With ALL due respect to the enthusiasm of Prettyboy, every time I read "merries" I also rankle. We are not Robin Hood's merry men, and the title makes light of the very diverse members of this forum by suggesting that we have one group temperament and hence we shall be named and known by it. Just sayin'.

While we are on the subject, you know what really rankles me?

JRS, Gary, Marilyn, Rick, and others getting away with lying, abuse of clergy, cover-ups, deception, offerings, sexual misconduct, all night prayer, multiple affairs, bad stewardship of funds, breaking up marriages, abandoning children, etc., etc., ad nauseam without any accountability.

Quote
that little red flag

While we are on the subject, you know what really rankles me?

JRS, Gary, Marilyn, Rick, and others getting away with lying, abuse of clergy, cover-ups, deception, offerings, sexual misconduct, all night prayer, multiple affairs, bad stewardship of funds, breaking up marriages, abandoning children, etc., etc., ad nauseam without any accountability.

Absolutely, red flag! I was momentarily distracted by terminology when there are much more important issues to concentrate on. A bad couple of days took my eye off the ball. Thanks for the reminder on why we post here.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/20/2019 11:40AM by Reepicheep.

dear forum folks,
deborah's quote "we've got the corner on god" reminded me decades ago how jrs characterized the walk as the remnant of the remnant. how could one not be completely enthralled with that notion?

onion recently wrote "so afraid to disagree or leave" which made me recall how afraid i was upon leaving lw. did that make me apostate in god's eyes in addition to the loneliness that would ensue by the separation from dear lw friends and "family"? in this recollection, my being in lw for a mere 6 or 7 years, is minuscule relative to those who gave heart and soul to lw for decades. the courage and allegiance to truths that allowed them and even demand them to leave, which in effect made them no longer afraid to disagree because by leaving, even after decades of service, that not only were they no longer afraid to disagree but were wholeheartedly and without ambivalence to permit their actions speak their words.

and now, moving on to perhaps a more sensitive topic -
my use of the term "the merries". on a post from me dated march 14th i stated why i employed that term. frankly, i am annoyed that some have taken umbrage with my use of that term given in that post i explained why i have used it. i've no intention to get involved in to some internecine dynamic here and attempt to defend my nonexistent reputation.

sorry for the interruption, but earlier i had written "stuff", similar to what i just posted and more, then pushed the wrong key, and kaboom all gone, then back to the first draft. any of y'all done something of the like and then say "oh, shoot" or something not fit for 1st graders ears?

back to the merries. i did not say robin and his merry men. early on in my experience on this forum, kboy said something like robin hood and his merry band were fighting the good fight. for the one person out there in forumland who has no inkling of the legend of robin hood, it is a story of the near powerless but very good people led by robin hood fighting for justice against the very bad guys and his minions. simply a simple allusion to a well known story. i, like many others on this forum, resort to humor, metaphor, symbolism, sarcasm, pottymouth diatribes against hargrave, minions and mother marilyn (and methinks, i exceed all others on this forum in that instant, esp. the pottymouth, acerbic stuff). i digress.

i have used phrases in my short 3 months of posting - "this steam-rolling train", "gary and his minions", "hangers-on", others, and of course "the merries". some posters have now used these terms, these characterizations. forum posters post links, phrases, etc. that then others employ in their own comments - a community in communication. to lampshmamp ("rankles at 'merries', "makes light of diverse members"); to reepicheep ("prettyboy - thanks for trying to be jolly"); someone else chimed in but i lost track. quite frankly, i do like the term merries and not because i first instituted the term, it was simply a rendition of kboy's (and kboy has been in the trenches for some time) address to me early on in my involvement on this forum. to me and perhaps to some forum posters and even the silent readers, "the merries" are truly a diverse group, a resilient group with fortitude, with certain objectives in mind such as healing, support, reaching out to the still entrapped, justice (whether eternal and divine and/or temporal and others can add to the list), but to be jolly, frigging no. for anyone to associate my use of the term "the merries" with my being "jolly" about emotional, sexual, predatory abuse may i suggest you read my posts of the last 3 months.

the term "the merries" was intended to be an all encompassing characterization of those on this forum fighting the good and faithful fight. seems some have taken offense, straining at gnats and swallowing camels (something i read along the way).
happy trails, forum folks

Interesting account of how you felt upon leaving, prettyboy. I too, questioned if I was an “apostate” by leaving the LW. I think everyone that leaves feels this shame. A feeling like we were not cut out to be a part of God’s elite. This is pure cult thought programming. It takes some time and often help from others to shed this type of thinking. It is a serious mind-fu#k.

PrettyBoy & Puddington - I like the talk about how hard it was to leave. The FEAR was palpable.

So I kind of slipped out the backdoor. I tried to keep my social friendships and family connections and "chosen family" connections but stopped being involved. And I am still, to this day, getting in touch with the depth of reality in my soul that was formerly displaced by so much devious and deviant behavior, lies and trickery.

I have a really mean-ass and diobolic story to tell soon but I'm not ready to put it to print yet. Especially because today I'm feeling kind of Merry. (That's for you PrettybOY.)

hi puddington,

i moved to iowa in the early 70's to help build shiloh. i knew absolutely no one here when i arrived. my family was enos bender, john and elisabeth bender, daniel nicely and his family, f sharp who gave me the "prettyboy" name, and then all those nicely girls wanting to sit beside me in church because i was prettybboy or a pretty boy, who knows. in recollection, even at this moment and i mean that puddington, at this very moment, i think that was when i grew up and became a true adult, a free thinker; not constrained any longer by what others thought of me but, more importantly, what i thought of myself. in some ways, the lw saved me and then had the potential to destroy me and i left once incompletely realizing that. this forum, with the likes of you and multiple others that post, are laying a pathway for those that still remain; a pathway that neither you, nor other posters, nor myself had in our time. you have been and continue to do so, as others have done and continue to do so "help others to shed this type of thinking". so i allow my pottymouth to engage - the lw/shiloh express, the hargrave ruse (were his books any good? i ask, given i've not read a word of any of them) would be an absolutely fucking, goddamned, cornhole joke, should i say "jolly" magic trick, except that so many "merries" (waiting to hear if the term is no longer accepted) became damaged goods along the way.

it may be time for my closing the book on my commenting, puddington. i have leant my voice when there have been many others with more vast experience.

to the merries, happy trails
to those who dislike the moniker "the merries", happy trails to the forum folks

onion,
i assume you know me well enough by our mutual postings that you know i am not at all "jolly" when any one is abused, in any sense of that adjective. also, i encourage you to "share" (god, i hate that word used in this instance but cannot think of a better one!) your next "nasty" with a very trusted friend prior to posting, and no merlot or other wine (no beer or spirits included), ok?

i'm feeling merry, but not jolly. the "merries" are resolute; onion, what are forum folks missing here? the "merries" was intended to be a rallying banner, not some narcissistic, happy go lucky, all is swell blah. it originated with my slight turning of kboy phrase. the "merries" are merry because they are together









'

This is interesting.....

[www.christianpost.com]

EFCA sounds like an organization we should have sniffing around.