Bontragers/Bowers 5: It Is Really not Okay to Date Your Brother

[deborahlynn1979]

From the latest Bontrager blog, emphasis mine:

 

Quote

But by far the greatest benefit of Bible Bee has been watching our children grow in the fear of the Lord as they have invested countless hours in studying and memorizing the Scriptures.

 

That says it all, eh?

[JermajestyDuggar]

1 hour ago, deborahlynn1979 said:

From the latest Bontrager blog, emphasis mine:

 

 

That says it all, eh?

Crazy how they fear the lord but not Covid 19. 

[browngrl]

Perhaps someone with more biblical knowledge can help me out here. Why is being in fear of the lord a good thing?  I just don't get it. I make a point of avoiding anyone who is so toxic that they make me scared of them and could not imagine worshiping a god that I fear. 

[VVV]

1 hour ago, browngrl said:

Perhaps someone with more biblical knowledge can help me out here. Why is being in fear of the lord a good thing?  I just don't get it. I make a point of avoiding anyone who is so toxic that they make me scared of them and could not imagine worshiping a god that I fear. 

Proverbs 9:10 “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” 
But they have no understanding of Hebrew use of metaphor. 

[JanasTattooParlor]

1 hour ago, browngrl said:

Perhaps someone with more biblical knowledge can help me out here. Why is being in fear of the lord a good thing?  I just don't get it. I make a point of avoiding anyone who is so toxic that they make me scared of them and could not imagine worshiping a god that I fear. 

I also don’t get why they want to go to heaven if they fear the lord who lives there and created it. It’s such a twisted way of thinking. 

[Jasmar]

The Christianese answer is that fear of the Lord means deep reverence and respect. At least that’s what I always heard. But heck, fear is fear, as far as I’m concerned.

[JermajestyDuggar]

I would fear the Christian lord if I actually believed in him. He killed all of humanity with a flood except one guy named Noah and his family. He seems pretty scary from what I’ve read in the Bible. Jesus seems much nicer. 

[JermajestyDuggar]

The Bontragers’ church is having a conference during a pandemic. But don’t worry! They have Arby’s And free childcare! So bring the whole family!

[HereticHick]

Dammit, now I want Arby's.

[JermajestyDuggar]

27 minutes ago, HereticHick said:

Dammit, now I want Arby's.

I hate all of their sandwiches except the chicken salad sandwich. Which is only at select Arby's Locations during the summer. When I find an Arby’s that has them, it’s like winning the lottery! 

[ElizaB]

Is there church a huge mega church? Based on their Christmas production and other events it seems to be large; however, I thought they were kind of in the middle of nowhere. 

[fundiefan]

19 minutes ago, ElizaB said:

Is there church a huge mega church? Based on their Christmas production and other events it seems to be large; however, I thought they were kind of in the middle of nowhere. 

I doubt they're classified as a "mega" church, but they are no small town, middle of nowhere church either. While Washington is a smaller town, it's not a "small town" and the physical size of the church indicates they get people from well outside the actual town. Washington is part of the Iowa City metro area, so it's not quite the middle of nowhere.

Just Google Marion Avenue Baptist Church - there are tons of pics. 

Edited May 22, 2020 by fundiefan

[JermajestyDuggar]

16 minutes ago, ElizaB said:

Is there church a huge mega church? Based on their Christmas production and other events it seems to be large; however, I thought they were kind of in the middle of nowhere. 

It’s definitely not a mega church. But it’s also not tiny. I wouldn’t be surprised if a couple hundred attended the conference. 

[hollyandivy]

Allison posted links to the seminar, it's on facebook. Loud congregational singing in the beginning, a small choir group on stage (shoulder to shoulder of course), I don't know if they show the audience at some point, I could not bring myself to watch it all...

Well, I guess if you are godly enough, Corona can't get you!

 

[JermajestyDuggar]

33 minutes ago, hollyandivy said:

Allison posted links to the seminar, it's on facebook. Loud congregational singing in the beginning, a small choir group on stage (shoulder to shoulder of course), I don't know if they show the audience at some point, I could not bring myself to watch it all...

Well, I guess if you are godly enough, Corona can't get you!

 

They’ve been having regular church services since mother’s day. I think that church will be passing the virus around eventually. 

[ignorantobserver]

On 5/21/2020 at 9:42 PM, Jasmar said:

The Christianese answer is that fear of the Lord means deep reverence and respect. At least that’s what I always heard. But heck, fear is fear, as far as I’m concerned.

My entirely speculative understanding is that the Ancient Hebrew system of classifying emotions is different from the Greek one (and thus incompatible with 1 John 4:18 "perfect love casteth out fear" that more closely reflects our feelings). The "fear of the Lord" in the Old Testament shows up often, always with positive connotations and often related to wisdom, understanding or righteousness. I understand it as an ambiguous emotion of awe, shock, being overwhelmed because of a deep understanding of God's nature and strength. While we tend to never confuse admiration and fear, this distinction might be cultural / related to our language, and classical Hebrew doesn't seem to see those feelings as mutually exclusive.

[Jasmar]

That is the best explanation I’ve ever heard! Better than any of the teachers or pastors I used to hear from.

