Heidi Wordhouse-Dykema

>And I live in Michigan, but in West Michigan -- Grand Rapids. I
>think there are people here near Ann Arbor and Detroit (with whom I'd
>be very willing to meet as well) -- but I don't know of any near GR
>(as we call it.)
>
>Peace,
>Amy

<splurting cola>
Oh, Amy honey. GR? I was born there, went to Calvin College (ick,
ptooie!), birthed my first baby in GR and got my wedding cakes at Arnies
(yes, in that order.) You are SO surrounded by fundies - and Christian
Reformed Fundies at that! A whole world unto themselves. For goodness
sake, they have Jesus Billboards. (laughing) You've met my
Family!!! (maniacal laughing)
Oh, I'm so very sorry.

Anyway there ARE some cool folks in GR, you just really have to go
searching for them. My sister lives there, but her kids are only 1 and
3. I'm just starting to try and finagle her into considering
un/homeschooling. She's SAH now. (and yes, she's Xtian, but not
fundie!) Not much help for you there. Sorry.

We lived for a while in Ann Arbor and it's more an alternative-friendly
place. Any chance you could move?

HeidiWD

[email protected]

In a message dated 3/12/04 11:52:08 PM Central Standard Time,
heidi@... writes:
You are SO surrounded by fundies - and Christian
Reformed Fundies at that! A whole world unto themselves. For goodness
sake, they have Jesus Billboards
######

I love Jesus Billboards! Better yet I like the homemade ones on fences along
highways. I keep a collection. (Not the billboards themselves, just what they
say. <g) Many around here are antiabortion or just ads to get you to go to
such and such church, but every now and then I find a keeper. Like the one seen
yesterday, traveling between Topeka, KS and Joplin, MO; each word on an
individual board, nailed to a fence post. (on a godforsaken road with speed limit
signs posted for 55 but you really didn't want to go more than 25, I was very
lost) Each board was about 100 feet from the next one and they read:

HAVE
YOU
MET
JESUS?
NO?
YOU'RE
GOING
TO
HELL!

Would hate to meet that farmer on a blustery, rainy night, in need of help
changing a tire!

~Nancy


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

arcarpenter2003

--- In [email protected], Dnowens@a... wrote:
> > HAVE
> YOU
> MET
> JESUS?
> NO?
> YOU'RE
> GOING
> TO
> HELL!
>
> Would hate to meet that farmer on a blustery, rainy night, in need
of help
> changing a tire!

The funny thing is, in my experience, that farmer would be more than
happy to help you change a tire, and might even bring you up to the
house for a cup of coffee if you needed to wait for a tow. Sure, he
might offer to pray with you -- but I'm always amazed at what nice
people most fundies are, especially when someone's in need.

Peace,
Amy

J. Stauffer

<<<<< but I'm always amazed at what nice
> people most fundies are, especially when someone's in need.>>>>>

Do you mean the fundies who suggested that my Hepatitis C positive infant
not be allowed to come to church? Or if he does to cage him in a play pen?

Or perhaps you mean the fundies who had a fit because a young unmarried
mother who desperately needed a job was hired to work in the church nursery?

Or perhaps you mean the fundies who had a fit because the handcarved cross
donated to the church looked to "catholic"?

Or perhaps you mean the fundies who refuse to let their kids play with my
kids because we read Harry Potter?

Or perhaps you mean the fundie woman who pushed my 10yo son because she
thought he was disobeying her when he was only trying to keep his very young
brother from doing something wrong?

Or perhaps you mean the fundie who screamed and yelled at me on the
telephone for allowing the teens to make their own decisions about age
limits on the cast of their play?

Or......

Julie S.----sick to death of fundies

arcarpenter2003

--- In [email protected], "J. Stauffer"
<jnjstau@g...> wrote:
> Do you mean the fundies . . .

{{{{{Julie S.}}}}}}

I'm so sorry you and your children were hurt, and I was not defending
people who are hurtful and mean. I meant the fundies I grew up
surrounded by, who were faced with a liberal hippie family moving
into their small town and who, overall, tried to make us welcome in
the ways they knew (by inviting us to church, of course <g>).

I believe my wording was that I was "amazed" and I really did not
mean that in an underhanded "I'm going to show you where you were
wrong" way. I really am amazed. People who helped me with flat
tires, who would watch us kids at a moment's notice when my parents
needed it, who would help find our lost pony, who would lend us the
use of their tractor, who taught my brother and I how to ride horses,
who would offer us orange juice and cookies and let us look at a
lifetime's worth of knick-knacks collected in their house . . . and
then could turn around and, in our earshot, talk about hell and
African-Americans (though that's not the word they used) and "women's
libbers" (of which my mother was one) and whatever else.

I was the one who started this thread by saying I didn't want to join
a homeschooling group of fundamentalists -- no matter what my past
neighbors taught me, I don't want my kids to have to deal with that,
and I don't want to deal with it. My in-laws are close enough (not
fundie, but not terribly open, either).

But if I were driving down a country road and my car broke down, I
would probably feel okay in knocking on the nearest farmhouse door
and asking for help, even if there were Jesusy signs all over the
place. Let them play the Good Samaritan, y'know? <g>

Hope that clarifies -- and I hope you've found other people to hang
with?

Peace,
Amy