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What's up with flowers?

Recently, I got a small silk floral arrangement for my dining room table. Nothing big and ostentatious - just a small pitcher of fake flowers. So the IBC neighbor kids come over to play and they go off on my flowers. They're asking me why do I have flowers in my house. What's up with the flowers. Etc. Etc. I said "I think they're pretty. They make me happy," which was apparently the wrong answer, because now these kids aren't allowed to play with mine and they are kept in church from dawn till dusk every single day. I won't take the blame for that, obviously they're family is out there even for religious types.

What is up with this religious flower hating? I grew up in the Methodist tradition and we even had flowers in church. Flowers were okay with every church I've been around. What do fundamental baptists have against flowers? I answered questions about this small floral arrangement for nearly an hour. What is up with that?

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by A3Kr0n on June 23, 2011 at 11:22pm

I've never heard of flower hating Baptists. I was raised Methodist too, so now I feel compelled to "friend" you. My mom was raised bible Baptist, but never said she hated flowers. She has flowers on the table most times, too. Fake and real.

Permalink Reply by Grace Fitzpatrick on June 24, 2011 at 12:00am

I asked my dh about it since he grew up fundamentalist baptist. Apparently, they have very different views on what is sinful than other churches. I never heard of flowers being "sinful" before. Maybe it was my obsession with lawn neatness. What can I say? I grew up Methodist. We like things neat and orderly.

Permalink Reply by Michael Brodie on June 24, 2011 at 12:02am

I googled IBC church. There are several different groups using those initials. Which group are we talking about?

Permalink Reply by Grace Fitzpatrick on June 24, 2011 at 12:12am

Independent Baptist Church. They were featured on 20/20 a couple of weeks ago for forcing young teen girls to have sex with middle aged men. Not the church in my town, but several of the churches have gotten in trouble for this. They have a survivors support group on Facebook.

Permalink Reply by A3Kr0n on June 24, 2011 at 7:15am

Maybe the IBC church in your town is just better at hiding it?

Permalink Reply by Grace Fitzpatrick on June 24, 2011 at 7:45am

I don't know. It wasn't one of the ones featured on 20/20. On the program, one of their leaders said it wasn't a wide spread thing, they're all separate churches, blah, blah, blah. I'm certainly not going there or allowing my kids to go there even for the whole experience religion and decide for yourself thing. There are plenty of churches less freaky than this one. They go to church all day long almost everyday. Weird....

Permalink Reply by Max Bjork on June 24, 2011 at 10:54am

This is awful... I might have to look up that 20/20 show. Never heard of this or the flowers bit. I'm very optimistic about the future of Earth, but this kind of thing really scares me.

Ten years ago, I truly thought that religion would be extinct by now. This would be before 9/11, and growing up in a fairly non-religious community/ ignorant to how many people were still religious.

Thank god for Atheist Nexus!

Permalink Reply by Grace Fitzpatrick on June 24, 2011 at 11:21am

Here's a link to the program: http://abc.go.com/watch/2020/SH559026/VD55121488/2020-48-victims-fo... It's also available on Hulu. This right up there with the Catholic priest scandals - maybe worse. the Catholics have tried to put a stop to that nonsense recently while these guys don't even admit it happens.

Permalink Reply by Grace Fitzpatrick on June 24, 2011 at 9:06am

I googled it too. All I could find was flower etiquette for funerals and I found that some religions do prohibit flowers. I couldn't find which ones though, Most religions specifically include flowers as part of their religious ceremonies which could be why this one doesn't. Maybe it's a whole anti the worldliness of those other worldly sinful churches who have flowers thing. Flowers seem to be one thing all religions can agree on. Generally, they seem to like them.

Heck no, I'm not calling them. I would never get rid of them. If I'm going to get calls and visits from some church, I want a normal one like Methodists or Catholics.

Permalink Reply by Pearl R. on June 24, 2011 at 10:38am

Could it be that they object to the fact that they are artificial flowers? Figuring that only god can make a flower and all others are the work of the devil? I dunno, just trying to think like a religious nutjob. (And scaring myself in the process!)

Permalink Reply by A3Kr0n on June 24, 2011 at 11:43am

Presented by Disney World? Will I make it past the commercials? That's bull. Ever notice how they lock the volume up so loud you just want to punch your monitor, and never go to Disney world? Oops, it's starting.

Permalink Reply by Michael Brodie on June 24, 2011 at 12:43pm

This is an interesting, but not inerrant, history of IBC by one IBC proponent. No flower issues.

http://www.bible-truth.org/BaptistHistory.html

I'm going to read some of the others in the search results. Who knows what mysteries lurk there? :))