Can someone please tell me...?!

[SDG]

Originally Posted by josh

You know, Dan, I have no facts to refute what you say here. Like I said, I wasn't privy to the inner workings...although I could very easily have found out.

I just know what the worries of Bro Westberg were. I felt, and still feel, that his angst wasn't over the PCI.

In the aftermath his focus wasn't on the PCI men who stepped out over the Affirmation statement either. It was over those who signed and kept on doing the things he felt was bringing the UPC down.

My dad has been preaching and pastoring 58 years. He is still UPC. My grandfather and Bro S. L. Wise drove to the merger meetings together. I know my Bible Belt UPC history....but I can't speak for other areas of the country. My dad knew all the PCI men of Mississippi and surrounding areas. One of his closest friends taught at PBI in Tupelo, home of many PCI men.

The PCI influence was a worry in their minds many decades ago. However, I can tell you I grew up never hearing one thing or one worry about the PCI. The men my dad fellowshiped (same as Bro Westberg) considered that battle won long ago.

Their main concerns over new birth softness stemmed from the "tearing down" of walls between the UPC and other "Pentecostals" or "charismatics".

Again, I speak mainly from the circle where Bro Westberg was operating and collecting his thoughts and worries. And...I speak mainly from my opinion. Since the PCI wasn't on our radar at that time I didn't ask him specifically whether that was on his mind. It just wasn't ever discussed.

Anyway...I didn't mean to cast aspersions on Sam. I just wanted to clarify where I thought he was wrong.

I can partially accept that his angst about the future of the fellowship weighed on his mind ... perhaps even during the Salt Lake Conference as he envisioned an org that would be more uniform .... yet his short-sightedness did not allow him to see that the institution of an AS would be the beginning of the end ... and would create new dividing lines that would polarize the fellowship even further.