Ah, the joys of fundamentalist Christianity! What wily, manipulative tools are at the disposal of those closest to the Lord. What abundant love for all God’s children is available in the congregations of said establishments.
So I’m sitting here at work last night, perusing the SDMB, when my personal line rings. My husband is on the line, and our good friend (let’s call her Sabrenia…that’s her name) has come to our house very upset and crying. A little background: she’s 19, a pre-vet student on a full academic scholarship to the best school in our area, waits tables 30-40 hours per week, and is looking for an apartment but currently still living at home with her fundie parents. Her father recently had a heart attack and required some extensive surgery to repair whatever damage had been done. A week or so later he landed back in ICU with a staph infection, which he is now recovering from at home. One afternoon while her father was still in the hospital,
Sabrenia and her parents’ minister happened to visit him at the same time.
Her mother asked her to (well, made it clear that she should) attend a “revival” at the church with her last night…revival, complete with tent and frothing-at-the-mouth fundies for your viewing pleasure. Apparently the whole church had a plan worked up, because soon after she sat down, she realized that SHE was the focus of the fervent prayers of the masses. When I say “fundie” here I don’t just mean “I believe the Bible literally, and Darwin was a fruitcake” garden-variety fundie; the women in this church don’t wear makeup or jewelry or FUCKING PANTS. The minister stood before the crowd and announced that Sabrenia was being taken over by Satan, for by Christ Almighty, he’d seen her at the hospital visiting her sick father wearing earrings and those new-fangled blue jeans! Her mother took one arm while the preacher’s wife took the other and literally dragged her to the altar and tried to force her onto bended knee to pray for forgiveness. The minister admonished her in front of everyone and actually told her that God had spared her father’s life this time, but might not be so lenient in the future if Sabrenia didn’t change her ways. This went on some time, with her standing there crying out of embarrassment and anger, until she finally ran out to her car and left.
When I got home, I talked to her for some time about the whole incident. She told me a little about the preacher and his “church”. He just built a new church and matching parsonage to the tune of $600,000, raised entirely by church members. He owns a Vette AND a fucking Rolls. I have never even seen a Rolls in person, so this weasely bastard must only take his out on special occasions, because this is a fairly small community. However, he counsels his congregation against having a television. A computer is fine, he says, as long as there’s no internet.
I am sick to death over this. I asked her why the hell she didn’t smack someone in the mouth over it (yes, at church, in front of Jesus and everybody! It would have been at least as appropriate as what they did to her and infinitely more constructive). She said, and I understand, that she was raised in the church and she respects a lot of the people there, and didn’t want to cause anyone any problems. I considered attending a service myself, but I’m afraid of what I might do and I don’t want to embarrass Sabrenia further. I don’t know what else to do, except offer her our couch to crash on till she finds an apartment. I’m so pissed I just don’t know how to handle the situation. Anyone ever dealt with something like this before?
