Weirdest Fundie Beliefs

[Themanda Duggar]

I’ve never gotten past the fact that people think a god that would kill every living being on the earth, except for those on one boat, is worthy of worship.

I also have a really hard time accepting that all you have to do is to say the right prayer, and that all the horrible things you may have done are forgiven.

Or that a worthwhile god cares about your modesty standards, but not the standards by which refugees are treated.

[KWLand]

The things as a christian, that I find the oddest are
-that they believe the KJV is the one true Bible
-their take on modesty and how it should apply to everyone
-why women are responsible for men's thoughts/actions
-that God calls every woman to be the same--all women work at home, all women have thousands of kids, all women
-that they preach what they don't practice
-that the most outspoken preachy fundamentalists are all woman

the biggest one
that their pro-life belief ends after birth.  They are often against foster care/adoption, some talk strongly against single moms, are against government aid for those in need, etc.  They want the baby born, but don't offer help after the birth.

Edited March 30, 2020 by KWLand

[bal maiden]

It’s always, always the Cabbage Patch dolls for me. And Eye Traps. 

[dripcurl]

I’m sorry, can someone enlighten me to the Cabbage Patch doll thing?

[Red Hair, Black Dress]

Eye Traps?

 

[PennySycamore]

@Red Hair, Black Dress, eye traps were a crazy idea of Bill Gothard that women and even little girls should not wear stuff like contrasting buttons that would draw a man's attention to their figure, lest the poor weakling be defrauded and stumble.  I don't think I need to tell you how very fucked up that is.

and @dripcurl, I don't think it was just Bill Gothard, but there were a lot of fundies and pentecostals that felt that Cabbage Patch Dolls were somehow instruments of Satan.   Little girls that had these dolls were certain to be possessed by demons or something.  I don't know if that particular bit of batshittery included those dolls handmade by loving grandmothers as my daughters' dolls were.  You could buy a head and take a class to make your own "Cabbage Patch" kid.  I think we still (or my daughters do) have Polly and Patch.  Polly was the doll of my firstborn and her younger sister had Patch.  

[zeppelincommander]

A fertilized egg has full human rights, while a pregnant woman doesn't.  Her rights are always second to the fertilized egg/zygote/fetus.  This is also more of a fundie-lite thing, but the belief that human life begins at conception, anything to prevent implantation is abortion, yet many many women have IUDs, which (especially if non-hormonal) prevent implantation.  Not sure if it's ignorance or willful ignoring.

[PennySycamore]

Even non-hormonal IUDs do NOT work by preventing implantation.  The copper in copper IUDs is toxic to sperm.

[Marmion]

3 hours ago, dripcurl said:

I’m sorry, can someone enlighten me to the Cabbage Patch doll thing?

Quote

We’ve been told an article about Cabbage Patch dolls coming to life and strangling their owners appeared in the National Enquirer in the late 1980s. It detailed the experiences of a number of women longing for babies of their own who had adopted Cabbage Patch dolls and treated them as if they were real. Satan possessed the dolls and inspired them to murder the hapless women. (That the “murderous possessed doll” was the theme of theChild’s Play films featuring Chuckie likely didn’t persuade many of the National Enquirer‘s readers that the article wasn’t an instance of hard news reporting.) That article may have spawned a variant of the “sinister origins” rumor, one that asserted the dolls had been designed by Satanists.

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/nuclear-family/  { 

https://www.yourtango.com/2015277623/duggars-believe-cabbage-patch-dolls-are-possessed-by-satan , https://gawker.com/the-duggars-homeschool-cult-cabbage-patch-dolls-are-po-1710094250 } It also  was a product of the Satanic panic .  

https://groovyhistory.com/satanic-panic-brief-history-hysteria  Also , the book " Turmoil In The Toy Box " was influential in that regard .  

 

[viii]

Growing up I could never wear the jeans that had the row of buttons instead of a button and zipper because it would draw the boys’ eyes to my crotch ?

