Musings on biblical studies, politics, religion, ethics, human nature, tidbits from science
12: Healthy Skepticism Concluding my notes from Marlene Winell’s (Leaving the Fold) encouraging list of some of the good one can take away from the fundamentalist or cultic experience, mingled with my own thoughts . . . . earlier posts under the Winell and Fundamentalism tags. Hoo boy! When I finally broke free of the … Continue reading “The GOOD legacy of the fundamentalist and cultic life: 12”
Continuing from Leaving the Fold Marlene Winell’s encouraging list of some of the good one can take away from the fundamentalist or cultic experience, mingled with my own thoughts . . . . (See also her newly established Recovery from Religion website.) — earlier posts under the Winell and Fundamentalism categories linked here. 11: Community … Continue reading “The GOOD legacy of a fundamentalist and cultic life: 11”
Continuing from Leaving the Fold Marlene Winell’s encouraging list of some of the good one can take away from the fundamentalist or cultic experience, mingled with my own thoughts . . . . (See also her newly established Recovery from Religion website.) — earlier posts under the Winell and Fundamentalism categories linked here. 10: SKILLS … Continue reading “The GOOD legacy of a fundamentalist and cultic life: 10”
Revised again (1). . . . In addition to life in the fringe cults I should have discussed more the life and legacy of the more mainstream fundamentalist groups, too. But in both types, one will almost surely be exposed to many examples and contacts with some highly memorable people of deep compassion, self-sacrifice for … Continue reading “The GOOD legacy . . . : 9 — afterthought”
Continuing from Leaving the Fold Marlene Winell’s encouraging list of some of the good one can take away from the fundamentalist or cultic experience, mingled with my own thoughts . . . . (See also her newly established Recovery from Religion website.) — earlier posts under the Winell and Fundamentalism categories linked here. Moral development … Continue reading “The GOOD legacy of a fundamentalist and cultic life: 9”
Continuing the posts in this series (check the Winell link underneath the Book Reviews & Notes on the main page {click “Vridar” in the header above} of this blog for the earlier posts) . . . .
Continuing from Leaving the Fold Marlene Winell’s encouraging list of some of the good one can take away from the fundamentalist or cultic experience, mingled with my own thoughts . . . . (See also her newly established Recovery from Religion website.) — earlier posts under the Winell and Fundamentalism categories linked here. Fundamentalists and … Continue reading “The GOOD legacy of a fundamentalist and cultic life: 6 – capacity for humility and trust”
Awareness of Mercy Continuing from part 4 in this series . . . . Next in Marlene’s list is “Awareness of Mercy”. While I found myself nodding in agreement I had to ask myself how such a legacy can come out of such a judgmental belief system. But first, notes from Marlene’s discussion: After reminding … Continue reading “The GOOD legacy of a fundamentalist and cultic life: 5”
Understanding Gentleness Marlene Winell discusses this legacy as something derived from the model of Jesus, as an anti-dote to much of the traditional western socialization of males to be aggressive, in control, independent and rational, pursuing power and success. She recalls observing Christian men, on the other hand, submissive to the model of the humility … Continue reading “The GOOD legacy of a fundamentalist and cultic life: 4”
Continuing from Leaving the Fold Marlene Winell’s encouraging list of some of the good one can take away from the fundamentalist or cultic experience, mingled with my own thoughts . . . . Vision of the Possible In the church or cult to which I once belonged a common phrase used was “the human potential”. … Continue reading “The GOOD legacy of a fundamentalist and cultic life: 3”
Sense of the Profound Marlene Winell wrote in Leaving the Fold (p.106): You also learned to consider things deeply. As a religious person’:” you had to wrestle with ultimate questions of life and death, good and evil, truth, love, humility, dignity, responsibility, freedom, destiny, finite and infinite. While your life may now have become more … Continue reading “The GOOD legacy of a fundamentalist and cultic life: 2”
Despite the losses of my years in fundamentalism and cultism there were also some very positive gains. I can’t say I would do it all over again, but I cannot deny the experiences in the more extreme end of religion have given me an outlook, an understanding and I think even a compassion that I … Continue reading “The GOOD legacy of a fundamentalist / cultic life: 1”
This post is dedicated to all those who were once fundamentalists and are fundamentalists no more. I post here extracts from testimonies of a number of people who have described the changes in their lives since they left fundamentalism behind. I initially thought I’d dedicate it to those informed lay and erudite scholars who contemptuously … Continue reading “Once a Fundamentalist . . . Never Again”