Steven Flurry has an article up in the Philadelphia Trumpet titled, You Can Conquer Discouragement! So what could be the cause of all that discouragement and disappointment? Could the headline of the next article be a cause of discouragement? Can they really be this stupid?
- Commentary: You Can Conquer Discouragement!God gives us the means.
- Commentary: DoYou Realize How Soon the World Could End?Events are moving far faster than most people grasp.So what is Little Stevie trying to get across? It all revolves around money. When you are depressed think about the "work." That will solve all your problems! Send your money in, it will make you happy to know you support the work.When you face discouragement, don’t let your mind dwell on the Jezebel obstacle in front of you. Get your mind on God and His work.
The key to overcoming discouragement is to get our minds off ourselves and onto the power and might of God. Turn to God in humility, with prayer and fasting. Then get back to work. Concentrate on serving God and doing God’s work
The cause of all that discouragement is this:Perhaps you’ve mulled some of those prophecies for years. Do you realize just how soon they could be full-blown reality?Are you ready? “[T]ake heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares,” Christ warned. “For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth” (Luke 21:34-35). Woe to those caught in that snare! And though Christ said it would entrap the vast majority, He gave this warning so you could be among the few who escape it (verse 36).
If you are in the PCG, it's no wonder you are discouraged: A drunken false prophet lying to you and taking your money without the smallest hint of ever providing anything viable in return. At some level, you must realize that it is all psychotic fantasy and that if you keep following these con artist losers, you're never going to amount to anything but a cog in a giant cash machine funding Gerald Flurry's ego.
ReplyDeleteSimilar things may be said about every one of the other Armstrongist Churches of God.
This past week, I again heard a portion of a sermon given last summer about how we should be keeping God's Laws, particularly heinous was a man committing adultery, said the man, who, as a minister, committed said adultery on his wife as she was dying of cancer.
That didn't discourage me. That enraged me. Anger can supplant any kind of discouragement you have, as long as you do not let the sun go down on your wrath and resolve it before bedtime. That way you can do what I do: Go to bed in peace, and the next morning, you can wake up refreshed and take up your cross. By cross, I mean be downright ornery angry. That way we can make posts, emptying our bile upon the Internet for those lying pieces of crap that put up a shingle to call themselves "ministers".
So yes.
It is easy to conquer discouragement.
Give the scoundrels hell.
Very sad and ultimately dangerous to the mental health of many a sincere person who has hope this world is not as doomed as it feels.
ReplyDeleteIt is not just one particular organization, though we are familiar with those that impacted our lives and thinking. It is the whole idea that humans can know or that special humans can really know and be encouraged by it all.
Magical thinking is the culpret at times. The idea that men or the authors of a book can know the future is simply wrong. No one has known the future yet and the shock of having to learn that what appears to be prophecy is really history already past turned into prophecy is hard for fundamentalists to accept.
The Bible keeps many sincere people from living in the only time they really have...NOW..the present. Thus one is always waiting around for something to happen that shows it will be better in the future which is a very unreal place to live one's life. (Almost as futile as living in the past from which at least we can learn something.)
In my opinion, depression, sadness and such is the byproduct of repressed anger, fear, guilt and shame that has no safe outlet and thus pressses hard on the heart, spirit, mind or whatever.
Much depression, aside from the classic 'chemical imbalance" answer , in a church or workplace is due to:
A. Anger we feel we have no right to express (You know..God would not be happy with such lack of faith)
B. or the price of expressing that anger is way too high (You know..you're disfellowshipped.)
Ultimately and accurately "hope deferred makes the heart sick."
False prophecies, Jesus is just around the corner, just over the hill, soon to come, almost here, gun lap, shortly are a root of religious depression.
I expect the reason we have no acceptable writings about Jesus by the disciples/apostles who are said to have actually walked, talked and listened to Jesus teach personally, went out and also hung themselves.
If you are depressed as a part of your church, please go see your doctor and get a non-religious oriented counselor to get your head out of a very small box...
PS ...and please don't focus your mind on 'the Work'. That's the root cause.
ReplyDeleteand then I'll "shut the hell up," (Ok Michael?).
ReplyDeleteI went thru the depression cycles in the transition between my WCG ministry and a much bigger box. I bought into the "It's a chemical imbalance," which it no doubt was but why is that going on? I never had it before until I could see WCG raising a gun to its head under Tkach and my own journey into the real origins and history of the Bible.
I took the standard antidepressants will all the associated side effects. It made me not give a rats ass about anything which is why one doesn't feel depressed. Depression is you care so much you become disfunctional and thwarted.
I had a hallucination when taking one brand which i tried to turn into a "I knew a man above 14 years ago, whether in the spirit or out, I could not tell,:) but what do you do with seeing a headless chicken walking down the hall? So I gave that up.
In hindsite and after years..I realize that I was not facing reality. I was masking it so it would not come up to mind. Reality is our friend ultimately. A hard teacher but our friend.
Facing our own feelings and observations about what troubles us, or the doubts that come along for the ride is ultimately the ticket out . FACE THEM. Take an action that serves YOU, not others. Always ask, "How does what I am doing serve me?" and you can begin the journey to your own peace of mind.
It is not easy. You may go it alone. You may swap depression for a bit of anxiety as depression is rooted in the past while anxiety is rooted in the unknowable future, but DO IT.
You will when you are ready and wonder why you didn't sooner, but no one can do that for you.
"When the student is ready...the teacher will come..."
amen
NO2...I'm thinking the lack of comments is due to the fact that most COG types have never considered that their beliefs and leadership is the CAUSE of their depression
ReplyDeleteM.T.Prescriptions
I remember when Steven Flurry got "discouraged" about the church's financial situation- you know, having to pay for that otherwise beautiful clone of Ambassador Auditorium.
ReplyDeleteI actually think he got pretty "worked up" about it because he started berating the congregation about getting a second job -I believe he mentioned painting houses.
Ah, yes, the Auditorium... $9 Million in debt -- very discouraging.
ReplyDeletePerhaps Flurry went out to spend the money when he was depressed. Bipolar disease works like that: There's nothing like a little purchase to lift one's spirits!
They should have had that as one of the cures for discouragement: Go out in a manic spree to spend money. That worked well for Herbert Armstrong and it seems to work well for Armstrongist leaders today as well.
Warning: DO NOT DO THIS AT HOME!