Just a reminder that categorizing people as "sluts", "whores" and sinners who are somehow different than everyone else and deserving of this or that judgment by the righteous might not be the very best way for encourage people when they need it the most.
Even I still agree that whatever the way of Jesus was , he defined it as easy and the burden of it light.
Hardly what you get from the ministry and far too many members in the Churches of God under the IM-Potentates and UN-IN-Potentates.
Former Minister or not, and I can defend the fact that I have thought this way as a kid long before I ever heard of WCG, and that there are much better ways to treat people who "fail" or "sin" or simply goof up than what I ever heard from the mouth of HWA or the self centered , self absorbed and self ordained pretend ministers and righteous follows of the COG circus masters.
As in politics, the self righteous, judgmental and somewhat or totally narcissistic personalities rise to the top and lack the skills, compassion and love to treat people who fail, as they do as well but won't tell you that..ever. , to meet the standards of "becoming perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect," good luck with that. And don't give me "it means mature." Good luck with that too.
Most who practice such poor people skills and spiritual qualities only change when they get bitten in the ass themselves and given an opportunity to wake up and change their way viewing others as if they are all that different from everyone else. Dave Pack, for example, need only to look his own family to see being righteous and perfect in his own mind didn't work out so well for the clan. Dave has been bitten often in the ass and learned precisely nothing from it evidently.
I've had my own shortcomings in life both within and without the ministry. My own mistakes were born out of regrets about my perception of being stuck in the scandal filled WCG while pastoring some very fine folk that I did not wish to let down or abandon and the stress that went along with it. It was a real challenge. I also meant every bit of what I did or did not do at times. I made personal choices I now regret and some I am glad I did consequences and all. There were times I would have appreciated being treated as I perceived I had treated others, but it didn't happen. The self righteous and unblemished are a hard kind of nut to crack.
I may be a firm believer in evolution and an atheist with regards to my views of Bible origins, politic and problems but I always knew that a pat on the back is only 18 inches from a kick in the ass and works much better. For example...
No, it's not the job of the minister to monitor the sins of the congregation. He's got his own issues and their ain't no 10's in the ministry or administration of any church. The job of the pastor is to en-courage, to en-lighten and provide the safe haven for human beings and everyone is first of all that. It's his job to be human too and willing to admit it. People like that and respond to that much more than the hubris and discipline you see in most of the Churches of God when people fail to meet the standards. I have felt the boot of my superiors on my throat when already in the weeds of depression and anxiety caused by the very men who wore the boots. It didn't make me better and it didn't make me wish to stay even if I had not lost my personal faith in faith itself.
The job comes with having the ability to be a helper of one's joy and not a roadblock to one's journey. The minister's job is to be the best example of one who bares, believes, hopes and endures and helps others to do so when they feel they have failed and seek forgiveness and understanding.
The minister and member job description is this, and if the Apostle Paul actually wrote this, then I'd say it shows the man grew up during his blustering ministry and realized this close to the end of his life after years of his own false prophecies about the end, how everyone else must be and how it all is.
First of all and at the least Paul was able to look at himself. Men like Pack, Flurry and Weinland lack this skill. Paul called it "sin". I'd simply call it being human when trying to be something like "perfect" according to someone else's standards and learning it might not work so well. .
I only wish Paul, for the sake of all to follow would have been more specific about what it was he simply could not stop doing or being.
Even I still agree that whatever the way of Jesus was , he defined it as easy and the burden of it light.
Hardly what you get from the ministry and far too many members in the Churches of God under the IM-Potentates and UN-IN-Potentates.
Watch it. Let it change the way you talk to and treat your partners, children , friends and all the sinners, whores and losers in the church you know.
Former Minister or not, and I can defend the fact that I have thought this way as a kid long before I ever heard of WCG, and that there are much better ways to treat people who "fail" or "sin" or simply goof up than what I ever heard from the mouth of HWA or the self centered , self absorbed and self ordained pretend ministers and righteous follows of the COG circus masters.
As in politics, the self righteous, judgmental and somewhat or totally narcissistic personalities rise to the top and lack the skills, compassion and love to treat people who fail, as they do as well but won't tell you that..ever. , to meet the standards of "becoming perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect," good luck with that. And don't give me "it means mature." Good luck with that too.
