form letters suck

Some of you may already know this about me, some may not. I plan to write extensively on this topic as soon as I get a free moment to write about it well. Spiritual Abuse.

My husband and I left our church after about 8 years of full fledged, life sacrificing devotion to their ministry. We believe that we were in a very controlling, spiritually abusive church. Most people in my life who were not members of that church went so far as to call it a cult.

Recently there was an article on CBN (http://www.cbn.com/spirituallife/Bi...ritualAbuse.asp)
I was so happy to see this issue being spoken of within the christian community, that I wrote an email:

I was so glad to read your article on spiritual abuse. My husband and I
left a church after 8 years of attendance because we felt it was spiritually
abusive. Ironically, it wasn't until we tried to leave that it became
obviously abusive. We too were told that we would be devoured by Satan for
leaving. We have yet to heal. We trust Jesus and wait. The years of abuse have
left us with post traumatic stress and fears of joining a new church. I look
forward to more of your articles. Contact me if you need some inside
experiences.

This was totally out of my character. I wanted to help reach out with my story and other's that I know who share a story of this kind of pain and confusion.

What I got, was a freaking cold form letter with a polite plug to read more of the author's writings!

Thank you for sharing your comments for Craig von Buseck concerning his article.
Though he is not able to respond personally, he appreciates your feedback. For
more information about Craig, and to see more of his articles, please see his
Web page on CBN.com-- http://www.cbn.com/about/bios/craigvonbuseck.aspGod bless
you. The Christian Broadcasting NetworkWebsite - http://www.cbn.com/ The 700 Club Prayer
Counseling Center - 1-800-759-0700

Does anyone else ever wonder if christians even belong to Christ? I understand that it is a HUGE ministry but couldn't a secretary write a real response? Do they have to put a plug in it to read more of the authors' writings? How is this ministering to people??

UGH!

My good cyber friend David was able to get their real letter that they could not send because it wasn't the timing of the Holy Spirit !

Thankyou David!

Dear Jane,Thank you for being duped into thinking we really care about spiritual
abuse. We looked for a popular topic and lo and behold, spiritual abuse came up
and we couldn't pass up an opportunity to write about it to increase traffic to
our website and make money in the process. Please note that every aspect of
spirituality has become merchandized and spiritual abuse is no exception. In
fact, we encourage every pastor out there to spend at least five Sundays a year
covering this topic so as to lead people to believe that they are aware of this
issue and that they are doing something about it. Soon there will be T-shirts,
key-chains and bumper stickers with anti-spiritual abuse slogans on them.As you
probably know, all legalistic churches preach sermons on legalism on a regular
basis, which leads the congregants to believe that since the pastor preaches on
legalism, legalism is not a problem with their church. Can't get any simpler
than that.Cars run on oil, the kingdom of God runs on righteousness, and
churches run on gullibility. Please visit his website on CBN.com for more
applicable topics written to foster more gullibility and in turn greater
recognition and profit for us.

(*I don't wish to be sued for false statements, this letter is actually a creation of David's; who very accurately revealed their true hearts)

Are there any ministries out there serving Christ in love without being entangled with christianese and doctrine disputes? Christ came that we might have life and have life abundantly. Honestly today's brand of religion smells more like fishy pharisees to me. I think we as christians need to read the bible for ourselves and remember that the veil was torn when Christ died on the cross. There is no mediator between man and God- so please be careful not to fall in the trap of pastor worship and false religion.

just my 2 cents.....

-jane

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Useless thought for my day:
A friend taught me this really cool trick with the keyboard. I feel like a bad girl in sixth grade again. I can draw the word A**holes! Check this out.... (_o_) it actually looks like a butt!
Reminds me of the days we typed ll34 on the calculater and turned it upside down to see it spelled hell. Anyone else do that as a kid?