We Are of God, Resistance is Futile
An Ode to Forced Worship
Ok, folks. I'm just going to write about this once, and then I'm done. I'm in a good mood today and don't need to hyperfocus on something that I just can't condone or take seriousely anymore - fear based religion.
While my personal exposure to the cultish practice (of forcing members of one's own religion to attend and/or participate in worship services for said religion) has been entirly through the Seventh-day Adventist denomination's education system (one which in general, I can NOT recommend for those who want more highly advanced educations in anything other than medicine and education), there are 3 other major religions which practice this in some form or another: Catholocism, Judaism, and Islam. The majority of protestant Christian religions and at least Hinduism if not others as well, have fought heavily AGAINST such practices within their own ranks, because they see the wisdom in allowing an individual (or a "brother") to "work out his own Salvation." They know that if something's worth going to or participating in, people will come of their own accord and will want to come back again. They WON'T NEED to be forced into it based on pressure from family/friends, gun-point/threat of torture/threat of expulsion & hell, or some silly contract threatening expulsion from school and from a church's "loving community."
What's the purpose of that contract? It's a way of saying "You, the individual, don't matter to us, the group. Rather, your time-card is what's important to us here, so that we can manipulate the numbers and make ourselves look good to the outsiders who don't know we are using your time-card as a way of forcing you to either participate or leave. We also enjoy harassing you in our place of worship if you choose not to listen to what we tell you to. You don't have the right, when spending your time with us, to be the individual God made you to be, to participate or zone out at random, to come and go as you choose." That's the REAL purpose of it. Everything else, all the other excuses you've heard for such silly things, are just disguises for the truth. Why do people, in my case SDAs, sign such contracts? We don't - they merely are paragraphs in student handbooks which are referred to in other contracts we do sign because if we don't sign them, we aren't allowed to go to SDA schools. Those contracts also include such silliness as dress-codes and food-consumption codes. However, they include important things, such as non-violence and multi-cultural tollerance, which are very important. What's the overall idea of these codes? Someone, back in the day, got the bright idea that if students are faced with these demands, and refuse to sign such contracts, then they must of course be saying that they don't agree with those lofty ideals at all! Of course if they agree, they'll sign, right?
But those of you who have gone to SDA schools - how many of you, who know exactly what I'm getting at here, honestly agreed with the forced worship clause in the student handbook of your college of choice that referred to it, when you signed that contract? How many of you thought "Oh, yes!!! I want to sell my soul to this college to do with it whatever this school wants to? I trust THEM implicetly, because of course, they are SDA, and they know what's right all the time!" I didn't think so. See, real, genuine, honest, and THINKING people don't think that way. Only drones of any particular religion do.
I would like to point out that in all 3 major religions mentioned above, much violence against others who see God differently has been done in the name of God by people who were forced, either by family or by gun-point (either will work for the devil quite nicely), to worship God regularly. And I would like to point out that the rate of domestic violence in all three of those major religions is rivaled by both Adventism AND the rest of the world. Though in Adventism, it's "hush-hush" (excused away, usually blaming the girlfriend or wife for making some mistake somewhere along the way, because she's supposed to be smarter than he is, of course) and swept under the carpet completely (at least in public, at church). Put another way, we SDAs aren't any better than anyone else when it comes to that, and God is usually the topic of contention "God wants this done this way, not that! You should listen to me!" Should? I have to? Really? No. In other words, if domestic violence in the Seventh-day Adventist church, or in any of the other major religions (as if SDA is a major religion, which it's not, but don't tell other SDAs that) is to be curbed, one major way of curbing it is to "set the captives free" by discontinuing forced worship.
Did you know that those wonderful, God-adoring, happy-pappy SDA teachers you had in school only went to church because they were FORCED TO in order to keep their jobs? That's right - it's a requirement of the SDA Education Department that an SDA teacher attend church a certain number of times per year OR ELSE THEY'RE FIRED. That tells me that those wonderful SDA teachers who we think are so Godly really wouldn't attend church if they weren't forced into it. Does that make them unGodly, that they wouldn't attend church? Nope. It means that Godly and unGlodly people alike are being forced into an environment that they don't really want to be in, all in the name of making the SDA denomination look good (to itself, not to outsiders, who in all honesty don't give a rip 'cause most of them have never even HEARD of SDA - just get out in the community and actually ASK sometime and find out for yourself, if you haven't already).
