Weird Teachings

[Kay]

Hi all,
I think the sister/brother bit sprang from a obvious  lack of respect among 'children' to adults ( in my lodge). For instance in the public schools I'm addressed as  Mrs..........and not by my first name. I can see where it's weird to start this  in the lodge after using first names. Respect towards adults and ppl has to be taught at the start. Adding a prefix to someone's name will not instill respect. So often in the Lodge, problems are shuffled under the 'bed or in closet.' The core of the problem is never addressed but a solution is pasted over the problem, and everyone is in denial, 'problem? what problem?'
This feels like 'dysfunction.' I think 1 way the Lodge screws up the children is that the lodge members call this behaviour 'spiritual.'

[trockman]

Well said Kay,

The practice is not spiritual, in spite of the fact that it was handed down and implemented by God's government.

Brent

[Kimberley Tobin]

I think one of the problems with the lodge practices is that it removes responsibility (not before God-simply in one's mind) from the parent to someone else (or for singles for oneself in making decisions to someone else.)  If so and so (who I am told is a godly man or woman and I am to submit to their counsel) tells me to do something, then I don't have to think.  I just act upon what someone else tells me to do.  This removes all critical thinking and truly "finding the will of God."  Now, the lodge members would be the first to tell you, "Don't just take my word for it, you get before the Lord and find out what His will is."  But the practical application of that counsel is, that if I were to not implement the counsel given, I more than likely would be entreated for not responding to the counsel of God.  I would be labeled as "not leadable" (circular arguement again-the lodge has this down to a science!)

One of the things my husband and I are having to traverse, as it has only been two months, is how to deal with our children.  We did it wrong for so long, now we are having to really look at the scriptures and find out what the will of God is.  We don't want the pendulum to swing so far the other way, that there is no discipline.  And yet, we are unwilling to wield the strong and unloving hand of our former "Lodge days".


Thank God, He will lead us, "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine owne understanding.  In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths."  He has been gloriously leading us so far!  There has been such incredible fruit in our children and the Lord is truly changing our lives as a family and individually.

Glory be to God!

[Arthur]

John (or, from the last post, Mr. Malone....or brother John? :)

I agree with you.  The Scripture's meaning does not change based on man's opinion or use of it.  One question I have for you that I've been thinking about, and I'd like to hear your take on this.  We know there exists absolute truth, and we believe that the Bible is the truth--the Word of God.  However, we also know that we are finite and sinful creatures who do change and who are limited by perspective.  How is it that we can know for certain that the way we see it is the true way?  You know as well as I do that there are differing views on eschatology and predestination, to name a couple.  People hold to their views religiously and both sides of any argument are equally convinced that their way of seeing things is the proper and correct view.  Also, a person may say that God or the Holy Spirit showed him these things.  Certainly that is George's claim in regards to his heavenly vision.  I think it is arrogant to believe that the way I see it is unquestionably, THE truth. On the other hand, there are things that we must stand for.  

My take on it is that there are things in the Bible that are very clear and would be agreed upon by most people and there are things that are not so clear which are open for discussion.  From my reading of the Bible, the main theme which I see being communicated is, of course, the gospel.  I think of Paul being adamant about defending, accurately communicating, and standing for the truth of the gospel.  And after all, how important that is seeing as how it is the message of the eternal Son of God and what he did on behalf of humanity.  What else could be more important to us?

Ultimately, it seems that the most excellent way is to not bicker with your brother over minor things but rather to love your brother as described in I Cor 13.  Showing the love of Christ is in accordance with the truth of the gospel.  In retrospect it seems that George was more interested in making people aware of his profound insight into the deep mysteries of God than he was with showing the love of God which surpasses understanding.  

Arthur

[Arthur]

Ok, so am I the only one who didn't think being called brother was weird?  Heh, well, call me strange then.  To me it meant something more than just a title.  Like most things in the assembly, something that was good or potentially good was misused.  Well, if I call any of you brother or sister, please know it means I love you in Jesus.

As far as making decisions, I agree.  One of the joys of life is to be free to make decisions for yourself. It's the difference between being a child and being an adult.  I remember as a child wanting to grow up and mature and be like an adult--we all do, it's a good thing.  But man wouldn't you know it in the assembly growth is choked rather than promoted.  It's suffocating. I'm so glad I'm outta there.

[Eulaha L. Long]

When in the SLO Assembly, I lived in a worker's home.  One day she sat us sisters down and told us that we needed to start addressing the leadership as "brother" so and so.  Then, the kids had to start doing it.

Get this: once I left the Assembly, I ran into a "saint" and his kids.  He said, "Say hello to Eulaha"!  What happened to the "sister"?  I guess once you leave the Assembly, you are just plain you again, so brother or sister attached!

[Rachel]

Ok.  Here is what I know about the start of calling people Brother and Sister so and so.  

