The Official Fundie Encounters Thread

[fascinatedbyfundies]

Hello, my name is Jessica and I am fascinated by fundies. I am not even sure where to start with my fundie encounters honestly.

Growing up, one of my best friends was a Jehovah's Witness and every other year or so, his mother took him out of school convinced that the influences of his classmates would lead him to sin. Homeschooling consisted of him staying home by himself all day ignoring workbooks. I'm pretty sure her fundie was mixed with a liberal dose of insanity because she had arbitrary rules such as he had to mow the lawn in perfectly straight lines. He was never allowed to speak on the phone or go anywhere to socialize. We ended up dating in high school and his mommy dearest found out. She saw me in the local grocery, snatched me up by my arm and scream in my face that she would not allow me to secure her son's place in hell.

A year or two into college, I worked with a girl whose family were Jehovah's Witnesses. She was shunned by the group because the man she had married decided he didn't wish to work and wished to stay home all day watching tv and waiting to beat his wife. She was in the process of divorcing him. Because of her grievous sins, her family would not speak to her but she still persisted in buying presents for her young brothers and sisters and would leave them on the porch for them. She left one weekend to go to an event that I understood to be a confirmation of sorts, her brother was involved and it was very important to him, she wanted to be there. She said because she was shunned, she would not be allowed to speak to anyone at the event and when I asked what she was supposed to do if they spoke to her, she said she would inform them that she was shunned. I could not understand why she would put herself through that. I didn't need much prompting to dismiss Jehovah's Witnesses as a whole as insane.

Ahhh college years. Ohio has their own traveling preacher, Brother Jed. The university in my hometown, Kent State, banned sweet Brother Jed after he and his crew tried to take over the commons area from the Anti Racist Action who had booked the area. Dear Jed brought his own chair and started to stage a protest. The leader of the Anti Racist group went to move the chair and the photo that graced the local papers the next day was dear Brother Jed swinging to punch that student leader...with his bible in his swinging hand. I am sure he just meant to deliver the word of god. I was delighted when I transferred schools to find Brother Jed AND his entire family preaching on the OSU oval. He brought picture books for us and everything! Rock and Roll Rhonda never ended up doing well. The most entertaining Brother Jed days were when other Christians would argue with the Jed squad. It was worth it to have lunch on the oval those days.

Amazingly, a few years after college I worked with a fundie woman who was actually not insane. I guess they would be considered fundie lite because she had a job, her youngest child was 14 at the time though, and she had 8 children altogether. They were all homeschooled, skirt wearing, non haircutting, fundies but my coworker did seem like she had one foot in and one out, she wore pants to work and only threw on a skirt when she had to see church people. AND she personally knew Brother Jed. She was entertained by his campus preaching stories and told me how much of it was silly and plain made up. She said Jed did dishes at home and cooked and cleaned just like any other husband.

I think that's enough to be getting on with....

[katniss]

There are not many fundies in my part of the world. I used to live in a very catholic country then moved to a more or less protestant one (differences in life style still amaze me!).

We also had a few Jehova's witnesses walking around in the village and nearby city. I used to love going to this teahouse. A girl that was employed there seemed very nice, she also attended a couple of lessons at the university with me (though only for a brief period of time) and I was very shocked when I saw her knocking on my door once, offering Jehova's witnesses booklets. She wasn't very persistent, probably because we were both a little bit stunned to see each other outside of the 'regular' setting.

On another occasion, after moving across the continent to the Netherlands, I went to a fabric fair. It was gigantic and I loved it!

Before that I've heard people mentioning a strange and very strict religious community living nearby so I wasn't very surprised when I saw a group of women dressed in black skirts and white shirts with long sleeves and black bonnets. They were looking exclusively at black fabrics. I didn't notice any men though and most women seemed at least in their forties.

If anyone's interested (and I am sure there are a couple of Dutch people around here who can explain these things a bit better!), google for Staphorst. I've never actually been there though I do live quite close but I think I will remedy that in the near future. :)

[Soldevi]

I've never had a fundy experience :( no doubt because I live in England. Well, once I came across a chap in one of the parks in my town giving out creationist leaflets, but I don't think that alone would really count as fundy for most people on FJ.

