Some former members of the highly controversial Family International are currently on a crusade that's earning them a lot of sympathy (and other benefits, I'm sure) via the media, as they proclaim their gospel of "My father has never had time for me and I've been robbed of my childhood." While that kind of message is extremely popular and successful in getting you all the pity and sympathy you couldn't even come up with for yourself, what strikes me as the most sad about this issue is that those people must have never really known Jesus, nor cared about anything He's had to say.
They must be so enchanted and enamored with themselves, they never gave a hoot about the things Jesus had to say in the Gospels about such things as family, let alone some of His more controversial statements on the issue, and I strongly doubt that anyone not familiar with the words of Christ can be a true believer in Him, because it's the Words of Christ that our faith in Him come from.
The problem is that the Family Intl. is an outfit that takes the words of Jesus very seriously, more seriously than any other Christian church or movement I know, and thus many obviously argue that they're taking them too seriously. If you take Jesus' words seriously enough, you won't be able to maintain a good, nice and clean image of what the world considers a "good Christian" anymore.
Jesus was an iconoclast (idol smasher) and revolutionary who broke with many of the traditions of man (like the Sabbath, that was holy unto the Jews), and , in fact, with anything that ever stood in the way between God and people. He tried to remove any obstacle that could possibly get in the way between God and man, showing us and enabling us to enjoy a personal, loving relationship with God - and through that, with our fellowman, too. And it so happens that for some people, their family is their god, (just like for others, their god is their job, their house, their car, their football team, favorite rock-star, or their belly). That's why Jesus said, "He that loveth father or mother,... son or daughter more than Me... is not worthy of Me," and He made it pretty clear that He valued His disciples above His flesh and blood family and relatives, no matter what kind of interpretations lukewarm preachers and moviemakers are trying to give those Gospel passages.
The truth is that the Family Intl. is one outfit that for once is trying to put God first, without any of the idols and other little gods that "Christians" usually worship and serve in reality, and people who are totally alienated to that concept because all they really care about is themselves, simply can't cope with that.
The world I grew up in was very different from the one that Hollywood so successfully has been making nearly everybody under forty believe exists, of happy, loving, rich families living in pink houses: a world where fathers simply rarely did have time - or much interest, for that matter - in their children, because they saw it as their primary duty to rake in the money. The world I grew up in was one in which you didn't mind not seeing too much of your father, because if you did, you might regret it...
My wife was sexually abused by her father as a child and lived, even without writing a book about it. In fact, she found it in her heart to forgive him and was the only one of his children around him when he died. It's a concept called forgiveness, one that attention-junkies are totally oblivious to.
The thing is, the world is only willing to listen to your sob stories if you were member of a group that is the only proof in existence that there is a way out of their miserable treadmill after all. It's easy to rot together against anyone who's different, whether they wear a turban or dare to live or believe differently than you, and the establishment will always gladly pay you your 30 pieces of silver for your elaborate "inside information." They want to believe in their Hollywood make-belief world, and hate anyone threatening to destroy their illusion.
Well, enjoy your selfish dream, folks, for as long as it lasts. In the end you'll see that all the while you had a more loving Father Who cares about you more than you could ever fathom. You just didn't care about Him, that's all.
They must be so enchanted and enamored with themselves, they never gave a hoot about the things Jesus had to say in the Gospels about such things as family, let alone some of His more controversial statements on the issue, and I strongly doubt that anyone not familiar with the words of Christ can be a true believer in Him, because it's the Words of Christ that our faith in Him come from.
The problem is that the Family Intl. is an outfit that takes the words of Jesus very seriously, more seriously than any other Christian church or movement I know, and thus many obviously argue that they're taking them too seriously. If you take Jesus' words seriously enough, you won't be able to maintain a good, nice and clean image of what the world considers a "good Christian" anymore.
Jesus was an iconoclast (idol smasher) and revolutionary who broke with many of the traditions of man (like the Sabbath, that was holy unto the Jews), and , in fact, with anything that ever stood in the way between God and people. He tried to remove any obstacle that could possibly get in the way between God and man, showing us and enabling us to enjoy a personal, loving relationship with God - and through that, with our fellowman, too. And it so happens that for some people, their family is their god, (just like for others, their god is their job, their house, their car, their football team, favorite rock-star, or their belly). That's why Jesus said, "He that loveth father or mother,... son or daughter more than Me... is not worthy of Me," and He made it pretty clear that He valued His disciples above His flesh and blood family and relatives, no matter what kind of interpretations lukewarm preachers and moviemakers are trying to give those Gospel passages.
The truth is that the Family Intl. is one outfit that for once is trying to put God first, without any of the idols and other little gods that "Christians" usually worship and serve in reality, and people who are totally alienated to that concept because all they really care about is themselves, simply can't cope with that.
The world I grew up in was very different from the one that Hollywood so successfully has been making nearly everybody under forty believe exists, of happy, loving, rich families living in pink houses: a world where fathers simply rarely did have time - or much interest, for that matter - in their children, because they saw it as their primary duty to rake in the money. The world I grew up in was one in which you didn't mind not seeing too much of your father, because if you did, you might regret it...
My wife was sexually abused by her father as a child and lived, even without writing a book about it. In fact, she found it in her heart to forgive him and was the only one of his children around him when he died. It's a concept called forgiveness, one that attention-junkies are totally oblivious to.
The thing is, the world is only willing to listen to your sob stories if you were member of a group that is the only proof in existence that there is a way out of their miserable treadmill after all. It's easy to rot together against anyone who's different, whether they wear a turban or dare to live or believe differently than you, and the establishment will always gladly pay you your 30 pieces of silver for your elaborate "inside information." They want to believe in their Hollywood make-belief world, and hate anyone threatening to destroy their illusion.
Well, enjoy your selfish dream, folks, for as long as it lasts. In the end you'll see that all the while you had a more loving Father Who cares about you more than you could ever fathom. You just didn't care about Him, that's all.
