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Originally Posted by Duchess15  You would have to be there to understand my feelings. I literally felt uncomfortable in that church I attended for a short time. They were going against everything I was taught and knew to be true. When you start to disrupt people's personal lives by telling them who they can be friends with and who they can't, how to spend their money and when and how much they need to put into the church, and just putting pressure on people and enforcing their every action is not what I call a "normal" church. There are churches that give sermons and preach and then there are these. I do not like being being pressured into something I do not want to do and they would make it sound so sugar coated when in reality it was just twisted. They even went so far as to talk a girl into believing she had not "officially been baptized" and so took her to a room in the back and when her parents wanted to be with her, they locked the door and would not even let them near her. They are so twisted it's disgusting. I feel sorry for all those people who have no way of getting back to reality. I do not want to relive that experience ever again.
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Sorry it took me so long to respond. I haven't been online much - just had an anniversary Sunday and was away from the computer more than usual.
Fundamentalist churchs feel that they are doing a disservice if they do not explain how to live according to what
they believe the word of God is. This does not necessarily make them twisted; however, it can certianly make them seem that way, especially to someone raised in a more liberal church. When I was a child I was raised in a very liberal church, so when I first experienced a fundamental church I was pretty shocked too.
I can't judge the situation you describe about the locked door because I don't have enough information. For instance, how old was the girl? What were they doing behind the locked door - a baptism by immersion? Did the girl want to be baptised? Did the girl want her parents there? I have been to all kinds of churches and I still don't know which one is "right." I haven't been to a Baptist church, but the people I know who are Baptist don't describe their church the way you do. It may be unusual for a Baptist church to be that controlling.
In my late 20's and early 30's, I went to a church (not Baptist) that taught against make-up, certian kinds of food, drinking alcohol at all, rock music, caffiene, etc. There were people there who wore make-up, drank iced-tea, etc. They weren't outcasts. The congregation was sincere and loving. They believed that they were teaching the word of God. I left the church and to this day don't know if I left because it was so hard for me to live that way or because I believe that their focus is on the wrong things.
The church you attended MAY have been some strange offshoot of the Baptist church - who knows? On the other hand it just may not have been the church for you. Back to my original point though - please reconsider your view of Baptists in general. IMO we are judged by the light that we know. They may have just been trying to share their light.
Just my opinion...
who said they were gonna show up at the funeral of a boy from my town who was killed in Iraq! 
