In Reply to: New Coordinator for 'Journeys'! posted by Coordinator on June 12, 2003 at 17:38:51:
Welcome, Kathy! I loved your article. I agree wholeheartedly that it was very "empowering," one of the best things I've read by an ex-member. You know, in the Family we were constantly told to pray and claim verses and believe it all by faith, especially as regards healing. Yet the please-pray-for-so-and-so lists kept growing as the years went on and people just never got healed.
I think we sort of abused the whole prayer thing so much that lots of us got burned out on it, probably because we were taught to approach it all the wrong way. God, Berg said, was like a genii in the bottle and "command ye me" meant he was at our beck and call. That whole concept burns me up. God a genii in a bottle? I still am flabbergasted at the concept.
So I think that concept skewered over prayer and maybe basically pulled the plug out of the wall. At least I know I tended to walk away from Family-style name-it-claim-it prayer and for years haven't really gotten back into prayer, even though I know that going about it the right way and with the right concept still works. But thanks for your article! It was good to see the real thing.