[MD] Sharing My Testimony

[Ian Glendinning]

Sadly I'm just embaking of two weeks away from this stuff ...

But that is an excellent story John.
There is a very intriguing counter story though .... of atheist
"intellectuals" drifting towards Catholicism .... spooky.

Love to stop and debate.
Bye.
Ian

On Thu, Sep 10, 2009 at 11:57 PM, Joseph Maurer <jhmau at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>
> 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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