shocked
cant believe every article you read. As for your faith in god , its really between youand God. Things that happen around you may seem so wrong and unfair but still your faith in god is between you and him.

Re: shocked

Ruth, are you suggesting that certain articles on xFamily.org contain factual errors? If so, can you offer any examples? We certainly welcome input in this regard.

Trouble94117, welcome to xFamily.org.

shocked
If it is so true then why dont we hear on the news about it . I have kids mysel they go to school and church and I have open dialogue with them about their activites. Something did happen with my son and its taken care of.
Are you trying to get help to put these creeps behind bars? if yes what is your next step. Have ppl offered to help cos some of these allegations are so serious and if you give it to the right authorities they can help no matter where these ppl hide.
If they can find Al zarqawi they can find these leaders in hiding. are you sure its these leaders who abused the kids??
Bitterness in your heart is like a cancer which will eat you away day after day if not taken care of. Get rid of it. do something about it.

Re: shocked

Ruth, you did not answer Mongers question. What do you mean by saying you can't believe every article you read?

Re: Religious Shock
Me too, though people use lots of things to ruin people's lives, this is just one other thing, so I'm not any more sickened than I would be seeing lives ruined under other precidences.

Instinctively yes, I feel worse seeing their lives ruined. This is mostly a genetically programmed instinctive emotion however. Looking at it rationally, people's lives being ruined is equally bad no matter who you are. If you think about it, if you're older you probably got all your money stolen by the Family so that'd be pretty bad since you worked hard to accumulate it. I do however think the expression 'ruin lives' to be overdramatic, like what is 'ruin' exactly? It's certainly not the end of life after all. I think instead of 'ruin' (to me, ruins are things destroyed, uninhabitable, unrepairable) a term like 'fuck with' would be more accurate. Basically, they do inappropriate stuff in an inappropriate way, but I think so long as you remain alive you can recover and live well, so these people's lives are not ruined, they can be happy again.

You must have been pretty sheltered then, I've read of worse stuff. I guess it depends on where you get your news.

Good, faith is irrational. Of course, going by the rationality of faith, you really shouldn't be losing it just because man fails you. Man is imperfect, they may beguile you by misprepresenting god or presenting it to you incompetantly and not answering questions properly. If you desire faith (some people do) then you could go look for a religion that could (by itself or through its members) convince you to have it in it.

Hm, well I'm not offended (people shouldn't be offended by others' feelings after all) but I would disagree. Religion is certainly a tool used consciously and/or unconsciously to control others and abuse the power it ives over them. That being said, that is certainly not the only purpose for religion, and I really don't think these are the motives EVERYONE in religion has. If they were, they would certainly be very incredibly unconscious, as I cannot contemplate people being comfortable with the inkling that they might act such a way. In fact, such people punish themselves and try to become better to avoid such temptations to use religion over others, because many humans have a moral compass very independant of religion that will act in its stead if they lose faith in it and use it as a social tool.

Nope, the religious officials I've dealt with (no priests or prophets personally) were all quite nice people and I feel very genuinely dedicated to serving their communities and being patriarchs. I have to admit, I've had my moments (and still do, and I don't discard them) where I think "what if they're really like this..." due to respecting their intelligence and eloquence and as such, being perplexed by the idea of them legitimately believing in such absurdities when they have studied them for so long and so indepth as is required of them to be certified in their ministry.

Re: Religious Shock


I would say that my spirituality and my belief in God was not decayed but challenged as a result of being in the FI. I have since remained a christian and believe in the Holy Bible and not much else as far as my religion goes. I can't stand the Catholic Church and I don't believe in going to "church" in order to have a relationship with God. I believe you too can find your faith again if you try. God bless you.