Remember that friend who was telling me about her AWESOME new church and I knew immediately it was a cult-church? Yeah. I was right. If you didn't catch that post, it was in December of 2014. Check it out.
So for the past 9 months or so, I've been checking up on the status, trying to find out how it's going.
Here are a few of the things that she's told me.
"One time, I went to the pastor because I had a question about something in the sermon. The next day he sent out an email to the whole church saying that if women have questions about anything, they need to be accompanied by their husbands if they want to come talk to me."
My friend says she was "annoyed" by this. I thought it was a good indication to head for the hills, personally. I contrast this with my priest who has no problem (nor does his wife think it odd, nor does anyone else think it odd) privately counseling with me. He apparently understands that he as a man is responsible for his own self-control and behavior and, shockingly, appears to trust both himself and me. It's so nice not to feel like I've grown a third eye simply because I was born female.
"I really enjoy the fellowship of the church but it's hard for me to find women to talk to. None of the women have jobs and when I go to Bible study, any marital problems immediately get thrown back on the woman."
Ah yes. Don't forget this is a women's only Bible study. Her church doesn't believe in integrating the sexes, apparently, to study scripture. This line of thought is all too familiar to me. "Have you read Debi Pearl?" "Have you read The Excellent Wife?" "Are you being submissive?"
Oh dear. While recalling those titles, I found this one: "Wired for Sex: What Christian Wives Should Know About Husbands." We got a chuckle out of this just now.
I quipped to my husband, "Oh...you're wired for sex?! I think I was wired for baking....am I supposed to want sex as well?"
His response? "You're wired for baking? Why don't you go bake me a cake and come sit on my face?"
Funny. But this patently ludicrous book title exemplifies the sheer stupidity of this gender segregation in many cult churches. Men are wired for sex. Women are wired for....???
"I really want to leave the church but I am putting it off because the pastor has already told everyone that if anyone decides to leave that he is going to have a meeting with you and ask you why and I just don't want to get into all of this because I know it will turn into a theological argument."
Do I even need to say anything about this? Yes, it is immature on the part of my friend not to be able to simply be herself, speak her mind, etc. Yes, she needs to work on this. This was my problem as well.
But what of the pastor who threatens, oh, sorry, I mean "declares," that you are going to get grilled, I mean "interviewed" if you decide to leave? Good heavens. I'm sure this is simply a quality-control measure to make sure they're doing everything that they can to make their laity happy. Ahem.
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