33 thoughts on “Join or Cry”

  1. And after you join your pain will be a trial curable by three to thrive… then if you still have pain you really should work a bus route…. then if you still have pain you’re really not soul-winning enough… then if you still have pain you should add another ministry (nursery, prison, Awana)… etc

  2. This is excellent. A poem that could only be written from someone who has experienced the absurdities prevailing in ifb churches, and who has the wisdom to see them for what they are reality.

  3. Cthulhu bless your seeker’s soul!
    Your poem deserves all praise.
    Surely you will soon approach
    Our Dark Lord’s dread embrace.

    (I hesitate to bring this up)
    On one small point you err:
    The Truth for which your soul doth seek
    Is present here, not there.

    Okay, your path has some good points,
    But still we disagree.
    This shows that you have far to go
    To be as right as me

  4. Fundamentalism well described, Darrell. They do indeed think that they see by closing their eyes to reality around them.

    And none of their promises ever come true.

    1. Mankind has struggled to “fit in” and also not conform, probably since humans existed. Case in point, the Jesus Movement of the 1960’s, started out not conforming to the establishment to provide a welcoming place for hippies who tired of the hedonistic lifestyle. The movement inevitably deteriorated into another cult not unlike the IFB in structure although not in outward appearance. Here is the article, an interview with a former member if you have a little time:

      http://www.buzzfeed.com/jessehyde/bringing-down-americas-happiest-christian-cult-842#.itEbYP0bl7

  5. This also applies to the sub-culture within the IFB. There’s always a need to join my bus route, ss class, etc. , cuz we do it better than you!

    1. Yup, “my Bible is bigger than yours”, or what I call “dueling Bibles”. (A little banjo music, please….?)

  6. A short update on my status. I am with my son and daughter-in-law in Indiana, teaching High School math. Some days are really tough, and it is compounded by the fact my wife and daughter aren’t going to be here for about another month.

    The Episcopal Church my son attends seems very good. The priest is personable and nice. I can talk to him!

    I just got paid, which meant I spent nearly all of it to make partial payments on past due bills. But at least that was able to be done, and future paydays will mean I can begin to crawl out of the hole dug deep over the last year.

    1. Hurrah for the job, the church, and the paycheck! I hope everything works out really well for you and yours

    2. Bless you for teaching math. Had it not been for the excellent math teacher I had for all four years of HS I would have had trouble in college. She showed me I wasn’t as dumb as I had assumed. She would work a problem step by step, not missing any steps that would be tedious to a math genius, until I got it. I ended up testing out of all the college math requirements via entrance exams and CLEP tests, a miracle from my standpoint. She is one of my heroes.

      1. Mathematics is the subject I always struggled with. I remember getting 4% in a test once. To me algebra, calculus and trigonometry were as incomprehensible as Hungarian being spoken backwards. I was, however, fascinated by science, and there are a lot of numbers in science so I did, over the years, learn how to count and do simple sums. The day I passed my “O-level” mathematics was the day I started believing in miracles.

        1. That’s great! A determined person is usually smarter than they think. Everyone learns in their own way, a concept that is often lost on educators, except for those exceptional teachers like the one I had.

  7. Dear SFL Reader:

    Because we all know that those who trust Jesus are all but assured a trouble-free existence …

    Christian Socialist

Comments are closed.