Do you have Crazy Religious Relatives?

[Cecelia]

I don't.  I had no idea how fortunate I was not to have insanely religious relatives until I met my husband's family.  There's only a few sensible people on his side of the family.  It's a surprise he managed to turn out as sane as he did.  Though to be fair he's not the only atheist in his family (well, he wasn't in any case.  He is now, since his Atheist Aunt died).  Every year they invite us to their reunion, and every year we come up with some excuse not to show up.  But I still sort of look forward to hearing stories from people who do go.  Just to see how crazy it gets.

This year, one of his Aunts was going on and on about how computers were witchcraft, and they were going to be the 'beast'.  If I were there, I don't think I could have looked at her with a straight face.  I know our kids couldn't.  It's absolutely ridiculous.  Another relative of his apparently said that all gay people were witches, and that they used their magic to change the definition of marriage and put curses on 'normal' people.  (You can see why we don't go to these things).  I've already talked elsewhere about his dad and some of his crazy beliefs.  (He thinks storms are god's way of punishing him for watching tv late at night, just for example).

If I hadn't met these people, i'd have a hard time believing they actually exist.  Do you have any crazy religious relatives?  What types of things have they said?  Are you partly entertained by their stupidity?  Do you ever wonder how they manage to walk without tripping over thin air?  And then wonder if this doesn't happen on a regular basis, and probably explains a lot about them?

[brewer]

Yes. We suffer/revel in mutual banishment. If we/they show up at an event we steer clear of each other. For the rest, it's a mutual toleration society. Definitely creates a source for a lot of gossip.

[AdamJa]

Fortunately I don`t have any crazy religious relatives, or none that I care or know of. But I can understand how hard it can be, if you have to live with crazy people.

I count myself lucky. But I live far away from all my relatives anyway haha.

[Minimalist]

Most of my relatives are dead and my kids are both atheists.  (Chips off the old block!)

I sympathize with people who have nutty jesus freak relatives.  As the saying goes, you can choose your friends but you can't choose your family.  You can, however, ignore them if they are too far off the deep end.

[account_inactive]

None at all.

[Crossless2.0]

I had an elderly great-uncle who was a genuine Christian nutcase. About 35 years ago, during a visit my mother and I took to the Spokane area to see relatives (him included), I was subjected to a two-hour diatribe about the Last Days and all the "signs" that pointed to the Anti-Christ's imminent coming: the usual Hal Lindsey shit about Gog (the U.S.S.R.) and the coming climactic battle between God and Satan's minions. This was back in the day when the Christian nutters' talking points included the trope about UPC bar codes being of the devil, etc.

He was the only blood relative who was a religious extremist (and first-rate idiot), but I also had some in-laws from my first marriage who weren't much better.

I've always been so grateful that my parents were never more than lukewarm Christians and never pushed that nonsense on me as a child. When I realized around the age of 14 that it was all bullshit, leaving the faith was no more troublesome or painful than tying shoelaces.

[Joods]

Nope. None here for me. Then again, my mother's side of the family and I have not spoken to each other for over six years now. Good. They're all a bunch of narcissistic shits anyway. I do however, have quite a few religious friends who try to push that envelope with me on several occasions. I've told them their imaginary god sucks and that if they value our friendship, the topic of religion is, like politics: off the fucking table.

[vorlon13]

My mom tended to worry excessively about what other people thought about us, and the criteria for their evals would have been in regards to bible stuff.

I've come to learn over the years that quite a few folks around here might have been a little more worried about what my mom thought about them.

I wasn't allowed to play with a couple of my cousins because their mom was divorced and remarried, she wasn't allowed in our house either. We did attend family get togethers if she was present though. I don't recall too much angst from mom over other people going to the wrong church though, except for the standard line about JWs and LDSers being in deep shit with the Lord.

My BiL was pretty religious, but didn't try to proselytize. He'd connected with Jesus later in life after some serious problems and realized he probably wasn't the one to be getting too aggressive with folks outside his (former) peer group of dopers and worse.

[TheRealJoeFish]

My uncle's pretty wacky. He's an anti-evolution gun-stockpiling end-times-are-coming type. He's also an extremely successful surgeon. Guess he's got that Ben Carson Syndrome.

[paulpablo]

I have relatives who are the level of religious craziness that they go to church, have a chat with other people and actually believe that stuff they talk about in church.

They're at the level of "Go to church, God works in mysterious ways" rather than "God told me to sniff your hair last night while you slept"