Now this is irony. Fundie nut gets huge divorce settlement, builds church in my old home town

[XOKCowboy]

I was taking my annual driving tour around the old home town back in Oklahoma last week. Usually takes about 15 minutes, it's a small town. The first thing that caught my eye was a HUGE building being built right off of main street. By the shape of the structural steel you could tell it was a huge church being built. A little further inspection revealed it was an expansion of the local Southern Baptist Church. Now this little church had always had decent attendance (duh in an Oklahoma town?) and as I drove by I thought to myself that at least one business in town was doing well besides WalMart.

Being the inquisitive type I asked my brother and his friends what the story was. Turns out that a local lady was funding the whole thing. I've known this lady and her family since grade school. She always "devout" which meant that she wouldn't go to dances in high school, led a drive to rid the town's main street of it's only bar, was a thorn at the school board meetings, etc. Her first husband had died (we all believed for the relief). Somehow or another she got married to a very wealthy oilman. He built her "dream home" on a hill overlooking the town (this thing is HUGE with a staff of gardeners and housekeepers and looks like a glorified horse barn) and pretty much anything she wanted (including the bar downtown so she could ceremoniously close it down). :eyes:

Well hubby must not have been devout enough because after 5 years of marriage (just after her mansion was built) she divorced him! She got the mansion, huge alimony and a LOT of his money. Now she's easily the richest person in town and the first thing she did was buy out an entire city block, bulldoze the old houses down and endow the land and money to build our little town's only MegaChurch!

Somehow though I doubt she'd see the hypocrisy and irony of this huge shrine to her fundamentalist brand of Christianity being funded by a divorce settlement. I know that the church doesn't care and is thrilled at this windfall.

We all agreed that it will be interesting to see what she comes up with next. My old home town is now virtually run by a very rich fundie. Wish my friends, the poor heathens, well. They'll need it.

[knitter4democracy]

1. Heh. That serious irony right there.

Of course, Jesus did say that there is only one reason for divorce: infidelity. If that was the case, and he was cheating on her, the church is allowed to look the other way.

[XOKCowboy]

7. Nobody knew about why the divorce came about....

and seeing as how she got so much I'd say there might have been some infidelity (I can't blame him, she's not a nice person). It's nice how they can pretty much justify anything as long as it profits the church.

[ret5hd]

2. What's the name of the town?

[brewens]

3. She should bring in Ted Haggard to be pastor! Last I heard he was

preaching out of his garage or something.

[tallahasseedem]

4. I get so tired...

of these fundies.

[snagglepuss]

5. Enjoyed the read. Thanks for posting.

You're a good storyteller.

[XOKCowboy]

6. Why thank you..

I appreciate that!

[flying rabbit]

8. She is just doing God's work

in whatever corner of reality she lives in.

[timeforpeace]

9. Thanks for the local gossip.

[ProdigalJunkMail]

10. slamming her for hypocrisy without telling us WHY

she got divorced is really leaving a little out there...i mean, her reason may have been legit. perhaps he was a serial cheater? maybe he was beating her? maybe she discovered he was in on a huge criminal conspiracy? would any of those reasons be ok for divorce?

i doubt it would matter. she's doing something with her money that YOU don't agree with so you will rant...

sP

[madokie]

11. One of the baptist churches here is building a huge new church

but they didn't have to bulldoze anything so it can't be here you're talking about

You know what I do on sunday mornings, laugh at all the money I've saved over the years by not paying my tithes. not sure of the spelling there