Who here has suffered the embarrassment & pain of having fundie friends or family?

[Philosoraptor]

That's right, all of us who have to suffer the ever-stranger world view of far-right fundamentalist right-wing, bible-thumping, born-again friends or family, or even worse, co-workers, got any good horror stories? I have too many to ever list here, I just want to make sure I'm not the only one slightly concerned about certain screwball Americans.

[w8liftinglady]

1. oh,yeah.half the people I work with here are fundies

of course,my grandmas were good,God-fearing Catholics.
Living in this part of Texas,the only difference is what flavor of Fundie you are-

[Philosoraptor]

39. My grandparents were deeply religious, but in a quiet way

I just hate the loud and pushy ones, like my relatives.

[Jennicut]

2. My parents are very conservative and love Rush and Glenn Beck.

But there are just not that many fundies in New England. I go to church more then they do!

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

38. Thankfully it isn't as bad in New England as it is in other

places in this country. However, I think the fundie population is on the rise around here. I keep hearing crap about this Paul Lepage (the tea party favorite, and republican candidate for governor in ME) doing well in the polls, supposedly in the lead. This guy said he wants to do off shore drilling in the Gulf of Maine back when the whole Gulf of Mexico fiasco was playing out. It kind of freaks me out that anyone who suggests such a thing could even be moderately popular in this state. One of the things that almost all Mainers had in common in the past was that they gave a shit about the environment in this state. I think people may care more about being cheap these days, which means quality of life goes out the window. Paul Lepage is the general manager of this cheap ass, discount store chain called Marden's up here, so he knows about being cheap.

[Jennicut]

43. I could see it on the rise in parts of Maine, as it is much more rural

then say Connecticut, which is where I live. CT has some born again churches but fundies just don't have a foothold here.

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

44. I think its the two Maine's problem that never seems to go away

Some jerk state rep/senator within the past year even suggested that we divide into "Maine" and "Northern Massachusetts". I can't remember where the proposed dividing line was... I think maybe around Augusta. The southern part, where most Mainers live by the way, was to be called "Northern Massachusetts" in this guy's plan. And of course the northern, least populated part would still get to claim the title "Maine". Obviously, he was trying to say that everyone in the southern part of our state are really ex-Massachusetts people and the true life-long Mainers live in the North. I hate it when people make these blank stereotype statements because they are never close to being true and it doesn't do anything. It doesn't solve any problems.

[Jennicut]

45. That sounds idiotic. It would be like declaring the shoreline in Connecticut as part of

New York.

I hate it when conservatives claim there is only one true area of the country or a state.

[queenjane]

3. I'm drowning in fundie teabaggers!

All family members except myself, my mother, and 1 cousin. All my co-workers. Everyone in the town in which I live. And, per Facebook, everyone I attended high school with. I'm in Fundie Hell!

A co-worker left a pamphlet on my desk, a screed about my future in hell if I didn't accept jeezus. I've no proof, but I'm pretty sure of the perpetrator. Went to our admin manager, who tried to brush it off. Told her if it happened again, I was going straight to our Office of Institutional Equity. Also told her the biblical verses attached to electronic email signatures weren't kosher (pardon the pun) for a large university with staff & students from all over the world. She didn't tell me she would deal with it, per se, but the email sigs were changed, and no more fundie lit left on my desk . . . I have noticed the number of employees walking around with the bible has increased, though.

[rurallib]

5. Employees walk around with the bible? During work hours?

That would be a hostile work environment for me.

[queenjane]

6. They really do

One gal said she was carrying it because she was on some biblical-based diet, and carrying it would speed up her weight loss. (I'm not making this up, and scarily, I work for a large private university that's world-renowned). They bring the bible to meetings, they read religious books at their desks. People put biblical verses on their screen savers. They quote scripture on email sigs. They bring up god constantly. I'm a lifelong athiest who has never really talked about it at work, but someone obviously figured it out. Yes, I brought up the hostile work environment aspect--which made the manager quite defensive. NO ONE wants to offend the religious in our society. Just nuts--literally and figuratively.

[izquierdista]

13. You just need to have something to believe in

You know, to counter their belief. I believe I'll have another plate of pasta:

[piratefish08]

15. 3 years ago I constructed a FSM tree topper for the holidays.

