Fundies who don't follow the skirts-only uniform

[longskirts]

I'm thinking about families like Raising Olives who let their daughters wear pants and sleeveless tops, but don't seem fundie-lite to me. Their kids are reading huge chunks of the Bible each day, they constantly talk about submission and headship, they put a lot of restrictions on their kids' access to non-Christian books. (Raising Olives stopped using Sonlight because it had too many non-Christian materials.)

What happens when the kids are old enough to get married? Are they going to be not fundie enough to marry other fundies because they don't follow the modest dress code? Or will they adopt stricter clothing rules by then and get in line with what other fundies are wearing?

[Sumeri]

I think there are a lot of families like that - in my neck of the woods anyway. It's disconcerting because you run into them at the library or whatnot and they *look* perfectly normal and then the next thing you know you're being gently told how you and everyone you love are going to burn in hell, or how Jesus will send me the money for my kids to get out of our evil multicultural public schools (which I love!) if I just ask him.

I've started listening to the moms calling their children after story time - if they're looking for Jebidiah and Ezekiel and Moses and Rebekkah and Esther and so on and so on and so on it's a red flag for me and I'll sit next to mom or dad of Eric or Daphne.

Anyway - I think there are enough of them out there that finding marriageable partners won't be a problem.

[Fundilicious]

I'm curious how many fundies actually wear both pants and skirts (and it be a normal thing). I have to wonder if the skirts only thing is really something only the fundie "royalty" do 24/7 because they have to be the perfect example. The shining stars amongst all fundies, where all of the "common" folk fundies are a little more lax in dress.

I'm sure at large events most fundies try to emulate the elite, but I wouldn't be surprised if at home they allowed their children to wear a modest pair of pants every now and then.

[DomWackTroll]

The Coghlans, who were once "almost all skirts" according to Kim, seem to have given up completely. I was shocked the last time I perused the photos on Deanna's FB page. Not just jeans, but cut-off jean shorts! :o

https://www.facebook.com/nonnabear

[Guest Anonymous]

The Coghlans, who were once "almost all skirts" according to Kim, seem to have given up completely. I was shocked the last time I perused the photos on Deanna's FB page. Not just jeans, but cut-off jean shorts! :o

https://www.facebook.com/nonnabear

How old is Deanna Coghlan? Is she the eldest? (Her most recently added friend seems to be Kelly Bradrick and she has a post up bashing President Lincoln.)

[tabitha2]

We had a visitor last year who said the Coghlan girls would be happy in a concentration camp.That was a bit much but Deanna and her oldest sisters could go out on a night with friends from a liberal arts college, if that was possible, on saturday night and go off to a VF seminar on Patriarchy the next day and be just as happy.

Deanna is almost 19.

[AmyP]

I'm thinking about families like Raising Olives who let their daughters wear pants and sleeveless tops, but don't seem fundie-lite to me. Their kids are reading huge chunks of the Bible each day, they constantly talk about submission and headship, they put a lot of restrictions on their kids' access to non-Christian books. (Raising Olives stopped using Sonlight because it had too many non-Christian materials.)

What happens when the kids are old enough to get married? Are they going to be not fundie enough to marry other fundies because they don't follow the modest dress code? Or will they adopt stricter clothing rules by then and get in line with what other fundies are wearing?

There are more families like that than long skirt wearing, head covering families. Most PCA or OPC churches are full of very strict Christians that do not follow VF, ATI, etc., and dress in normal attire including shorts, jeans, and bathing suits. These kids go to youth group, some listen to secular music, play sports, many go to public or private school, but still have very strict interpretations of the bible and are very conservative in both a religious sense and a political sense.

[Kaylee]

I'm curious how many fundies actually wear both pants and skirts (and it be a normal thing). I have to wonder if the skirts only thing is really something only the fundie "royalty" do 24/7 because they have to be the perfect example. The shining stars amongst all fundies, where all of the "common" folk fundies are a little more lax in dress.

I'm sure at large events most fundies try to emulate the elite, but I wouldn't be surprised if at home they allowed their children to wear a modest pair of pants every now and then.

