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Happy Survivor
A couple from SMC who are very highly thought of decided that they would obey the leadership and get rid of their T.V. But they were then faced with a tricky problem...how would they watch their favourite T.V. programmes? So do you know what they did? They watched them on the BBC IPlayer. This got them into huge trouble with their broadband provider as they were watching so many programmes that their usage went through the roof. But at least they had got rid of the evil television. Am I alone in seeing the complete absurdity of all this?
Happy Survivor, you are not the only one who sees the absurdity. In fact, the opposite may be true - it may be only 300 people in the entire world cannot see the absurdity - and they are all in SMC!
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Happy Survivor
I would like to quote from a discussion paper entitled " Legalism Versus Grace"... As E.M. Blaiklock comments:
"...The fruits of legalism are spiritual pride, spiritual blindness, failure, fear, depression, the illusion of self-importance and insecurity. "
Wow - did Blaiklock ever visit Struthers??
o Spiritual Pride - read the Humiliation Sermon on Latigo
o Spiritual Blindness - witness the 40 or so testimonies to pain and suffering that they are too blind to see
o Failure - read the Latigo article on how many members there are - decline and stagnation
o Fear - I have lost count how many time that word has been mentioned in these pages - it is their whole leadership style
o Depression - by some accounts, half of some congregations are clinically depressed
o The illusion of self-importance - just listen to any of the sermons about how special they are - says who?
o Insecurity - why is no-one from Struthers willing to contribute to this forum as an equal? if that isn't insecurity, what is it?
I am sure other examples could be quoted, but I think that whole quote is just so pertinent. Why can they not see how so much wisdom and insight from truly spiritual people applies to them?
and finally, cbarb-again - welcome back! Course we have missed you. It just wouldn't be the same without you! I am so glad that you have spoken to your parents and they have now looked at the Latigo site. There is a great deal there that is so factual and objective, and raises all sorts of questions about the overall management of the organisation. - and that in itself is so damning.
The SMC leaders are saying they have this special relationship with God who has given them instruction about every single aspect of their lives - yet they are not managing their organisation and their funds openly and honestly. By claiming they are led so closely by God - that they "only move on the explicit instruction of the Lord God of Hosts" (see the punishment threat on Latigo) they are actually brining the name of Christ into disrepute - they are saying that it is
God who treats people unjustly, who fails to meet reasonable standards, that moves funds from the restricted category or tells lies in the accounts (“the vast majority of incoming funds to the charity remain by way of personal giving at services run by the charity...” - no, it doesn't actually - there is more income from school fees. That may be an understandable human error, but they claim this is not a human error, it was something explicitly instructed by God!)
It would be laughable if they had not damaged so many lives with their arrogance.