I'll try to post a picture. He has candy cane eye stems, light up tentacles and ornament eyeballs. A work of art, if I do say so myself.

It drives a few of my friends and relatives batshit crazy. It makes my family smile though..............

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

41. Wow, that does not sound like a college work environment

At least not what I would expect one to be. Thankfully, work is pretty secular where I am at. I think that bible toting at work would just bring down productivity and also annoy a lot of people. Some of my co-workers are pretty difficult to get along with as it is. I don't need to hear details about their religious beliefs at work.

[sinkingfeeling]

12. So how's life at Duke? I'm also at a large public university in the deep South.

[queenjane]

20. Overwhelmingly tolerant, inclusive, and accepting

It's just my current dept that's a problem. Most of my co-workers are natives of the small rural surrounding towns, and reflect those beliefs & values. Doesn't occur to them that others don't share their beliefs.

Duke itself is wonderful, though. An oasis in the midst of "Fundie Hell". I love dealing with people from all over the world, which just confirms how rigid and moralistic most Americans are.

[sinkingfeeling]

24. I hear you. Same thing here. I was born and raised in Ohio, but spent about 5 years in

Raleigh. Took my 12 year-old son to Duke for special testing. They gave him the SAT test and then followed up on his later education. He passed the SAT with several points above the average for the reading/writing parts and just made the average on math. He did much better when he retook it in high school!

[ceile]

49. The Talent Identification Program (TIP)?

I did that as a kid. Seems like it's come a long way....

[pintobean]

4. Some of my family are fundie.

I love them and they love me. I'm not suffering from it. We all have our faults.

[Dappleganger]

7. My dad.

But he's bipolar anyway, so it's just worse.

[piratefish08]

8. I was raised in a fundie household. My stepfather claimed to have prayed and healed over 8000

people in his lifetime. He then went on to die a painful, nasty death of pancreatic cancer. Evidently his magic words only worked on other people.

[ThatsMyBarack]

9. Where to begin....

I have one--yeah, ONE--fundie/GOP-type person among my liberal "family" of coworkers.

About half my adult-skating friends are teabagger types.

Several Republicans (not a whole lot) on both sides of my family.

May not sound like a lot, but you know how ONE rotten apple can spoil a whole barrel....

[Glorfindel]

10. Oh, yes...unfortunately

Some of the people I love best in all the world are Repukes. None of them are fundamentalist "Christian," though.

[AldebTX]

11. I've Got A Brother

Showing my age here but one Christmas he gave me the wonderful present of a $100 donation to Pat Robertson's presidential campaign.

As he presented it to me and told me I was going to burn in hell for being a fag at least I could be happy knowing that a donation to God's candidate had been made in my name.

He has since moved to Alaska because they are freedom loving Americans who don't pay taxes and they pay him to live there....his words.

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

42. that is sad

I would be incredibly disappointed if one of my kids ever treated their sibling that way.

[Ineeda]

14. You're not alone

I had a good friend, artistic, a little new-agey, intelligent. We spent a good bit of time talking about philosophical ideas and we were pretty much on the same page. The only major thing we disagreed on involved her perception of the 'advantages' that those on public assistance had, particularly regarding 'them' getting help in furthering their education, where she received no help. (Except from her parents. Bear in mind, this woman was in her late 30's.) I moved 1500 miles away but still kept up the relationship via phone and email. Eventually, communication between us became more sporadic, but didn't cease altogether. The first indication that she'd gone off the rails was when she blamed the victims of Katrina for their plight. She totally absolved the government, especially the feds and B*sh, of any responsibility and denied that the victims had no real options. She actually said that they were too stupid to get out of harm's way, that they were too accustomed to being taken care of (generational welfare recipients, you know.) Heated discussion ensued.

About two years ago, she started emailing fundie stuff (outrage about the Ten Commandments being removed from that Georgia courthouse, for example.) I responded as if she were joking but asked her to not send me that stuff. We continued, via email, to communicate about other things but she always added in a snippet of similar crap. I asked her not to, but she pushed and I pushed back -- hard. We are no longer friends. I wonder, though, what changed her.

Now I see it happening with my brother, too, who's easily swayed and has moved to a virulently Right part of the state (Florida.) <sigh>

[Philosoraptor]

40. I had to shut my dear old mom when she said killing doctors was a good thing

Not all doctors, you know which ones she meant. I tried valiently to remain quiet and respectful, but that one made me go all Joan Crawford on her ass.