I think it's pretty common, at least for IFBs. Many of the fundies I know go to churches where the consensus or pastor's "standard" is skirts only, but the majority of them wear pants at home and many only really enforce the skirts thing for church. It seems like people who are newer or adult converts are more likely to try to stick to the whole thing 24/7 and/or try to guilt others into doing it than those who were raised with it are.

A lot of people, even those who adhere to a pretty strict dress code any time they are in public, also tend to be more relaxed at home, when they are only around family and, sometimes, among only others of the same sex. Then of course you have the people who wouldn't be caught dead in pants near their hometown but will wear whatever on vacation because nobody they know will see them.

[fakepigtails73]

I'm curious how many fundies actually wear both pants and skirts (and it be a normal thing). I have to wonder if the skirts only thing is really something only the fundie "royalty" do 24/7 because they have to be the perfect example. The shining stars amongst all fundies, where all of the "common" folk fundies are a little more lax in dress.

I'm sure at large events most fundies try to emulate the elite, but I wouldn't be surprised if at home they allowed their children to wear a modest pair of pants every now and then.

"Ashley" wears jeans some times.

[gingernut]

Don't let any of these non-skirt wearers fool you. Alot of the families we know/knew have begun dressing as much like the "world" as possible without going "too far" because they feel they must "engage the culture". They want to take dominion and suck all our brains out and replace them with the Koolaid just like before, but they feel that unless they appear more mainstream they might scare us away. It is a covert strategy. On one hand I am glad that the girls are given more freedom to pick out pretty clothes and be comfortable, but the theology is still there and the ideas are still the same.

[longskirts]

There are more families like that than long skirt wearing, head covering families. Most PCA or OPC churches are full of very strict Christians that do not follow VF, ATI, etc., and dress in normal attire including shorts, jeans, and bathing suits. These kids go to youth group, some listen to secular music, play sports, many go to public or private school, but still have very strict interpretations of the bible and are very conservative in both a religious sense and a political sense.

But my point is Raising Olives is more fundie than that. The kids don't go to youth groups. They homeschool with Vision Forum materials, they follow lots of advice from the Botkins, host giveaways of Western Conservatory CDs, etc. They just don't go along with the clothing.

[Kitty]

I can only speak from a Southern Baptist perspective, but there really isn't anything in the Bible that says women can't wear pants, or dress stylishly. It just says they can't dress like men. There are pants made for women, so any woman who wears them isn't dressing like a man. Men's and women's everyday garments back when the Bible was written were similar, and God didn't have a problem with that, just with people pretending they're something they're not.

So women wearing pants and sleeveless shirts is fine. It's very hard to tell the difference between fundies and fundie-lites by what they wear.

[FundiesInMyFamily]

My fundie QF stepsister is knee deep in the koolaide, won't let her daughter go to the ebil college but they all wear pants. It's the only "normal" thing about them.

[GenerationCedarchip]

I know plenty of reform fundies who wear pants and let their kids wear pants. The main difference I've seen that the folks I knew never wore anything shorter than Bermuda shorts - and even those were uncommon. It's all skirts at church, though. And the skirts are definitely below the knee. Last time I was home, I wore a plain, A-line khaki skirt that is knee length. When I sat down, it came up to just above my knees and some of the elders' wives were giving me the stinkeye.

The main group I associate with skirts-only in my area are the Church of Christ folks. We have a very conservative CofC congregation here, and the ones I know are always in long skirts, and they all wear their hair very long.

[Maude]

The Coghlans, who were once "almost all skirts" according to Kim, seem to have given up completely. I was shocked the last time I perused the photos on Deanna's FB page. Not just jeans, but cut-off jean shorts! :o

https://www.facebook.com/nonnabear

Apparently she also listens to Janis Joplin, Aerosmith, the Rolling Stones and Modest Mouse. That's surprising for a conservative Christian. Either she's not so conservative after all, or there's a lot of cognitive dissonance going on.

[Ms Lucy Fur]

I know plenty of reform fundies who wear pants and let their kids wear pants. The main difference I've seen that the folks I knew never wore anything shorter than Bermuda shorts - and even those were uncommon. It's all skirts at church, though. And the skirts are definitely below the knee. Last time I was home, I wore a plain, A-line khaki skirt that is knee length. When I sat down, it came up to just above my knees and some of the elders' wives were giving me the stinkeye.

