In Reply to: Re: ???? posted by James Seemore on October 31, 2005 at 19:13:09:
I started to post this on GenX, and thought better of it, so I cut'n'pasted it here:
Hello to all, including James.
I'm known on this particular board as an exer who doesn't agree with some of the occasions of excessively angry anti-religious sentiment as expressed here, although I do understand and strongly sympathize with the reasons for such feelings, as well as such a policy; with some reservations.
Speaking of reservations, I have several, concerning the content and expression of some of the things expressed by a certain James Seemore.
My view of Berg, quite simply, is this: he learned a religious hustle from childhood from his own pseudo-evangelist mother, became penile-centric at an early age and purposely gathered an eclectic belief paradigm, along erotomaniacal and megalomaniacal lines, over the years, based on, primarily, hiding practices normally abhorrent to others, even to his profoundly dishonest yet still religious mother, and then adapted his growing belief system as he was able to con and manipulate his cheated but collaborating wife and incested daughters and self-deluding sons, and then adherents to the still-forming underclass counterculture of the student revolutionary era; before Hippies became ordinary "bums".
Ever penile-centric, he conned others into becoming exact representations of himself. In my own admittedly still-Christian point-of-view, he became more and more desperate, as well as more vile in a directly proportional manner, as God had to withdraw provision, blessing, and, finally, mercy, as total strong delusion set in, in another directly proportional manner.
And, the only thing worse than an old fool is a damned fool; literally.
The degree of self-delusion, for both Berg as well as the male and female totally dedicated clones of himself (or, more accurately, drones, since only his own genitalia were primary, in his little kingdom) was directly proportional to the willingness to sear one's own God-given conscience (my OWN POV; please bear with me here) and became everything Scripture says about false prophets and their false christs, and as a result, false christians.
Therefore, I'd say that James "Still-See-Mostly-What-They-Want-Me-To-See" should have a great deal of healthy suspicion, a thoroughgoing "caveat emptor", attached to everything he says, for the express reasons already expressed about him.
Is "Seemore" your real last name, James, or something picked for you to express assumed and TFI-sanctioned spiritual superiority over others less spiritual; id est (i.e.:) anyone outside the cult?
It's not a common spelling for the name; that would be Seymore, in both the US and the UK, etc.
ANY adherence to the system that feeds the superstructure/infrastructure of TFI--past, present or future--should ALWAYS be immediately suspect--the PR-related "sheep's clothing" does not count.
Publicly expressing carte blanche approval for the cult, whatever the presentation of that approval, is no less evil than gathering funds to drive their declared purposes; both are a lie and a cheat to avoid detection as public parasites living off the labors of others.
That will NEVER be OK; James. Face it; little bro'--you are no spiritual giant--you just think you are.
And if you are willing to perpetuate the cult system on, and perpetrate it on, your own flesh and blood children, you are no man and certainly no father--you are just another cojones-free Berg/Zerby drone--better face it before it is too late.
If you must continue to waste your life, at least give your own children a chance for existential significance beyond the nasty little cult.
Even "strictly" Christian communal structures are, to me, still suspect. Christians communes will ALWAYS be suspect to me, for not only strictly Scriptural reasons I won't go into here, but, in a strict sociological sense (& yes, I have studied Sociology, as well as many other things that helped me understand what went so terribly wrong with the formative COG/FOL/TF/whatever years of my life) most communes, throughout history, have ended up being, in one sense or another, almost entirely parasitic upon the surrounding culture in which they exist, along with an inevitable, and unbearable, self-righteousness towards those they purport to "serve" while mooching off of them in any way possible while pretending to be "necessary" to their well-being--wolves in sheep's clothing; nothing more.
And you really think that's God's plan for the ages for all Christians?
Why? Show me from Scripture, and stop hiding behind your poor children, James.
James, as long as you associate AT ALL with Berg, you are at best a pseudo-evangelist in the worst Berg tradition, you depend on public misperception of TFI's true beliefs, as opposed to what 2 Peter 2 says when it warns of those who "...with feigned words will make merchandise of you...", and have, as far as we know, no other visible means of support, or if you appear to, only use those temporary, and intentionally fraudulent activities as part of a PR machine which never has, never can, and never will change.
SeeMORE? I don't think so. I say you see less than you may suppose, as I once did.
It seems that the One you claim to follow told some "publicly religious" folks a little something like, "...because you say that you see...therefore your sin remains...(rough paraphrase)".
We who have left and are still recovering will not see "less" than we understand about the great delusion and self-deception inseparably woven into the fabric of TFI.
I came here to learn, and so should you. As long as you follow Berg in any way, shape or form, you have absolutely nothing to teach us, except how to leave the cult in your own individual way.
Then, we are all quite willing to help--but not until then. We will NEVER seek a synthesis of our current beliefs and those of TFI, past present and future--the beliefs are diametrically opposed, and can NEVER mix.
Common sense, of which your TFI membership has currently robbed you, historic Christianity, and the REAL Jesus Christ will never allow this.
And, if not for the mere difference of a few short years, your children WOULD have been molested, tortured, maligned, deceived and dispassionately used for the whims of the cult; whether you are currently willing to hear that, or not; like it or not--just a few years, James.
I thank God that they never got my kids!
God gave me some COJONES, and I decided to live up to them! Will you--or will you CONTINUE TO COMPROMISE YOUR GOD-GIVEN CONSCIENCE and keep spewing the drivel you know is complete crap!
Re-read Romans 1, James. Whatever your decision, with or without God, you ALREADY KNOW the cult is WRONG, and the real God knows you know. Leave!
The cult is, and always has, even in the secret times, been run by the whims of an oligarchy of selfish megalomaniacal perverts; not dedicated and genuinely self-sacrificing Christians. Always.
Malcolm Muggeridge put it this way, "When mortal men try to live without God, they infallibly succumb to megalomania or erotomania, or both. The raised fist or the raised phallus: Nietzsche or D. H. Lawrence. Pascal said this, and the contemporary world bears it out". ("25 Propositions on a 75th Birthday," New York Times, 24 April 1978).
TFI'll always be no more than, at best, "Gospel bums", following a weak bunch of demon-consulting wankers; if you'll excuse the sadly appropriate expression. "Shall not a people rather seek after their God?".
My strong hope for you is that you do as I did: gather your senses about you, quit ignoring the obvious and start thinking for yourself, leave the counterfeit for the sake of your children if nothing else (I DID!).
You'll lose NOTHING--especially, in my view, God's favor--you can, as I did, find people worthy of your Christian loyalty, while it can exist at all, and it CANNOT in TFI, and you can "follow righteousness, faith, charity and peace with those who call on the Lord out of a PURE heart"--you know that no longer exists in TFI (that ended in the early '70s; the VERY early '70s; little bro).
Nor does individual self-determination, as is irrefutably shown on these Chat Boards.
My kudos and congratulations to all here who have made the break from Berg's strong delusion.
Sincerely,
OT2 (OldtimerToo)