[Smarmie Doofus]

16. Just short of fundie. One wing of the family is hard RW.

Catholic, ultrareligious,ultraconservative.

It started out with Right to Life.... a sort of starter drug for many... and then spread out to encompass basically the whole agenda.

We speak... but we mostly avoid politics.

[lunatica]

17. My sister became a Born Again Christian

We had a fight over the phone. She was trying to save me until I asked her if her God hates gay people. We had an argument in which I asked her if she truly believes God created every single thing and Christians claim God loves his creation, why she would think that God doesn't love gay people? She was stumped on that one so she defensively told me I was trying to tell her what to believe.

Subsequently she wrote me a letter in which she told me I was going to hell. She described my punishment for two pages and condemned me to eternal pain and suffering. She used to be a truly compassionate person and never hated anyone.

We haven't talked since. I wrote her a letter when my mother died just to let her know. She hadn't called my mother in two or three years. We'll probably never speak to each other or see each other again. Families fall apart.

[Bitwit1234]

18. I dropped off facebook because of it.

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

32. I did too.

Plus facebook is pretty much a big waste of time too. It think the gay marriage vote (in Maine) was the worse time on facebook because so many people were posting bigoted messages against gay people and gay marriage. It was nasty. I've never seen anything like it in this state before. It was a close vote too, but bigotry wins it seems.

[ladjf]

19. Just how mentally off does a population have to get before the

Country collapses? nt

[Initech]

21. My dad's side of the family is all of the RW-fundie variety.

[tammywammy]

22. I never have

I have family that consider themselves "born again." They've never tried to "convert" me or anything. Even on facebook they do post a lot of "Jesus/God is great" but they are who they are. They don't get mad or say anything when I post positive gay/equal rights articles either.

No one where I work has ever talked to me about religion. I have friends that go to church, but again, have never said anything about the fact that I don't.

:shrug:

[Pathwalker]

23. My fundie Aunt killed me off on Ancestry.com - does that count?

Seriously, I am listed as being dead, because refused to "get saved". The website refused to change it too, unless joined and was able to "prove" that I am not dead.

[EOTE]

25. I have very nice cousins who are also fundies.

I'm amazed when I spend time with them. They're good people, believe strongly in good works, but they've been so indoctrinated by their mother (who is also a good person, but extremely naive) that they believe the most ridiculous stories (they believe everything in the bible, literally).

One time I took one of the cousins to the Smithsonian to show her around a bit. We ended up going to the Air and Space Museum and saw an Imax film called Cosmic Voyage. I was fixated on the screen, it was one of the coolest, most informative movies I had ever seen (it concerned the origins of the universe and subatomic particles). When we left the theater, I asked my cousin what she thought about the movie. She replied: "You know I don't believe any of that, right?" I guess I shouldn't have been, but I was shocked and my jaw hit the floor. Any of it? She doesn't believe in subatomic particles? I tried to clarify things, but she was insistent that 99% of it was pure fabrication made up by evil, godless scientists. My cousins basically are under the impression that Christians are a persecuted minority and the scientific community is out to get them. I shook my head. What else could I do?

[mwb970]

28. Wow. That's pretty far out.

How does someone "not believe in" subatomic particles? How did this woman get the idea that she can decide what scientific results she "believes in"? She is treating scientific textbooks as if they were Scriptures of a competing religion: "My God is better than your God."

I am so glad I have ZERO religious nuts in my family and circle of friends (even on Facebook). I have no time to waste on people like the ones you describe.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

30. Subatomic particles are indeed a scam

.. perpetrated by long-haired eggheads with a fetish for big magnets. s'true.

:hi:

[Fire1]

26. Not I! n/t

[Philosoraptor]

27. .........

[RayOfHope]

29. One of my brothers thinks that America would be a better place if preachers refuse to marry

couples on their second and third divorces. One marriage for everyone, that's it. He said that preachers need to stick up for the moral and right thing to do. Interestingly enough, this brother is divorced. I wonder what he'll think should he ever want to get married again.

My other brother is a fundie asshole too.

[krabigirl]

52. lol, does he not know that you don't need a preacher to get married?