I met fundy Englishman in Tallinn. We were walking to the Old Town when he started to talk to us and for some reason I was too polite to interrupt him. He just wasted his time ;)

Other fundies I have met have been American mormons and some guy walks around with a Jesus is coming plaque. He never says a word, just walks around. Time to time JW women give me their tracts but because they are products of their culture, they rarely start to push their agenda. They usually just give tracts or magazines and say that they hope I will contact them if I have something to ask.

But I have said earlier, our fundies are very light type fundies compared to American fundies :)

[smores]

My first fundie encounter was... not quite an encounter.

In 8th grade, I think my mom gave up fighting the terribly inefficient middle school I attended and somehow I ended up being "homeschooled" via Abeka's video school. In that day, they were VHS and OLD. The videos were recorded at Pensacola Christian School, the k-12 school that funneled into Pensacola Christian College (which is unaccredited)... I don't believe the school is actually accredited either, or didn't seem to be at that time.

I remember watching the first video and noticing the girls all wore ankle length skirts. My sister (forced into this crap too) and I laughed. And we watched the next, and laughed again... we were disturbed by the notion that girls only wore skirts. For years after, they would send us brochures about coming to college at PCC. Tuition there is incredibly cheap and that's their selling point, I guess... you're paying for a worthless degree and a chance to meet a husband. I ended up at an honors high school and a decent public college, so the fundies didn't get to me.

[Silver Springs]

You should come to Leicester!

OMG! Do you know Adrian Mole?!??!

;)

[redhotmess]

Hi this is my first post. I am a long time lurker.

Recently while on a cruise there was a whole fundie family reunion on board. I first noticed them while checking in. I was so excited I tripped and fell. They wore head coverings, white doilie and the matriarch wore a dark one. All of the girls wore them except one mom, but her children had them on. In the pool some of the girls wore shorts some wore modest wear bathing suits. The matriarch was never seen by the pool.

I think at least part of the family was dressing the fundie part for the vacation. There was a family of 4 and the mother was clearly not fundie. The kids did dress in long skirts but only when the matriarch and patriarch were around.

The interesting thing was we missed an island due to high winds. The boat gave everyone on board free rum punch. I noticed some of the family drinking it by the pool. My 18 year old daughter spotted one of the teenage boys out late by himself in the night club. She saw him more than once and he was dancing.

I did manage to get a great picture of the WHOLE family with my husbands head right in there. I have no clue how to post it if anyone is interested in seeing it and feels like walking me through it I can try to post it.

[HijabiLady]

I'm a Muslimah in the Bible belt as well...it's made for some interesting incidents, I'm sure you and others can guess. For me, it is difficult, as I converted as an adult and am the only Muslimah in my family.

I wanted to tell you how sorry I am regarding the death of your father. That pastor had no right, dignity, nor compassion to say such a thing, especially to a child as small as you were. How dare he.

Salaam sister,

I am an adult convert as well and the only Muslim in my family so we are kindred spirits. Thank you for the kind words. I attended many Baptist, Pentacostal and other charasmatic churches growing up. It has soured me to the whole movement frankly.

[Kaylee]

I went to App State in NC and we had Preacher Gary. :lol: I wonder how many UNC schools had their very own religious nutsos?

I remember that guy - is he still around?. There was also a younger guy, possibly a student, who'd stand on Sanford Mall in front of the cafeteria and read from the Bibl, around 2000-2003. I felt sort of sorry for him at the time but I had just transferred from a hardcore fundy school so my sympathy was probably misplaced.

[Spider Burps]

I remember that guy - is he still around?. There was also a younger guy, possibly a student, who'd stand on Sanford Mall in front of the cafeteria and read from the Bibl, around 2000-2003. I felt sort of sorry for him at the time but I had just transferred from a hardcore fundy school so my sympathy was probably misplaced.

I was at App State from 2005 to 2009 and I only saw him during my first two years there. After that, he kind of disappeared! There were students who'd stand around with things around their necks, though, saying we were all going to hell or something like that. And, hey, you went to ASU, too? Cool! I spent a majority of my time up at the LLC (my major was initially part of the Watauga College but became an official program of its own in 2009), but I lived on the main part of campus and also worked as a NightSTAR off campus at the then-new sorority hall (and in White, which had tons of superChristian elementary ed major girls because it was the only all girls dorm), so I got to see all of the crazy that the school had to offer from the stanky hippies to the preppy sorority girls!

[sugaree]

Hi this is my first post. I am a long time lurker.

