In Reply to: Buddhist art & Christian thought posted by AG on January 15, 2004 at 04:04:26:
"On the other hand, how do we know that someone is following Jesus' teachings in a satisfactory manner? TF claims to be doing just that. Ultimately, we can't pass judgement on who is or is not a true disciple of Jesus; or, for that matter, who is or is not a recipient of God's grace. We can only say, 'The Family does not follow my understanding of the Way, and here's one reason why...Jesus said pray FOR your enemies, not pray AGAINST them.' "
Your lack of judgementalness is refreshing! Man judgeth by outward appearance but God knows the heart. What I appreciate about Buddhists (speaking on general terms here) is that they tend to be less judgemental than those subscribing to religions originating in the Middle-East.
Sometimes in the bigger picture, "enemies" are an illusion. How often have I found that the very people I thought were my enemies were actually my teachers, teaching me so much about myself!
In regards to TF, this is not about religious persecution, but about doing right by the people they come in contact with. We can't judge them for their faith not matter how whacky, but we must confront them about their lies, and make them answer for their crimes, against us and others. They can't just lead their own followers and helpless children born into the group through all kinds of failed social experiments, perpetrate crimes and abuses, teach them to live in dishonesty, permanently scar and utterly devastate innocent lives, cheat the public out of their hard-earned money, etc, with total impunity.
In confronting TF, I think we are really confronting our own ghosts. We know how they really are, because we were once part of them, and we once subscribed to all their selah practices. We are different now, and we know how wrong we were or they were, and we want to warn others, keep them at bay, expose them, etc. I'm not sure we all have skeletons in our closet, but we sure do have our own spooks.
What is interesting though, is the way many people "stumble" upon these ex-member sites, and start processing their past, with or without their knowing it.
A lot of people seem to be examining what made them join in the first place. It's also interesting to observe how some exers seem to carry on their patterns: either the same things that lead them to join TF in the first place, or the circular thinking that was taught in TF. That's probably the reason some of us still thrash it out because we're at different places in our outward journey from TF.