Yeah - peculiar alright. Godly? Hardly. God gives freedom of concience EVEN AFTER "conversion." He NEVER forces anyone to worship Him at any point in time during this lifetime. Who are we to try to be above God? LOL. Forcing worship doesn't put us above Him or even in His ranks. It's demonic. Only satan would force someone to worship (him, of course).
So what's wrong with church that they wouldn't go? Hmm... Try attending one sometime, and you tell me - there's plenty (forced labor for adults in the SS departments, boring song-services with unpronounceable words or else "Kumbiah" (sp), money guilt-tripped out of pockets on Sabbath, sour faces and judgmental eyes, uninvolved or insincere "topical" sermons, unhealthy or allergenic foods at potlucks, poorly planned outings, parents who openly make fun of their spouses/kids, bad parking, difficulty finding a particular church due to bad directions given by some woman over 80 who answered the phone... Having the thought "And I got all dressed up for THIS???") to keep in mind when answering THAT question.
Some "legal wrangling" SDAs in the SDA Educational System will say "Well, if you are against forced worship, then you MUST of course be against worship at all! What's wrong with you? Don't you love God?" That's twisting one's words when one expresses any form of "dissent" regarding the requirement of worship. The requirement of it is what is wrong, not necessarily the worship, although from what I've seen, the worship isn't really worth attending most of the time anyway. Why in the world should worship have to be scheduled? Think about that for a second. If it's genuine, it won't have to be penciled in between History class and Ethics in Religion. It'll happen spontaniousely on it's own. To require any human being to worship with others, as if they aren't able to worship on their own if they're going to worship God at all, kills the private, personal relationship they COULD be cultivating with God (rather He with them on HIS own time, not someone elses) because it distracts them away from Him and instead puts the focus of their attention onto some silly speaker who thinks they know SO MUCH...
Case in point: as you've read this, how much private, personal time have you spent just with God without being focussed on me or my words about Him at all?
Ok, folks. I'm just going to write about this once, and then I'm done. I'm in a good mood today and don't need to hyperfocus on something that I just can't condone or take seriousely anymore - fear based religion.
While my personal exposure to the cultish practice (of forcing members of one's own religion to attend and/or participate in worship services for said religion) has been entirly through the Seventh-day Adventist denomination's education system (one which in general, I can NOT recommend for those who want more highly advanced educations in anything other than medicine and education), there are 3 other major religions which practice this in some form or another: Catholocism, Judaism, and Islam. The majority of protestant Christian religions and at least Hinduism if not others as well, have fought heavily AGAINST such practices within their own ranks, because they see the wisdom in allowing an individual (or a "brother") to "work out his own Salvation." They know that if something's worth going to or participating in, people will come of their own accord and will want to come back again. They WON'T NEED to be forced into it based on pressure from family/friends, gun-point/threat of torture/threat of expulsion & hell, or some silly contract threatening expulsion from school and from a church's "loving community."
What's the purpose of that contract? It's a way of saying "You, the individual, don't matter to us, the group. Rather, your time-card is what's important to us here, so that we can manipulate the numbers and make ourselves look good to the outsiders who don't know we are using your time-card as a way of forcing you to either participate or leave. We also enjoy harassing you in our place of worship if you choose not to listen to what we tell you to. You don't have the right, when spending your time with us, to be the individual God made you to be, to participate or zone out at random, to come and go as you choose." That's the REAL purpose of it. Everything else, all the other excuses you've heard for such silly things, are just disguises for the truth. Why do people, in my case SDAs, sign such contracts? We don't - they merely are paragraphs in student handbooks which are referred to in other contracts we do sign because if we don't sign them, we aren't allowed to go to SDA schools. Those contracts also include such silliness as dress-codes and food-consumption codes. However, they include important things, such as non-violence and multi-cultural tollerance, which are very important. What's the overall idea of these codes? Someone, back in the day, got the bright idea that if students are faced with these demands, and refuse to sign such contracts, then they must of course be saying that they don't agree with those lofty ideals at all! Of course if they agree, they'll sign, right?
