[MD] Sharing My Testimony

[Joseph Maurer]

On 9/10/09 8:57 AM, "John Carl" <ridgecoyote at gmail.com> 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.
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