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alli_wan
[i:7c2adae951]I came across your website while trying to find information about the Church of the Nazarene. . . . I am concerned because my mother has joined this organization and her behavior (which used to be merely erratic) has now become fanatic and frankly alarming. . . .
In light of this, I am naturally concerned when she almost immediately joined another church (this time being the Church of the Nazarene, after a brief time with the Jehovah's Witnesses). She has an incredibly needful personality, an insatiable craving for attention and is the perfect cult victim because as her least favorite child, I know from personal experience that she will drop any and all responsibility so long as people are paying attention to her.
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Alli, I have some experience with the Nazarene churches. They range in “standard” from very liberal to very authoritarian, but there are few of the extreme authoritarian-type. My husband is a member of a liberal Nazarene church. All the Nazarenes seem to lean toward being more gentle folk, and most seem to be quite tolerant and helpful toward one another. Of course, there are all kinds in every congregation, Nazarene or not.
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[i:7c2adae951] Since she has joined the church, . . . she has become more and more aggressive about her religious beliefs, and more extreme, to the point where it has been causing real concern.
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Many people become overzealous and boisterous upon finding new things that appeal to them. Give her time to settle in. :-)
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[i:7c2adae951]Furthermore, after buying a house in FL, she left for Oklahoma to take religious classes. This concerned us well enough on its own, but she has also been lying extensively about the nature of these classes (even claiming they are associated with an established university, when in reality, they are only held on the facilities.)
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They may have very well been [i:7c2adae951]associated[/i:7c2adae951] with a university. The Nazarene church has several of their own universities, and when such seminars are held, they often use professors from them. Some of the classes they offer are also accredited by the universities. It sounds like your mother is in need of self-esteem (thus the lying). Perhaps this connection with the universities is one way for her to get a personal lift.
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[i:7c2adae951] Needless to say, with her psychological makeup, pathological lying, and sheer irresponsibility, I would like to know if the Church of the Nazarene is a legitimate organization, or like the New Age psychics, just out to take her money. Frankly at this point, I almost feel they deserve each other, but my mother has gotten to the point where she might drag many of her siblings, my sister, and my cousins into this as well, and most of her family are sheep at best. I love them, but they, like my mother, will believe anything provided it's in a Bible, . . somewhere.
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The Nazarene church leaders I have been around are not a money-hungry lot. My husband’s pastor, for an extreme example, appears to give out more money than he appears to receive in offerings, making up the loss through church several very good investments he has made. (He is a very intelligent man, a lawyer, and knows investing. ) Of the others I have been around, many are incredibly happy with very little. They will pass the plate like any other church, but they don’t seem to be pushy. if you find her over-giving, it is not likely the church or the leadership; it is more likely her tendency toward an overzealous personality.
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[i:7c2adae951]As one of the few rational people in this side of my family, please can anyone provide insight or an objective opinion here. I'm not out to slam a religion I don't know much about, but my mother is a cultist's dream and she has already been caught in so many lies about this whole mess that I can't be too careful.
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I would not worry about her taking family members going with her. The Nazarene is, in my opinion, one of the most innocuous churches around.