ONTD Original - Scandals in the Evangelical Church

[ladyjj]

The anniversary of this shitshow is upcoming, so that's why it's being featured in this edition of ONTD Divinity School. Get your calculators out, jackals. Numbers abound!

Welcome to the

Comments

[ladychips]

i used to work at an evangelical church, the behind the scenes stuff was pretty toxic. not really super moreso than other offices ive worked at, but they were pretending like everything was sunshine and roses which was bs. veeeeery judgemental was the main thing, which was inappropriate at a jesus institution, i thought. i had to sign a morality contract too lol. the verbiage was super vague about what not to do so i asked for a list of things i shouldnt be doing out in the world and they looked at me like i was crazy. i was like i dont want to be fired so can you please be more specific, and they just said something along the lines of if you know you know. imo it was so they could terminate anyone at any point, so that was always hanging over your head too

[espressotorte]

Not surprised that they're pro right to work lol

[ladyjj]

imo it was so they could terminate anyone at any point,

That's EXACTLY what it was. The only remotely religious organization I worked for was Catholic Charities of Rockville Centre and that was shitshow on so many levels. Super judgy-judgy.

[varioussaints]

Obviously feel no pressure to actually share anything but I would be very interested in any stories you might have from that job! I am not at all surprised that their morality contract basically boiled down to, IYKYK.

[tanglespiders]

Okay, I read all this but I’m still stuck on your mom wanting you to go to Oral Roberts at his “give me $8 million or God’s gonna kill me” peak. Oof.

[ladyjj]

The next sermon is all about that POS. I swear, I think my father's ghost smacked her in the head for that one cause I didn't get backhanded when I said 'NO' very loudly.

[kawaiiairbender]

How awful regarding the Ruasian Girl.

I grew up in the church my whole life and I never got people making predictions on the day 'the rapture' would happen. The Bible was really clear on the 2nd coming being unknowable.
Which is why middle school me would predict the rapture the next day so I knew it wouldn't happen

[koushiba]

Oh lemme settle in. I’ve been meaning to read the previous parts too. As someone who didn’t grow up religious or with religion at all this is always so fascinating to me.

[epicdonald]

I went to evangelical churches in the early 2010s because I had grown up Catholic and really liked going to a church that didn't have all the arbitrary rules & doctrines that the Catholic church has. i liked that they (at least on the surface) encouraged everyone to personally engage with the bible and seemed focused on building real friendships between members and not just being a place you went for an hour once a week then went home

[epicdonald]

oh also the evangelical churches i went to (even the seemingly more progressive ones) ranged from merely heteronormative to outright patriarchal in what they encouraged those "desires of your heart" to be. some were very explicit that women should desire to submit to their husbands and if we don't want that, that's sin we need to work on. others weren't that intense but did at least assume that everyone wants to follow the path of hetero marriage & parenthood, and if you haven't achieved those things then there's probably some sin in your life you need to work on. like they didn't straight up dictate "this is what you're supposed to want" but it was just assumed that you wanted these things & would receive them if you set your heart right or whatever.

at the time i was so steeped in patriarchy that these things barely registered as red flags for me sadly. it was only in retrospect years later that i realized "wait i hated that"

[ladychips]

i went on a date with this guy and we debated baptism, and in my girls bible study they asked how it had gone and i told them that, and one of them was like oh well when you find someone you really like you wont want to argue with them. i was like i think the more i like someone the more open ill be and willing to debate? and she was like no, youll want to submit. GROSS.

[originaru]

i was raised protestant and i'm not religious anymore, if anything i'm agnostic. but there is a part of me that wants to find a church i can just walk in on a sunday service, sit and listen and enjoy the hymns without being expected to become a community member.

i know churches encourage this building of community, but for me i want to just go and enjoy the nostalgic parts of attending church and not like, be welcomed back into the fold lol.

i still go to an evening service with my parents for christmas eve since my parents are regular churchgoers and i actually do enjoy all the christmas songs they sing.

that being said, most churches here are all modernized with live bands and sound systems and i'm a grandma and i actually miss the wooden pews, the organ music and the way music reverberated in old church buildings.