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Post by Deleted on Sept 27, 2016 18:35:18 GMT
For me, initially I would avoid visiting a PR church if at all possible (unless I knew the pastor to be a more moderate pastor, one of the few pastors who has been trying to change things). I have finally come to the conclusion not to attend whatsoever--even for baptisms and such. Once you've been out for a few years and developed a healthier doctrine, the toxicity of the preaching becomes very obvious. The last 2 baptisms I went to, one of them was a rant about total depravity and how the baby being baptized could very well be reprobate. What a way to celebrate a child's birth. The other was a sermon directed only to men about their responsibility as the heads of the home to raise children in the Lord with a few side tangents about gender roles and discipline methods (spanking is encouraged). It's so heartbreakingly sad and dark, and I found myself needing to pray for everyone in the room and how the kids would be affected. Fear, I think of all emotions, has the power to distort and corral the human mind to the objective of its practitioner. The prca utilizes fear as skillfully as any organization I have experienced. It is so very dark... |
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Post by Admin on Sept 27, 2016 21:01:40 GMT
For me, initially I would avoid visiting a PR church if at all possible (unless I knew the pastor to be a more moderate pastor, one of the few pastors who has been trying to change things). I have finally come to the conclusion not to attend whatsoever--even for baptisms and such. Once you've been out for a few years and developed a healthier doctrine, the toxicity of the preaching becomes very obvious. The last 2 baptisms I went to, one of them was a rant about total depravity and how the baby being baptized could very well be reprobate. What a way to celebrate a child's birth. The other was a sermon directed only to men about their responsibility as the heads of the home to raise children in the Lord with a few side tangents about gender roles and discipline methods (spanking is encouraged). It's so heartbreakingly sad and dark, and I found myself needing to pray for everyone in the room and how the kids would be affected. Welcome, mb19339! Thanks for posting.  The Admin Team |
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Post by maggie on May 6, 2018 21:41:31 GMT
Any tips on how to best handle this? My wife and I have been out of the PRC now for over 10 years. Leaving was one of the best decisions we have ever made. However, most of her family is still in the PRC, which means we occasionally do attend PR services for baptisms and professions/confessions of faith. I actually don't mind the worship services that much. Sometimes the sermons are even on topics beyond the norm. However, I find the post service small talk time to be excruciating, mainly because hardly anyone will talk to us. We could literally stand alone for 30 minutes without anyone even saying hello (there is one exception, a very kind older gentleman who always says hello and chats for a bit, but that's it). The last time I attended a PR service, I saw a former friend of mine, a guy I was actually very close to during my time in the PRC, and a guy who simply cut us off when we left. My wife and I were standing alone after church and he made eye contact with us as he was walking by, and then just kept right on walking without saying a word. If it were me, I would walk right out after the service without a word. If you celebrate the baptism at someone's house, go straight there. If anyone in the family mentions why you were in a hurry just say 'I need some time to relax' or something of that sort. No use in making yourself uncomfortable because people are rude and not loving their neighbor.....Oops, their neighbors are PR's |
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Post by maggie on May 6, 2018 21:46:19 GMT
Initiate contact, confront them, ask them their reasoning in their behavior. You deserve answers. If they refuse to answer or walk away, you've got your answer. The pr church is the most unfriendly, sanctimonious, snobby clique I've ever had the annoyance to experience. They're like John Calvin on steroids. I have done this before. I actually ran into another one of my former "friends" from the PRC in a park a couple years ago. He was going to do the usual walk by with no acknowledgement and I decided just to step in his way and address him. Once he was forced to stop, he was actually fairly friendly and we had an okay conversation. Here is the interesting and truly sad part of this story, I heard he was later rebuked by one of his elders (I have no idea how the elder even found out about this) for having this conversation with me and "acting like everything was all right." That is because you are no longer a 'neighbor' But what is the command.....Love God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself. |
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Post by gratefullyfree on May 7, 2018 3:58:50 GMT
They love to talk about grace and loving their neighbors, going so far as to quoting the commandments and Matthew every week, but they are the most reluctant church, I have personally every seen, to put it into practice. When I left, I had one member who called to ask how I was-they had joined the church as an adult and have since left as well.
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