspects of a movement and not others. This blog post at Love, Joy, Feminism gives a good overview of the differences

http://lovejoyfeminism.blogspot.com/201 ... stian.html

I was raised evangelical, and in a relatively conservative church. I had no dress code, I could check anything I wanted out of the library or buy my own books (except when I was under 13), I could listen to whatever music I wanted, I went to public school, I had an atheist boyfriend, I went away to college, etc. I also went to youth group several times a week and Sunday school and church on Sunday. I went on a short-term mission trip. At college I was involved in the Navigators. I was pretty dedicated to being a good Christian although I had serious doubts about some of the Bible (still do). When I returned home from college (it was a recession then too), I was more or less treated like an adult making her own decisions. My mother worked outside the home after my sister was in Jr. High and regularly snarked Beverley LaHaye. My mother also reads Harry Potter and won't admit it to her church friends (she calls me to talk about the books :lol: ). This is more or less what I consider conservative evangelical--there are relatively conservative beliefs about sex, the Bible, evangelism, etc. but in practice you blend in with the larger culture fairly well.

[AnnoDomini]

Hmm, my family would describe your upbringing as pretty liberal. The churches large enough to have a youth group, we considered likely to be 'apostate'. I've never been to youth group because there never was one.

[AnnoDomini]

There must be more questions I haven't thought to answer.

[Joykins]

Hmm, my family would describe your upbringing as pretty liberal. The churches large enough to have a youth group, we considered likely to be 'apostate'. I've never been to youth group because there never was one.

See, that's the sort of thing that kind of screams "fundy." Separatism and believing no one else but your group has the TRVTH.

[Bellatrix]

What were you told regarding courting/marriage and the Big Great Taboo of S-E-X?

Did you notice any major differences between how the boys and girls of the family were being raised, practically speaking (beyond the speech on what women should be towards men for ex.)? Were there any shifts of relational patterns between a sister and a brother at a certain age?

[bananacat]

OK, now I'm confused. Home church is a fundie flag, but then you also got to wear pants sometimes. I would still put you to the fundie side even though I'm not an expert.

[Joykins]

OK, now I'm confused. Home church is a fundie flag, but then you also got to wear pants sometimes. I would still put you to the fundie side even though I'm not an expert.

Here are some significant indicators to me:

detailed and fairly rigid rules for appearance and conduct.

separatism ("sheltering") from broader society - homeschooling is just one manifestation of this.

excessive parental control (adult child still expected to abide by dress code etc). (--this is more indicative of Patriarchy than fundamentalism per se, but it fits)

believing other fairly conservative but mainstream Christian groups are "apostate"

religious beliefs that fit with the dictionary definition of fundamentalism (e.g. biblical inerrancy and literalism, creationism, etc.).