[Carol]

I don't think it's fair to talk about how crazy other religions(fundamentalist or not) are  without mentioning the Catholic belief in Transubstantiation...the literal belief that the host they swallow and the wine they drink are truly Christ's body and blood.

Talk about magical thinking... 

Edited March 31, 2020 by Carol

[JermajestyDuggar]

12 minutes ago, viii said:

Growing up I could never wear the jeans that had the row of buttons instead of a button and zipper because it would draw the boys’ eyes to my crotch ?

I remember owning button fly jeans in high school. They were actually pretty annoying. It’s so much sleazier to just deal with one button and a zipper.

^^^That was supposed to be easier, not sleazier. But I’m cracking up and leaving it. 

Edited March 31, 2020 by JermajestyDuggar

[freethemall]

21 hours ago, squiddysquid said:

Still don't get the logic. Scarfs sure but a wig that you can't distinct from normal hair? How does that help to show you are married?

The idea is that wig hair = dead/not real hair does not have the same sexual power as real hair, so its equivalent to wearing a scarf.

[PennySycamore]

@JermajestyDuggar,  Navy trousers have button flies or at least they used to.  I've still got my uncle's old pair from wen he served in the Navy and I wore them a lot.  One of my favorite things was to wear my white Navy pants and the white Corpsman's blouse (Sailor shirt) that I got at the Army-Navy store in Athens to class when the Navy recruiters were at Memorial Plaza.  Yeah, I was weird.  

[OhNoNike]

8 hours ago, Themanda Duggar said:

I’ve never gotten past the fact that people think a god that would kill every living being on the earth, except for those on one boat, is worthy of worship.

I also have a really hard time accepting that all you have to do is to say the right prayer, and that all the horrible things you may have done are forgiven.

Or that a worthwhile god cares about your modesty standards, but not the standards by which refugees are treated.

We aren’t religious, so my kids are the ones calling churches “castles” and a cross worn on a necklace a “T”.
 

I do think they need to have basic knowledge, so I told my oldest the story of Noah’s flood and she looked horrified and said “but I thought God was supposed to be good. Why did he kill everything else?”

See, and I have no answers for that.

ETA - I don’t know why god would care about women wearing pants or not, especially since even men wore robes over many time periods.  
 

Or the belief KJV is “the” one. I don’t get that. I mean, the book has been translated so many times, how are they sure that’s the best?

Edited March 31, 2020 by OhNoNike

[church_of_dog]

This is more about religion in general rather than just fundies, but I never understood why (any) god would require his creation to BELIEVE in him based on no evidence ("faith") rather than just make his existence and powers evident.

Edited March 31, 2020 by church_of_dog

[Nolongeroppressed8.4]

That if a girl got molested, raped, harassed, etc it was because she either dressed, spoke, or acted in a way that encouraged it. Women are solely to blame for any man’s inappropriate actions towards them. 
 

That a girl should not do any work or job that was not suited to house, home, or children. While simultaneously admiring Proverbs 31 in which she “considers a field and buys it and does business with merchant ships.”

 

That taking care of kids and the house is 100% the woman’s job only. 
 

That liking a boy Or being attracted to him (even if considering marriage to him) was wrong because It was giving away your heart before marriage aka adultery. (ATI)
 

That your parents were the only people who could know God’s will for your life. Even after marriage. (At what point do you get to become in charge? When they die??)

