tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28426681.post4570122409907698060..comments2016-12-17T04:41:36.530+13:00Gavinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03060097218905523899noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28426681.post-8753169200952298602016-05-26T15:14:04.724+12:002016-05-26T15:14:04.724+12:00Connie:<br /><br />At least the voice wasn&#39;t Rush Limbaugh&#39;s. Rush is who most of the conservative evangelicals worship like he was some kind of divinity. <br /><br />Near_Earth_Objecthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08487906691943831671noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28426681.post-4522088937678380952016-05-26T02:11:02.539+12:002016-05-26T02:11:02.539+12:00I am a Sabbatarian. Life went along , with all its ebbs and flows and then...<br /><br />BOOM! I heard a voice crying out of the wilderness on the radio and I was hooked...<br /><br />It was HOWARD STERN, and my life has not been the same since! Connie Schmidthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14910856904624749641noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28426681.post-24871167959862673492016-05-26T01:57:09.462+12:002016-05-26T01:57:09.462+12:00Kevin: Excellent analysis. The model you describe fits my life well. The details are just a little different. But there are a couple of observations I would make.<br /><br />One, it took me a while after exiting Armstrongism back in the Nineties to finally realize that my experience had not been special. It was, alas, a tawdry, run-of-the-mill cult experience. It was a cliché. I believe most people who are captured by the slick salesmanship of cults believe that something very special and divine happened to them to get them into the cult. As long as they are in the cult, they can maintain the illusion of specialness. It makes it difficult for people with low self-esteem to ever exit.<br /><br />Two, Armstrongism pulls people toward cultism but the mainstream churches push people in that direction. The mainstream churches are quick to condemn cults but they never admit to their complicity in the affair. I attended the Church of Christ and the Baptist Church before being snared by Armstrongism. My experience with these two evangelical denominations was a soul-starving tour through boredom and irrelevance. The whole package was soporific. Armstrongism seemed exciting, vital, urgent and relevant by comparison. I credit Protestant movement and its loss of vitality and meaning for many people joining cults. You will not read this in the pages of Christianity Today.Near_Earth_Objecthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08487906691943831671noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28426681.post-69854716440562380362016-05-25T18:27:23.256+12:002016-05-25T18:27:23.256+12:00I got dragged into it by my parents who had been looking for answers following a family tragedy, and heard the broadcast. Although I always found some of it problematic, I did at some point put in an honest effort, and found that in practical application, it neither worked, nor delivered. The misery and paranoia it caused were a daily affliction. Part of that involved the fears of Laodiceanism, the Germans coming in 1972, and the probability of all my &quot;unconverted&quot; loved ones suffering the brunt of it all. When none of this came to pass, I knew instinctively that had WCG actually been God&#39;s church, or if He had indeed had anything whatsoever to do with them, He would not have allowed them to have been wrong on something this big. I left, looking for new more substantive answers, and sought to repair as much of the damage as possible. <br /><br />Eventually, I became more aware of my gift in life, and began to apply that to helping people. I don&#39;t nourish peoples&#39; souls, I&#39;m involved in keeping the equipment working that makes their businesses profitable so that they can put food on the family table, and make it possible for their employees to do the same. There is a certain purity in that. <br /><br />BBByker Bobhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15602697337552385535noreply@blogger.com