Run in with a religious nut at the movies

[EllieCee]

I went to see the last Harry Potter movie today, and admittedly, I was crying at the end. I walked out into the lobby with my friends, and one of them went into the bathroom, so we waited for her outside. As I was wiping my eyes, a lady wearing a shirt that says "Jesus Saves" came up to us. She asked us if we liked the movie, and we replied with a yes. She said that it was "Nice" that we liked it, then she said "Well, you know, I believe in Jesus Christ." She then proceeded to ask us if we were Christians, to which most of us replied as either "No", or a "Shrug". And then she began to bless us, saying "In the name of Jesus Christ, I consecrate you!" Then she walked off, and my friends and I just looked at each other.

I don't know what that was all about, but after she came up to us, I saw her walking up to other people. My friend thinks she came there because she was one of those Christians who believe Harry Potter is evil, and she was trying to cleanse us from it.

[kb2]

Evangelizing in a movie theater sounds like an interesting way to spend one's time.

[sacrilicious]

How....odd. I can't imagine paying the price of a ticket just to proselytize, though. That takes dedication! I cringe every time I go to the movies lately.

[clarinetpower]

Just because you go to a movie to be entertained doesn't mean you believe Harry Potter is The Savior. :roll:

[O Latin]

Yes, because a story about love and tolerance and using your gifts for good is clearly the work of Satan himself. :roll:

[uber frau]

Lot's of fundie churches forbid their members from going to the theatre. Maybe she's using soul-winning as an excuse and hoping the church spies won't realise she's really sneaking off to see HP.

[Kitten]

I wouldn't do it, because I was raised as a good little southern girl, but I have friends who would definitely have started screaming "It burns! It burrrrrrrnnnnnnnns!" I would be the one laughing her ass off on the side, though.

[liveonradio]

Lot's of fundie churches forbid their members from going to the theatre. Maybe she's using soul-winning as an excuse and hoping the church spies won't realise she's really sneaking off to see HP.

This was my first thought :mrgreen:

[Brainsample]

When I first started dating my husband and back before the days of the affordable VCR, we went to an old movie theater that ran old movies in the evenings -- to see "The Man Who Knew Too Much" with Jimmy Stewart and Doris Day. (We were not going to see Friday the 13th, The Omen, This is Spinal Tap, or something equally distasteful to a pious religious person.) On Sunday mornings, a church rented that theater, and I went to Christian school with the pastor's kids (a guy named Jonathan Edwards), and the wife taught spelling (so we saw the whole family all the time). I even visited there irregularly, trying to find my adult niche as a Christian apart from my parents at a new church.

The theatre was close to the fairgrounds, and we went during fair week, so I guess the church that met there thought that they could evangelize people going to the fair. Well, we walk out of the theater, and we were accosted. They tag teamed us, too, with a young man and woman. I repeated several times that I was born again, that I knew their pastor and family for about the past five years, and that I visited their church from time to time. I think that I eventually reiterated one of the sermons.

Do you think that they'd let us walk off politely? I'm not sure what they wanted from us. Maybe I was so supposed to throw myself on the sidewalk in front of the theater and scream "I see the light of Jesus" or something? I visited there, I knew their pastor, and I was one of them. What did they want? Twenty five years later, I still don't know.

[lilwriter85]

I would have told the religious nut that "I'm a member of the church of HP and walked away."

I remember several years ago I watched a documentary on The Exorcist and religious groups and churches picketed outside some of the theaters that ran the movie. I have heard of religious nuts doing the same thing for other movies. They go inside in some theaters you don't need a ticket to be in the lobby or arcade and at some theaters they picket on the sidewalks or parking lots.

[MamaJunebug]

Free speech really provides some conversations, eh? ;)

A few years back, I remember being conflicted when Jews were at theaters protesting "The Passion of the Christ." As it turns out, they probably had good reason to protest a film by Mel Gibson concerning the torture of Jesus and Jewish leaders' part in it. !!!

[Chrystal-J]

I saw some fundie-radicals praying downtown Detroit during a total eclipse. It was really weird. They were on their knees, reaching up to the sky with pleading/crying looks on their faces. Maybe they thought it was the rapture--not sure cuz I didn't talk to them, but it was crazy looking.

[Deleted02]

I went to the grocery store one day and there was a woman standing in the parking lot with a cart full of groceries. She was just standing there. As I walked by she said "The angels are coming!" I said ok and kept walking. She yelled after me "I'm NOT crazy!!" When I left she was still standing there.

[ladypuglover]

I must go to a weird church because when HP first came out our minister praised it as a fine book. He said that HP was like Christ and Voldemort like Satan and that we all should read the book for ourselves and see if he was wrong. His point was to nip any fearmongering in the bud and it worked very well.

