Hi guys Happy Sunday! Obviously there was a LOT of money lost when the stock market crashed and many people were, quite rightly, outraged by the betrayal although for the most part I think even those who left forgave Mr. Black his humanity. But it seems to me that many have not really learned any lessons from the disaster. The major lesson being that if you hold a human being up so high t
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Hi guys I wouldn't hold your breath for a take-over of leadership until the present leaders pop thier clogs, since this has been the way from the beginning (except where they have denounced and shunned previous leaders to replace them with women). I believe Clive is probably right about women being more receptive to spiritual nuances than men, who tend to be more logical in thinking th
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Hi guys quote: In a court of Law Struthers (leaders past and present) would not survive To a certain extent I agree, lintar123, but not all of the past leaders should be called into question since some of them left because they could no longer agree with what the main leaders were teaching and, when they questioned the way things were heading, they were severly admonished and even had the
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Quote: And there was me wondering if maybe i'd overstepped the mark and misinterpreted out of context or mis-framed the things reported here about Mary Black's speech at that time ! Hi Clive Fear not, many of your observations have actually been quite spot on! And your ability to read between the lines is quite astute at times. I have often found myself having eureka moments
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Hi folks I agree wholeheartedly with these last few posts. I too have stopped going to churches except when I visit my folks down South and then I go really to please them although the church is very different from SMC and extremely friendly and supportive. But for the most part I keep my spiritual relationship with God to myself. I never describe myself as a 'religious' person bu
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Hi Clive Sorry, just to clarify it, I was using the word 'scam' in the sense that Mr. Black intended to take the action without consulting with the WHOLE of the church and naturally that was because the action was preached against for years as being an 'unholy' thing to do (play the stock market game). So while the church was preaching one thing Mr. B was doing the opposit
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Hi again folks Sorry, I must have been writing my post while Seekingsusan and Squareone were writing theirs. I can't quite believe that the stock market fiasco was a punishment from God on the congregation since only a handful of them were actually aware of the scam to begin with. Most of the congregation were kept in the dark and had no idea of what had happened until after the damage
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Hi guys I really think that some people were more in touch with God than the leaders and did try to warn the leaders that things were going awry, at various times throughout the church's history. However, these people were drummed out of the church for questioning 'the word of god' and sadly, the church continued on its dark journey and those remaining in the congregation were
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Hi guys I totally agree that many people deserve at least an apology from the leaders of SMC, but since these leaders believe themselves to be more important than any other human being on the planet it is unlikely that they will be able to admit to their wrong-doing much less provide any public or private apologies for past or present acts. (Except where they were found out and couldn't
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Quote: That realisation was a bitter pill to swallow but worth it for the freedom which ultimately resulted. A very loud AMEN! to that Chris19. It isn't easy to take when you realise you've been so badly led astray with lies and manipulation but it is so worth it when you do let go.
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Hi guys Thanks for the insight, Treetop. This was very enlightening and explains a lot - I also wonder if the whole affair was strictly legal? I'm not entirely surprised that only a select few were asked to sign up to the share deal because many, I'm sure, would have questioned the legality of this never mind how it stands with what the church teaches. Squareone and Petitor, I
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Hi guys Wow, this is interesting. I was really looking at the double-standards of everything because I had heard Mr. Black preach on many occassions about it being unholy to gamble on the stock market in any form. I wasn't aware that members of the congregation had given their signatures for the shares to be bought, that's food for thought for me. With respect to those who still
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Hi guys Happy Sunday! Squareone, I think you'll find that SMC are quite often changing their minds about the reasoning behind certain routes they want to explore. This has been the case time and time again when they have been trying to persuade the congregation to part with more of their hard-earned cash. Someone made the point, not long ago, about the incident where Mr. Black lost
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Hi guys You're right about the madness but the descent into it was made a very long time ago. I well remember Miss Taylor's 'war with Satan for the souls of the damned in Struthers'. Although I wasn't privvy to what her illness actually was I think she just went off her rocker and it was made out to be some holy battle with the 'Dark One' when in actual fac
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Hi guys The teachers who currently teach in Cedars have taught in main-stream schools before. Quite a few of the members of SMC were teachers when I attended the church and all taught in main stream schools (including my Mum). There really is no problem with that because parents could still complain to head teachers and head masters who were not affiliated with SMC, if the need arose. Howev
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PS ThePetitor, sorry I must've been writing my post while you were posting yours. You are so right, double-standards abound in SMC and the 'party-line' changes depending on who it is being delivered to and what the desired outcome is.
