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The Forum > Article Comments > Letter-writing professor reluctantly hounded by heaven > Comments

Letter-writing professor reluctantly hounded by heaven : Comments

By Greg Clarke, published 14/10/2008

C.S. Lewis' letters reveal a bruised and open heart that was thoroughly and painfully explored by the God he came, reluctantly, to believe in.

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Steel Mann

http://ldolphin.org/Mast.shtml
Posted by Gibo, Thursday, 16 October 2008 4:05:18 PM
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Gibo,

This pastor was questioning young boys and men about what they were thinking, claiming to try and help them. He was trying to find out who might have been gay in the church, and claimed he was trying to help them. I wondered though if he had some other motive. As I denied having any homosexual tendency (and in those days I was very anti-gay)he wasn't able to get very far with me.

What I am saying Gibo, is that I do not blame God for what this pastor did.
Posted by Steel Mann, Friday, 17 October 2008 7:30:59 AM
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Steel Mann

Your advice: "I don't know if your questions about God are an excuse not to believe or if you are really interested in knowing about God. If it is the latter, you need to read the Bible, most answers are found there."

Thanks, but no thanks. I was made to read the Bible as a child and teenager and was compelled to attend Church every Sunday in company with our tormenters. What did I learn?

"Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers...Numbness!"
We heard the priest declaim: Jesus said, "Suffer the children..." and his devout and self-righteous followers certainly made sure we did.

Some of our 'carers' must have gone to church on Sunday to pray to God for strength to abuse us all the harder on Monday. They obviously loved the advice they received: "He who spareth the rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him correcteth him betimes" (Proverbs 13:24) and "Withhold not correction from a child: for if thou strike him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and deliver his soul from hell." (Proverbs 23:13-14)

If others went to seek God's forgiveness for sexually abusing vulnerable children, He wasn't listening.

It's enlightening to find that yet another 'Christian' sect which teaches harsh discipline has been embroiled in sexual abuse scandals (and that's only the ones that have been discovered).

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/spare-the-rod-and-spoil-the-133/2008/03/23/1206206927458.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap2

I'm afraid the one strong lesson we learned throughout childhood was that you shouldn't trust those who blabbered on about seeking salvation in the next life when we wanted safety and security in the here-and-now.
Posted by Spikey, Friday, 17 October 2008 10:00:52 AM
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Spikey,

Not all Christians are the same (Thank God) and not all Churches are the same. I've suffered spiritual/ mental abuse myself from the hands of manipulative people in the Church but it hasn't changed my attitude to God.

These days I'm strong enough to say no thank you to those Christians who seek to control my life. True Christianity is about freedom, not domination, control and manipulation. Unfortunately these types of people are what the church is best known for producing, however they ae the minority.
Posted by Steel Mann, Friday, 17 October 2008 11:12:20 AM
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Spikey
Your Reference to the Old Testament reminds me of the reasons name my bulls after the books of OT. The first reason was that Genesis was a great name for a bull at the beginning of my enterprise and it is full of 'begatting' which is what one needs from a good bull, and the second was that as time passes the OT increasingly becomes a load of old bulls.
Posted by Candide, Friday, 17 October 2008 12:43:03 PM
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Steel Mann

I agree not all Christians are the same, but with all due respect you all read the same religious text. Hence we have the Polycarps, Gibos et al.

Like Spikey, I had to attend Sunday school and religious education at school (which was not education about religions but proselytising and indoctrination into Christianity).

Therefore, being told to go and read the bible sounds both patronising and condescending. We know what is in it - enough contradictions to cause much hatred and not a little war.

Like Spikey, I am responsible for the bad and the good that I do. I have to live with my conscience - not answer to an imaginary patriarch in the sky.
Posted by Fractelle, Friday, 17 October 2008 12:47:51 PM
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