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Author Topic: GCx Churches Actually Produce PAINFULLY BAD FRUIT  (Read 1524 times)
Janet Easson Martin
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« on: May 02, 2019, 09:45:36 am »

GCx Churches Actually Produce PAINFULLY BAD FRUIT

This excerpt below from “Twisted Scriptures” by Mary Alice Chrnalogar (Zondervan) describes her own experience under spiritual abuse. This cutting off of natural God-given responses of the heart and mind toward ourselves, our family members, and even other Christians is so grievous it brings tears to my eyes.  I have seen it’s damage also to the innocent little hearts of young people raised in the GCx “movement” who write here. We may need to allow ourselves to recognize this painful mindset and weep for what happened to us and our loved ones in order to heal.  Please open your eyes to see that this is bad fruit produced by teaching a very different Jesus who has little feeling, patience, or compassion toward others. This story could have been written by so many in GCx Churches.  


BAD FRUIT—BUT I COULDN’T SEE IT!

A good tree cannot bear bad fruit… (Matt. 7:18).

How much bad fruit are you finding in your group? If I don’t sound very compassionate about such leaders, it is because I understand how group-thinking destroys human compassion. Under the influence of the group I belonged to, I gradually lost interest in my job, in the world, in my hobbies, in friends who were not part of my new group, and in all of the things of my former life. Looking back, I see why I couldn’t stay around my family for any extended period of time.

There was a time when my mother invited me home for dinner. I came. I ate. I was not interested in discussing the weather or my day. I thought all this chatter was wasting time because we weren’t talking about God’s eternal truth. I recall that, as soon as I downed dinner, I had to run. I no longer had anything in common with these strangers.

I looked at my parents through eyes clouded by “group categories.” I did not see the people who loved me, who raised me, who instilled faith and values in me. Instead, in bondage to my group’s teaching, I only saw people who were “not committed.”

My feelings were skewed by my new mind-set. It appeared to me that I was totally separated from my mother—she who had been especially close to me since the loss of my sister and brother several years before. I could no longer remember that we were ever close.

One afternoon, I came home and found my mother crying. She said, “Mary Alice, you’re dead, you’re already dead.” Then she shook me. I just stared at her. I remember labeling her as someone who needed the “truth” I was certain I had. I felt some compassion for her and made a mental note to pray for her. I was at peace. In retrospect, I know this was neither a normal nor appropriate response to the agony of the mother whom I loved.

Looking back I cannot believe how I reacted. I didn’t want to spend time with her. Normally, when someone had tears in their eyes, I got tears in mine. In fact, when I was at the airport and saw strangers crying and saying good-bye, I usually ended up crying just from watching. Yet now, here was my own mother crying and there were no tears in my eye. I thought in my heart that I was feeling sorrow and love for her, but it was obviously shallow because I showed no outward signs of love. I was on a different “spiritual level.”

That level is where many committed members of abusive discipleship groups dwell. It is the level where God-given emotions are choked off in favor of group labels. This process (the exchanging of one’s true feelings for a puppet-like conformity as desired by the discipler) can cause great mental anguish. The pain truly feels like dying, and the disciple may think that this is what the Bible means by putting to death our sinful selves. It is not. Rather, it is the death of normal, God-given emotion.

The highly judgmental mind-set produced by these groups is more “bad fruit.” These disciples make hasty judgments regarding who is a Christian and who is not. Some Christians have to hear such statements as “God told me to do something” or “I give God the glory for this” before they will believe you have evidence of a Christian walk. Some Christians have to hear the name “Jesus” in every short conversation to come to the conclusion that a person is committed to Jesus Christ. Others think that if you are on the street evangelizing, that is proof.

Christians today need to step back and remember what James 2:18 says: “I will show you my faith by what I do.” I’d rather see a man give God the glory by his actions than brag all day long about giving God the glory. I see many Christians who reek with self-righteousness. Just because a person always says he is giving God the glory, it isn’t proof that in the depth of his heart he really is. Much pride may be involved in these claims. Sadly, many people are turned off by Christianity today because of the superior attitudes of these Christians whom they rightly find to be judgmental.

« Last Edit: May 03, 2019, 10:52:13 am by Janet Easson Martin » Logged

For grace is given not because we have done good works, but in order that we may be able to do them.        - Saint Augustine
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