In Reply to: Re: statement of faith... posted by Coordinator on June 28, 2006 at 22:13:44:
Painful is the word. Up to this point we've tried to avoid any direct ML quotes etc, for several reasons (there are a couple of direct quotes from the statement of faith on that page). Firstly, we just haven't been able to stomach it. Looking at some of that stuff is almost nauseating at times, particularly because we know it wasn't so long ago that we ourselves were munching on it. God help us! Secondly, we wanted our site to focus right on the Bible and it almost seems blasphemous now to put MLs on the same page as Bible! Thirdly, it's a funny thing but Fam doctrines seem to be a bit difficult to nail down to individual quotes here & there. I mean, when we were in TF, we memorised quotes and were taught to revere the MLs but whenever an outsider pulled us up on a particular paragraph here or there, we'd say "Well that's up to our personal faith" or "Yes, Berg's got some interesting ideas, doesn't he?" The whole heaven in the moon trip, for example. There are probably some people who still believe it but I don't think any would stand up in public to defend it. The issue there might be the 'believe whatever the prophet says' control TF has, not necessarily the moon thing itself. It seems that the only things they're willing to stand behind are their official 'you gotta believe this' stuff, even though we all know current members have to believe a LOT more than the official line.
What I would appreciate is any suggestions you have for particular issue, doctrines, MLs etc that need addressing.
We've started work on the 'backsliding' issue -- thanks OT -- but you might be in a better position than us to gauge what is needed more at the present.