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

31. I'm sure most of us have fundie friends/family

But, just to be fair, they have to suffer the embarassment of left-wing friends or family. Oh, the humanity!

:hi:

[madmom]

33. Count me in that group.

[mucifer]

34. My cousin and his parents are the only ones who are right wingers. We are Jewish so not born again

But, he is the wealthiest in my family a big wig in California health. My mother was disturbed when he sent her a video about our president "being Muslim". He is highly intelligent and shouldn't be believing that. I'm thinking he might not want to pay decent taxes like the rest of us do. Anyway, he is a decent human being with his wife and family.

[saltpoint]

35. On both sides of the family tree there's a smattering of

fundie kooks, including a small gaggle of apocalyptists, if that's a word.

One blames "the mess we're in" on John F. Kennedy. She's been challenged on that theory, but so far nobody's been able to make any headway.

One is a missionary who believes Jesus attends her every move. At a recent family funeral she stood on a church pew and, waving her hands in the air, sought to call down the Lord into the presence of the gathering, etc. Some of us considered that behavior to be disruptive, not to mention delusional.

We have Jews, some anti-Jewish charismatics, a couple atheists, a few pagans of various stripes, and the usual assortment of other Judeo-Christian denominations.

[gophates]

36. I have.

Not any more, though. Cut them off.

[LWolf]

37. Not in a few decades, but yes. nt

[blondeatlast]

46. Ultra-dogmatic Mormon aunt (who was, of course, a jack Mormon), ultra-

dogmatic Catholic co-worker.

Too painful to remember--but I know the pain and aggravation all rtoo well.

[Missy Vixen]

47. The fundies have cut us off

I'm a former fundie. I left the church 20 years ago. I'm much happier as a result. I am still embarrassed when I remember my behavior, and have apologized repeatedly for it.

We have fundie family members. Without a long and involved story, we see them infrequently. We do not discuss politics. We've made it clear we are not interested in their religion.

The fundie "friends" have cut us off. We maintained any relationship at all with them because we love their kids. We were invited to an event at their home last summer which was one of the more excruciating hours I've ever spent. Imagine finding oneself in the midst of an impromptu RW political rally. We excused ourselves as quickly as possible. We've known this family for fifteen years. We were repeatedly invited to church events. We bit our tongues till bloody while they discussed their politics in front of us. After all, it's rude to cause a huge fight in someone else's house. After all, it's really fun being the "token Democrats" - it must have been enjoyable for them to exhibit to their RW wacko friends how "tolerant" they were, hm?

I regret not speaking up. Yes, it's rude to tell someone else off in their own house, but the few times they visited OUR house, they were treated with friendliness and respect by our guests, and politics was not discussed.

The husband has been out of work off and on for over two years now. My DH called him six weeks ago with a job opening he knew about that would fit the guy's skill set. He hasn't returned Mr. Missy Vixen's call.

Interestingly enough, their oldest daughter is away at school and contacted us on her own. I'm writing her back. I'd like to keep the channels of communication open. After all, the rebellion will happen, and it's not going to be pretty, IMHO.

[Evasporque]

48. My father slapped me when I was 21 for being a Democrat...

Reached across the table and smacked me...with a crazy rage in his eyes...

things sorta started going south between us after that...

[shanti]

50. several :(

i do come from orange county, the bastion of conservatism. my immediate family was the only democratic and nonreligious one.

[Vinca]

51. 25 years ago I went home to visit dear old dad in Ohio and discovered

he'd become a fundie Christian. Odd because he had never, ever been even the slightest bit religious when I was living at home. It was an interesting experience to accompany him to this giant church (at the time I considered myself an agnostic) and watch the proceedings. It was like a bit from the Firesign Theater. People were speaking in tongues and waving their arms and pointing to the sky. It was all I could do to contain myself - I'm sure people wondered what the stranger was grinning about. We never really talked about it - I think I was speechless. Maybe it was a reaction to his old age and failing health that made him "turn to Jeeeeeeesus." I know at the end he chose his finally resting place back in Vermont among the rest of his heathen family and that made me feel better about the whole thing.

[krabigirl]

53. Yep, all the time. Friends, not family. Parents are die-hard Catholics, but ok. ro

it's some of my old friends who have converted to fundie churches that drive me insane.