Anonymous, first I?d like to say that true Christ warriors witness under their real names, never afraid to bring His message and attach their name to it as the witness of His actions in human terms. Your anonymity is indicative of the hypocrisy of many organized religions (Mormonism included) as you judge others and spew alleged wrongdoings from your undercover hiding place. If you are truly a representative of Christ, don?t be a coward, but rather show your face for all to see.
You say, "You think by attacking a religion or programs for kids that teaches at its core the time honored values of virtue, honesty, and self ?mastery, that some how you are the bearers of freedom. . . You are in fact the Ministers of the secular Humanism; the religion of victim-hood and self-destruction.?
Again, your comments reek with hypocrisy and double speak. Your church and the youth programs may portray teachings of virtue, honesty and self-mastery on the surface. However, the truth comes out in people?s actions of domination, control, abuse and manipulation. If you are really of Christ, take your blinders off so that you may truly see what these kids are saying about actions that they have witnessed. I would be happy to relate to you my personal observations as staff.
The problem with establishing virtue, honesty and self-mastery is that it?s a scale of what?s right and wrong. As humans, this translates to one human telling/judging another human by what they believe to be right. The hypocrisy is that the Mormons? heritage revolves around a public society that tried to instill their standards on the Mormons by making them conform to one wife for one husband, equal rights for both partners in a marriage, and no sex with minor children. The Mormons, unable and unwilling to conform, moved west to Utah in search of their freedom to practice their secular (worldly) beliefs which often resulted in their own victims and destruction of others? individuality, independence, and self-esteem.
When I speak in this forum about Mormons, I only relate my firsthand experience with them after more than 50 some years of living amongst various cultures. As a woman, it?s particularly hard to work and live with most of the Mormon men due to their belief that men are somehow better than women. You will say that Mormon men don?t believe in this concept, however, again, their actions speak louder than your words.
To quote you, ?These isms (addictions) are the ever-present fruits of the so-called freedom from any standards or authority that you all seem to profess and promote here. Most of the writers here profess this slavery to addiction and abdication of personal accountability as ?freedom? like the hippies did in the 60?s as they indulged themselves in a culture of addiction to there own demise.?
Here you take a pedestal of better-than-thou, purportedly having removed all of your isms in your human existence. Perhaps you have, but I really doubt it or you would no longer need to be on this human plane of existence. At any rate, the Mormons certainly do have their ?isms? or addictions, as you say. They may not drink coffee due to caffeine, but they love their Mountain Dews full of the same stuff first thing in the morning and all day long. Every Mormon home and most Mormon grocery stores that I?ve been in are filled with chips, sweets, junk food, and sugar sweetened products without the choice of natural or unsweetened. Diabetes is also a Mormon curse.
I was one of those awful hippies that supposedly run amok from addiction which, by your statement, ended in my own demise. For your information, me and a whole bunch of others are still alive and kicking today, and we?ve achieved great and wondrous successes, and we?re in mass numbers, called the Baby Boomers.
This statement of yours is pretty funny: ?The ?after all you can do? part requires one to cross ones self amidst ones own vices and human failings and deny yourself and take up your cross as Christ taught and strive for a higher standard.? It?s funny because this is exactly what the participants in this forum are asking you to do ? clean house in the Mormon church and instill Christ principles amongst your disciples.
Or, you can wait, lie about it, and try to keep it a BIG FAT SECRET like the Catholic church, and then come up with some more lies and dance around on the hot coals when the truth is revealed. For revealed it shall be.
As you say, there are many paths to Christ, and this is called man?s free will. It takes many different roads for all of the different people to get to Him. Some roads are straight and direct, some are filled with hair-raising bends, curves and turns onto the back roads. Whichever road you take, you build and learn along the way from your experiences. The experiences provide the foundation of the future you.
It?s not trite or insignificant that these people are in this forum talking about some very major problems in a fast growing industry with virtually no oversight, standards, or civil rights protections. In fact, I tend to believe that within this forum are the leaders of a national movement and from their perspectives and experiences, they will change things in America for the youth care industry. As leaders, they will be the bearers of ?freedom? for future American youths.
Rather than trying to portray yourself as Christ and speak for Him, why not lead someone to Christ from within, where He always resides. He can speak for himself to His disciples and does not need you, the middleman, the Church to represent him from your lofty self-imposed throne.
Toni Thayer
http://www.spirithelps.com