crisisGirl

for those of you who live in fundyville, what are some of the rather rotten experiences that you've had with religious folk? (either trying to force their views on you - or trying to squelch your beliefs, or even your physical well-being)

i'll start with one of my funnier ones.

i live in georgia, right in the heart of america's fundy farm. we have a lot of people here who believe in faith healing. i just avoid most of them, but i have been accosted on the streets many times (i am legally blind, and walk with a cane) for people to "lay hands" on me.

one hot summer day i was walking to the burger king down the street from my house. (by hot, i mean hot even for georgia! it was over 100 degrees F.) as i was about to cross a driveway, a large black (i think) cadillac pulled in front of me (so that i couldn't pass) and stopped. just as i'm sure i'm about to be bodysnatched, and thinking how the hell i'm going to outrun these ppl, a voice comes out of the back window, "the LAWD can heal yo eyes!"

since i obviously wasn't going to get around these guys, and "no thanks" only elicited "so you want to be blind?", i decided to let them do their schpiel. (most fundies will just pray or whatever and leave you alone, happily convinced that you'll be healed in no time.) these guys did their prayer, and asked me if i could see. still being quite blind, and knowing that i was going to flunk the "how many fingers am i holding up" test, i answered "no." this elicited another prayer.

this continued, with my albinoid self roasting in the georgia sun, for over 45 minutes. by this time, i was ready to find an ass and kick it, but i still wasn't too sure about these guys, as i knew there were several in the car, and i've been through fundy "exorcisms" before. after their third prayer (yes the damn things were that long) and the third time of being asked whether or not i could see, i got an idea.

i shouted "YES, I CAN SEE!" i then began to describe the route to the burger king - "there's a gas station up ahead - in between here and there, there's a sign advertising all the stores in this shopping center..." after some hallelujiahs and whatnot, they finally pulled off and let me go on my merry way. (thankfully they didn't take my cane!)

a less funny and dramatic, but far more annoying experience was being repeatedly forced to listen to a christian preacher at my high school pep rallies. (i graduated in 1999) so much for seperation of church and state. how convenient that there were never any rabbis or imams invited to speak.

another irritating high school experience was Mr. Shealy, the american history teacher. the first thing that i and the rest of the class knew about this guy was that he taught sunday school at x baptist church. having had other openly xtian teachers before, this wasn't really a red flag. when he started preaching in class, however, i, and a lot of other students became annoyed. (this school had its fair share of muslims, buddhists, jews, and yes, atheists, among other folks, even the not-so-fanatical christians were getting irked.) ppl complained, but the administration ignored it. when the students in his sunday school class got higher grades, and the students who obviously didn't share his beliefs got lower grades, ppl complained even more, and it was still ignored.

what finally got the administration to reprimand this guy? i, and another blind girl (who was incidentally, a devout christian) complained after he began to refuse to provide accomodations for testing and assignments. it's nearly impossible to win a church/state case in Ga, but ADA Sec. 504 cases sometimes stand a chance. We were removed from his class, and he continued to teach until he retired.

Doctor X

crisisGirl:

Not to diminish your disability, but the next time you get accosted, you could try:

1. I prefer this because I do not want to see rude people such as you.
2. I became blind through faith-healing.

. . . anyways, unfortunately--as the crapolla on the 10 Commandments monument has demonstrated--"the faithful" are more than happy to excuse hypocrisy because they feel their belief that they are right outweighs the rights of those they feel are wrong.

Basically . . . Sherman was not thorough enough [Stop that!--Ed.].

--J.D.

crisisGirl

<wicked grin>there's always the option of "great! can he get the hair off my palms too? i'm tired of using Nair 3 times a day!"</wicked grin>

Doctor X

Excellent! I wanted to work in the "I should have stopped when I needed glasses" but I was not sure how to do that!

--J.D.

crisisGirl

ROFLMAO!
there's also, "but i believe that god has a plan for me to be the world's first blind figher pilot/truck driver/brain surgeon/etc."

lisarea

I saw almost the same thing once. I took my son, his friend, and his friend's little sister Kathy, who was blind, to the Denver Zoo, and some crazy guy tried to cure Kathy by laying hands on her.

I freaked out a little, but this little seven year old girl had the presence of mind to explain to him patiently that Jesus didn't make her blind. The fact that her umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck at birth made her blind. It wasn't Jesus' fault, and nobody could fix it. She told him being blind wasn't so bad, and he shouldn't worry about it because she really didn't mind.

After he left, she told me that things like that happened sometimes, and she felt bad for those people who believed silly things like that.

It was priceless, though, to see that tiny little girl firmly and patiently reasoning with a crazy fundy.

sakrilege

This isn't a direct experience but one that made an impression on me. I had just moved to northern Alabama. There was a local news report about a church and it's members. The reporter was in the graveyard relating how various church members had died. Being shot by another member of the church was the most common cause stated. I made a mental note not to attend any small country churches after that!

crisisGirl

... DAMN!

I've had that happen too, although I don't consider it the norm. My father got it in his head one time that I was a witch (granted, I did have some fun with it) and he stuck a gun in my face, reading some scripture about not suffering a witch to live.

I guess the fact that he doesn't like gays either, and there's a lot of homosexuality in prison, deterred him from pulling the trigger.

I don't consider him the norm - he really was a nut job.

A cousin of mine died by drowning. He had been being molested by his mother (apparently the whole family knew except me - I never met the kid). We went to the funeral, and daddy dearest remarked on the drive back that this was god's punishment for the boy sleeping with his mother.

*shudder*

Another time, when my brother said he didn't believe in hell, dd burned brother's hand with a magnifying glass, talking about how real and hot hell was.

(and brother dear is a fundy now!)

Arken

If it had been me, I would have yelled, "YES! I CAN SEE!" and then walked directly into the nearest tree, light post, or whatever else was around... a bruised nose would be worth it.

sakrilege

Quote:

We went to the funeral, and daddy dearest remarked on the drive back that this was god's punishment for the boy sleeping with his mother.

Quote:

... burned brother's hand with a magnifying glass, talking about how real and hot hell was.

I do hope that daddy is either gone to his reward or you have moved away far enough not to have to deal with him.

BTW, how do the smilies 'appear' to you, I hope they're not wasted since I used some.