LampSchmamp – I mean this kindly, I think your comment illustrates the real point I was trying to make and that is after contact with TLWF, belief in God, or any enemy of God for that matter, often disappears. Out of the many ex-members I’ve had contact with, only a few even want anything to do with God again – even though at one time He was the driving passion of their life. It certainly is not limited to TLWF – any religious system that wounds people’s hearts has the same affect. A person that has been betrayed in a marriage often has a difficult time opening their heart and learning to love and trust again. It’s a very normal response. It doesn't mean marriage as an institution is bad – there's just bad people who are married. There are also life-giving marriages. Unfortunately, spiritual abuse can be even more damaging to our hearts than divorce. Fortunately, God heals hearts.

In my journey, I honestly thought John and then G&M were God’s voice and God was just messed up. Next, He didn’t exist at all and my intellect became God - which I needed to give myself some sense of stability – along with a couple of years of shrink time with someone whose only criteria was that they could not be a Christian. Later, I discovered the Jesus I had been taught about in TLWF and other Christian denominations, was not Jesus at all, but a man-made version that people used to serve their own purposes. It was very scary to have all my false security blankets stripped away. Finally, I ended up full circle back to Jesus and just reading and applying his words for myself. That’s where my healing really started to gain traction. It was something he said to do in the first place but for whatever reason I was unable to hear at the time.

Christians have been trying for generations to convince the world – and maybe more often themselves – that there is a God who loves them. There is a very unique treasure in Jesus’ words that is found in no other place. Very few religions teach that you are to love and pray for your enemies. If you are willing to give it a try, your heart will begin to feel how He loves you. If you forgive others, your heart will begin to understand how He forgives you. If you give to others who cannot repay you, you will begin to understand how He gives to you. If you serve others, you begin to understand that the Creator of the universe is also a servant. If you are faithful when others are not, you begin to sense His faithfulness. If you care for the least that nobody else is paying attention to, your heart begins to fill with light. And on and on it goes. Funny thing about Jesus’ teaching is that it is 180 degrees opposite of what our intellect thinks is true and yet it works so amazingly – something religion is unable to do - work.

It’s been a while since I blamed Satan for attacking my finances after I ran up my credit card debt or blamed demonic assault for a headache after a night of too much alcohol. However, it might be good to re-examine the enemy coming as an “angel of light” to “kill, steal and destroy”. With all the dead and dying in the wake of religion, perhaps there really is an enemy at work. Jesus seems to think there is. Religious leaders have always had a rough time with Jesus – he takes away their positions and makes them servants, which after all is the greatest position in the kingdom.

LampShmamp Wrote:
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Every ex-walker has arrived at different
philosophical conclusions since leaving.

LampShmamp, if you don't mind me asking what are your philosophical conclusions since leaving?

I don't mind at all. I am no longer religious. But it has nothing to do with the enemies of God, or a bitter walk experience. I view it more as the process of growing up and putting aside childish things. I learned to trust my intellect and I stand by it. I am an adult. I don't ask for permission or confirmation for anything I do. I reason things out for myself and make decisions accordingly. I am not guided by the Bible or anyone's opinion of God's will for me. That would be completely irrelevant. It is precisely the premise that Larry Bobo stated: Jesus’ teaching "is 180 degrees opposite of what our intellect thinks is true" that primes the unsuspecting for the Johns and Garys and Marilyns of this world. That is not amazing and wonderful to me. It is insulting to one's intelligence, and is the overture that kept most of us in that cult. I say go with the intellect every single time over anybody's teachings. So Lily Rose, there is my philosophical conclusion! I realize I am in the minority with my ex-walk friends in this forum. But it has served me well and I am content.

LampSchmamp, you are not alone here. After I left The Walk I discovered the richness and beauty of science and philosophy, and found them to be much more sturdy ground to stand on than any faith based belief system. I have little use for organized religion anymore and don't miss it one bit.

One bit I have brought with me from The Walk is meditation. When I left I discovered that "waiting on the lord" is zazen rebranded. I find the practice of quieting my mind to be extremely beneficial.

Everyone has their own path, and I thought I would speak up as someone who shares a similar path to yours. Cheers.

Ditch and Schmamp. Thank you for your posts. I can relate to where you are at and totally respect your positions. Some of us are still basically Christians. Some of us have moved to other faiths/idealogies. It's all good here. I don't think the RR forum is a Christian forum. I just want all of your input to be heard. Please don't let someone else's ideas shut you up. I want to hear what you all have to say. I've heard it said to cult members, "God gave you a brain. Now go use it." The LW is very down on members thinking for themselves. Makes them hard to control. : )

Time to celebrate ! 100 pages of free thought and expression, for and against The Living Word. Radio Free Shiloh !

paleface Wrote:
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> Time to celebrate ! 100 pages of free thought and
> expression, for and against The Living Word.
> Radio Free Shiloh !

Yes

LampSchmamp – Thanks for honestly sharing your life philosophy. I think there are many more with your viewpoint that are not even aware of this site or would be willing to share if they were. I happen to think you are closer to the kingdom (that you may think is only religious fantasy right now :)) than many who claim to have religious insight. Until we have some type of ownership of our lives, which comes with maturity, we really don't have much to give. When I say the teachings of Jesus are 180 degrees opposite to the intellect, it might be more correct to say they are 180 degrees opposite to our human nature and the systems our human nature builds. Rather than Jesus’ words opening the door to deception, I would suggest they will protect us from those like TLWF, if we examine his words more closely. e.g. “Call no man leader, teacher, father – you have one and it is the Christ and you are all brothers” or “Many will come saying they are the Christ – don’t believe them.” At some point, most of us face the limits of our human capabilites and look for help. For many it's facing death.

One of the hardest things to admit is how unhealthy we are when we are attracted to unhealthy religions. We tend to think the problem is mostly outside of ourselves somewhere. To continue the growth process and begin to walk out into the light where there is exposure is far more difficult than it sounds. I applaud your openness and continued journey. If you choose to take another look at Jesus’ teachings, I would suggest picking anything he said and putting it into action. I know you will find a much better result than when we just studied them through the filter of another person’s agenda. It’s been my experience that in the kingdom we do not think ourselves into a new way of living, but we live our way into a new way of thinking. All of our faculties are fully engaged in the process - it's just not in the way a human would normally do things. It takes a little nudge from Someone outside the human realm.

BTW, I'm liking some of the recent usernames (Ditch Digging Yasper, Lamp Shmamp). I suspect it is just a matter of time before Jesus Camp and Camp Lamp weigh in.

I think you can take the ex-walk population and divide it into two groups: those that were born into the fellowship (or came in as children) and those that chose to join.

For that second group, (like Larry suggested), there often is some deep emotional need that would cause a person to be drawn to the LW cult. In my case this was true. There were deep parental issues, that I thought I found answers to in JRS. I later find this to be a big boo-boo. I had to find another way to grow up.