The Way

[Belle]

Why do I say TWI discouraged critical thinking in matters of faith? Here’s a quote from a handout LCM gave us in the Corps in December ’85: “If you think there’s any help outside The Way Ministry, if you think there’s anyone else out there standing on the accuracy of the Word of God, you’re wrong. They may have bits and pieces, but all of that is just a counterfeit; it’s crumbling; it’s dying. The Christian Fundamentalist and Evangelical world is a hodge podge of doctrinal confusion and ego.”

This bears repeating.

Excellent post, T-Bone!! Excellent!! Gspot IS a great place to think out loud and to toss ideas back and forth. Some people are threatened by that and when they get to be annoying to me, I put them on the "ignore" list and their posts don't even show up. :) I like that!

A lot of churches these days have forums and groups where people can bring their questions or just get together to study topics of interest - churches encourage this kind of thing because they see where it is necessary to meet the needs of some of the people - not all are interested. I haven't thrown all my questions or concerns at the leadership in the church I've been visiting, but I do get to have dinner with two of the pastors in April (because of my schedule) and I'll get to ask them about some of the things I've been pondering, some of which I've posted here, too. I'm looking forward to it and I've heard that they will gladly set aside time with me further if I'd like.

The small group I started their "Forty Days of Purpose" meetings with went off on our own tangent because I was really put off by the performance based religion that that book promotes. The girls in my group agreed with my concerns and took it to the leadership with their blessing to continue in any format and topics that we felt were good for the group. You'd NEVER see that happen in TWI. We were allowed to think and do things on our own! ^_^