Real Life Fundie Encounters - Part 4

[Coconut Flan 24,194]

Continued from here:

 

[divadivine 4,021]

I live on the north westside of Indianapolis (very close to the suburbs of Carmel and Zionsville, if you know the area.) Anyhow, I ran out to pick up some Qdoba for dinner tonight. Qdoba is across the street from Walmart. When I was leaving the parking lot, I noticed a few people walking down the sidewalk on 86th Street (busy area, you don't see a lot of people walking up here unless they just got off the city bus.) I noticed knee length skirts & long hair.... and another group.... and another. Lord, it was a whole gaggle fundies. I don't know if they had been on a tour bus and they were walking to dinner at the fast food restaurants on 86th street or if they were out trying to win souls for Jesus. I wish I could have gotten a photo- just to show everyone how many there were out on the sidewalk. No clue if there is an event in the city this weekend or not, but it was a fundie invasion. 

[MarblesMom 38,627]

An awkward moment with Hutterites in the local Tractor Supply... I came in on my walker, in knee length denim shorts.... there was a young, maybe 10-12 y/o with an older H man... the child turned and saw me walk in... and she stared at me like I was Godzilla.  Eyes big as saucers.

I was inwardly amused.  

I hope she got to ask questions on her ride home and was not chastised for asking why people are different.

[hollyandivy 1,359]

I am SOOOOOOO angry! A little while ago I drove with my kids to the next bigger city for some shopping. I was about to turn into a parking lot when I noticed a group of people with HUGE posters of dismembered babies. We had run into an anti abortion rally.  And the pictures were disgusting. I don't know how those could be allowed, a movie containing those images would have been R -rated. Luckily my kids were watching a movie, so they didn't see those images. I just hit the gas pedal and kept going. I don't think the stores along that parking lot had a lot of customers that day.

[divadivine 4,021]

I figured out why I saw the herd of Fundies last night in Indianapolis. The North America Youth Congress is in town. Hello Pentecostals.

Our student board is in this week. The first 3 arrived today. One adult must stay in the hotel & I volunteered as tribute. I checked in this afternoon. I pull into the hotel lot & there are several 15 passenger vans and a tour bus. Then I see them... a sea of fundies. They had to pull their vans right up to the front doors, making it impossible for anyone else to pull up & load/unload. I had training materials in the van I needed to bring in. I had to park and walk up, not a big deal, but they were all standing in the middle of the drive and blocking the damn doors. I was already over their shit 3 minutes after my arrival. They had every freaking bell cart and they were all over the lobby, just standing around in the way. 

The hotel gives drink tickets at check in. The lady next to me said to the front desk lady "We DON'T drink!" Mwhahahaha!

I went back to the van to pick up the rest of my stuff and two teenage boys were waiting  on the elevator. The doors open & I got in the elevator. They wouldn't ride with me! 

Also, when I was waiting on the elevator a teen girl came out of one room with a pair of khakis and a button-down shirt. She had clearly ironed it. She knocks on the door next to her room and hands the recently ironed outfit to a teen boy. Sweet Jesus.... men can iron! 

Thankfully they will start leaving Friday night or Saturday morning. And they will be out of the hotel most of the time because they are a good 30 minutes from downtown. So help me, if they wake me up with their noise or try to convert me, I will cut someone!  

[hollyandivy 1,359]

11 hours ago, divadivine said:

 

The hotel gives drink tickets at check in. The lady next to me said to the front desk lady "We DON'T drink!" Mwhahahaha!

 

You should have volunteered to take all their tickets ,  it might make it more bearable for you  

[Swamptribe 1,177]

16 minutes ago, hollyandivy said:

You should have volunteered to take all their tickets ,  it might make it more bearable for you  

Or cheerfully reminded them their are non alcoholic drinks available.

[samurai_sarah 9,503]

I'm not sure this qualifies as a fundy encounter or a minor annoyance, but here it goes:

Mr samurai_sarah and I went went grocery shopping yesterday. I was pondering the merits of different cream cheeses, when a lady approached me, fumbling with her handbag. Next thing I knew, she pushed a flyer into my hands inviting me to join the "Interreligious and International Federation for World Peace". She took off before I could ask her about it.

I'm a big fan of interfaith and international dialogue, and world peace sounds good too. But this was odd.

 

Quote

"The family has its foundation in the stability of sexual order, which entails purity before marriage and fidelity in marriage".

