What would cause someone from a normal background to become a religious zealot?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So the only “good” Christians in OP’s little world are the ones that only go to church on Christmas and Easter and forget about it the rest of the year. Got it.

It seems you are an extremist as no one is allowed to question anything about your beliefs without being attacked your anger and replies in this thread are appropriate and unless you want to actually answer the question you should maybe skip the thread. Or you can share why you went from maybe attending Church with your family a few times a year or even weekly to posting about it daily on social media, labeling yourself not just as a Christian, but a Child of God, multiple references to being washed in the blood, a quiverfuller, and anti LBGTQ anti you were never any of these things before?

OMG, what’s wrong with you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, MYOB. It sounds like you haven’t even been in contact with this guy since college and you only follow him on FB. You’re even guessing about stuff, like the fact that he has a lot of kids must mean he’s a quiverfuller.

People make different choices than you. Get over it.

Not guessing he mentions Quiverfull and all his posts related for children are in line with that movement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So the only “good” Christians in OP’s little world are the ones that only go to church on Christmas and Easter and forget about it the rest of the year. Got it.

It seems you are an extremist as no one is allowed to question anything about your beliefs without being attacked your anger and replies in this thread are appropriate and unless you want to actually answer the question you should maybe skip the thread. Or you can share why you went from maybe attending Church with your family a few times a year or even weekly to posting about it daily on social media, labeling yourself not just as a Christian, but a Child of God, multiple references to being washed in the blood, a quiverfuller, and anti LBGTQ anti you were never any of these things before?

This is mental illness. The Christian family guy may be out there, but he seems more well adjusted than this poster.

[Anonymous]

OP's question is a good one and there are people who study it. Think Jihadi John. IIRC, he grew up in a fairly normal family in Britain and ended up in videos on YouTube beheading people. What's the path people follow from normal dude in high school to terrorist or religious extremist or even just the highly highly devout of the Duggar variety (which sounds more like OP's friend).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Definitely mental illness.

Sadly I think this may be the case. The time frame would track with the onset of major mental illness and there's also been a significant change in appearance, which I think often accompanies mental illnes. Geez! Now I feel bad.

But the wife, too simultaneously AND after both had been no religious for years?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP's question is a good one and there are people who study it. Think Jihadi John. IIRC, he grew up in a fairly normal family in Britain and ended up in videos on YouTube beheading people. What's the path people follow from normal dude in high school to terrorist or religious extremist or even just the highly highly devout of the Duggar variety (which sounds more like OP's friend).

The guy in OP’s post isn’t beheading anyone. In fact it seems like OP barely knows him so who can say, but there’s no apparent need to go there.

[Anonymous]

So unfriend him on FB. You obviously have no IRL contact with him. Problem solved.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My best friend from college and her husband are like this. Educated people who grew up in normal, suburban families. They were becoming more religious in the early 10’s but the 2016 race accelerated it. Her DH began carrying a gun to church “to protect when Muslims try to attack good Christians”. Never mind that there’s been zero attacks on white Christian houses of worship.

They were becoming mild preppers, all the while delving deeper into bible studies and more evangelical church. Based on her FB feed, they are by now full-in on aprocyphal Christianity, the Patriot movement, the whole nine yards. I don’t know exactly how, but it was incremental over fifteen years. It’s heartbreaking and has torn their family apart.

This is extremist. Not what busybody OP is describing.

Quiverfull is extremism and no matter how much name-calling you do it won't change that.

DP. Did the guy actually say he was quiverfull? Not everyone who has lots of kids are religious. Some atheists or non-religious people I know have 4 or 5 kids and they’re not “extremist”. They just made different choices than you did. Some people want a large family. What’s wrong with that? This is America. You want us to go back to when China limited the number of children a family could have?

The phrases that you see on his Facebook feed are pretty standard for evangelical Christians. They’re just phrases or memes posted on Facebook. I get it can be cringey to post things like #boymom or put a sign in your kitchen that says “live, laugh, love”, but how are these Facebook posts any different from the tons of other stupid things people post like what they ate for lunch or a photo of their pumpkin spiced latte? Extremist to me means they’re harming someone else or posting offensive, racist, or hateful language. Your examples are none of that. Arguably cringey, but that’s par for the course on Facebook. You’re making a lot of assumptions on someone you haven’t seen in a long time based on his social media. Why do you care so much?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Definitely mental illness.

