“And you can tell you’ve created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.” Anne Lamott, born again Christian.
I was out and about last night as was my son. But my husband and daughter stayed home and watched back to back episodes of Trading Spouses which they taped for me. What a completely bizarre show! These trading spouses and trading mommy shows crack me up. They are almost always interesting. But this one was just plain over the top.
Since the episodes were back to back, I imagine they were likely re-runs. It was about Jeanne D’Amico Flisher and Marguerite Perrin. Jeanne is an interesting woman – into astology, tarot card reading, mandala painting and other various spirtual practices which seem fairly normal in my world these days. She had grown up Catholic and her parents converted to Unitarian Universalism when she was a kid so that was how she was raised. Very open minded and concerned about the well-being of others.
Marguerite Perrin, on the other hand, is Catholic. Catholicism can take on some pretty bizarre forms that look a lot like literalist protestantism down in these southern most states of the U.S.
Jeanne was perfectly wonderful and open minded. But Marguerite was certain that she was being tested because Jeane and her family “weren’t Christian”. There was a scene where Marguerite’s friends come over and quiz Jeanne about her spiritual beliefs. Ask any female Unitarian Universalist in my neck of the woods if they have had to deal with similar treatment and everyone of them has stories to tell. I had a horrible experience just waiting for my son’s swim team practice to finish when a woman pulled a Bible from her purse and started thumping various scripture explaining to me why I wasn’t Christian. If you happen to engage in anything that is even remotely “New Age”, then you are evil and not to be trusted.
Through the whole episode, you can’t help but feel sorry for Marguerite. She’s so obviously brainwashed and scared to death of things like Buddhaist flags and statues, mandalas, astrology charts, and a star of lights on the side of the garage. She has absolutely no self-control (she throws up at the beginning of the show). She is certain this uncontrollable fear and lack of self-control is being driven by the Holy Spirit telling her to reject these people before she even has a chance to know what they are about. She also initially rejects the $50,000 that is given by the show and determined how to spend by the visiting spouse.
What’s interesting is that Jeanne talked to Marguerite before she went home and Marguerite made her feel as though her husband had been horrible. So Jeanne was really upset with her husband for not making Marguerite feel more welcomed. Yet (unless there were ugly elements edited out of the show) her husband had gone above and beyond the call of duty in trying to make Marguerite feel comfortable – including taking his non-church going family to a Catholic Church and saying Christian prayers before meals to try and make her feel more comfortable.
It’s hard to know exactly what happens since everything gets edited, of course. But in the end, Marguertie turned the whole episode into into a way to flatter herself. She’s even got a rap song about being a God Warrior. So you can’t feel too sorry for her. It’s pretty ugly when you get right down to it.
Here is the video from the show. It’s the stuff of witch hunts.