I've found recent posts both interesting and saddening. Saddened to learn of Hugh McConnaghie's death (and I had no idea that he had gone on to become a Baptist pastor after leaving Struthers). Saddened too that A Theist 101 now has no religious faith - though not quite sure if the nom de plume indicates that he is still a Theist rather than an outright atheist. That intrigues me because one of my spiritual mentors, C. S. Lewis, was an atheist
then a Theist before eventually becoming a convinced Christian. In my own experience, a period of deep disillusionment with certain expression the Christian faith eventually led paradoxically to a deeper faith.
I like the Petitor's suggestions about the Keswick Covention (if only). Ironically, one of SMC's great, oft-quoted heroines was greatly influenced by the Keswick convention and no doubt, if still alive, would endorse the Petitor's comments.
Sorry this post is so long but I can't sign off without expressing my own gratitude for this forum and the opportunity it provides to share thoughts and feelings, doubts and misgivings (bottled ip for do long) about my own SMC experience.

I've found recent posts both interesting and saddening. Saddened to learn of Hugh McConnaghie's death (and I had no idea that he had gone on to become a Baptist pastor after leaving Struthers). Saddened too that A Theist 101 now has no religious faith - though not quite sure if the nom de plume indicates that he is still a Theist rather than an outright atheist. That intrigues me because one of my spiritual mentors, C. S. Lewis, was an atheist
then a Theist before eventually becoming a convinced Christian. In my own experience, a period of deep disillusionment with certain expressions of the Christian faith eventually led paradoxically to a deeper faith.
I like the Petitor's suggestions about the Keswick Covention (if only). Ironically, one of SMC's favourite oft-quoted heroines was greatly influenced by the Keswick convention and no doubt, if still alive, would endorse the Petitor's comments.
Sorry this post is so long but I can't sign off without expressing my own gratitude for this forum and the opportunity it provides to share thoughts and feelings, doubts and misgivings (bottled ip for do long) about my own SMC experience.

P.D. Sorry for all the typos!!

Hi
A warm welcome to ‘iquitthestrutherscult’ and ‘theist 101’.

To ‘iquitthestrutherscult’
You said ‘ experienced most of what people are saying.’ Speaking from ‘experience’ I just want to reach out and say you’re now among people who will listen and stand with you. I don’t know where you are in journey as you ‘deconstruct’ (as black watch said in an earlier post) your experiences in struthers but whether your just starting out or well through the process it will be good to hear from you in your time. It isn’t easy to come to the reality that you’ve given a good part of your life to that which you believed was built on biblical truth and in fact was not.

Which brings me to theist 101’s comments.
To theist 101
I don’t know what thinking or maybe experiences brought you to a place of not having a religious faith anymore but I think can understand it and certainly would never even think of alienating you…. That’s an SMC trait!
I know you said SMC did not contribute to this but it was a part of your ‘religious’ journey’. A chapter in your Christian experience.
We have had different religious experiences in that I was never an elder in another Church etc… most of my experience was SMC. But I have attended other churches and listened to a multitude of Bible trained Christians leaders which opened my eyes to biblical truth. However, I’ve had to ‘deconstruct’ my experiences and what I was taught in struthers and I would say the past year or so in particular brought me to a place where I’ve had to let go of a lot of what I previously believed to be true about the Christian life. This has been painful. It’s like having to rip the whole house down until you only have the foundation left and then you look at the foundation and ask ‘is that real too’?
All that I believed was questioned!
This is what I mean when I said above ‘I think can understand’
As faith is deeply personal…no person can stand with you.. you are very much alone. For me the agony is choosing to build again.
I was saved before going into to SMC and had a genuine love for Jesus and a love of the word. But that turned into legalism and a turning away from biblical truth (over many years) when I came into SMC.
So where am I now?
So looking at the foundation, being as truthful as I can be,
Do I doubt I was saved..no I don’t..do I doubt that Jesus is the Son of God …no I don’t. What do I doubt?
Can I rebuild upon this foundation a faith that is genuine and an inner life that is authentic after utterly failing in doing either.
I’m not trying to compare your experience with mine theist 101 but simply being more open about my own questioning of faith and where I am in my present journey.

To all,

I really do appreciate the reassurance. That is a kindness that I would not take for granted so, once again, thank you. My Forum name was deliberately intended to be ambiguous- just in case. Although I now no longer subscribe to any faith nor am I in any way “spiritual” as described by today’s standards, I did live a committed Christian life for 20 years so I genuinely do understand the concepts and feelings involved. I refer specifically here to Phoebe 2 feeling saddened by my lack of faith. I know that is sincere, I would have thought similarly at one time in my life. It’s clear that we all, as a group, do want to support those adversely affected by SMC.



The Petitor , I totally agree that loss of faith is not inevitable on leaving SMC and I am certainly not here to advocate for a non-theistic approach to life. This is not the place for such discussions, I agree. I will say that there are clearly people who have had a long AND happy time within the Struthers context. I don’t say this to negate the actions that have clearly lead to folks being abused, not cared for and belittled. I say it simply to point out that some people have accepted the level of control and manipulation and been relatively contented with it.That says nothing about the non-Christian practices that many before me have pointed out. Looking at recent figures deduced from church attendances it would seem that the number of long term contended ones could not be a large number.

Red Road, I had hoped people would see that ( meeting other Christian’s and being exposed to a comprehensive Christian theology)as a positive so thank you for highlighting it. I only mentioned my lack of faith to be honest with folks. Neither being in SMC nor the Baptist church directly affected my decision to leave the faith.Thanks for the info about Mr (I was never at a stage where I would have called him Hugh) McConnachie. I had no idea he had re-trained as a Baptist minister. I now wonder if our paths ever crossed without knowing it in the years after we both left. I must have enjoyed Fiona’s food at Wiston on many occasions. Sad news indeed.