Recently while on a cruise there was a whole fundie family reunion on board. I first noticed them while checking in. I was so excited I tripped and fell. They wore head coverings, white doilie and the matriarch wore a dark one. All of the girls wore them except one mom, but her children had them on. In the pool some of the girls wore shorts some wore modest wear bathing suits. The matriarch was never seen by the pool.

I think at least part of the family was dressing the fundie part for the vacation. There was a family of 4 and the mother was clearly not fundie. The kids did dress in long skirts but only when the matriarch and patriarch were around.

The interesting thing was we missed an island due to high winds. The boat gave everyone on board free rum punch. I noticed some of the family drinking it by the pool. My 18 year old daughter spotted one of the teenage boys out late by himself in the night club. She saw him more than once and he was dancing.

I did manage to get a great picture of the WHOLE family with my husbands head right in there. I have no clue how to post it if anyone is interested in seeing it and feels like walking me through it I can try to post it.

Sounds like they might be Mennonite. There are like 9000 different sects of Mennonites, each with their own idea of what constitutes modest dress and the like, and it's not uncommon to find adherents to different "degrees" within the same extended family (i.e., I know a woman who always wears long skirts. She does not wear the cap cover, but her mother does, and the two of them still seem to get along well).

Some sects allow dancing; others don't. And while intoxication is frowned upon, there is no hard and fast rule banning alcohol.

[Kaylee]

I was at App State from 2005 to 2009 and I only saw him during my first two years there. After that, he kind of disappeared! There were students who'd stand around with things around their necks, though, saying we were all going to hell or something like that. And, hey, you went to ASU, too? Cool! I spent a majority of my time up at the LLC (my major was initially part of the Watauga College but became an official program of its own in 2009), but I lived on the main part of campus and also worked as a NightSTAR off campus at the then-new sorority hall (and in White, which had tons of superChristian elementary ed major girls because it was the only all girls dorm), so I got to see all of the crazy that the school had to offer from the stanky hippies to the preppy sorority girls!

Yep, I was at the epicenter of weirdness. I lived in East Hall when Watauga College was still in the basement there. A few of my Women's Studies classes were down there so I knew a lot of Wataugans. I was also a really active ROTC cadet at the time, because of the paintball and ropes course stuff and what I saw as a free workout plan, so that was really odd (wearing a uniform to class some days and living in the hippie dorm). One of the big things I miss about App was ow there were so many different types of people but the vast majority of them were still pretty nice and welcoming even to my weird self. I still love Boone & Blowing Rock and get up there several times a year because it's less than an hour away.

Which reminds me, my weirdest fundie experience was up there, at Grandfather Mountain, several months ago. I went with my parents and my son and it was really windy that day, so I tied on a lace veil type headcovering in the car before going up, mainly to keep my hair from blowing all over and keep my son from pulling it while in a carrier on my back. (I still cover for church and find them convenient at other times, so I keep a couple stashed in my car and purse). There was a family crossing the bridge when we went over all in long skirts and scarfs -a older couple, younger woman or older daughter, and about 5 or 6 children. The woman gave me the strangest look, possibly because I was wearing a covering and long skirt and had a child but no husband in sight (either that or she spotted me as a fundie and was wondering why I only had one child with me).

The hubby & I also had a fundie encounter a few weeks ago at the lawyer's office. We went in and saw a couple we knew from our old church and their daughter. They were fundie then, but left for another church that was even more fundie when the new pastor made it clear he didn't think pants, short hair, public school, or working wives were bad. The sad thing is I spotted the woman and her daughter first and my mind registered "fundie" before I even recognized them because she just looked tired and different. She sort of scowled at me and they didn't speak. I was wearing jeans (funny because I almost wore a long denim skirt but opted out since I was taking my son to the park afterward) again so that may have been why.

[Just_Jane]

My most memorable fundie experience was when I was 17. I had been homeschooled for the last 3 years of school because I had some major issues with anxiety and bullying. My parents decided it would be best to secular homeschool me. One of the options in my area is you can participate in a homeschool graduation. I really missed out on some much of the highschool experiences that i wanted to have that one. It was an overnight thing and we stayed in the dorms of a local university. somehow I was roomed with these fundie girls in their frumpers. all evening we kept rather distant not really having much in common until the timer on my watch went off reminding me to take my BC pill. Yep, I was a worldly girl who took a few college classes, had a boyfriend and took the pill :shock: I ended up being the floor expert on boys, dating, and sex. Some of the girls were very curious and I don't think they had anyone that they could ask about it.