This speech from "Patch Adams" has always resonated with me on so many levels applying to so many personal experiences and perspectives.
"You were never one of them" is an evaluation I have heard all my personal life in being a WCG pastor. "You say the things I am only thinking" is also a quiet moment with another pastor at lunch. I believe that is true and why this speech resonates so much with me personally.
Getting caught up with WCG, or any Cult of Personality or group beliefs not your own, though you felt they were supposed to be and riding through all the storms that others bring your way can make one feel they failed for not conforming and for not going along to get along.
Not going along to get along has been one of my own personal life lessons. It's why I can say I now see myself as having been a salesman for the Armstrongs, in the past, and not a well-trained theologian and pastor. I let myself see the Bible through the eyes of others believing it was wrong to see it through my own. Those days are long over.
But it is not so When you are "not one of them", you are free and, to you, and there be few that find that kind of freedom. And while the price, indeed, is high, for saying what others are only thinking, I find being authentic a much better road to travel.
Besides, life is too short to be someone else.
12 comments:
Good insight, Dennis. Having the courage to think and live as one's authentic self is the most difficult thing I've ever done in my 80 years of life. It initially brought lots of fears about losing jobs, loved ones, family and friends... And me. But doing so eventually calmed my dibilitating anxieties and brought me confidence and peace of mind.
Amen! Based on the way that many pastors and doctors act, I don't think that I'd want to wear either moniker. Yes, being authentic is liberating, and I believe it is what God wants from all of us. Moreover, the practice of things like empathy, compassion, kindness, and love are sure to improve our performance in any role we choose to assume in this life.
So again here is Dennis the former WCG paid minister, as always, portraying himself like the so-called "good German" who worked for the Nazis but who was really never a Nazi and who helped to undermine the evil regime and who helped its suffering millions. So Dennis is like the good German, who was in the system, but who was apolitical, and who resisted silently. Nuts and nonsense to that idea. As is so often with your posts, you truly minimise your part in the WCG machinery while trying to maximize how you were actually above it all and how you saved the hapless lay members who were as much a part of things as were you yourself. So you were "just following orders", is tht part of your revisionist self-rhetoric? Yeah, Sure Dennis.
EXCELLENT!! Thank You!!
Given that tithes were paid to ministers which are in no way transferred to the "church" (false teaching) which was stealing from people who were under that same spell, would it not be best to do everything possible to repay? After all, the torah has directives to do just that.
Additionally, in the new testament, the repentant tax collector told the Messiah he would repay what he had taken if he had defrauded others (Matthew 19). The Messiah Yeshua (Hebrew word defined as salvation) went to the house of Zacchaeus and told him that salvation had come to his house after the statement of repentance had been made.
The new testament seems to be all that matters these days, at least for some in this forum. Why not do what it says?
It says that one must do more than simply love your brother as yourself. There are things that have to be done to accomplish that. It is not just a feeling and needs to be defined, especially with regard to loving one's brother when one is also a male as understanding that this love is all you need directive without following the directives that go into it could cause a problem for some.
It could be taken by someone that his same sex relationship is just fine because he loves his brother as himself. This possible situation has been brought up before and a love is all ;you need adherent wrote that he had stated his feelings on that before.
Aside from the fact that feelings are not directives from scripture, that, like this admission of false teaching, is simply saying and not doing anything about it and does not adhere to what even the new testament says that believers do.
Given that tithes were paid to ministers which are in no way transferred to the "church" (false teaching) which was stealing from people who were under that same spell, would it not be best to do everything possible to repay? After all, the torah has directives to do just that.
Additionally, in the new testament, the repentant tax collector told the Messiah he would repay what he had taken if he had defrauded others (Matthew 19). The Messiah (Yeshua - Hebrew word defined as salvation) went to the house of Zacchaeus and told him that salvation had come to his house.
The new testament seems to be all that matters these days, at least for some in this forum. Why not do what it says?
It says that one must do more than simply love your brother as yourself. There are things that have to be done to accomplish that. It is not just a feeling and needs to be defined, especially with regard to loving one's brother when one is also a male as understanding that this love is all you need directive without following the directives that go into it could cause a problem for some.
It could be taken by someone that his same sex relationship is just fine because he loves his brother as himself. This possible situation has been brought up before and a love is all ;you need adherent wrote that he had stated his feelings on that before.
Aside from the fact that feelings are not directives from scripture, that, like this admission of false teaching, is simply saying and not doing anything about it and does not adhere to what even the new testament says that believers do.
In my adult life, I've never been a joiner. A person can have a sense of vision, believe he has found a group which mirrors that sense of vision, but, with time, come to realize that while it may be close, the group does not fully and totally embody that sense of vision. At that point, one realizes that one's group can force compromise, some of the compromise being undesirable and unacceptable.
What does one do at that point of realization? It becomes complicated, given the fact that there are specific times and issues in life which are too large and imposing, therefore requiring the resources of a collective to assist in the fight for one"s survival. Engaging such a group is supposed to be a symbiotic relationship, but somehow never is completely.
So, at some point, one learns to extract, to take what one needs to survive. One learns to respond to the group or collective in the same ways and on the same level as they respond to you. If you are dealing with a borg, they don't appreciate that. In fact, I dare say they will interpret it as disloyalty, and will reject you.
So, you learn to take what you need, and move on. "They" (the collectors of people) certainly do that! We're all expendible. They should be too!
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Before I stopped attending services, the culture of my congregation was one of the minister, elders, and meddling pests waving verbal baseball bats demanding that everyone make the "right" choices. This robbed members of decision making. The Borg weren't pulled out of thin air.
Apparently, Dennis, you understood a few things at the intellectual level, but you never really "got it". That seems to be the case amongst those that are bitter about their experiences in The Church and attack it after leaving.
We can't "join" The Church. Getting involved without being called into it never seems to end well.
Sounds familiar. You didn't invent that. Experience has a way of fixing that.
Well, I was never really converted, so don't forget that.
Medicine, Theology, Politics: It's all the same? They definitely operate the same.
I once made this comparison on this site and was sharply criticized. However, both Patch and Scripture tell the same story:
John 7:15--Living
Upon hearing Jesus preach, the Jewish leaders were surprised when they heard him. 'How can he know so much when he's never been to our schools'?
Acts 4:13
When the Council saw the boldness of Peter and John, and could see they were obviously uneducated non professionals, they were amazed . . .
Luke 9:49
John--Master, we saw one using your name to cast out demons and we told him not to. After all, he isn't in our group.
Sure nails Armstrongism doesn't it? Come on Dennis, it's the word of God and it's true! Patch confirms it.
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