Originally Posted by pelathais (Post 372766)

I find it to be a common occurrence for people to make broad and sweeping accusations against their brothers and sisters in order to affirm their own fidelity to their standards of holiness.

A mere profession of such fidelity is seldom seen as being enough. No, you must also allude to the terrible conditions of compromise and sin that surrounds and threatens to engulf your godly labors. And the worse the sin that threatens to engulf you, the more sincere and godly you appear to be in the sympathetic eyes of those who also are beguiled by the threat of false brethren and their toleration of "shacking up" and such.

One unfortunate consequence of this tactic is that your neighbors are labeled in the worst sorts of ways. But then again, this does free you from responsibility for being neighborly, so perhaps the infamy you have given your brothers will keep them from asking to borrow your amplifier and prevent other such intrustions upon your blessed and chaste isolationism.

Also, it's always a great spirit booster to stand against that backslidden neice of the pastor down the road who wore a short skirt to a youth meeting after she finally caved in to her family's pleas to come to church. Whether or not the harlot prayed through as she so desperately needed is of little concern. You now have fodder for the next preacher-get-together and can confidently assure the brethren that the pastor involved has truly lost his way and surrendered all standards of holiness.

Another benefit is that you won't have to pack up the young people to take to any more of "those" youth meetings. You can spend the evenings more profitably engaged in online condemnation of the compromisers who have forced you to sit alone in your darkened study; the dim light of the monitor being your own beacon of hope.

So, sadly, here we will always be holding. The hardest thing for any of us to do is to confront the long and stubbornly held methods of conduct among our brothers. We have misused their reputations for years to build ourselves up. To fess up now would involve tearing down at least some of which we have labored to build.

Of course if we all fessed up at once, then the act of tearing ourselves down might be offset by our brothers building us back up again. But then that would mean fellowshipping with those we betrayed.

Originally Posted by freeatlast (Post 372783)

A hearty AMEN form me...this is my second and last comment on this thread.

I love all the players involved in this back and forth banter....and it hurts a little to read the posting of the last few days.


I've killed a few other threads in my days by posting on them...maybe I'll get lucky here again on this thread.

May it rest in peace. :girlytantrum

Originally Posted by StMark (Post 372795)

.




Startin' to feel like old FCF here again!!! :happydance




.

Originally Posted by Sarah (Post 372800)

If you think for one minute that we are not having trouble with some of our young people 'experimenting' with alcohol and fornication, think again. It seems rampant in some areas. Sad, but true.

Originally Posted by Sarah (Post 372800)

Well, I've been reading this post for over an hour!

Pelathais, if you had not missread Steadfast's post, we wouldn't even be having this conversation. I knew exactly what he was saying, the first time I read it.

If you think for one minute that we are not having trouble with some of our young people 'experimenting' with alcohol and fornication, think again. It seems rampant in some areas. Sad, but true.
Nice to see you defending the UPCI! Why the change of heart? Glad to see it.........

Originally Posted by Stephen Hoover (Post 372809)

but, but... Sarah, No one disputes that! The question is whether the activity is condoned by UPC (and now someone says ex-upc) pastors.

Originally Posted by Apprehended (Post 372778)

As one who is given to strong passion of what I believe, but willing to change that belief in an instant on my road to Damascus, I now believe it is about time to drop this and go on to another subject. There are more profitible discussion going on...or at least some can be started that would benefit all.

Originally Posted by TrmptPraise (Post 372810)

yeah.....what he said :highfive