Are you ever tempted to go back and "set an example"??

[Sophie]

Most of the time, I'm glad to be out of Fundyland. It's been almost two years now and I'm learning how to live in the Real World again. But every so often, I'm struck by this mad notion to go back and somehow "change things". I have visions of revolutionizing my old IFB church and introducing a little Freedom and Grace into their midst. I wouldn't call them fundy lite (they're extremely fundy), but I guess you could call them IFB-lite (where single parents aren't ostracized and interracial marriages are A-okay). In fact, the majority of the ignorant, bigoted comments have been from the youth pastor, not the pastor himself. I feel like going back (maybe just on Wednesday nights) to be a good influence to counteract all the Jack Hyles and Jack Schaap influences. I still have friends there, and I want to help them, y'know?

But then again, I feel like going back would be like letting Fundyism win. I'll be the prodigal daughter, so to speak. The one who announced in her graduation speech that she was going to Fundy U to someday teach in the IFB school, but then rebelled against God's calling and went to a secular college, stopped attending church altogether after her mom died, became a "flaming liberal"......and now, is meekly returning to the flock.

[pastor's wife]

Somehow in real life, prodigals always seem to be met by lots and lots and lots of the older brother, sitting back, resentful and judgmental instead of welcoming and rejoicing.

It would be neat to see churches start turning inside out, getting truly filled with the love of Jesus and with people who understand grace and liberty. Whether that would realistically happen is the question.

[Papa Bear]

For me at least, going back would mean subjecting my kids to the IFB, something I am NOT willing to do.

[Don]

I tend to believe one's fate in returning to the IFB cave would be spiritually disastrous for the individual who would return. Heed the words of Socrates:

S: And now consider what would happen if such a man were to descend again and seat himself on his old seat? Coming so suddenly out of the sun, would he not find his eyes blinded with the gloom of the place?

G: Certainly, he would.

s: And if he were forced to deliver his opinion again, touching the shadows aforesaid, and to enter the lists against those who had always been prisoners, while his sight continued dim and his eyes unsteady, - and if this process of initiation lasted a considerable time, - would he not be made a laughingstock, and would it not be said of him, that he had gone up only to come back again with his eyesight destroyed, and that it was not worth while even to attempt the ascent? And if anyone endeavoured to set them free and carry them to the light, would they not go so far as to put him to death, if they could only manage to get him into their power?

G: Yes, that they would.

http://www.age-of-the-sage.org/greek/phi...plato.html

[Sophie]

Ah yes, the cave. *starts humming Mumford and Sons*

....But wasn't that Plato?

I'm not sure about spiritually disastrous. Consider all the people who are active in our community here on SFL and still havn't found the courage to leave their fundy churches. Or, perhaps they have found the courage, but havn't left the church yet because their entire family goes there. Me, I have a lot of close friends who still attend and many of them don't actually even believe most of what's preached there. And I just feel like if there's enough of us being a good influence, maybe we can eventually make a positive change in the denomination. Or if not that, maybe we can at least be some damage control. IFB churches left to themselves often get weirder and weirder in their isolation. Mine is already what I consider IFB-Lite and I'd rather it not slip deeper into IFB nonsense, y'know?

[Don]

Once you break away and get completely out it is disastrous to go back. So long as you are still playing the part in the IFB bunker system you are accepted by the shadow watchers. Once you leave however, there is a high toll extracted from the returnee. To return to the IFB after experiencing freedom and Liberty would, at best be like Lot who vexed his soul by what he was exposed to on a regular basis... and at worst, it would be a return to the bondage of Egypt.

Yes, to return would take a monumental effort involving herculean feats of Cognitive dissonance. (As our Benevolent Dictator is fond of Saying: "Your mileage may vary") But I know if I tried to go back, the obstacles would be insurmountable. I could never again sit still through the shallow, topical preaching, and I could not stay quiet when Scripture is taken out of context and made to say something it doesn't just because they want it to fit their eisegesis.

I used to think that the IFB was salvagable. That given time and effort it could be changed back into something right, and good... but it can't. The only way to deal with the IFB movement is to treat it like cancer. It must be erradicated and dealt with at the source. (I am not talking about doing away with, or harming the foundational elements of the Christian faith, but I am talking about a movement that has become so man centered, so power hungry, so anti-Christ that it is doing massive harm to the faith it claims to be based on.) I watched a local bunker, where the leadership cracked open the hatch to let in fresh air and "Son"-shine. Where legalism was denounced and dispensationalism was exposed... only to watch them slam the hatch shut and return to wallowing in the IFB muck and mire, returning to breathing the same old legalistic stale air that causes fundy psychosis, once everyone who had been awakened by the fresh air was safely out of the bunker. Go figure. I believe many of these are earnest, sincere Christian Brothers and Sisters but they are so caught up in their man made traditions and religious trappings that they cannot see Christ anywhere outside of the Box they have constructed for him.

(Dismounts soap-box.... sticks the landing but still received only an 8.0 from the East German judge)

[Historian]

Well, I'm going to have to agree with Don here. I don't view the IFB as a part of the Church any longer. They are a cult that needs to be ended. That doesn't mean there aren't plenty of true followers of Christ trapped there, but it is, in my opinion, not fixable from the inside. At the risk of sounding....FUNDY....I would say come out from among them and be ye separate! As you said, your return would, I think, be largely viewed as you meekly returning to the Truth.

I totally sympathize with your desire to help, though. Can you befriend people personally, outside of the church?

[Sophie]

Yes, but my "We should get together sometime!" texts are generally met with "For sure! Wanna come to our revival meeting next week?"

[Historian]

(09-03-2012 09:25 PM)Sophie Wrote:  Yes, but my "We should get together sometime!" texts are generally met with "For sure! Wanna come to our revival meeting next week?"

Sorry that happens to you....but it did make me laugh!

Something more concrete than "we should get together sometime"?

[Sophie]

Historian Wrote:Something more concrete than "we should get together sometime"?

Well, the one friend in particular who I want to spend more time with is still in high school, and she's a PK, to boot. I think she has a genuine love for God and she could eventually break out of the cult if there weren't so many odds against her. Usually when I try to invite her to something, she has an obligation to go to some church function that night (pastors' kids must set a good example, haymen?) and she hasn't gotten her license yet either. It's very difficult to arrange things.

Perhaps the best way to change the IFB denomination/cult is from the outside afterall. Thinking back, my parents weren't remotely IFB and they were the ones who ultimately convinced me that Christians didn't have to live that way. So maybe I should just be that type of person for them. I just wish they didn't eat, drink, sleep, and breathe CHURCH though.

Xian Pugilist Wrote:In other words, I think you must speak up in some way, befitting your talents and not expect to see the results, just start a little fire...

Would you recommend my doing that from the inside or the outside, though? That's my main question for you all here. Speak up I certainly shall; I just don't know the venue.