4/26/10 – Tony Alamo no man of God ***COMMENTS***
The Current
April 26, 2010
Posted by Andrew Seal
Tony Alamo no man of God
Tony Alamo is leaving leaflets on my car.
Articles & Literature of Interest
Choosing a Church After a Painful Experience by Lawrence A. Pile
Choosing a Church After a Painful Experience
by
Lawrence A. Pile
Twenty years ago I left what had been a warm, exciting Christian fellowship, but which had become an authoritarian, restrictive organization. I reached this difficult decision after months of wrenching deliberation and several talks with the group’s leaders about my concerns at the direction the fellowship was taking. I had joined the movement 5½ years earlier in another city, had served as one of four leaders of a church-planting team that brought the movement to Columbus, Ohio, and had led Bible studies and held other positions of responsibility in the church. I literally had expected to remain with the movement the rest of my life. To see it degenerate was, to say the least, a disillusioning experience.
I found myself saying good-bye to men and women I had considered my brothers and sisters. I felt like a part of my soul was being cut out of me. What was I going to do now? I had developed no contingency plans to fall back on in such an unforeseen situation.
8/09/09 – They Freed Their Minds. But Some Wound Up Trapped.
Washington Post
August 9, 2009
By Jayanti Tamm
They Freed Their Minds. But Some Wound Up Trapped.
At my local bookstore on the eve of the 40th anniversary of Woodstock, 1960s nostalgia is in high gear. A display table is stacked high with pricey coffee table books, each with its own variation on psychedelic rainbow lettering, each claiming to reveal the untold story of the “peace and music” festival. I understand the lucrative business of selling those hazy memories — the Woodstock museum, Cherry Garcia ice cream, even the new movie “Taking Woodstock.” I just can’t buy into it.
Identifying a cult
There has been much confusion about cults and how to ‘pickem’.
Some have difficulty identifying a cult because it is not so
easy to identify one that is not even religious. For this
reason, over the years, different definitions of what actually
is a cult have developed to make it easier when you know
little about their beliefs.
The different definitions:
SECULAR DEFINITION
The Role of Critical Thinking in Recovery for Ex-members of Destructive Groups
December 2006
Hal Mansfield, M.A.
Director, Rocky Mountain Resource Center on Violent, Destructive, and Hate Groups
“In this article, I want to explore the nature of critical thinking in the role of recovery for ex-members of destructive groups. Former members face many difficult changes in the recovery process including anger, intimacy, and how to just get along in life, to mention just a few. I want to focus on critical thinking for the purpose of clarifying the role it plays in recovery and try to clear up misunderstandings of what we mean by critical thinking.
To start, let’s look at what critical thinking is. There are many popular ideas about it. I have heard everything from defining critical thinking as a measuring stick to reality, and to a more base definition as a crap detector. Both of those have some validity, but I prefer to use the definition from the Dictionary of Psychology by Arthur Reber. The dictionary defines critical thinking as a cognitive strategy consisting largely of continual checking and testing of possible solutions to guide ones work. Another way to look at it is to test existing ideas and solutions for flaws and errors. Looking at this definition, destructive groups block critical thinking.
Dysfunctional Churches
by Ronald Enroth, Ph.D.
It is common practice for church goers in American society to refer to their own congregation as their “church family.” Students away at college make reference to their “home church.” Church people sing hymns about being part of “the family of God.” Parents often employ family imagery to convey spiritual content to their children.
As behavioral scientists remind us all too often, that most basic of social institutions—the family—is increasingly subject to frailty and failure. The label that is currently popular for unhealthy families is “dysfunctional.” Unfortunately, sociologists of religion (as well as many ex-members) know that some churches are also dysfunctional, even to the point of being spiritually abusive. If truth in advertising standards could be applied to religion, some churches would be required to display a sign reading: “Warning: this church could be harmful to your spiritual and psychological health.”
How Could Anyone Join a Cult?
by A Wellspring Alum
With the Heaven’s Gate tragedy still so fresh in all of our minds certain questions seem to come up: What kind of person joins a cult? Why do they stay and put up with the abuse? How could anyone be so devoted that they would kill themselves? Can’t they see that what they are doing is crazy? Are they crazy?
I feel that I am in a unique position to address these questions as I spent 10 years with a communal cult. Yet, now being out for 11 years, I also can look at the horrors that happened at Rancho Sante Fe and ask, along with the rest of a stunned nation, “Why did they die like this?”
They Told Me If I Left…
Click here to view this article and other articles from spiritualabuse.org
They Told Me If I Left …
by Ron Henzel
One of the most insidious features of Spiritual Abuse is the state of terror in which it leaves so many of its victims.
Alamo Christian Foundation (Music Square Church) identified as a cult
Cults in America
by James R Lewis
Click here to order a copy or view pages from inside the book. Shopping with Amazon.com is 100% safe.
Since the early 1970s, alternative religious movements known as cults have been the focus of ever-increasing controversy in America. This reference handbook compares present-day cults to events in earlier American history, while primarily dealing with cults as a contemporary phenomenon. The key issue of mind control is covered in detail, as are deprogramming and the anti-cult movement. Overviews of the most controversial churches, and biographies of their leaders, are prominent features of this book. Legislative efforts and court decisions, particularly those surrounding the issue of religious liberty, are covered in detail. The volume features a directory of organizations in both the United States and Europe, a selected bibliography, print and nonprint resources, a chronology with the dates of religious events in American history, and coverage of events such as the Solar Temple and Heaven’s Gate incidents. Alamo Christian Foundation (Music Square Church) identified as a cult on pages 66 and 67 of the book.
Click on the picture below to view the pages 66 and 67 in the book.
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