Also our Christian book stores in town all sold HP books and merchandise. Not all us Christians are nuts. :lol:

[donks]

omg. I had a nut come into the store I work at the other day. She had a huge bandage on her face. I asked her what was up with it (mistake) and she explained that it was a boil. That she gets them all the time, since she was a young girl, blah blah blah... and about how she'd gotten on IN HER CROTCH shortly after the birth of her youngest daughter that made it so uncomfortable to walk.

Seriously. I couldn't make this shit up.

She even demonstrated how she had to walk at that time, knees bent and as far apart as possible. Yeah. Right in the middle of the store.

:shock:

I figured anyone who would discuss this with a complete and total stranger had to be a kinda free-thinking kind of chick, right?

WRONG.

She said (in a mirthful way yet) that boils were one sign of the coming of the antichrist.

Thinking she was messing around, i said i'd check her scalp for the birthmark cause she's the one with all the boils.

BOOM.

:evil:

She went APESHIT. Practically fainted. If she had had holy water I would have been drowned. She DID make 2 of her fingers into a cross and brandished it at me.

So apparently it's ok to discuss the state of your crotch but not to make a joke.

Now she comes in wearing JESUS SAVES shirts and crap. Frankly I'm surprised she ever came back to my store.

weirdo.

[darareaksmey]

I have never read the HP books or seen any of the movies, because it's just not my thing. But, when the books first came out, our adult Sunday School class (ELCA church) talked about whether they were good or bad for kids to read. Oddly for such a liberal congregation as ours, there was one married couple who said they would never let their kids read anything that seemd to celebrate witchcraft so. (The majority of us said we didn't have a problem with pretty much ANY non-obscene literature that would get our children to read more.) Anyhow, the couple who were against HP, lifelong Lutherans, ended up leaving our church within the year and joining a very low-church, fundie-lite Episcopal church (that has since separated from the US church and affiliated with an African diocese). I heard later that they had been heavily proselytized by members of that church. I guess that's where they got their anti-HP view.

[Brainsample]

I must go to a weird church because when HP first came out our minister praised it as a fine book. He said that HP was like Christ and Voldemort like Satan and that we all should read the book for ourselves and see if he was wrong. His point was to nip any fearmongering in the bud and it worked very well.

Also our Christian book stores in town all sold HP books and merchandise. Not all us Christians are nuts. :lol:

Ladypuglover,

I think that I'd love your church. If you teach your kids to be discerning, and you are aware of what they read as they discuss the books with you (Part of homeschooling, no?), your kids should be able to read some of this stuff (though I can see why you would not want to see this stuff as a mainstay of your child's book diet). I loved the Matrix films for this reason, because there were themes therein where I saw so much Christian symbolism that was deeply moving and left the theaters in tears after every installment. I'm sure that the Matrix trilogy is not a fundie favorite.

[lilwriter85]

I have seen some Christian support for the HP books. Pope John Paul II liked them and even gave some kind of blessing back in 2002 or 2003 and there was controversy in Catholic communties because of that. There was a deacon at my family's parish who was dead set against HP.

Last year on Facebook, there was a group established to boycott fantasy books and movies. One of my Facebook friends who is in DVM school joined the group. I haven't looked at the group's page in awhile but they were against HP, Lord of the Rings, Charmed and other similar things for religious reasons. I have a feeling they are probably boycotting Game of Thrones and the book series.

[Chrystal-J]

I used to help out at this "church" (and I use the term loosely) that gave out food from the food bank. The woman who ran the church looked like the mother from the movie Carrie. She would run around praying for no reason. She would suddenly stop what-ever she was doing and start speaking in tongues. She said her brother was a "whore to drugs" and then she started screaming in tongues. Her brother was around the corner and started yelling (not in tongues) at her. She also ran a half-way house for ex convicts. She would blast christian music and make the ex-cons "dance for Jesus!" Or she would hand them a microphone and make them "sing for Jesus". I quit volunteering there because I thought one of the ex-cons was gonna snap and go nuts in there. But, she ended up having an affair with one of the ex-cons and her husband divorced her and she lost the "church" anyway.

[lilwriter85]

Just came across this article that discusses why fundies dislike HP

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/181688/ ... istian.htm

[duplessis3]

Weird run-in, not HP related.

We were at an art event and these two women came up to my friends and me , asking if the child in the orange shirt and the purple socks was one of ours. He is theirs, (they are Lutheran, ELCA) and so one lady said that her church was doing a "treasure hunt" and God had given her a message to give to someone in an orange shirt and purple socks. They did ask if they could talk to him, and the parents said sure. They spoke for a moment, we did hear them asking J if he believed in Jesus and he said yes. J reported back that they had told him that God had a message for him - that God cares about him, and no matter how hard life got to remember that. I was impressed that they were respectful and didn't go into the hell and damnation stuff.

I later asked my UU children what they would have said - my eldest said when they asked him if he believed in Jesus he would have asked them what they meant when they asked that question. And then of course he would have said, no he doesn't believe that Jesus is lord and saviour. My youngest said he would have said "I'm a Unitarian Universalist. By asking that question, you probaby don't know what that is. Here is what I believe..."