In Reply to: my story posted by Perry on March 06, 2005 at 21:56:20:
Perry, your story sounds very typical of the era. You say, 'I was ripe for the picking when TF came to town ... I was sitting in a restaurant with a friend ... Two guys asked if they could join us and began witnessing to us. After awhile my friend left, but I stayed until the restaurant closed at 3 a.m... (How many hours was that of intense talking?) I went to their home a few days later... Yes, I was "love-bombed"... The leader of the home spent about 3 hours with me in a very intense session...Within 3 weeks I dropped out of grade 11 and joined TF."
It sounds like you were worked over in two marathon sessions that had little to do with convincing you that Jesus was the Son of God, and a LOT to do with working you over & beating you down into accepting something you weren't ready for. Love-bombing together with pressure from someone who had pre-planned arguments.
I'm not against witnessing, don't get me wrong, but I don't like prodding & pushing & corralling people in marathan work-over sessions. There's a verse that says, 'Whosoever will, let him come' & that speaks of a free-will, open-eyed choice.
Perry, did you ever feel later that you genuinely had a connection to God? I mean, apart from your feeligngs about religion & athiesm now, at the time did you really sense that? Or was your 'relation to God' pretty much always part of the larger package of being in the Family?