tamaritha
Patron
Why does Tamaritha have a cynical view of Christianity? Probably because there are so many cults based on Christianity to a greater or lesser extent. There are the Moonies (Unitarians), the Heaven's Gate, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons (Latter-Day Saints), the Children of God, Opus Dei (of Da Vinci Code fame), our God Hates Fags picketers (Westboro Baptist Church), and even bloody Jonestown (People's Temple) was a Christian cult.
Most people respond to this by saying that they aren't really real Christians, and it's because they aren't really real Christians, they shouldn't be considered as Christian cults. Tamaritha, as a result, is highly amused - this is probably because those cultists will turn around and say the other people are heretics and cultists, effectively resulting in a circular argument.
Meet the Remnant Fellowship Church, that teaches you to beat up your children to an inch of their lives. Apparently it's somewhere in the Bible. It probably is in their wacky translation of it - and what do you know, apparently this 'Church' only uses the Fire & Brimstone, ye are all SINNERS! REPENT! section of the Bible.
Former members of the "Church" are trying to speak out, such as this site. Even just reading the material at this one site, it is obvious why this one has the same cultic flavour as all the others.
Apparently the church recruits its members through a weight-loss program called "Weigh Down" and "Weigh Down Advance" - much like Scientology recruiting through Narconon and Dianetics. I've personally never heard of Weigh Down, and considering this was founded in 1999, technically I should have - but it apparently uses Christian faith based regulations in order to lose weight. Apparently it was hugely popular, like Dianetics at the time.
Once they are recruited, they are told that the reason for their ballooning weight or whatever, is because their church is fake and worships idols (a loose definition here that roughly translates to "THEM"), then quickly teach their adherents to shun people who question too much about the "Church", and expel anyone who questions too much and does not toe the line, because the "Church" has to remain pure.
Sooner or later, most adherents of the "Church" ends up doing staff work for them such as manning their phone lines and taking care of their children in poorly managed daycares - yes, the same daycares where all this child abuse goes on. Most of these people are college students who are looking for that elusive Meaning of Life, and end up even dropping out of college in order to support their new religious convictions. They also all eventually end up moving to Nashville.
Oh, and apparently their "prophet" and the prophet's daughter outlines the congregation's practices instead of actually looking up passages in the Bible for the references!
Eventually, most members of the congregation aren't concerned with pleasing God, even in their twisted version of the Gospels. What they're concerned with is pleasing Gwen Shamblin, the prophet of this place, and Gwen (and occasionally her daughter) has the last word in everything.
I don't know about you, but this curiously reminds me of a certain religion, but its name has escaped me for the moment.
... Of course, the disclaimer is that this should not be believed in - www.spiritwatch.org, where one of these articles are quoted from, is apparently associated with the very same Westboro Baptist Church - for 10 years! Gee, I wonder if they used to believe God hates fags too?
From all this, it's probably best to be said that if someone starts bitching about how true their Church is instead of all the others, and how they know the key to the Meaning of Life, that Church is probably a fake.
Most people respond to this by saying that they aren't really real Christians, and it's because they aren't really real Christians, they shouldn't be considered as Christian cults. Tamaritha, as a result, is highly amused - this is probably because those cultists will turn around and say the other people are heretics and cultists, effectively resulting in a circular argument.
Meet the Remnant Fellowship Church, that teaches you to beat up your children to an inch of their lives. Apparently it's somewhere in the Bible. It probably is in their wacky translation of it - and what do you know, apparently this 'Church' only uses the Fire & Brimstone, ye are all SINNERS! REPENT! section of the Bible.
Former members of the "Church" are trying to speak out, such as this site. Even just reading the material at this one site, it is obvious why this one has the same cultic flavour as all the others.
Apparently the church recruits its members through a weight-loss program called "Weigh Down" and "Weigh Down Advance" - much like Scientology recruiting through Narconon and Dianetics. I've personally never heard of Weigh Down, and considering this was founded in 1999, technically I should have - but it apparently uses Christian faith based regulations in order to lose weight. Apparently it was hugely popular, like Dianetics at the time.
Once they are recruited, they are told that the reason for their ballooning weight or whatever, is because their church is fake and worships idols (a loose definition here that roughly translates to "THEM"), then quickly teach their adherents to shun people who question too much about the "Church", and expel anyone who questions too much and does not toe the line, because the "Church" has to remain pure.
Sooner or later, most adherents of the "Church" ends up doing staff work for them such as manning their phone lines and taking care of their children in poorly managed daycares - yes, the same daycares where all this child abuse goes on. Most of these people are college students who are looking for that elusive Meaning of Life, and end up even dropping out of college in order to support their new religious convictions. They also all eventually end up moving to Nashville.
Oh, and apparently their "prophet" and the prophet's daughter outlines the congregation's practices instead of actually looking up passages in the Bible for the references!
Eventually, most members of the congregation aren't concerned with pleasing God, even in their twisted version of the Gospels. What they're concerned with is pleasing Gwen Shamblin, the prophet of this place, and Gwen (and occasionally her daughter) has the last word in everything.
I don't know about you, but this curiously reminds me of a certain religion, but its name has escaped me for the moment.
... Of course, the disclaimer is that this should not be believed in - www.spiritwatch.org, where one of these articles are quoted from, is apparently associated with the very same Westboro Baptist Church - for 10 years! Gee, I wonder if they used to believe God hates fags too?
From all this, it's probably best to be said that if someone starts bitching about how true their Church is instead of all the others, and how they know the key to the Meaning of Life, that Church is probably a fake.