[NancyDrewFan1989]

On 5/21/2020 at 8:32 PM, JermajestyDuggar said:

The Bontragers’ church is having a conference during a pandemic. But don’t worry! They have Arby’s And free childcare! So bring the whole family!

The church the Bontrager attend is fairly large. For what it is worth I believe there will be precautions put in place due to COVID. A few times during the pandemic I checked out the website and found out the lead pastor and church leaders or elders (whatever they are called) had chosen to only live stream services rather than have them in a packed church. When I checked out the website the people in charge of the church seemed to be taking all of this seriously. So, maybe everyone who goes will have to social distance while wearing a face mask and have their temp taken. There are a few states that have started to loosen restrictions, so Iowa could be on either Phase 1 or Phase 2 of opening allowing this to happen. Just speculation because it seemed the church leaders and pastor have been taking COVID-19 seriously.

With that being said I am shocked that they had this because, chances are, not everyone is going to follow the guidelines. There could be someone there who has COVID and doesn't know it and expose everyone present. But knowing the Bontragers they are going to do a post about this seminar during COVID where we will get more info. 

Edited May 26, 2020 by NancyDrewFan1989
adding

[JermajestyDuggar]

3 minutes ago, NancyDrewFan1989 said:

The church the Bontrager attend is fairly large. For what it is worth I believe there will be precautions put in place due to COVID. A few times during the pandemic I checked out the website and found out the lead pastor had chosen to only live stream services rather than have them in a packed church. When I checked out the website the pastor seems to be taking all of this seriously. So, maybe everyone who goes will have to social distance while wearing a face mask. There are a few states that have started to loosen restrictions, so Iowa could be on either Phase 1 or Phase 2 of opening allowing this to happen. Just speculation because it seemed the church leaders and pastor have been taking COVID-19 seriously. 

From what I saw in the videos, there was no social distancing and I didn’t see any masks. I didn’t see a lot of the crowd but what I did see was not promising.

[NancyDrewFan1989]

Just now, JermajestyDuggar said:

From what I saw in the videos, there was no social distancing and I didn’t see any masks. I didn’t see a lot of the crowd but what I did see was not promising.

I didn't see any of the videos yet. So now I am shocked and upset at how they handled this. Like I said I checked out Marion Avenue Baptist Church website and those who run the church seemed like they were taking precautions seriously. For what it is worth, I expected better from them. Now we may see a giant jump in COVID cases in the Washington, Iowa area because of this meeting/gathering. 

[JermajestyDuggar]

11 minutes ago, NancyDrewFan1989 said:

I didn't see any of the videos yet. So now I am shocked and upset at how they handled this. Like I said I checked out Marion Avenue Baptist Church website and those who run the church seemed like they were taking precautions seriously. For what it is worth, I expected better from them. Now we may see a giant jump in COVID cases in the Washington, Iowa area because of this meeting/gathering. 

This was yesterday’s Sunday service. With a choir of people spreading spit droplets all over each other as they sang shoulder to shoulder. 

[NancyDrewFan1989]

35 minutes ago, JermajestyDuggar said:

This was yesterday’s Sunday service. With a choir of people spreading spit droplets all over each other as they sang shoulder to shoulder. 

Yeah, now I see what you are saying. I guess I am not good at reading between the lines when it comes down to the Bontrager's church. I really thought that the pastor, church elders, and others had taken COVID-19 seriously enough to ensure everyone's safety. 

On 5/5/2020 at 3:50 PM, JermajestyDuggar said:

Allison wrote a blog post about how women should dress. It’s similar to the dozens of other female Christian bloggers. I don’t understand why all these fundies say the same things over and over again and not realize how boring it is. 

The saddest thing is Allison isn't the only fundie to do a blog post telling us how women should dress. There is a fundie teen blogger named Abby who did a whole entire post about why girls and women shouldn't wear pants under the disguise of why she doesn't wear them. It was totally judgmental basically saying, well telling, women that by wearing pants they are encouraging men to lust. Here is the link to the blog post: http://neweverymorning.blog/index.php/2018/02/22/10-reasons-why-i-dont-wear-pants/  

Not going to lie after coming across this post, I really didn't mind Allison's for some reason. 

Update: Just a quick add here. Abby's sister Alyssa has a blog as well and she wrote a post about the same no girls wearing pants. https://hereisloveblog.wordpress.com/2018/03/24/why-i-dont-wear-pants/

 

Edited May 26, 2020 by NancyDrewFan1989
Mixup

[anachronistic]

Those blog posts must be really hilarious to people who see ‘pants’ as a word for what others call ‘underpants’. I’m American but read enough British stuff that I find it very funny. 

[fundiefan]

I am honestly so tired of the fundie teenage girl's know it all "argument" for not wearing pants. They are parroting what they're told, and have zero experience. And I really hate any mention of "to protect men" or whatever phrasing they use. 

I just can't with this particular fundie obsession.

Of note, my web filter at work will not allow me to visit Abby's site. I could get to the other one, Alyssa, but Abby's is a no go with our filters. Wonder what she's got on her blog that makes our filter say "um, nope". 

[IsmeWeatherwax]

@anachronistic British here! In my head when I read "pants", I say  "not knickers" ?