But those of you who have gone to SDA schools - how many of you, who know exactly what I'm getting at here, honestly agreed with the forced worship clause in the student handbook of your college of choice that referred to it, when you signed that contract? How many of you thought "Oh, yes!!! I want to sell my soul to this college to do with it whatever this school wants to? I trust THEM implicetly, because of course, they are SDA, and they know what's right all the time!" I didn't think so. See, real, genuine, honest, and THINKING people don't think that way. Only drones of any particular religion do.
I would like to point out that in all 3 major religions mentioned above, much violence against others who see God differently has been done in the name of God by people who were forced, either by family or by gun-point (either will work for the devil quite nicely), to worship God regularly. And I would like to point out that the rate of domestic violence in all three of those major religions is rivaled by both Adventism AND the rest of the world. Though in Adventism, it's "hush-hush" (excused away, usually blaming the girlfriend or wife for making some mistake somewhere along the way, because she's supposed to be smarter than he is, of course) and swept under the carpet completely (at least in public, at church). Put another way, we SDAs aren't any better than anyone else when it comes to that, and God is usually the topic of contention "God wants this done this way, not that! You should listen to me!" Should? I have to? Really? No. In other words, if domestic violence in the Seventh-day Adventist church, or in any of the other major religions (as if SDA is a major religion, which it's not, but don't tell other SDAs that) is to be curbed, one major way of curbing it is to "set the captives free" by discontinuing forced worship.
Did you know that those wonderful, God-adoring, happy-pappy SDA teachers you had in school only went to church because they were FORCED TO in order to keep their jobs? That's right - it's a requirement of the SDA Education Department that an SDA teacher attend church a certain number of times per year OR ELSE THEY'RE FIRED. That tells me that those wonderful SDA teachers who we think are so Godly really wouldn't attend church if they weren't forced into it. Does that make them unGodly, that they wouldn't attend church? Nope. It means that Godly and unGlodly people alike are being forced into an environment that they don't really want to be in, all in the name of making the SDA denomination look good (to itself, not to outsiders, who in all honesty don't give a rip 'cause most of them have never even HEARD of SDA - just get out in the community and actually ASK sometime and find out for yourself, if you haven't already).
Yeah - peculiar alright. Godly? Hardly. God gives freedom of concience EVEN AFTER "conversion." He NEVER forces anyone to worship Him at any point in time during this lifetime. Who are we to try to be above God? LOL. Forcing worship doesn't put us above Him or even in His ranks. It's demonic. Only satan would force someone to worship (him, of course).
So what's wrong with church that they wouldn't go? Hmm... Try attending one sometime, and you tell me - there's plenty (forced labor for adults in the SS departments, boring song-services with unpronounceable words or else "Kumbiah" (sp), money guilt-tripped out of pockets on Sabbath, sour faces and judgmental eyes, uninvolved or insincere "topical" sermons, unhealthy or allergenic foods at potlucks, poorly planned outings, parents who openly make fun of their spouses/kids, bad parking, difficulty finding a particular church due to bad directions given by some woman over 80 who answered the phone... Having the thought "And I got all dressed up for THIS???") to keep in mind when answering THAT question.
Some "legal wrangling" SDAs in the SDA Educational System will say "Well, if you are against forced worship, then you MUST of course be against worship at all! What's wrong with you? Don't you love God?" That's twisting one's words when one expresses any form of "dissent" regarding the requirement of worship. The requirement of it is what is wrong, not necessarily the worship, although from what I've seen, the worship isn't really worth attending most of the time anyway. Why in the world should worship have to be scheduled? Think about that for a second. If it's genuine, it won't have to be penciled in between History class and Ethics in Religion. It'll happen spontaniousely on it's own. To require any human being to worship with others, as if they aren't able to worship on their own if they're going to worship God at all, kills the private, personal relationship they COULD be cultivating with God (rather He with them on HIS own time, not someone elses) because it distracts them away from Him and instead puts the focus of their attention onto some silly speaker who thinks they know SO MUCH...
Case in point: as you've read this, how much private, personal time have you spent just with God without being focussed on me or my words about Him at all?
posted by Caroline Talita Ishshah | 11:16 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home