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Why Fundamentalism Breeds Abusive Relationships

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Trigger Warning: Domestic Violence I can't say I ever witnessed a happy marriage in my time in fundamentalism. Not one couple comes to mind over those twenty-one years where I feel were a relationship to look up to, to use as an example of what to look for in a future partner. The relationships I witnessed were often replicas of each other, with the power dynamics of each one appearing very much the same. The first thing I automatically think of is the fact men called the shots, even for their own wives. Very rarely (if ever) did I witness a woman making a decision without the greenlight by their husband. I knew wives who couldn't even go on a grocery run without their husband's permission. Every step had to be approved by their husband or else it was a step out of line. The inability to make decisions for themselves like where to go, what to wear, how to style their hair or how to apply their make-up are just a few examples. Women were admonished for simple things...
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Does Shunning Exist in The Independent Fundamental Baptist Church?

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When we hear the word shunning , I'll bet most of us suddenly picture the plain life of the Amish or even the strange, secretive world of Scientology. These two groups certainly have given the practice of shunning a definition that many folks can look to for a definitive meaning, but the greater question is whether or not this practice is reserved solely to them? This leads to another question and that is, is shunning synonymous with the word cult ? I think that both questions are not always just based on curiousty, but in some cases, because of a need to truly understand other isolated worlds. I know that I have asked these myself in the past on my own journey of separating fact from fiction, striving to make sense of very surreal situations in my own memory. Before I dive into this though, I think it's important that for the sake of avoiding miscommunication that I reiterate that not all religious groups are cults and not all cults are destructive (basing this detail ...
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Joining a Movement Like IFB Was Not My Choice; Leaving Was

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Me as a child. IFB was all I knew.                                   I didn't ask to be born into the world of Christian Fundamentalism and certainly if I had a say in the matter, I'd never choose the Independent Fundamental Baptist movement to be the only world I knew. Although those are not my regrets to bear because I was just a child, I still grieve the years that I feel were stolen from me by a choice not made of my own choosing. I often explain it like this...my parents, who were my introduction to that world, were converted but I was conditioned.  From birth, I was groomed for a life in that movement, taught that to leave could even mean the death of myself or someone I loved. I was never meant to leave, never meant to have a life outside of the IFB Church. I was to marry an IFB man and produce more third generation Independent Fundamental Baptists in my family. I was ...
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