I don’t know why, but today I was thinking about some roommates my husband and I had early in our marriage. Spoiler alert: It didn’t work out well.
I really don’t know why my husband and I thought this was a good idea, but several years ago we rented a house with another married couple. My husband and the other man were coworkers. They were only in their early twenties — about ten years younger than us.
All of us were hurting financially and living in the suburbs. The plan was to rent a house in Toledo where the cost of living was considerably lower and split all the bills. The idea looked good on paper.
Problems started not long after moving in together. Besides being arrogant Christians, they were disgusting. I can handle a cluttered house, but they were leaving trash and dirty dishes everywhere. What was even more disturbing was their poor personal hygiene. I wasn’t expecting any of that.
Back to the Christian part. They were that kind of people that talk about the “sanctity of marriage” and how it’s a holy institution. They weren’t shy in sharing that they were virgins when they got married.
My husband and I lived together before getting married in Las Vegas. We’re not Christian (obviously) and our marriage was just a fun celebration of our love. It is a great memory that we share, but it wasn’t a necessity for our relationship.
Our roommates were just so staunch and arrogant in their beliefs that we were surprised to find out that they got married so that they could get more financial aid money. They were both in college at the time. They had planned a big wedding but got married at the courthouse just in time to be considered independent students on their FAFSA for the school year.
What happened to that holy institution and getting married in your family’s church? Apparently that all goes down the drain when you wave money in front of them. This wouldn’t have bothered me if they hadn’t spent so much time talking about how special and holy marriage is.
The arrogance and hypocrisy were relentless. There were lots of comments made that bothered us, but the marriage thing was definitely the most annoying.
Kinda weird — when they prayed before meals it really bothered me. They spoke so highly and were so proud of their beliefs, but when they prayed before meals, they held hands and quickly and quietly recited a short prayer in a monotone voice. I honestly couldn’t make out everything they were saying, but it seemed like the same thing every time. It was obviously just a meaningless routine for them. I guess I was expecting more from them since their Christian beliefs were so important to them.
Needless to say, they moved out and we all moved on. I learned later that they got a divorce soon after. No surprise there.
I sometimes think about them and wonder what they’re doing now. Are they different? They’ve been through a lot and they were so young back then. I’m just curious if their beliefs have changed.
Have you ever met people that are so ridiculous that you can’t believe it’s real? That’s how I felt.
I still wish them well. I remember what I was like in my early twenties and I wouldn’t have wanted to live with me. Chances are they’ve grown up.
I cannot really recall any long-ish term incidents, but do recall a handful of short-term encounters:
● The colleague who insisted adding “crystals” to a car’s petrol (gasoline) tank would improve the mpg…
● The neighbour who’d never heard of a wok or stir-frying, and said they only ate “normal food” (since this was in England, you can guess what atrocities they meant (and that’s ignoring the racist insult, which they may not have been aware of))…
● Most managers & executives…
● A room-mate at University who seemed to think buildings should snap together like Lego bricks, and so kept bad-mouthing skilled tradespeople for using hammers and files and chisels and so on…
● A relative who asked if it was possible to drive from California to Ireland, and then didn’t understand my quip “only if you have a submersible car” — and, I’m not entirely certain they grokked that the world is spherical (or its size)…
● Some individual I met on a bus in London who actually believed the EU was requiring bananas to be straight, &tc…
And probably lots of other cases, which this comment-box is too small to contain.
First semester of college, my roommates were 3 born-again Southern Baptists. Up to that point, I’d never enountered born-agains before. They were all into Campus Crusade for Christ and InterVarsity (two fundagelical college groups). They drank, stole, swore, lied, had sex with their boyfriends in the shared room….I could go on and on and on at great length, but you get the picture. And yes, one was personally filthy and she and another one routinely left the dorm room toilet unflushed and the shower filthy.
And yet, *I* was the one going straight to hell (according to them) because I wasn’t fundagelical.
Funny aside; one of them attended a church that picketed the Star Wars movies because “The Bible didn’t say there was life on other planets so therefore Star Wars is the Devil’s work to lead good Christians astray”. She was also kicked out of her church at the age of 19 because any woman reaching that ancient age who was not married was either a lesbian or a whore, and therefore a bad example to the younger girls.
Some years ago, my wife worked with a woman who, along wit her husband and two kids, were fundies. She asked my wife to look after her dogs because they were going in the
Rapture. (For real.) She made a big deal about how they were going and my wife was not. I only wish I could have been there the next day when she came to work, because I would have been merciless in my ridicule. (I can be mean like that with those arrogant kinds of people.) They ended up losing their expensive house, one kid ended up on drugs, and the other got knocked up. So much for “God’s Chosen”. I’ve found that people like that often get what they deserve, and I have no sympathy for them. I know I shouldn’t be like that, but I am sometimes.
Regarding praying at meals; my fundy college roommates would only pray in groups, very loudly. If only one or two of them were home, no praying went on. Together, it was a major production right out of the documentary “Jesus Camp”. I kept my mouth shut about the hypocrisy of yelling holy words at the ceiling while living lives that were not in any way like the one the Jesus of their book said.
Not really sure if you’re just trying to tear down people that believe in the bible, but if you actually read it you’d know the difference between a true follower of Christ verse someone that says they are a believer…. 99.9999% of the people that are on the forum that completely disregarded the fact that you’re trashing the God of the Bible. The one true. The who is and was and is to come are not believers. So the majority of the people on here are not believers. Even Jesus said there are people claiming to follow me that aren’t true followers. Thats most “Christians” in the United States… it’s become a title of pew sitters on a Sunday morning that know absolutely nothing about the power of God and how fun it actually is to follow him. Instead they’re preaching this watered, FALSE, boring religion that no one wants to follow because all it sounds like is boredom and rules. Actually read the Bible for yourself instead of listening to what other people say about it and you’ll not only see an amazing creator who is so in love with you but you’ll also so how much purpose each individual has on earth, onc3 they discover who Christ truly is and follow Him. There’s so much more to this world and who you were designed to be not even a scientist can explain it… how many people are willing to die for you because they want you to be restored an amazing destiny and an amazing God?