On 9/10/09 8:57 AM, "John Carl" <[email protected]> wrote:
<snip> > And on that day I walked away from the religion into which I had been born. > On that day, I was saved. > > Praise Good! <snip> Hi John and all, In a Catholic Seminary I studied Greek and Latin! After six years ³Naw, he¹s no good!² In a Catholic Monastery I studied Aquinas: ³What I have written is as straw² (His comments at the end of his life after he wrote the most beautiful music for the office of Corpus Christi.) I studied Augustine: I don¹t remember the name of his son. He was the Bishop of Hippo! After four years: ³Naw, he¹s no good. In the Summer of ¹63 I went to New York and found the soup line at The Catholic Worker. In 64 I went to New Orleans, to Mississippi, to work on voter registration for the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. No future there! In 2007 Louise died of ovarian cancer after a final champagne party with friends and family. I had already found Pirsig. Now I live with my Son and try to sing in the choir as well as I know how each week at Church. Joe > In Christian circles, there is this thing that is done called, "sharing your > testimony". How it usually translates is as story that starts "when Jesus > came into my life" and usually is a tale whereby the teller explains how > they were caught up in bad habits of drugs, alcohol or/and sexual > promiscuity and then they get this revelation in conversation with a > believer that they don't have to do that anymore. They are saved. > Now growing up in a churchy atmosphere I'd hear these stories, but wonder > then if I was saved. Since my whole life I'd never been addicted or bad I > didn't really have anything to repent from and be saved. I was raised by > parents in the Seventh Day Adventist equivalents of a "Jack" Mormon - they > socialize and know the rules and have family within the religious group, > and don't really have any argument with the basic teachings except they'd > just rather party and have fun while in this world and not be bound by any > religious strictures. But they still send their kids to the schools and the > church so they can make up their own mind and be part of this social group. > > So I didn't really get to hear about Jesus, I just grew up in this > atmosphere where it was all there in the air. > > During my senior year in high school, I raised my eyes to God and said, > "God, I'm here in this religion because I was born into it. I have no idea > if you even exist. I can't worry about it, it's a bigger problem than I can > solve. I'm going to do what I think is right - pursue truth. If you wanna > change my mind, go ahead and try." > > And on that day I walked away from the religion into which I had been born. > On that day, I was saved. > > Praise Good! > > > Over the years I learned to appreciate my early training which led to my > conversion. Since the SDA church was highly critical of every single > religion under the sun, so was I. At the same time, the SDA church was so > blatantly screwed up itself, I was in no real danger of being trapped by > it, and the practice trap-avoidance stood me in good stead. It was like > I'd just been through a boot camp program of social conditioning which > taught one how to break free from social conditioning. > > Sorta like Japanese society as served by Zen. A bunch of rules and a path > of escape. > > An escape from a scary prison. Whew! That was a close one. > Moq_Discuss mailing list > Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. > http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org > Archives: > http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ > http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/ Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