In a worker's meeting, a worker brought up the need for respect by the children for adults.  The complaint was that the children were to familiar with the adults.  That worker (I won't say the name because I have not verified it with someone who was there) said when they were children they called their parent's friends and adults at church Mr and Mrs so why not here.  George said that we are all part of the family of God so we call each other by our first names.  We are on first name basis.  Then it was suggested that the children call the adults "Brother _____" or "Sister _______" instead, like George was called.  This would be a sign of respect.  After all familuarity breeds contempt, right? It was also decided that if you were especially close with a family you could tell them to drop the "Brother" or "Sister"  just like when you were a child and some of your parent's friends told you, "Oh don't call me Mr. ______ just call me Jim."  It was agreed to and implemented immediately.  I remember when my mother came back from the meeting and told us it was going to start.  I was 17 at the time and so it was a little awkward for me.  A lot of the time I would not call people Brother or Sister just because I was so used to calling them by their first name.  Also since I was almost an adult it was really required for me.  However, it made me very uncomfortable when the kids called me Sister Rachel.  Yech  I would tell them to just call me Rachel.  Some parents were ok with that and others would insist that their kids call me sister.  At the beginning it seemed to be taken very lightly, unless you were talking to George.

[trockman]

Rachel

I'll try to tell the story of the couple's meeting where this was foisted on us for the first time in SLO, Tomorrow!

I can't keep up with this BB anymore!   This thing is an animal!

Brent

[trockman]

Hi Greg

I remember these two books. They were on the booktable for a while, then they were yanked, hard.  People used to playfully mock one another by calling  a bro. "Tender Warrior."  The books are not too good, not too bad, but they do say stuff like, "Love your wives, be kind to them, don't dominate them."  You know, really bad stuff like that.

I'm not sure why David G didn't like them....

Brent

[Mark C.]

Hi Greg, Brothers, Sisters, etc.
   I am not familiar with the book on Boundaries that you mentioned, but if it is what I think it is about it wil be very valuable for the recovery of those who have been in groups like the Assembly.
   Why don't you share some of the principles that you are learning from the book and we can discuss them here.
                                 God Bless,  Mark

[Bob Sturnfield]

Do you remember GG's early transcripts?  A solid color cover.  Spiritual Perfection came out as a white cover with black lettering.

For the Chicago booktable, we had 4 categories of books (outside of GG's which I always called "transcripts").

#1 Bibles, black lettered KJV, (other translations fell under the "fad" category)

#2 Historic/Classic Christianity

#3 GG recommended books that had some false teachings in them, but they were still "Heavenly Vision"
I had a special stack of these that were not allowed on the booktable, but I had to keep in stock for when GG recommended them.

#4 Fad books -- I would often order books because an itinerant brother recommended them.

I always thought we were trying to provide a broad range of conservative Christian literature so we would understand what historically has been taught and to keep us from getting "tunnel vision", not to replace the scriptures.

If a brother told me a book should not be on the booktable, to me that meant I only put it out when the brother who originally recommended it was in town.

[Eulaha L. Long]

And let us not forget !  I had that book memorized I think.  I think what Mrs. Fugate had to say was valid, but of course Betty chopped it up and messed with it to make it out to be more than what Mrs. Fugate was saying...is anyone surprised?

[Eulaha L. Long]

OOPS!

The name of the book is The Other Side of the Garden...I don't know what I did on that last post to make it come out as it did...

[Bob Sturnfield]

Hi Eulaha,
One of the thing I love about this BB is that you can go back and correct your mistakes (don't we wish we could do that in life). Just login as yourself, and hit the modify button.

The way all the highlights and fonts work is it simply generates the start [ u ] and end tags [ /u ] and you type or paste the text between them.

Normal windows behavior would be to select the text and hit the underline button, but here that would wiped out the book name and just leave the codes for underlining.

Joel 2:25  And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten

[Rachel]

I know this post is going to sound a little bizzare but I am only putting it in here because it is true and because I think it goes to show what level of weirdness I was living at and was willing to over-look when in the assembly.

I know many of the former assembly members have told me that they were taught the following:

• The reason we didn't have "best friends" in the assembly was because we did not want to be exclusive so we didn't have exclusive relationships.

However, my experience was much different.  When I was 14, I spent a summer at my grandparent's house.  During that time, I became relatively close friends with a daughter of another Leading Brother in Fullerton.  (that leading brother and his family have since left)  We had the usual friendship of two 14 year old girls.  We enjoyed talking about life, thoughts, etc.  I didn't have a lot of free time that summer but whenever I was at a meeting or outreach and she was there we would hang out together and talk.  My grandmother learned of this.  She thought if she gave me a teaching about best friends through Barb Zach, who I was rooming with and who was closer to my age, I might accept it better.  At least, that is what I thought at the time.  Maybe she just didn't want me to hear it from her directly.  All I know Betty gave Barb a paper to give to me to read.  Barb explained the reason we didn't have best friends in the assembly was we didn't want to have happen to us what had happened to the women in this story.  Now this may not seem so wierd yet.  However, the wierd part is the content of the story.  The story was of two Christian women.  They were adults, both married and mothers.  They were not women in the assembly.  They had a close friendship that eventually crossed the boundries of a platonic relationship  into a physical relationship.  In other words, a lesbian relationship.  

The danger of ending up in a lesbian relationship, was the reason given to me at 14, that we didn't have "best friend" relationships.  At the time, I brushed this off as just another one of "those things" that grandma said.  This did not strike me, at the time, as weird, which should demonstrate the level of weirdness I was living in.  However in hindsight, I realized that was a very strange thing for a grandmother to give to her granddaughter.