I am able to laugh a lot with my husband about what happened without feeling the underlying stab of pain in my gut.
We can now playfully make fun of the idiotic things we were told without having searing pains. The other day in the car I said something to my dh about reading a book and he rolled his eyes and said, "Are you reading again? You read too much. Soon you'll start thinking on your own.... Let me just frame reality for you, Cathy." This brought, of course, a burst of laughter from me.
Even our family and friends occasionally get into the spirit by making sure to remind me that I'm "just a woman" and, again, they offer to "frame reality" for me.
I know that I have been containing a lot of emotional stress in my physical body and have this week seen signs for the first time in a year that my body is beginning to relax a little bit over all of this mess. I'm not feeling the need for any anti-depressant herbs daily now and am really very excited about all the wonderful things that I'm learning about the Bible as well as enjoying my non-controlling Christian friends.
Oh yes, there's one more thing that happened recently that just made me literally snort with delight. One of the things that we were told, of course, was that we were "not allowed" to tell anyone the name of our marriage counselor. Well don't you know that God loves freedom and He has a sense of humor? Some people at Milestone were having marriage issues and a friend of ours heard about it. So she promptly gave them the name of our counselor!! There you go. Just try to muzzle Christians and break God's principle of freedom and see what happens! I found this mildly hilarious and imagine that Jesus might be sniggering a bit, too. Oh the irony....
Even with all of this lightening of mood, I still feel that it is VERY important to fight injustice and ignorance in the church. Particularly Milestone Church. Because I love those with whom I once had fellowship and I know the tremendous potential therein, it pains my heart to see them perpetrating such nonsensical doctrines on unsuspecting and/or ignorant Christians. I know that they are not intentionally damaging people's lives. But they are causing damage, nonetheless. And it is wrong.
No, I'll go a step farther. It is evil. Anytime someone in a powerful position uses that position to propagate a spirit of bondage or less-than-ness, it is evil. Anytime someone deliberately mishandles scripture in an effort to control others, it is evil. Anytime someone misrepresents God's heart toward an entire group of people, it is evil. And to do it all in the name of God is more than we should be able to bear. Indeed, we should be up in arms when this happens.
In fact, those in the past who saw it as their duty to point out errancies in the church have special names. Many were called "reformers" after the fact. But initially there were dubbed "heretics." Sadly, they also became known as "martyrs." My brothers and sisters, these things ought not be.