Okay, so you're a homophobic, sexist and slut-shaming organisation? Personally, a big fan of fidelity, but that's between my husband and me.

Quote

When the sexual and family order break down, the entire social order deteriorates, much as the break down of a body with diseased cells.

Attached is a handy diagram that informs me that as an ideal wife to an ideal husband under God, I will have "true children" (whatever that means), which will influence family, society, nation and the world. This is supposed to be God's original desire.

Okay, so you're homophobic and sexist troupe, with weird nationalistic ideas for an international organisation?

 

Quote

All human beings are originally created to co-exist in harmonious, cooperative and mutually fulfilling marriage partnerships.

No, they're not! Some people don't want to get married, some can't. For example, one of my relatives' autistic condition is such that they cannot consent. They can't get married. And some possibly aren't suited. Someone with say, zoophilia might not be ideally suited for a marriage. And since this organisation is so bent on heterosexual marriages, I suspect they are still surprised whenever it turns out that heterosexual marriage has yet to "cure" a single gay person.

But I am still wondering what "true children" are. Neither the flyer, nor the website offer any answers to that question, so I am left in the dark as to how to know "true" from "untrue" children.

By the outlined standards, Mr samurai_sarah and I suck as "ideal" husband and wife. Logically that means we'll only ever have "untrue" children. What does that mean in practical terms? Will I, at some point in my potential offspring's life, have to sit them down and inform them that they're fake?

Anyway, going by the website the organisation is truly interfaith, and pretty international, but a picture on the inside of the flyer annoyed me. It showed a heterosexual biracial young family. The husband is white, the wife is Asian. Hmm, no I must be paranoid to think that Mr ss being white and me being biracial Asian might have anything to do with getting targeted, right?

[ThunderRolls 4,166]

Some neighbors of mine appear to be Catholic "fundies." While I know it's not that unusual for conservative Catholics to have large families, there are a few things that set this family apart. They are in their early 30s with about 9 children ranging from infant to 12. The children are homeschooled (although we do have private Catholic schools in town) , the mom only wears long skirts (sometimes she'll wear leggings with a knee-length skirt over them), and both parents sell MLM products in addition to running their own business. They seem to be very into everything organic and promote holistic medicine at their business. The family attends one of our local Catholic churches but they definitely stand out amongst the other parishioners as being extra conservative. I do know they have a lot of extended family members in the area who do not seem to be as conservative even though they are also regular church goers - well, scratch that, I have seen some teenage girls (who I suspect are relations) working at their business and they are all in long skirts and look very early-era Duggar.  Both parents, including the mom, appear to be hard workers and the grandparents are often around to watch the youngest kids when the parents are working. 

The homeschooling and conservative dress are probably the biggest things that stand out about this family. Homeschooling in this area is not very common (especially for a family who lives right in town and not out in the country on a farm) and neither is the conservative dress (this family's version is like how Anna Keller dressed when she and Josh first started courting). 

I'm curious to know if others have encountered other Catholic families like this? I honestly don't know if this family is just doing their own thing or if they're part of a growing movement of extra conservative Catholics. I've only lived in this area for a few years so I'm not sure if it's just something that is happening within the local community/this family - I definitely never saw or knew any Catholic families like this where I grew up. I did see large families once in a while (including my own cousins from a family of 8 kids) but typically the births seemed to be spaced out instead of back to back to back. 

 

[LeftCoastLurker 1,337]

6 hours ago, samurai_sarah said:

IAttached is a handy diagram that informs me that as an ideal wife to an ideal husband under God, I will have "true children" (whatever that means), which will influence family, society, nation and the world. This is supposed to be God's original desire.Okay, so you're homophobic and sexist troupe, with weird nationalistic ideas for an international organisation?

 

I have this sinking feeling that it means biological children vs. non-biological children.

[feministxtian 31,072]

2 hours ago, ThunderRolls said:

I'm curious to know if others have encountered other Catholic families like this?

When I lived in Indiana, there were families like this. They'd get mixed up in Cursillo and the alleged Marian apparitions and go whole-hog Catholic fundie. I personally know of three families that went bonkers. They pulled the kids out of the parish school because it was "too liberal" and homeschooled. One family had "stopped" at two children (she was on birth control) and then went on to have 3 or 4 more kids. 

[Jana814 8,778]

They only really religious families around me that I see are religious Jewish people. Some have a lot of kids and some don't. 