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Hi guys Thanks for the links Clive. As usual, they were very informative. It took me back to a time when I attended Port Glasgow High School and, much to the other pupils' delight, I used up a whole history period have a rip-roaring argument with my history teacher over Darwin's theory of evolution. I believed the teacher was teaching this as fact rather than just a theory and I l
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PS I'm really looking forward to the Revival via i-Pad :-)
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Hi guys squareone, no worries, you're entitled to your views and no one holds them against you. We can all only speak from personal experience and some of us are just wary of anything attached to the SMC movement although we all might have different reasons for perhaps being a bit cynical at times. Cedars perhaps shouldnt' be debated here but, as previously said, it is part of th
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Hi squareone That's good and a bit of a relief but I find it a bit hard to believe that there won't be some subtle influencing of the kids because subtle suggestiion is, or at least was when I attended, a well-used tool in SMC. I'm not suggesting at all that the teachers are bad teachers but I know the ways of subtle suggestion which are so second nature among some in the churc
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Hi guys Yes, I agree that qualifiied people should be expected to preform according to their qualificaitons and this has nothing to do with their spiritual walk with God. I also agree that Cedars is worrying because all of the teachers are members of SMC and therefore, presumably, hold the same views as the leaders and I for one would not be exposing my children to that kind of destructive te
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Hi Blackwatch I'm so glad you're taking control of your own life again. It does seem that the changes that are happening is a dwindling of the membership of SMC as folks begin to realise that their teaching is quite wrong and their actions are not the actions of true Christians. The whole thing may not be crumbling but at least they are ruining fewer lives than they were in the pas
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Hi guys Yes miracles do happen in 2012. Don't you think it's a miracle that some people are clever enough to work out how to send satelites and cameras into space to give us a better understanding of the vastness of the universe. If you think about it really the advancements in science, health and technology these days are quite miraculous, can you imagine what Moses would've
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Hi all Yes, I agree that a time for change is coming and SMC can't hide from the scrutiny any more. The number of people who have been hurt and deeply affected by this church I think must be well into the hundreds. I say this because, when I attended the church, at it's height the congregation would have been well over a thousand members from various areas in the UK. Now there onl
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Hi folks Sorry for the mistake and thanks for the correction Clive :-) the film is well worth watching and some of the other pictures are equally breath-taking. Also, Hi Merciful7 it's so wonderful that you have found some peace in the assurance that God walks with you no matter where you are. I too find the whole church upbringing sad because I never felt good enough for God and it h
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Hi folks Just reading a few posts again and I was drawn to the post by the Petitor... Quote: “If someone is criticised for leaving a church to join one where they see God is moving, they should wipe the dust from off their feet and not look back.” I remember this quote well (Mr. Black DID actually say this!) However, as I remember it, the statement was made about a new member of the c
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Hi blackwatch I'm glad to hear that. I think if people sit down and listen to these sermons with an open mind and knowledge of the true word in the bible, they will find (as many others have) that they are full of contradictions, confusing messages and twisted interpretations of what the bible actually tells us. It is very enlightening and says a lot about SMC when you know that they re
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Hi ThePetitor Quote: (and all the duties we had to do – anyone remember drying dishes with a soaking wet dishtowel?) YES! LOL and washing dishes in cold greasy water coz there was no hot water left :-) It seems that love and the joy of life have deserted SMC now but thanks for the happy memory!
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Hi Grace-girl I'm sure everyone here joins me in saying 'Hallelujah!' for you. It is so enlightening to realise that you're not doomed because you have left the confines of SMC and you are completely correct about the lack of love there. It's wonderful when you find a loving, caring church and you suddenly realise that life was meant to be fun and not full of guilt a
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Hi Rensil Don't worry, none of what is said in SMC affects me in anyway, or any of my family. We were well aware of what was being said about them in the church but my Dad taught us to be thick-skinned and not care about what anyone says about us because all that matters is that God knows the truth of our lives and he's the only one we need to answer to. Many others left the church
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