In Reply to: oops... double negative.. posted by ray on July 22, 2003 at 18:14:06:
OK, but I do take exception to this statement:
"just as you cannot say the family as a group is not part of the true church, neither do i see how you could say any group is."
I'm not saying that everyone in even an alive, spiritually healthy church is saved, but the point being, you can't excuse the Family by saying, "They're not a true church but then again neither is any church." Maybe this isn't what you mean to say, and I'm not trying to put words in your mouth, but then what are you saying? Sorry here. We may be saying the same thing in different words or we may be disagreeing. I can't tell.
If a person was a new Christian, where would you send them? To the Family just as readily to a local church/fellowship you had checked out? You couldn't say they're six of one and half dozen of another since "no group is the true church".
My point being there are church fellowships that are OK despite faults,some that have issues I'm not comfortable with, some that have self-righteous preachers and pew full of stuffy folks, but then there's the Family, an abusive, controlling, heretical and downright criminal group that literally should disband.
I may not agree with the local Baptists or Pentecostals on all issues, I may feel they're a little stuffy, old-fashioned, I may feel they're REALLY stuffy, I may see materialistic people amongst their members, but I'd sure rather send a new Christian there any day of the week than to the Family. Sending someone into the Family is like pointing them to a spritual Death Camp, IMO. At least a church they can walk away from if they don't like it.
I'm just saying there are OK churches and stuffy churches and crappy churches, but even the most controlling ones don't do the damage in all spheres (spiritual, mental, physical, sexual) that the Family does. As a structure and as an organization the Family is criminal to the bone. I have great sympathy for individual, sincere members, but not for the corrupt building structure of the Family.