Amazing Grace, your warm welcome is received with equally warm thanks. I like your reference to ripping the house down and rebuilding. I think that could be helpful to some of the ex SMC members who are still trying to make sense of it all.

Here are some thoughts I have now about my time in SMC. It seems to me that there was a 2 tier system operating. It may have been a multi- tier setup. There was an inner circle or sanctum and an outer circle. It appeared that to be considered eligible for the inner sanctum you had to exhibit one or more of the following: wealth, education, good standing within the community, an effective speaker- this could be either in giving testimony or is teaching, naturally gifted in music or song. The other main quality needed was to be compliant and unquestioning of the church’s teachings. Others can perhaps add to this list. Am I wrong in also thinking that entry into this inner sanctum was held over you as a proverbial carrot in order that you might “toe the line”? As a newbie to the church and with the dubious benefit of education and a musical bent, I sensed that there was an opportunity being created for me to enter the innards of the Glasgow church. What troubled me, even as a new member, was that many decent,upstanding and sincere people who had been there for years before me were not accepted in that inner grouping. It went against my inherent sense of fairness. I could see that they did not fit the required mould in one aspect or another. This must have been heart-breaking for those folks and a testimony to their faithfulness that they watched newbies ascend up the ranks so to speak. As always, I am open to correction or refutation here and I am also aware that Miss Black and many others are not here to defend themselves so I share this as a personal viewpoint only.

I look forward to your thoughts on this.

101

Hi Redroad,

You will see we have similarities in our Pseudos :-) I was very touched reading your post about Hugh McConnachie - thank you

I have not posted for some years & had quite a battle getting back into the forum as I think my account was obsolete so re-registered swapping my pseudo around.

Happy to be back & will contribute soon.

Greetings to all « old » & new!

Thank you Amazing Grace. I know I will receive only kindness on this forum…something which is sadly lacking in Struthers if you don’t toe the party line.
Has anyone heard about ‘open letters’ that have been sent to Struthers directors? Some members it would seem, haven sent these letters that are available to anyone so that the directors will reply. Now that will be interesting.

Amazing Grace - your last post was a very honest reflective piece and tough set of questions to be asking yourself. Thank you for letting us share a little bit of your current journey. I would suggest the very fact you can write the way you have means that you will progress to clarity in due course. Perhaps as Phoebe2 said "paradoxically to a deeper faith." You chose your pseudonym for a reason - so hang on to that - and let time do its work.

Phoebe2 - I really appreciate your insights when you give them - you have a different perspective to offer those of us who were fully enclosed within the SMC world. I think it shouts a story if even you feel you had misgivings bottled up for many years when your contact with SMC was intermittent by virtue of working abroad.

GirlWiston - I enjoyed your posts early on in the forum. Great to see you back!

A Theist 101 - I think you have written astutely about what you observed of Glasgow SMC. Certainly as kids, we knew exactly where everyone was in the SMC hierarchy. How did we know that? We just did, we knew the judging criteria without it ever being explicitly spoken.

I wonder if another category of current attendee that might say they have had a "long AND happy time within the Struthers context" are those that are in the top tier's immediate family. Perhaps they get the protection of not being monitored as closely? Or not being reported on by those lower down the food-chain? Albeit in my experience back in the 80s, you still required to be "compliant and unquestioning of the church’s teachings" to survive long-term, immediate family or not.

As an aside, from the start of the 80s there was a quite marked switch from what had been generally a trades/factory type of SMC congregant where outreach was focussed entirely on housing schemes, to seeking a university educated set of congregants, who were likely to have a higher earning potential which could be deed of covenanted! The early forum posts have told the early decades of SMC when people like Hugh McConnachie physically built the initial "branch" churches of Port Glasgow, Gourock and Larkfield. Falkirk's huge batch of 70s 80s young people possibly came from similar circumstances.

The 80s, of course, were when University/Polytechnics opened up to the wider school population. In my area where the traditional industries were closing, there were only 2 options presented to us school-leavers - YTS or University - so SMC congregation profile changes to some extent reflect the giving up of manufacturing at home, but my childhood memory is that the seeking of higher earners for deeds of covenant was a big driver, and there was a very definite awareness of whether you were on an inside track or not.

Have a good week everyone. This forum means a lot. As FalkirkBairn67 says, its purpose is "support" to each other.

Brilliant post RedRoad. I think you are spot on in all you say. Sounds like you were very much integrated through family ties. On reflection, your suggestion that the contented ones were most likely to come from the leadership class (if I may use that phrase simply for clarity) is very accurate.

Much appreciated

101

Hi I just came upon this forum a few months ago I have been reading the posts.And feel like Like I'm reliving my time in the church.I can remember some of the post on here

I attended Falkirk from the early 80s to 90s .Attending Greenock.Andsummer camps at Winston.

I also went through some bad times in Struthers but at the moment.I am unable to share this.

My life now is alot better
But the time I went to Struthers is hard to think about.I am still friends with alot of people who still attends Struthers.

Jennifer Jack is one evil female who should not be allowed near any child . She distroyed many a child life in the years I was there.She banned a few from attending while I was there.

Also the so called leaders from other branches. Hugh Black today would be charged with grooming . As that what he did with certain young females back then. When was it every OK for a male to pick up young girls and drive them about in his car.I know for a fact he did it with a tennager from falkirk without here parnets say so. Coming through from his job as a headmaster in Greenock.And picking this young tennager up from school.Today he would be struck of from teaching for this.

They are alot more I witnessed back then what was so wrong.