[ThunderRolls 4,166]

3 hours ago, feministxtian said:

When I lived in Indiana, there were families like this. They'd get mixed up in Cursillo and the alleged Marian apparitions and go whole-hog Catholic fundie. I personally know of three families that went bonkers. They pulled the kids out of the parish school because it was "too liberal" and homeschooled. One family had "stopped" at two children (she was on birth control) and then went on to have 3 or 4 more kids. 

How interesting - I wonder if that's what happened to this family. 

[JermajestyDuggar 71,168]

I know of one very fundie catholic family with back to back pregnancies with skirts and homeschooling. But the father of the family used to be a priest. So I assume that's part of it, lol.

[griffin 4,120]

samurai_sarah, that's the moonies! Holy cow, I thought they had kind of petered out by now since Moon died. They call Moon and his wife the "true parents", so true children mean children born from moonie couples. Moon always mixed the races or nationalities of the couples. I had a friend who was conned into that in the 70's. He married a woman from France he met the day of the wedding. She didn't speak English. That whole "religion" is so bogus and makes me stabby.

[samurai_sarah 9,503]

@griffin

Oh my goodness! Thank you!!! That explains so, so much. I didn't figure out that I got targeted by the Moonies.

P.S.: Looked at the flyer again. The prayer by "Sun Myung Moon" should have tipped me off...

[Swamptribe 1,177]

On 7/27/2017 at 8:59 AM, Swamptribe said:

Or cheerfully reminded them their are non alcoholic drinks available.

Crap, just realized it should read there not their. 

[EowynW 15,569]

Saw fundie inlaws today. BIL just had 3rd kid in 3years. 

FIL: "when we will be adding more grandkids to the family?" 

Me: "whenever you're gonna help pay for them, PawPaw." 

FIL: "God will provide." 

Me: "we'd like to get a little more stable first." 

MIL: "we didn't have anything when we had our kids." 

Me: "we would rather not have to have government help raising our kids. And there's a lot to think about in order to raise and educate your kids well." 

MIL: "well time is running out for y'all." (Mr. EW is 31 and I'm 30) 

sigh....

[Flossie 7,892]

Do fundies get more points for having more grand kids?  My parents were thrilled when the grandchildren started petering out.  Even gift cards for birthdays and holidays was getting expensive.  Now they're looking at great grand kids, and luckily no one expects them to do much more than send a card.

[clueliss 9,278]

Earlier this week I spotted an Amish or Mennonite Buggy in front of Dollar General on my way home from work (my present route takes me past 3 between work and home).   This particular store is located within throwing distance of "Amish Country"  

[BabyBottlePop 6,505]

I went to a salvage grocery store in Amish country the other day. Went into the bathroom, saw a woman with a baby tied to her and three little girls under six. They kept trying to pump soap and she was trying and failing to corral all of them out of the bathroom. She and the girls were all wearing long pointy kerchiefs. Certainly wasn't Amish or Mennonite but I'm not sure what else they would be. Anyway I go into the bathroom and there's a chick tract on the toilet (the top tank, not the seat). As a Catholic who hates proselytizing, I hate chick tracts! (Besides whoever put that on there, if they did bring anyone to Jesus that person would have gotten saved on the toilet. Hope they're ok with that!) 

Anyway I took the tract and shredded it at home. 

[AuntKrazy 3,610]

1 hour ago, BabyBottlePop said:

 As a Catholic who hates proselytizing, I hate chick tracts! 

 

Have you ever seen the heinous Chick Tract called "The Death Cookie"?  - it was the first one I ever encountered.  

I have to admit that all it accomplished (beside disbelief in what I was reading) was launching a fascination with bizarre religious behaviors.

[BabyBottlePop 6,505]

@AuntKrazy, mine was The Last Surprise. Not one of his best. A new pastor warns of hell to a grumpy lady who controlled the old pastor with her money.

[FeministShrew 3,872]

I may have mentioned before that my sis leaves tips inside Chick tracts. When I've been with her, I've waited until she left, added more cash, & taken the tract to tear up into pieces. 

[BabyBottlePop 6,505]

@FeministShrew, at least your sister leaves some money. I think the worst are the tracts that look like money. Like, gee, someday in heaven that person will forgive you for stiffing them cause you caused their entrance into heaven. Nope, don't think it works that way.