Quote:
Originally Posted by Ferd
Oh good grief. what a silly post!
I am supposed to believe that you have been in leadership in a conservative UPCI church for years now and you are “shocked” that those folks are worried about you since it seems you are “going charismatic”?
Get real dude, you know full well what the attitudes are in conservative circles about those who are more liberal than they are. And if you have been any kind of leader at all, you know the people of your church as well as you know anyone on the planet.
So you are “shocked” because it helps your conscience or you aren’t shocked at all and this is just another chance to “bash the UltraCons”. Or maybe you aren’t in leadership at all. I don’t know which it is but there is a lack of honesty happening here and I suspect you are the one you aren’t being honest with.
Don’t blame these people for you turning your back on them! Yea, I said it! YOU are the one walking away, they haven’t gone anywhere. YOU are rejecting what THEY ARE. It isn’t the other way around. Ostensibly (according to you) you have been teaching these people for years how to act and look. Now you are walking away from your own teaching.
This is about YOU bro. It is not now, nor has it ever been about the people you have been going to church with that aren’t changing.
So here is a bit of advice…. MAN UP. Accept that this is your deal not theirs. Be kind to them and stop acting all shocked that they are shocked and even appalled at your actions. If you are going to make the change, then get with it. Get it done and deal with the fall out and take ownership of your own actions.
And before anyone starts thinking I am a conservative, think again, I have never been a conservative. I never will be. But I have never once in all my life tried to put what I am on other people.
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What's SHOCKING is your tone and response to a brother you don't know. Your speculation and rush to judgement is as poisonous as the community this man leaves behind.
He left THEM? Turning his back on THEM? I thought we were supposed to be honest between ourselves and God. But for you, personal loyality is more important than what is true. And as far as him teaching... just like many, he MAY have grown up in this, been brainwashed in this and now he realizes it's not all it's cracked up to be. There's an idea!
Here's a man that has years invested somewhere and he's -- yes SHOCKED -- that they are writing him off as Hell's baby because he's not living exactly as they are anymore. It's RIDICULOUS! It's BEYOND REBUKE. It's SICKENING and CULTIC. There, I said it.
In the end, yes, he shouldn't worry much about it. But that's so easy for us to toss out there when we aren't going through it. It's absolutely ridiculous that a family ever has to go through this at all and only points to a larger problem of a fear-charged, acidic, polluted, legalistic and unChristian culture of many of our churches.