Most who practice such poor people skills and spiritual qualities only change when they get bitten in the ass themselves and given an opportunity to wake up and change their way viewing others as if they are all that different from everyone else. Dave Pack, for example, need only to look his own family to see being righteous and perfect in his own mind didn't work out so well for the clan. Dave has been bitten often in the ass and learned precisely nothing from it evidently.
I've had my own shortcomings in life both within and without the ministry. My own mistakes were born out of regrets about my perception of being stuck in the scandal filled WCG while pastoring some very fine folk that I did not wish to let down or abandon and the stress that went along with it. It was a real challenge. I also meant every bit of what I did or did not do at times. I made personal choices I now regret and some I am glad I did consequences and all. There were times I would have appreciated being treated as I perceived I had treated others, but it didn't happen. The self righteous and unblemished are a hard kind of nut to crack.
I may be a firm believer in evolution and an atheist with regards to my views of Bible origins, politic and problems but I always knew that a pat on the back is only 18 inches from a kick in the ass and works much better. For example...
No, it's not the job of the minister to monitor the sins of the congregation. He's got his own issues and their ain't no 10's in the ministry or administration of any church. The job of the pastor is to en-courage, to en-lighten and provide the safe haven for human beings and everyone is first of all that. It's his job to be human too and willing to admit it. People like that and respond to that much more than the hubris and discipline you see in most of the Churches of God when people fail to meet the standards. I have felt the boot of my superiors on my throat when already in the weeds of depression and anxiety caused by the very men who wore the boots. It didn't make me better and it didn't make me wish to stay even if I had not lost my personal faith in faith itself.
The job comes with having the ability to be a helper of one's joy and not a roadblock to one's journey. The minister's job is to be the best example of one who bares, believes, hopes and endures and helps others to do so when they feel they have failed and seek forgiveness and understanding.
The minister and member job description is this, and if the Apostle Paul actually wrote this, then I'd say it shows the man grew up during his blustering ministry and realized this close to the end of his life after years of his own false prophecies about the end, how everyone else must be and how it all is.
First of all and at the least Paul was able to look at himself. Men like Pack, Flurry and Weinland lack this skill. Paul called it "sin". I'd simply call it being human when trying to be something like "perfect" according to someone else's standards and learning it might not work so well. .
I only wish Paul, for the sake of all to follow would have been more specific about what it was he simply could not stop doing or being.
Romans 7:15-20New International Version (NIV)
15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do.16 And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature.[a] For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it."
Probably one of the NT's more honest human admissions. But he learned evidently what was the most important thing and it turns out not be labeling people, sluts, whores, sinners and losers.
1 Corinthians 13New International Version (NIV)13
If I speak in the tongues[a] of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast,[b] but do not have love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part,10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears.11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."
I hope he did write it. Every minister in the Splits, Splinters and Slivers as well as those who take great titles upon themselves can suck it up and admit just how much of this they lack and no, no God loves us so much he has to turn us over to any Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit might be saved. I don't believe that personally for a minute because that shifts the responsibility and opportunity for the minister or member to practice love, real and unconditional.
Disfellowshiping, Lakes of Fire and the wicked being ashes under the feet of the "righteous" is repugnant to me as it reveals a being or a theology that easily runs out of ideas on how to love, inspire, forgive and show some compassion for a change. It also reveals a God that is unconvincing. A God who hides behind prophets, priests and ministers , mere third party salesmen, to be understood is a weak God and going about it all wrong. I know...the wisdom of man is foolishness with God, but perhaps man's observations about God or God's men of faith and power should not be foolishness with a real God. It might just be considered helpful input. Threatening I know.
I also never found it inspiring that the Egyptians who don't come up to the feast and worship the Hebrew God, won't get rain for their crops and this starve I imagine. Is that stupid or what? Forced obedience and compliance never goes well. What kind of love and loyalty does being forced produce? Forced and very insincere....I suspect. (I don't believe that will actually happen but you get the point).
I find it repulsive that "without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins." What's wrong with a simple "I forgive you." Is that so difficult? What's so hard about "I'm sorry, I was wrong, Please forgive me, I love you too."? doing the trick? Too easy maybe and you don't need to build an entire religious hierarchy to inforce it perhaps.
Sorry. Hitting people when they need a hug has always been an issue to me in the church and out. It is rude, childish and bespeaks a spiritual immaturity that has always plagued the Churches of God in both members and ministry.
In case you missed it.....