Category Archives: Bible

You have a lot to learn!

abuse in the church of england, Bible, church hierachy, church in government, church of england, clergy behaviour, cliques

Don’t you find that when you challenge the Church of England, you get Bible quoted at you, usually incorrectly?
That isn’t really an answer, it is usually desperation. Self-righteous blaring, as I have previously described it.

I remember an activity day at a Church of England Church, I was on door duty and I remember this lad with learning disabilities kept getting in my way and he was a very noisy lad so it was hard for me to explain to incomers what the schedule for the day was.
So I said to him ‘could you let me have some space to explain to people what is going on?’

This really annoyed him, and he said to me ‘You have a lot to learn!’
He said it a number of times, and I actually agreed with him!

I still do!
And maybe I should have been more tolerant, but my own disability meant that sensory overload occurred when he was being noisy and I was trying to interact with incomers, which is hard for me anyway.

He often told people off, because of his disability, he had a good heart but could get very frustrated and angry with life and people, which is something I can empathise with, very much so, and in dealing with people I do indeed have a lot to learn!

Anyway, back to the activity day, we had a Bible study group where we were meant to find certain topics, and as is typical of the CofE, my group were mainly middle aged to elderly, and to my surprise, they started asking if I had been to Bible college and how did I know the Bible so well etc!
Now I replied that it was simply from reading the Bible from when I was young.

These people go to Church every week, some have done all their lives, so imagine one of these is 78 years old, she has heard the Bible in Church every single week, picked up on various popular proverbs and quotes and stories, but not thought them through, nor does the Church encourage her to do so, it is THEIR Bible, THINKERS are DANGEROUS to the Church (heehee!).
So this 78 year old who has been a churchgoer all their life, if they hear anything against the Church, they will blare and quote text from the Bible, often in the wrong context, but many people who speak against the Church don’t know the text any better than  the Church do, so the ridiculousness of the situation is often sadly lots.

So anyway, there is me, in this group of lifelong Anglicans, finding and explaining the Bible passages and them asking me if I went to Bible college.
Oh, shame on the Church of England! Those old dears pay to keep the church alive and you aren’t giving them value for money!

That said, everyone has the ability to pick up, read and question the Bible, and I, myself, need to do so a lot more!
I have Bibles, I do not read daily as I would like to.
But, there are those in the Church and who have been involved in harming me, who do read daily, make a big show of it, and yet still behave as if they have no understanding at all.

The other thing is, when you go to church, the person preaching, who can be excellent to poor in their teaching, because the CofE do not appear to have any supervision or standard of teaching, is usually going to give their own take on the Bible.

And as mentioned previously and also in the light of the recent attempts by the Church of England to force bystanders to pay repair bills, the Church try to use the Bible and sermons to force more money out of people for repairs and to keep the Church running, I have heard this done over and over again and it sickens me every time, because that is the Pharisees, not Jesus speaking.

So, we have a problem, the CofE are under-educating, and although I have a lot to learn, I learn more by questioning than by blaring indignantly and quoting Bible text to defend an organization like the CofE who are simply doing wrong.

Anything and everything

abuse in the church of england, Bible, Jesus as a spirit level, spiritual abuse, the diocese and deanery war, violations by the diocese of winchester

Good evening,
This blog is on a bit of a break as things are busy here.

I would just like to say that it remains the case that what was inflicted on me last year for no reason at all, and the smear campaign by the Jersey Deanery was an utter disgrace.

The plumbline, yardstick, spirit level of measurement of the Church’s behaviour is Jesus and His teachings, and their behaviour, diocese and Deanery last year, was inexcusably completely and utterly out of line.

If the Church, with all their wealth and power, claim to be there because of Jesus and His teachings, they should act as if they are there because of Jesus and His teachings.

Jesus Never publicly flogged anyone, He prevented a woman from being stoned to death, while Deanery and Diocese have acted as if they don’t even know the Bible.
Which is why I keep offering them Matthew Chapter 23.

Spiritual abuse musings

abuse of trust, accountability, Bible, clergy behaviour, cult practices, deanery of Jersey, losing sight of God, musings, spiritual abuse, trauma

Thinking my blogging was over for the day, I am inspired by debate, and am looking at the awesome ‘Battered Sheep Ministries website again.
Basically thinking in terms of what Elle and I commented on healthy churches on my recent ‘Anything and Everything’ post.

http://www.batteredsheep.com/checklist.htmlhttp://www.batteredsheep.com/checklist.html

I will proceed with a variety of quotes about Church and cult behaviour. This is very refreshing stuff, it helps to restore me, thanks Ginger, for inspiring me.

The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Woe to the shepherds of Israel who only take care of themselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock? You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock. You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally. So they were scattered because there was no shepherd, and when they were scattered they became food for all the wild animals. My sheep wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. They were scattered over the whole earth, and no one searched or looked for them.”
[Ezekiel 34:1-6, NIV]

 This passage below is tough!

Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples: “The teachers of the law [literally, scribes] and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach.”
[Matthew 23:1-3, NIV]

“Woe to you, blind guides! You say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’ You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes the gold sacred?”
[Matthew 23:16-17, NIV]

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices — mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law — justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.”
[Matthew 23:23-24, NIV]

Jesus said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those who exercise authority over them call themselves Benefactors.”
[Luke 22:25, NIV]

 I have had all my dirty laundry hung out by the church, whether the dirt is imagined or real, and although I have confessed my sins in penitence and faith, I remain condemned.

“… at any future date, the overseer may drag out this dirty laundry to discredit the disciple or make him feel guilty. That happened to me when I was trying to explain my position. My overseer blurted out, ‘I hate to bring this up, but …’ And this was done in a room full of people. My immediate reaction was to curl up and shut up. I had nothing on her but she had a lot on me.”
[Churches That Abuse, by Ronald M. Enroth, pp. 106-107.]

As we have seen, all of this authoritarian and elitist projection of power through intimidation and manipulation inevitably leads to very tragic consequences. And these consequences go even beyond what I have just described. Jesus foretold the consequences in the Pharisees’ case as follows (verse 34):

“Therefore I am sending you prophets and wise men and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town.”
[Matthew 23:34, NIV]

I cannot imagine Jesus telling us to falsley empower ourselves by throwing our hands out and saying ‘fire on you’, I cannot imagine Him understanding people lying on the floor whimpering ‘Daddy God’, nor can I see Him encouraging children to be used in the laying on of hands, or the use of ‘sobbing music’ or sexed-up talk about us being the Bride’ to get people in a hysterical mood, these do not seem like frivolities Jesus would have time for when He came to save us.

 

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.”
[Matthew 23:13, NIV]

http://www.batteredsheep.com/church-speak.html

Excellent paragraph below!  So many times in Jersey ‘words’ were given to me, and usually I laughed, because they were given as part of the show.

Words of Wisdom and Words of Knowledge can come from God through spiritually sensitive people today. However, these words do not supersede the authoritative weight of the Apostles. The only real way to be sure that a word from the Lord is for you, is if it’s the Word of the Lord, that is, Scripture. And yes, even in this, Scripture is not to be used to manipulate people.