Comments on: The Least of These

By: Words of a Fether » Blog Archive » A Closet Full of Skeletons

Words of a Fether » Blog Archive » A Closet Full of Skeletons — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 22:19:47 +0000

[...] a blind eye to evil being done by professing Christians. I wrote about it in more general terms before, but if we never name names, it will go [...]

By: Paula Fether

Paula Fether — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 23:46:28 +0000

Tanx Kay!

By: Kay

Kay — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 22:14:21 +0000

My sentiments as well – I’d say that I enjoyed reading your post and the comments, but the truth of it made me want to cry. So, enjoy may not be the best choice of words.

By: Greg Anderson

Greg Anderson — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 20:56:57 +0000

I like the last comment about nothing wrong with clubs.

We humans are created to be wanted and to want others in our spheres.

But like you’ve said, when it starts to replace the simplicity of believers as a body, it has to go.

When the fulcrum point gets altered, it throws everything out of whack.

By: Paula Fether

Paula Fether — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 18:24:43 +0000

And of course, clubs are fine. The problem comes when they replace the Body and become a religion.

By: Lin

Lin — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 18:12:28 +0000

“People like to belong to clubs. They provide the sense of community missing from modern society. But for most of them, to ask them to leave is like asking them if they’d like to drift alone in outer space.”

Oh Brother is this ever true! I know for a fact it is true. The key to this is getting folks involved in a ’small group’ quickly that becomes their entire social life. They are reluctant to disagree or dissent for hurting their friends feelings. they also find it impossible to leave. Who will their kids play with? What about all those fellowships that are so wonderful?

This is actually a strategy that is employed by many mega churches. They know if they can get you connected and promote horizontal relationships, they have you.

I know many folks who do not agree with what is taught or done in these churches but overlook it because of ‘relationships’. They do not realize they are treating it like a club.

By: Paula Fether

Paula Fether — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 16:46:23 +0000

Glad to help, TS

And so true… we do choose our pains. We also choose our blessings.

By: truthseeker

truthseeker — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 16:05:34 +0000

Paula, great description in your last paragraph. People do like clubs and our society is deficient in community so one is hugely adrift if he or she leaves ‘the club’. Yet, as you have so aptly put it, once you’re out, you are in a place of greater light and freedom. The freedom does at times contain the pain of lost relationships but life is not without pain, so we choose our ‘pains’. We also come to enjoy new relationships developed with fellow ‘drifters’.

By: Paula Fether

Paula Fether — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 13:14:38 +0000

Yeah, I’ve heard countless times “It isn’t a religion, it’s a relationship” said during a religious service in a “temple”. How did we all swallow that sort of thing for so long? “If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck…”

People like to belong to clubs. They provide the sense of community missing from modern society. But for most of them, to ask them to leave is like asking them if they’d like to drift alone in outer space. And sometimes that’s what it feels like. But then you notice that you’ve “drifted” from a cramped, airless capsule to a whole planet of light and freedom. Tough journey, great destination.

By: Greg Anderson

Greg Anderson — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 12:56:50 +0000

Paula and Lin,

I too have seen this happen in organized religion. It doesn’t matter if it’s a mainline denomination or one of the independent evangelical fellowships (although they try to make the claim that they’re not a religion).

I am free of all that right now, and it’s like being loosed from jail cell. I honestly don’t know how I survived it for all those years.

Religion is hard, Micah 6:8 is not.