 

That a woman should not work outside the home — but if she works a job for you, pay her Father or husband instead. And claim you don’t employ women. Because even though they’re working for you, their dads or husbands are actually the ones on payroll.... (VF) 

 

That Esther, Deborah, Bathsheba were all to blame for their situations.  Esther should not have been there to become queen and save an entire group of people from death. Deborah should not have taken charge even though God told her to. Bathsheba shouldn’t have bathed on her own roof like anyone else if David could see her. All women in the Bible are tainted. Rahab was a prostitute, so evil, let’s ignore she was in the line of Christ’s human ancestry. Ruth was a naughty woman, sleeping at a man’s feet not married to him. Not to mention Tamar - she doesn’t exist (she’s my favorite because she blatantly demonstrated a man’s inconsistency). 
 

rabbit hole of hell 

 

 

[dripcurl]

1 hour ago, Nolongeroppressed8.4 said:

It was giving away your heart before marriage aka adultery. (ATI)

Ah, good ol’ emotional purity. I was introduced to it via IKDG as a young teen, thought it was extreme, and was exposed to it again through So Much More. Come to think of it, that is one aspect of purity culture and fundamentalism I could never wrap my head around and was able to recognize as dangerous. It’s nebulous as best and psychologically damaging and developmentally stunting at worst. Think of the Sarah Mally’s of the world - yay, she was finally allowed to be married at fucking 41. Did anyone else read her Prince Charming book? It hit too close to home, not because my parents imposed such sentiments on me (my mom even said the book was ridiculous), but the heartbreaking ideologies and personal examples were exactly what emotional purity could snowball into.

 

IIRC, there was a part of the book where a young man was talking to her at an after church function of some sort, and she literally kept avoiding him and saying prayers in the hallway asking God to guard her heart and guide her in her responses. Now, she was sharing this instance as an example of what not to do, but her rhetoric in the book and other cringe stories she shared actually just proved that this is how she thinks folks need to function in general. Her family acts like even the smallest of acknowledgements towards the opposite sex can spiral into sin. What they are really doing is making normal human interaction something that it’s not. 

 

 

[Timetraveler]

That men are seen as the ones who should be in power, yet women must do EVERYTHING in order to keep men from falling in sin.

[CarrotCake]

That an angel came to America in the 1800s, showed some golden plates with rules to this Smith guy but then he lost them. But of course you should believe him on his word, no one needs to see the gold.

[Nolongeroppressed8.4]

Regarding books - IKDG was liberal in my crowd, we had to sneak it. 
 

Prince Charming reference reminded me of one of the earliest wackjobs - prePhillips and on the fringe of those following ATI. Jonathan Lindvall. Anyone seen the absolute atrocious mess he made of his family?

He taught a roomful of people at a time that siblings of the opposite sex should not even be allowed to be together (obviously Duggar’s might’ve have benefitted from this!) but it was sooooo weird. Arranged marriages garbage. Girls should be married to their dads until they were arranged - secretly and surprisedly of course. There was a book Waiting for her Isaac because apparently Rebekah was just trusting God to bring a man all those years and then poof because she trusted her father Isaac’s servant came and whooshed her away to patriarchal Wedded bliss.  Very similar to the Matthew/Maranatha story. I was pretty sure that’s where it all came from. There was a lot of younger girls older guys is good, women are immature. Lots of very young marriage so as to take advantage of childbearing years. Lots of daddy has your heart and who knows what else til he sells you off. I’m not kidding when I say I remember a title about dowries....
 

just typing it makes me want to throw up. The awful horrible emotional and mental and spiritual abuse these horrible people have spread. 
 

edit: found this online RE Rebekah 

When he took to wife:  It is said that Rebekah was fourteen years old when she was married.  Realize that it was certainly so, for it is said that there were six pairs of people who lived the same number of years:  Rebekah and Kohath (…and on to the end of the baraitha).  That implies she lived to age 133.  She was barren for twenty years, Jacob was seventy-seven years old when he stood at the well, he lived with Laban for twenty years, and he was delayed two years on the way back to his father.[7]

The calculation goes as follows:  Rebekah died at age 133, was barren for 20 years,[8] and the year she died Jacob was 99 years old. From this we conclude that she was fourteen when she got married.

 

So Rebekah is all of 14 and held up as a modern day paragon of trust daddy to get you arranged with a Nice 40 year old. ??

