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Re: Pathetic parenthetics (warning also long cult post)
In a message dated 8/19/02 10:48:04 AM Central Daylight Time,
sarahherr at hotmail_com writes:
<< As a member of the grammar police, I formally approve the use of
parenthesis
within parenthesis. However, you can make the inner set brackets instead
[like this] for better comprehension. Any other grammar police with me on
this one? >>
thanks for the info Sarah.
That one isn't even in my Little Brown Handbook. LOL
I just looked out of curiosity.
kevin
____________________________________________________________-
***warning***
for any who don't find the topic of cults interesting , just skip my
following longwinded post. I wasn't going to send this as it had that
off-normal-topic-possible-flame-reply-post-feel but since the list is slow
right now I figured sending it with a warning would be ok.
>Sarah
(who [because of her inquiring mind] finds the topic of cults very
interesting
It is a very interesting topic but has to be approached carefully. There's
so much there that it's easy to get bogged down in it. I think my first few
years as a Christian I knew more about fringe groups than about historic
Christianity.
I got into it because I had looked into a lot of things before becoming
Christian, mostly other religions not cults, (I was a late bloomer) then, on
the *inside*, I noticed a lot of misinformation going about and also a very
hard-line us vs them attitude. I think if one is going to be critical of
something you should at least make sure you have accurate info or you're in
danger of bearing false witness. As for the us vs them attitude, everyone is
different. Some are disillusioned, some grow up in it so know nothing else,
some are going off the presupposition that all religions are the same and are
honestly trying to synthesize everything, some hate Christianity outright for
one reason or another, but even with them it's often just something once done
to them by a supposed Christian, not liking being told a particular sin they
enjoy is wrong, a hard dose of bad televangelists or what have you.
Sometimes they're just searchers stopping off to see the sights. So it's
never as easy as us vs them. We're not talking about devils but fellow human
beings. Many honestly searching for answers as much, if not more so, in my
experience, than many mainline *Christians*. -- some Christians that grew up
in it seem to barely know what separates them from any number of other
religions or cults.
So anyway, since I already knew a bit I just delved in deeper thinking that
perhaps it was my calling. My hands on involvement entailed working for a
while with a small group in Florida who would invite JW's and Mormons to
their homes for discussions. We also visited churches that had open forums
to discuss differing beliefs. One interesting event that happened -- we were
kicked out of, or to be more accurate, literally escorted off the premises of
the Church of Scientology for hanging out in the library asking people their
idea's on who Jesus was. To be honest, I don't think we were supposed to be
there in the first place, but hey, the doors were open!
It's been around 10 years since any heavy involvement and I don't think
I'll be going back to it, at least in the same way. I'm not sure what the
best approach is but quite a bit of what we did back then just seemed a
little....shady? For instance, we'd never outright say when inviting people
to our homes that we were out to evangelize them because they wouldn't come.
We'd just say we were curious as to where they differed from other Christian
churches. So they were under the impression they were coming to evangelize
us! Sure, many cults use deception as a major form of evangelism but a
Christian is supposed to know better. Currently I still study a bit but as
for evangelism I just kinda take it as it comes (*as you go*, make disciples)
and don't actively seek out cultists to talk with. But I still invite them
in for tea when they knock on my door:-) I think one good approach is to
just have Sunday schools that inform about differences and similarities and
solidify what the big issues are for people as a large percentage of converts
to *christian* cults, sadly, come from more mainline churches. Which
implies, to me, that often the church just isn't doing enough - to teach
basics, to teach differances, to meet needs, to.... Besides, it would also
help in developing the understanding that we're all human, hopefully doing
our best to find a balance between our faith and reason to get to truth.
for a little reading I'd recommend the authors James Sire, Douglas Groothuis,
Walter Martin, Robert M. Bowman, the Passantino's. I'd recommend steering
clear of Dave Hunt, Texe Marrs and Constance Cumbey -a lot of misinformation
and conspiracy hunting. I note these are all mainstream Christian authors.
If you'd title's of a few books *from the inside* drop me an offlist post as
I've probably taken up too much space on this already. One other I'd
recommend is D.R.McConnell's A Different Gospel. One of the only well
researched examinations (that I know) of the historical roots of the faith
movement that has become increasingly popular within charismatic churches.
kevin
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