With regard to fundy Protestantism -- has anyone ever encountered anything MORE **abs

This happened decades ago. When I was in college, and before the loathsome bigot, Jerry Falwell, united that which is today's RRR Cult (Religious Radical Right).

I was in Pella, Iowa (still a pathetic backwash of Fundy irrationality and ignorance, even today), and went to a self-serve car wash one Sunday afternoon to wash my car. Upon arriving, I discovered that ALL of the wands were gone! Nothing there but the hoses! As a courtesy, I phoned the owner to tell me about the theft. Amazingly, he seemed unruffled, and asked me to come to his house to tell him more.

"What more is there to tell? You've been ROBBED, plain and simple!" Whereupon he repeated his request that I come to his house. So I did, (A stupid mistake!)

Once there, he told me that HE had removed the wands so as not to present a temptation to others to "not keep the Sabbath holy." (Talk about insanity!)

I left almost immediately, & let him know I was would then wash my car in the next town. And I did.
To Edka -- I grew up in NY and NJ. I've lived 24 yrs. in Iowa. Most Iowans today would regard him to be a nut case.

To Gazoo -- LOL!

To Sybil -- Places like that, fortunately, are few & far between!

To Misty -- No grudge. An example of how RRR cultists were as nutty in 1961 as they are now. Abortion wasn't legal yet, and Civil Rights Movement II (= rights for gays) hadn't yet started. When those issues came along the nuttiness took new channels.

To "knockout85" -- It was a SELF-serve business. Suggest YOU grow up.

To MamaMia -- The identifying hallmarks of today's RRR cultists is bigotry toward women regarding abortion, and bigotry toward gays. If you don't support those agendas, you are NOT an RRR cultist... and may well be well-educated & sensible.

To Quirky -- Iowa is an amazingly low-crime and NON-scary place. (And, self-serves posting emergency numbers is normal.)

To Single Eye -- Most *Christians* don't employ guile. But RRR cultists do it routinely.
To: "Everyday Catholic" -- Your analogy is apples and oranges. No bookstore is 100% self-serve (unless they plan to give their books away), and thus would require at least one person to be working on-site to make the transactions. A self-serve car wash provides a service to the community with no human presence necessary. To render it useless on a day that most people have off is to be selfish, to needlessly and pointlessly impose inconvenience, and is downright mindless.

I applaud the owner for sticking to his convictions.

you, on the other hand, I jeer.

That is nutty

That would be nuts here in NY but typical in Iowa i would think. But it was decades ago bro... Let it go.

I would have probably taken them for real the next day just to get even.

*sigh* great story. Way to generalize.

Nothing but hoses? I guess you overlooked the obvious solution.

What a freak in whack-job!

That's a similar tactic to what child moles tors use when trying to lure children into their homes.

And the point of telling this story? A lot of us have grown up in places like that, try being a child in that atmosphere...OH! You want to demonstrate your superiority! I get it!

That's a little creepy.

If he wanted to shut down his business on Sunday, which is his business decision, why didn't he just post a sign to that effect?

I guess he wanted the opportunity to preach to you.

BTW - I know some Catholic bookstores that are closed on Sunday. Does that make them idiots?

Wow...hold a grudge much. So he was a nut. Sad that you let if get to you "decades" later.

wow what a horrible person for actually living what he believes!

Grow up

He owns the business so he makes the rules. Gotta love that he had the conviction to follow through on what he believed to be right, even if it really is silly.

LOL that's a pretty funny story.. and I guess it's pretty wrong. He should have posted a "closed" sign if he was worried about people washing their cars on Sunday. As for "RRR", please don't lump us all into one heap- some of us are well-educated and sensible. Thank you!

He could have just shut the water off and put up a sign that said "closed on Sundays for the Sabbath." But, some people like doing things the most complicated way possible.

He had his house phone number listed on the building or something?
"if wands are gone, please call my cell. #..."
I can't believe you drove over to his house. Is that a normal thing to do in Iowa? Scary!

I grew up in the Midwest, I'm not surprised by this story of yours. They will suffocate you until you become just as nutty as they are. I moved thousands of miles away just to find some diversity.

The guy sounds like a control freak.
As we know, the ideas of the religious right are particularly appealing to folks with control issues.
At least his actions were, in the end, harmless.

More absurd stuff? Yes, there's plenty, but it would make me too sad if I tried to list them...

Well...to be technical Sunday is not the sabbath. Maybe it is his sabbath or even yours, but the 4Th commandment clearly states that "the seventh day is the sabbath."

So you could have thrown that at him. He can do that but it was a little loopy that he didn't have it posted that he doesn't do business on his "sabbath"

He lured you to his house under false pretenses. The bible calls this Quill, something Christians are well known for. He just as easily could have told you this over the phone.

In this situation He was doing the righteous thing, compared to you. The Bible tells us about Sabbath, and honestly did remove the temptation from those who wouldn't respect God' Sabbath.

Not all Christians do that, but those who do, do one more thing right.

Doesn't surprise me. I have family that acts like that. They get mad if one of us calls them on a Sunday. Buncha freaks.

Him luring you to his house is absurd. Him closing his business perhaps the only way he can (seeing as how there is no door to lock) is not absurd. As the owner, doesn't he have the right to control to hours of his business?

i love you!