The main group I associate with skirts-only in my area are the Church of Christ folks. We have a very conservative CofC congregation here, and the ones I know are always in long skirts, and they all wear their hair very long.

Same here with the C of C people. I used to work with a CofC lady, long hair in that bizarre bun thing they do and she regularly told me I was going to hell for wearing pants because God did NOT intend for women to wear pants.edited to add: oh and cutting my hair was a ticket to hell. Everytime she told me that shit, I would start chanting some made up stuff that included her name. she promptly ran away, probably to pray for protection from the heathen.

[FloraDoraDolly]

The Boyers also have pics of their daughters and granddaughters wearing pants and even shorts.

http://www.thelearningparentblogDOTcom/

The family pics aren't on the main page, but they're pretty easy to find.

[VintageJen1984]

Same here with the C of C people. I used to work with a CofC lady, long hair in that bizarre bun thing they do and she regularly told me I was going to hell for wearing pants because God did NOT intend for women to wear pants.edited to add: oh and cutting my hair was a ticket to hell. Everytime she told me that shit, I would start chanting some made up stuff that included her name. she promptly ran away, probably to pray for protection from the heathen.

That's weird. Around here the C of C wear mainstream clothes (well, no hemlines above the knee, no sleeveless) and cut their hair. It's the Pentecostals who never cut their hair and wear skirts...but they work and have a normal amount of children and don't try to push things on you.

[QAF_Rocks]

I can only speak from a Southern Baptist perspective, but there really isn't anything in the Bible that says women can't wear pants, or dress stylishly. It just says they can't dress like men. There are pants made for women, so any woman who wears them isn't dressing like a man. Men's and women's everyday garments back when the Bible was written were similar, and God didn't have a problem with that, just with people pretending they're something they're not.

Is there any kind of logical reason given for this prohibition, or is it just "The Bible says so, I believe it, that settles it?" I'm mystified why a woman dressing like a man would even be a problem in the first place.

[FloraDoraDolly]

Is there any kind of logical reason given for this prohibition, or is it just "The Bible says so, I believe it, that settles it?" I'm mystified why a woman dressing like a man would even be a problem in the first place.

I don't know about a woman dressing as a man. But during Biblical times, men who dressed as women were most likely prostitutes who belonged to other ethnic groups/religions. So the prohibition falls into the "don't do as the heathens do" camp.

[QAF_Rocks]

I don't know about a woman dressing as a man. But during Biblical times, men who dressed as women were most likely prostitutes who belonged to other ethnic groups/religions. So the prohibition falls into the "don't do as the heathens do" camp.

Could be. And a woman dressing as a man might have been trying to take advantage of male-only privileges, something that would surely have upset religious leaders of the time.

Of course, I'm still puzzled what any of that has to do with Christians in modern-day America, or why they are willing to follow some ancient prohibitions and not others.

[Ms Lucy Fur]

Could be

Almost makes me wonder if Dougie or Gothard or any of those manboys ever saw Yentl LOL edited because its 3am and the headship is snoring entirely too loud.

[ohmeohmy]

Apparently she also listens to Janis Joplin, Aerosmith, the Rolling Stones and Modest Mouse. That's surprising for a conservative Christian. Either she's not so conservative after all, or there's a lot of cognitive dissonance going on.

And Cake! Which somehow stood out to me more than all the others. I'm thinking they're not so conservative, but trying to cash in on the conservative/VF market, since it's obviously been rather lucrative for many others.

[meda]

Well she also had this as a Facebook post:

"I just was randomly struck with a curiosity as to how many of my friends are aware of the fact that President Lincoln was a low, disgusting, godless, lying, cruel, scoundrel who didn't give a flip for African slaves."

So skirts or not, still a VF fundy of the SOTDRT, south-will-rise-again variety. Smug ignorant twit.

[pomology]

Apparently she also listens to Janis Joplin, Aerosmith, the Rolling Stones and Modest Mouse. That's surprising for a conservative Christian. Either she's not so conservative after all, or there's a lot of cognitive dissonance going on.

Yeah. I don't get the Coghlans. Or the Raising Olives people. Seriously, the Coghlan daughters on facebook seem SO normal, until you read about their beliefs and realize they are batshit insane, whether they listen to the Rolling Stones, watch Doctors Who, and enjoy Monty Python or not.