Fleeing Fundamentalism

[bozgirl14]

Hey there, just de-lurking to say that I found a very interesting book today at my library that deals with a lot of the "complementarian religion is creepy" stuff that is snarked about here.

"Fleeing Fundamentalism" is written by the former wife of a minister, Carlene Cross. Her family seems not to have really become conservative fundamentalist Baptists until her teens, but then they went in whole hog. She ends up at a bible college in the late 70's and falls in love with an aspiring minister. At first he seems to be very interested in her opinions on theology and doctrine and treats her as an equal, but he is a follower of this teacher she's never heard of, Bill Gothard, and before long he is falling headlong in to the whole fundamentalist mess we all know and detest. :shock:

One thing that makes it interesting is that she was sort of at the beginning of the whole "Men need to be at the head of the household and women need to keep meek, quiet and brainless," school of thought. She mentions how she'd never really heard of fundamentalists being politically active until Jerry Falwell. There is a really telling part she writes about when her husband goes to seminary. She and the other seminary wives laugh at the fact that their husbands have started telling them what to do and how to do it, but they are also nervous about it.

Anyway, I thought I would let people know. It is a really interesting insight in to someone who was brought in to the fundamentalist world partly out of fear and partly because of high hopes and good intentions, and left it feeling really disillusioned.

[AnnoDomini]

How fundy can someone be if they think that a Bible college is remotely faithful to the True Word of God? Large organizations of professing Christians inevitably are corrupted by liberal, Arminian thinking and thus must de facto be apostate.

This is what my family's attitude was.

[Mompom]

How fundy can someone be if they think that a Bible college is remotely faithful to the True Word of God? Large organizations of professing Christians inevitably are corrupted by liberal, Arminian thinking and thus must de facto be apostate.

This is what my family's attitude was.

There is a wide spectrum. You have your sola scriptura, "I love Greek and Hebrew", Bible school educated, missionary fundies. Then you have your Charismatic, "I don't need no stinkin' Greek, the Holy Spirit is my homeboy" fundies. And then there are the isolationist, DIY fundies and everything in between those three groups. I came from the first branch. That book sounds right up my alley.

[Joykins]

I read that book, and I don't know how typical it is. It turned out her husband had serious mental health issues as well, and stopped believing and started behaving erratically well before leaving the minstry. They weren't QF/patriarchal fundies, closer to your typical sexist evangelicals.

[bozgirl14]

What gets me is that no matter what the circumstance, these women are supposed to treat their husband's word as law. Mentally ill? He is still the head of the household. Alcoholic wife beater? Turn away wrath with a gentle word. Women in this world are supposed to stick it out and put up with everything and men on the other hand are excused for infidelity, abuse and ridiculous behavior in general.

[mrs]

I have been reading this book. It is rather slow at the beginning. But it eventually picks up. It is intresting to see "the path" into fundamentalism.

I am always looking for memoirs about leaving fundamentalism, polygamy, Amish, etc.

[Cannelle]

Just requested it from the library, thank you!!!