Sadly I'm just embaking of two weeks away from this stuff ... But that is an excellent story John. There is a very intriguing counter story though .... of atheist "intellectuals" drifting towards Catholicism .... spooky.
Love to stop and debate. Bye. Ian On Thu, Sep 10, 2009 at 11:57 PM, Joseph Maurer <[email protected]> wrote: > > 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 Œ64 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/ > 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/
