Real Life Fundie Encounters: Part 5

[FeministShrew]

Yesterday was my first Saturday at the historic site where I now work. A very sweet young Mennonite couple on their honeymoon bought tickets. He was wearing a camp shirt & blue jeans, and she was wearing a floral calico dress & little white cap. 
They were much nicer than the obnoxious guy wearing bike shorts & a sun shirt who kept trying to start conversations with strangers. He would randomly pull out a book, The Prodigal God, and loudly talk about how he's Catholic & he & his "mentor" have been studying the gospels. He also acted like our rules didn't apply to him.

Edited March 28, 2021 by FeministShrew

[Howl]

Cold caller on our land line yesterday: Hello, this is ___________from Pflugerville. I'm not a telemarketer.  I'm wondering if I could share a Bible verse with you today to encourage you...

I'll guess that if the Bible verse leads to further conversation, the caller invites you to her church.  She did sound elderly and quite sincere, but I didn't engage. 

(Pflugerville is a real place. Thirty years ago it was a sleepy town of probably <2,000 people just up the Interstate from Austin.  The latest census puts the population at about 60,000.)

[Flossie]

3 hours ago, Howl said:

Cold caller on our land line yesterday: Hello, this is ___________from Pflugerville. I'm not a telemarketer.  I'm wondering if I could share a Bible verse with you today to encourage you...

I'll guess that if the Bible verse leads to further conversation, the caller invites you to her church.  She did sound elderly and quite sincere, but I didn't engage. 

I had that happen a year or two ago, but my caller wanted me to know that she was just doing what Jesus did.  Apparently, he went house to house to spread the word.  According to her, it was even in the Bible.

[smittykins]

Apparently, phone calls and letters are now the preferred form of “field service” for the Jehovah’s Witnesses since the pandemic suspended the door-to-door preaching(not saying that your caller is a JW).

[FiveAcres]

3 hours ago, Howl said:

Cold caller on our land line yesterday: Hello, this is ___________from Pflugerville. I'm not a telemarketer.  I'm wondering if I could share a Bible verse with you today to encourage you...

I'll guess that if the Bible verse leads to further conversation, the caller invites you to her church.  She did sound elderly and quite sincere, but I didn't engage. 

(Pflugerville is a real place. Thirty years ago it was a sleepy town of probably <2,000 people just up the Interstate from Austin.  The latest census puts the population at about 60,000.)

I had one of these early on in the pandemic on the house phone. I am not even sure why I answered it since we don't usually answer the house phone if we don't recognize the number. Same deal: not a telemarketer and asked how I was doing during the pandemic. I said as well as could be expected and then she wanted to share a bible verse. I hung up. 

[CTRLZero]

44 minutes ago, smittykins said:

Apparently, phone calls and letters are now the preferred form of “field service” for the Jehovah’s Witnesses since the pandemic suspended the door-to-door preaching(not saying that your caller is a JW).

We got handwritten letters on our block from a Jehovah’s Witness member.  Same deal - how are you doing during the pandemic and inviting us to call.  Uh, no.  A follow-up letter arrived mostly mass produced, but with a handwritten note.  I picture a lot of JWs getting writers cramp last month. 

[front hugs > duggs]

Wasn’t sure where to put this, but I’m guessing I could have hella fundie encounters next week if I chose to indeed torture myself beyond repair:

 

[Tangy Bee]

Wait a minute...I just realized I haven't seen any Mormon missionaries in our community lately. They are usually riding bikes through town or shopping at Walmart. Haven't seen any Jehovah Witnesses walking around since February of last year. I guess Covid is keeping everyone home.

[Themanda Duggar]

1 hour ago, Tangy Bee said:

Wait a minute...I just realized I haven't seen any Mormon missionaries in our community lately. They are usually riding bikes through town or shopping at Walmart. Haven't seen any Jehovah Witnesses walking around since February of last year. I guess Covid is keeping everyone home.

I got a nice note in the mail from my neighborhood Mormon missionaries.  They offered to help with all kinds of outdoor projects.

 

[clueliss]

13 hours ago, Tangy Bee said:

Wait a minute...I just realized I haven't seen any Mormon missionaries in our community lately. They are usually riding bikes through town or shopping at Walmart. Haven't seen any Jehovah Witnesses walking around since February of last year. I guess Covid is keeping everyone home.

I have a friend with a son out on LDS Mission.  They're only allowed to do certain sorts of contacts right now. 

[JermajestyDuggar]

I guess one nice thing came out of covid. No people knocking on our doors for Jesus.

[MarblesMom]

On 4/23/2021 at 8:27 AM, clueliss said:

I have a friend with a son out on LDS Mission.  They're only allowed to do certain sorts of contacts right now. 

eye witness said she saw a small car show up across the street and two MM got out and went to one specific house... looks like they  might have abandoned bicycles for now...

 

[FeministShrew]

My coworker was tipped with a tract last week. The woman said "Since you get to work in paradise, here's your ticket to the real thing."
A couple of days later an elderly woman gave me a tract & said, "This is my mom's story. I'd like to share it with you." It had a photo of an elderly woman with an impressive Pentecostal-type updo, and told about how she became religious. It was kind of a breath of fresh air as far as tracts go: it was just her simple first person story of her life, and how she "came to know God" - her words - but it wasn't really preachy, didn't mention heaven or hell, or Jesus or Satan, or any denomination. There was no mention of "getting saved" or any kind of sinner's prayer or bible verse. Like I said, it was odd.
I googled her name but couldn't find anything. I threw the tract away & can't remember her name now.