Sadly I think this may be the case. The time frame would track with the onset of major mental illness and there's also been a significant change in appearance, which I think often accompanies mental illnes. Geez! Now I feel bad.

But the wife, too simultaneously AND after both had been no religious for years?

Sometimes two mentally ill people, get together, but you are right. Here the wife seems less extreme like her posts aren't so OTT, so maybe it's a case of the wife trying to appease the husband who was drawn into extremism? I don't know.

[Anonymous]

quote=Anonymous]OP's question is a good one and there are people who study it. Think Jihadi John. IIRC, he grew up in a fairly normal family in Britain and ended up in videos on YouTube beheading people. What's the path people follow from normal dude in high school to terrorist or religious extremist or even just the highly highly devout of the Duggar variety (which sounds more like OP's friend).


Thank you. You seem to get what Some posters in DCUM can't handle any aspect of Christianity being questioned. This guy was seemingly normal as was his wife. Where does that switch happen from your average Sunday churchgoer to super evangelical and Duggar type of Christian.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My best friend from college and her husband are like this. Educated people who grew up in normal, suburban families. They were becoming more religious in the early 10’s but the 2016 race accelerated it. Her DH began carrying a gun to church “to protect when Muslims try to attack good Christians”. Never mind that there’s been zero attacks on white Christian houses of worship.

They were becoming mild preppers, all the while delving deeper into bible studies and more evangelical church. Based on her FB feed, they are by now full-in on aprocyphal Christianity, the Patriot movement, the whole nine yards. I don’t know exactly how, but it was incremental over fifteen years. It’s heartbreaking and has torn their family apart.

This is extremist. Not what busybody OP is describing.

Quiverfull is extremism and no matter how much name-calling you do it won't change that.

DP. Did the guy actually say he was quiverfull? Not everyone who has lots of kids are religious. Some atheists or non-religious people I know have 4 or 5 kids and they’re not “extremist”. They just made different choices than you did. Some people want a large family. What’s wrong with that? This is America. You want us to go back to when China limited the number of children a family could have?

The phrases that you see on his Facebook feed are pretty standard for evangelical Christians. They’re just phrases or memes posted on Facebook. I get it can be cringey to post things like #boymom or put a sign in your kitchen that says “live, laugh, love”, but how are these Facebook posts any different from the tons of other stupid things people post like what they ate for lunch or a photo of their pumpkin spiced latte? Extremist to me means they’re harming someone else or posting offensive, racist, or hateful language. Your examples are none of that. Arguably cringey, but that’s par for the course on Facebook. You’re making a lot of assumptions on someone you haven’t seen in a long time based on his social media. Why do you care so much?

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Definitely mental illness.

Sadly I think this may be the case. The time frame would track with the onset of major mental illness and there's also been a significant change in appearance, which I think often accompanies mental illnes. Geez! Now I feel bad.

But the wife, too simultaneously AND after both had been no religious for years?


Sometimes two mentally ill people, get together, but you are right. Here the wife seems less extreme like her posts aren't so OTT, so maybe it's a case of the wife trying to appease the husband who was drawn into extremism? I don't know.

OP, you obviously don’t know these people or anything about their lives. Basing all this judgement on his Facebook feed is odd, and begs the question, why does this matter to you so much?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op, will you call someone a Muslim extremist too or does it apply only for Christians?

There are extremists and zealots in every religion.

[Anonymous]

To answer the general question (I agree that this guy doesn't sound like a zealot to me, but that conversation isn't going anywhere):

It's very common for people who convert to a religion to be pretty zealous about it. Something had to overcome to inertia of previous beliefs and make them want to embrace something new. That's usually something pretty major and the often results in more intense forms of faith than in people raised in a religion. Catholic converts, for instance, are in my experience much more likely to be mantilla wearing Latin Mass goers than people raised Catholic. Sometimes it's a major life struggle, sometimes it's an experience that they perceive as being from God. There's plenty of secular parallels to this, too. Think of someone who embraces veganism or being sober; that's often a big part of their identity and more important to them than people who just don't drink.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op, will you call someone a Muslim extremist too or does it apply only for Christians?

There are extremists and zealots in every religion.

And there are zealots about working out, bird watching, and being vegan. As long as they aren’t hurting anybody—and this guy doesn’t seem to be, apart from being cringey like pp said—then it’s really none of our business. Would you start a thread on Facebook about somebody you knew 10 years ago who posts on Facebook about being vegan? Would you speculate about whether his wife is vegan?