Edited March 31, 2020 by Nolongeroppressed8.4

[JermajestyDuggar]

4 hours ago, dripcurl said:

Ah, good ol’ emotional purity. I was introduced to it via IKDG as a young teen, thought it was extreme, and was exposed to it again through So Much More. Come to think of it, that is one aspect of purity culture and fundamentalism I could never wrap my head around and was able to recognize as dangerous. It’s nebulous as best and psychologically damaging and developmentally stunting at worst. Think of the Sarah Mally’s of the world - yay, she was finally allowed to be married at fucking 41. Did anyone else read her Prince Charming book? It hit too close to home, not because my parents imposed such sentiments on me (my mom even said the book was ridiculous), but the heartbreaking ideologies and personal examples were exactly what emotional purity could snowball into.

 

IIRC, there was a part of the book where a young man was talking to her at an after church function of some sort, and she literally kept avoiding him and saying prayers in the hallway asking God to guard her heart and guide her in her responses. Now, she was sharing this instance as an example of what not to do, but her rhetoric in the book and other cringe stories she shared actually just proved that this is how she thinks folks need to function in general. Her family acts like even the smallest of acknowledgements towards the opposite sex can spiral into sin. What they are really doing is making normal human interaction something that it’s not. 

 

 

I wouldn’t have been interested in such a book when I was a teen. However if I was, this would have fucked with my head. I already had a hard time talking to boys I was interested in. I would mostly clam up because it made me so nervous. If I had even more to worry about thanks to a ridiculous book like Sarah Mally’s, it would have caused a lot of anxiety for me. 

[formergothardite]

8 hours ago, OhNoNike said:

We aren’t religious, so my kids are the ones calling churches “castles” and a cross worn on a necklace a “T”.
 

I do think they need to have basic knowledge, so I told my oldest the story of Noah’s flood and she looked horrified and said “but I thought God was supposed to be good. Why did he kill everything else?”

See, and I have no answers for that.

ETA - I don’t know why god would care about women wearing pants or not, especially since even men wore robes over many time periods.  

My oldest daughter decided not too long ago she wanted to read some of the Bible stories and she was horrified that people actually believe these things happened and that they want to worship the god who did them. The God of the Bible is real cool with murdering babies and children and people who happened to just be living their lives but be in the wrong place at the wrong time. 

Even when she was younger and watched the Veggie Tales version of the Jericho story she was shocked that people thought that this behavior was okay. And when she read the actual story she was so angry that people look to these stories as a way to live their lives. 

The whole concept of reading the Bible as a way to live a moral life is just so bizarre to me now. 

[OhNoNike]

58 minutes ago, formergothardite said:

My oldest daughter decided not too long ago she wanted to read some of the Bible stories and she was horrified that people actually believe these things happened and that they want to worship the god who did them. The God of the Bible is real cool with murdering babies and children and people who happened to just be living their lives but be in the wrong place at the wrong time. 

Even when she was younger and watched the Veggie Tales version of the Jericho story she was shocked that people thought that this behavior was okay. And when she read the actual story she was so angry that people look to these stories as a way to live their lives. 

The whole concept of reading the Bible as a way to live a moral life is just so bizarre to me now. 

I took a History of Islam class in college, post 9/11 mind you, and it was very interesting.  So I can say I’ve read parts of the Quran.  What gets me is the number of evangelical Christians who try to paint Muslims as crazy violent people, when there are these stories of the Bible.... hmmm.  

[JermajestyDuggar]

9 minutes ago, OhNoNike said:

I took a History of Islam class in college, post 9/11 mind you, and it was very interesting.  So I can say I’ve read parts of the Quran.  What gets me is the number of evangelical Christians who try to paint Muslims as crazy violent people, when there are these stories of the Bible.... hmmm.  

I’m not religious and I’ve found it has helped me see a lot of similarities in religious beliefs between fundie Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. Being on the outside looking in gives you a better perspective than being entrenched in it. Even mainstream christians often don't see the similarities.