[fundiefriday]

11 hours ago, FeministShrew said:

My coworker was tipped with a tract last week. The woman said "Since you get to work in paradise, here's your ticket to the real thing."
 

This is awful.  The last thing people who earn a good portion of their salary via tips need is a religious pamphlet.  Especially considering how hard hit everything's been b/c of covid.  Giving someone a tract instead of an actual tip is pretty unchristian behavior in my opinion.

 

[FeministShrew]

@fundiefriday I agree. Fortunately we don't depend on tips. In fact, apparently no one has ever tipped anyone doing his particular job before this year. (We have different positions.) The week before a lady gave him a cash tip. 

[Mrs. Kravitz]

My husband's relative went off the deep end a few years ago. Apparently she and her husband were always on the more conservative Christian side (which is fairly common in the area they lived), but then the cousin started taking theology classes at a local Bible College. My first memory of meeting her was her holding her 6 month old baby, and her husband saying that he was uncomfortable that his son's comfort toy was called a "lovey." Anyway, at some point they stopped going to their local church and instead watched sermons from some preacher online and eventually even stopped doing that. Instead they did home church (she apparently told relatives that she had read the Bible enough times that she was a theologian now). Maybe a year after that they stopped coming to family things, including a relative's funeral because it was being held at the house of Satan a Catholic church, and soon after that she and her husband officially cut ties from all family members because of their sinful lifestyles (divorce, atheism, and Catholicism, mainly). She apparently has at least one or maybe two more children now. No one has met them. They deleted all social media and moved out west two years ago to start an organic farm. Pretty sure they don't know anything about farming. My advanced Google skills seem to imply they are no longer farming. 

A short aside, I once texted my very religious friend (almost became a nun; has a Master's in theology) asking what education level you need have to be considered a "theologian." She said nothing less than a doctorate. So I said, "What if someone has only taken a few classes but has read the Bible a bunch of times?" And she said "WTF? Lol no. Where do you get this shit?"

Edited May 16, 2021 by Mrs. Kravitz

[Mrs. Kravitz]

Oh and I just remembered! This same cousin did not come to our (Catholic) wedding, but she did sent us a lovely book on how to have a proper, Godly, Christian marriage. I cannot for the life of me remember the title right now. Though, I'll be honest, I only read the sex chapters. Let's just say they didn't actually use the the phrase "joyfully available," but the basic principle was definitely there. I made my husband write the thank you note for that one. 

Edited May 17, 2021 by Mrs. Kravitz

[GoddessOfVictory]

Just had my second encounter with fundamentalist Mormons today. There were three ladies, all had the same braided hair-do and wearing the same prairie-style, button-up dress but in different colors - sleeves to the wrist, hems to the ankles. They were all very polite and, thankfully, all wearing masks. Apparently, they just moved in from out of state and were exploring. I listened to them talk and noticed they had a very interesting accent. My boss was born and raised in the state they moved out of and the accents were nothing like hers.

[Howl]

On 5/18/2021 at 12:58 AM, GoddessOfVictory said:

Just had my second encounter with fundamentalist Mormons today.

Interesting! Did they identify themselves as Mormon/FLDS or FLDS adjacent? 

[SoSoNosy]

I have seen pictures of a lot of Mormon people who were wearing perfectly normal clothes.  But they weren't fundamentalist, my bad.  Sorry.

Edited May 22, 2021 by SoSoNosy

[GoddessOfVictory]

On 5/19/2021 at 2:40 PM, Howl said:

Interesting! Did they identify themselves as Mormon/FLDS or FLDS adjacent? 

They did not identify if they belonged to FLDS or a different Mormon fundamentalist sect but a quick google search tells me there is an FLDS community in the state they used to live in.

[neuroticcat]

We are trying to sell a piano on Craigslist and had a fundie family come check it out. One of the eldest daughters of ten children came with her parents to check it out and played beautifully. Totally reminded me of the older Duggar daughters in their late teens: similar style and permed hair. 
 

The dad was mostly quiet. The mom talked about “her” children...like “my oldest son is doing x”, etc. It was weird, especially with the dad right there. Also the daughter was obviously a stay at home daughter. She’s done with school and, according to the mom, dying to go to the super conservative Bible school her older brothers went to. But the mom announced that “It wasn’t for her since she’s a girl and can’t handle the Word.” I kid you not it sounded like she was using rehearsed speech. 
 

It was heartbreaking. All I could manage was to tell the girl I left home at 17 for Bible college and was glad I did. How sad that even a probably awful fundie Bible college is out of possibility for this young woman. ?

 

[JermajestyDuggar]

On 5/18/2021 at 1:58 AM, GoddessOfVictory said:

Just had my second encounter with fundamentalist Mormons today. There were three ladies, all had the same braided hair-do and wearing the same prairie-style, button-up dress but in different colors - sleeves to the wrist, hems to the ankles. They were all very polite and, thankfully, all wearing masks. Apparently, they just moved in from out of state and were exploring. I listened to them talk and noticed they had a very interesting accent. My boss was born and raised in the state they moved out of and the accents were nothing like hers.

Insular communities have to heir own accents. Amish have accents too. If you only grow up around all the same people cut off from the mainstream world, you all have the same accent. 

[GoddessOfVictory]

5 hours ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

Insular communities have to heir own accents. Amish have accents too. If you only grow up around all the same people cut off from the mainstream world, you all have the same accent. 

That's what I figured. I was intrigued precisely because it meant they came from an insular community.

[Howl]

John Fugelsang had a real life Twitter encounter w/ a fundy, which is also the most epic self own ever in the history of Ever.