Tag: UPC

Dressing up for Church?
Thus, there isn’t anything wrong with dressing up for Church, but there could be everything wrong with dressing up for church! Is that really you, or a show? Are you trying to display something/someone you aren’t? Is Sunday really different than Monday? Is who we are different one day to the next?

Please stop talking about Jezebel…
What I actually want to stop talking about, so I’m going to talk about it, is the efforts to use Jezebel as the foundation for the house of cards within the Holiness movement as the anti-makeup and jewelry monument (idol). A statue erected and constantly glorified across pulpits to disparage and to dissuade the usage of such things.

While We Were Yet Sinners
It is the silliest thing to be now, to believe that my personal obedience, which is still expected, by the way, is what would make me righteous. That it somehow is more necessary and powerful than what Christ has already done on that Cross… That it would save me, or even keep me saved. The system of religion I left believed that their ideals of Holiness (which is code for dress standard) would not save a person, but in the absence of obedience to them, a person couldn’t be or stay saved.

Am I called of God?
I’ve known people, with no religious connection at all, who said their ‘calling’ in life was to do X, or Y, or Z. Feeding the homeless? To be a counselor? To write? To be a lawyer? Your calling is YOUR desire. Your desire is what you were made to be!

Slain in the Spirit – Fact or Fiction?
A great charismatic marketeer Benny Hinn swings his signature white jacket at a person or a crowd of people and in waves, they crumble under the ‘power’ of the spirit. At least, that is the claim.
These events are usually then marked with subsequent and equally un-biblical traits such as convulsions, twitching, trances or being rendered unconscious.

The Juxtaposition of Christ and Christianity Part #1
The longer I have been removed from organized religion the starker the contrast between the message of Christianity and the visible church (application) of Christianity has become to me. As I study the history of fundamentalism, evangelicalism and the later rise of the charismatic movement (more on that to come in […]

The Traumatic Damage of Bad Religion, Pentecostalism (Oneness) and Cults, and Healing
Over the weekend I went looking for more books to read. Last week I found the History of Early Christianity and have been enjoying reading through that. This weekend I found the book Post-Traumatic Church Syndrome. This is not a mockery of PTSD, or other trauma-related issues, but seemingly a mirror […]

Is disagreeing with a Church Doctrine just being bitter?
It seems that the most common phrase of religious abusers, and those who are bought in to the abusive system, attacking someone who questions their system, is “You are just bitter”. This defense mechanism holds to weight of fact, evidence or Scripture. Ignore it.

Coping with the Cults – Part #2 – Judgementalism
Since leaving a cult, I have delved into studying, writing, reading, talking and coping with the very real, sometimes hidden, but obvious affects cults and their teachings have on lives. Most certainly the very word ‘cult’ conjures up the worst horrors to hit the news headlines, like Jamestown, or Waco, […]

Coping with the Cults – Part #1 – Separation
Since leaving a cult, I have delved into studying, writing, reading, talking and coping with the very real, sometimes hidden, but obvious affects cults and their teachings have on lives. Most certainly the very word ‘cult’ conjures up the worst horrors to hit the news headlines, like Jamestown, or Waico, […]