David Hurd's Psalm 51
It's not about giving up chocolate, sweets, meat, dropping a dollar in the swear jar, or other things. It's about being authentic to yourself and to God, while you get off your rear end and make a difference in the world around you.
Growing up in Armstrongism I listened to endless sermons by ministers and evangelists mocking and deriding those that kept this day as insincere and a total waste of time. Meredith came up with some of the most absurd and inaccurate comments that anyone could dream up. Actually what he said was and still is, a blatant lie!
Seeing the wide eyes of little kids kneeling in front of you with tears in their eyes, or huge smiles as they experience something that only a child can through untarnished minds. They look into your eyes with a look of awe. And then they turn to their parents and look them in their eyes with a deep connection only a parent can ever see. Probably like the kind of the look we should be having with God. Totally free with no baggage. Oh, to be a child again!
I saw a blind young man tonight who is wheelchair bound with a body that is wracked by cerebral palsy, rhythmically moving in slow motion due to the muscles in his body twisting and writhing about, sit there with tears streaming down his cheeks as he attempts to stop his body from moving when the ashes are placed on his forehead, clearly and distinctly saying 'amen' afterwords. He does the same thing when the Eucharist is brought to him. His body stops moving as he takes the wafer in his distorted hands and places it in his mouth.and sips the wine. He understands something that I probably never will. Something deeper and more meaningful than any HWA sermon, booklet or book ever did. Something deeper about the mystery that surrounds us, the mystery of the unknown yet knowable, the grain of the universe that calls to us into something we cannot fathom, something so foreign to us that we let it slip past us the minute we walk out the doors of the church into the real world.
I saw people in attendance tonight that I know are agnostic and a couple of atheists who have no idea what or who God is. Yet, they admit something draws them back, week after week. Something they cannot understand but want to be a part of. They are involved in feeding the homeless, knitting prayer shawls for the sick and dying, caring for those with AIDS, working in hospice or visiting the sick and home bound. They too have the opportunity to delve into something deeper and more mysterious with new ways of looking and understanding thatI can never have. It is a delight to be around them
I am grateful for my journey out of Armstrongism. I regret many opportunities lost because of its aberrant, absurd and irrelevant teachings, yet there was a lot I treasure. How I came out halfway sane is a miracle! :-) I am grateful for Gavin's web sites and blogs over the years and for Dennis's unwavering self examination and willingness to question without apology. What a ride it has been and continues to be!
Gary
16 comments:
It has been over 40 years since I renounced Catholicism, but listening to the music brings back a special nostalgia. Always loved listening to the music of the monasteries and church.
I was a Lutheran attending a Catholic Parochial school from the age of five through the eleventh grade.
Can you imagine the frustration of being forced to bow down and kneel before idols in the chapel, when you knew it was wrong? Can you imagine the frustration of knowing that the whole venue was wrong, but forced to remain silent?
To me, making an ash of yourself is just another part of a pagan mystery religion, no matter what anyone feels about it.
We still need to examine whether the RCC is even a force for good or not.
http://debunkingchristianity.blogspot.com/2011/03/is-catholic-church-force-for-good-by.html
RCC a force for good?
These days it doesn't seem to be a force for anything at all.
Well, on the other hand, just last night there was a report on the national news of another priest and... at least it is a force to drive some news reports.
Douglas, check out the link above.
Stephen Fry makes a very compelling argument that the RCC is NOT a force for good, even after one dismisses their atrocities of the past.
I'm not a Catholic, never said I was. I guess there is too much baggage left from the filth that Armstrongism taught.
But, I will say this. The Catholics I know are far better Christians than the vast majority of COGers I grew up with and worked with. Instead of sitting on their butts saying, "God has a better plan for them in the end. They are unconverted now so they will get another chance later on" they are out feeding the homeless, taking care of the sick and elderly, doing hospice, palliative care, helping alcoholics and addicts reconstruct their lives, and the list could go on and on.
Call me what you want. I don't care.
NO2HWA:
When I was in high school, I had a 30-hr. week part-time job working in the rectory at the Catholic high school I attended.
There were 4 priests. One was a cross-dresser who also frequented the X-rated theater down the street once a week, which he said he did to better counsel married couples; one had a serious drinking problem; one was having an illicit affair with the principal (a nun) at the elementary school; but the 4th was a very decent guy.
It doesn't matter whether they are ministers in the WCG or Catholic church. It's really all the same. Except there are probably far more pedophiles in the RCC than in the WCG.
I can't denigrate the sincerity of most catholic people, but that church is evil personified and no amount of good deeds by the rank and file or an occasional priest can change that. Of course, so are the protestant churches. Militant ignorance is militant ignorance, no matter how you slice it. I look forward to the end of deception and ignorance, but I won't hold my breath for it.
Catholic schools, hospitals, charity, and hospice? No problem.
While we are at it, we need to examine whether the Muslim Imams in our country preaching in post 911 mosques hatred of the US, Muslim schools radicalizing youth here to hate American "infidels" are a force for good or not.
I found this a little difficult to understand. First Gary seems to professes a Christian walk and he winds up by thanking Rumney and Diehl. Yet Rumney turned his blog concerning the WCG into a salon for atheists and Dennis Diehl has never been able to understand that his WCG experience, as a privileged minister, is radically different from that of a laymember. There is a disconnect here.
-- Neotherm
Ignorance is CoG person who thinks he knows the Bible. The truth is if you follow any of Herbert's teaching then you are off track. Truth be told, Catholics are closer to the truth than any Armstrongite.
"We still need to examine whether the RCC is even a force for good or not."
By hearing only ONE side of a "debate"?
Stephen Fry, your loudmouth lobbyist for the atheist, militant homosexual lobby against the Church.
Now, that's a force for good, Baywolfe.
Any religion who has their people bow down before idols can't be all bad. It works well for Buddhists who happily and cheerfully admit that they bow down to idols -- in fact they are proud of it and gives them great satisfaction and peace.
Think how much happier Roman Catholics would be if they would just cheerfully admit to their idolatry instead of trying to defend it by claiming they don't do it -- it's so counterintuitive and the freedom to be lawless would be so empowering.
Jeez.. Leave it to some to take Gary's point that he was moved and grateful for his journey and encouraging those in his care, and turn it into a food fight over what is the right way to be or how stupid those who be what they be really are.
Nice going.
How about a little attitude about your own gratitude?
Gary, I've been attending an Episcopal Church for two years now. Regularly for the last year.
This past Wednesday was my first Ash Wednesday. As a participant in the pilgrim's in Christ program I was honored to apply ashes as well.
I'm still in the process of working through a lot of my old WCG issues. So I couldn't help but draw comparisons between Passover in the old WCG and this service.
I ended up sending an email to the priest thanking him for his message that night which was an additional help in seeing that my present reality is not the same as my past.
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