Thursday, May 10, 2007
The main problem with Ben Yishai was that the teachings ceased to be focused on the doctrines in Christianity and the focus of the movement no longer was rooted in the teachings and ministry of Jesus Christ but on the personality of Jack Hickman. And I think that’s a common thread in many cults.
Someone told me, “Who knows who Jack is? A prophet, a priest or a king?” Actually, it turned out that he was not original in all of his teachings as I noted elsewhere that he stole at least one sermon from the Lubavitcher Rebbe (who was another problem in himself).
Hickman once gave a sermon where he said that, “There are people in this church who are homosexuals and they think nobody knows about it.” And it turned out he was one too.
Now, I don’t want to get into a big rant and rave about a person’s sexual orientation. I personally am not gay and I have a girlfriend but as long as someone who’s gay doesn’t bother me after I tell them I’m not interested I have no problem with it. Same thing with same sex marriages.
I’m not a Bible thumper who beats people over the head with either the Old or New Testaments. While the Old Testament says, “Cursed be he who lies with a man like he lies with a woman.” And the penalty is death, I am glad we don’t handle it that way anymore. Just don’t bother me over it.
Hickman also said that I shouldn’t listen to the orthodox Jews because they just make things up.(I actually found this out to be the case with Rabbi Goldberg in Chabad and Yeshua Witt of the Carlebach movement.) Then Hickman decided to become an orthodox Jew as such and he started to lie.
I asked Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach what Hickman’s problem was and Shlomo told me that maybe he wanted power but he didn’t want to work for it. By the way, Shlomo had the book “How to get Power and How to Use It.” I know because I used to carry his suitcases. I put my weightlifting developed muscles to use with him.
Hickman ruined a lot of people’s lives. I don’t know the extent of the damage in everyone, but I and a few I’ve associated with since leaving Ben Yishai notes we were having difficulties becoming reintegrated into the mainstream of life. Some people took over 25 years to go back to any kind of spirituality at all. Who can you trust is a major issue. My take on it is that you can only trust G-d himself. The Bible does say to put your trust only in the Alm-ghty and not in princes of men in whom there’s no deliverance.
Even the concept of the Messiah in general is problematic. According to the Torah, G-d wanted the Jews to not have a king like the other nations of the world. He wanted to rule them himself. But eventually, the will of the people won out and according to the story G-d warned the people that the kings would rule with a rod of iron and chastise the people with whips and scorpions.
Now, I don’t take everything in the Tanakh literally. I think much of it is hyped up to make points clear to the people. But politics is sticky business and religion mixed with politics is probably the stickiest type of leadership you can get Just look at the Church in the Dark Ages as an example.
Today, these so-called “Messianic Congregation” are springing up everywhere and my story is only known to a few people. I find it frustrating. I went through quite a bit of aggravation in my life and I’m happy to have a place like this to vent my frustrations out and provide key intelligence to others on the trouble you can get into if you’re not careful.
My father told me when I found out I had become a Christian as a child that I didn’t weigh things out like the orthodox Jews do who analyze things from every angle before making a decision. I think in retrospect that he had too much respect for them too but I know what he meant.
Many people have commented to me recently that Christianity is dying. I know that Orthodox Judaism in growing in contrast and Islam and Hinduism seen to be strong also. What the future holds in terms of religion is anyone’s guess. The Jews and Moslems are united in believing that a new leader will arrive. The orthodox Jews are looking for their “true Messiah” and the Moslems are awaiting the coming of the Mahdi.
I personally hope that a new teacher of spirituality will appear to set the world straight. I think that the world needs a new religion that will bring new peace to the world.
The question is how to create such without having a new cult of personality.