Tuesday, 13 December 2022

Leaving the cult




Il gruppo in cui mi ero trovato era composto di persone in genere molto più giovani di me. Avevo intuito che avrei avuto un ruolo particolare. Non da insegnante… studente semmai. Alla fine non so se io abbia contribuito qualcosa di utile, ma ho imparato parecchio.

La mia maggior età era, nei loro occhi, segno sicuro di malvagità, soprattutto perché ero genitore e Stefan aveva già affermato che egli e sua moglie, Christina, erano i primi genitori morali della storia.

Tutto il gruppo era fondato sulla separazione dalla famiglia, genitori in primis. In questo, un genitore era per loro problematico. Io avevo fatto il passo obbligatorio di separarmi dalla mia famiglia (per circa due anni quando finalmente sono uscito dal culto). Grazie al Signore che mi ha fatto ritornare in tempo di accompagnare loro nella morte dopo qualche anno di frequentazione con il mio tentativo di badare a loro e fargli compagnia. Era comunque interessante. Li vedevo dopo più chiaramente di prima. In modo più obbiettivo (difficile coi genitori).

Monday, 12 December 2022

Pagan Pharisees

Hear my words, o ye Pagan truthers, and examine your countenance.

You speak of love for the brethren. You do warmly embrace and loudly applaud any presentation, speech, exposition or other display of even the most modest or imagined ability, without requiring even the minimum credentials.

You say that you can tell in your heart if a man or woman is good and you imply that I may be of the good sort, since you are friendly to me and do embrace me if I cannot escape in time.

In the matter of goodness however – yours or mine - I cannot concur.

I am not good, because the Bible tells us we are all wretched.

As for you, likewise. Indeed, since you often proclaim the founding principle of love, why do you persist on being a scourge and a pestilence in relation to all the officers of the State, from the lowest to the highest, with whom you have dealings?

I know why you might feel resentment towards these officers when their actions and omissions burden your lives. You protest that they lack authority, but you don’t understand the source of authority, because you say it is from the people, meaning yourselves.
Surely it is understandable that the officers, librarians, clerks of the court, bailiffs, constables and so forth would not love you because you are objectively awkward, refusing to answer their civil inquiries or even give your name, frustrating them in their allotted duties from pillar to post and even seeking and delighting in confrontation.

You criticise people who follow mainstream views. Those who have repeatedly refused to lift up their eyes and unstop their ears. You say, “They just follow the narrative”. But when I attend your meetings it is quite shocking and even embarrassing to witness similar adherence to narratives, albeit different ones, often based exclusively on hearsay and prejudice.

Many of you believe that sitting in a pyramid shaped structure, touching or approaching certain stones and crystals, visiting ancient sacred sites and so forth, can produce beneficial effects in the mind and body. Maybe those practices are indeed beneficial, I cannot say. But you are relying on faith. You will not perform the litmus test of removing all your crystals, pyramids, and visitations of special places for a year to see if you do indeed start to go weak at the knees. Perhaps because you cannot contemplate the possibility that you are under an illusion, just as are those who you dare to judge.

Regardless of your beliefs, yours and mine, when you tell me that people are “waking up”, what you are really saying is that they are updating their narrative provider and moving into the New Age, dancing merrily to the pipes of the devil.

So, in fact, with reference to the Bible, while the civil officers who you readily offend and mock correspond to the publicans, towards whom Jesus displayed great compassion and who were somewhat susceptible to hearing his words because they were often humble, knowing in their hearts that they were merely Caeser’s servants, you, with your arcane learnings and books, careful rites, proud self-reliance, and conceit of superiority, displaying your even shoeless attire as a sign of virtue, would correspond to the Pharisees, towards whom Jesus addressed many stern warnings and pronouncements.

I pray that you will all come to faith. Even though you be extraordinarily thick headed, some work can certainly be found for you in the garden.