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Missionary Program
#1
Missionary Program
Years ago I was part of an intense 10 missionary, leadership, discipleship program known as 24/7 out of New Life Church in Colorado. At the time Ted Haggard was the head pastor there. There was a 10 day part to this program known specifically as "missions training". It involved a series of fake scenarios to test your faith that starts out with getting kidnapped in the middle of the night.

Throughout the training we had met pretend contacts in pretend countries to try and simulate what it would be like. We ended up being pretend kidnapped for preaching the gospel in a foreign country. I want to say the word torture but I think that's a bit harsh. We didn't get our teeth pulled out with a rusty spoon but we were sleep deprived to no end. By the end of this charade each one of us were pulled from a basement, sat in a chair, and asked to deny Christ. If you refused to deny there was a gun shot and then as amazing grace was being sang your obituary was read.

I could go on about how crazy that entire program was but one thing has stuck with me after all these years. During the missions training we had to carry around these sheep while climbing up mountains. These sheep stuck with us for several days and were not cared for in the slightest bit. A plastic bag was tied around one of the sheeps butts because it was sick. By the end of it the sheep had to be carried completely because they were exhausted. It didn't feel right and it didn't look right.

Once we got to the top of the mountain we simulated that the sheep were given to us as an offering to eat. As groups we all took part in killing and cooking the sheep. It was different for me because I had never witnessed an animal being slaughtered alive before. That could very well be why this bothered me so much but I have a thing for animals and I believe that they didn't need to die that day. Year after year they do this practice and I like to hear some thoughts on whether this is an ok form of using farm animals. In my trips to three different countries we never had to kill a single animal. So I can't help but feel as though that bit of training is unnecessary and borderline cruel. I hope this isn't too long I've never really posted to a forum before. Worship (large)

Any thoughts or comments would be appreciated.

Cheers.[/size]
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#2
RE: Missionary Program
Quote:Throughout the training we had met pretend contacts in pretend countries to try and simulate what it would be like.


That makes perfect sense to me. You were peddling a pretend god, too.

Welcome aboard!
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#3
RE: Missionary Program
I would have bet good money that this thread was Losty's.
I can't remember where this verse is from, I think it got removed from canon:

"I don't hang around with mostly men because I'm gay. It's because men are better than women. Better trained, better equipped...better. Just better! I'm not gay."

For context, this is the previous verse:

"Hi Jesus" -robvalue
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#4
RE: Missionary Program
Well they mixed religion with paramilitary training. Tear you down so they can fill your head with crap. I can understand secular pluralistic military training because it is an unfortunate part of reality that our species is tribal. But this is typical of religion, when it can prove it's credibility, it co opts other aspects of society to fake credibility.

They also either attack science to say " see, so therefor my god exists", or they co-opt science and say "see this matches science".

Stalin before he took power had a theology background in Russian Orthodoxy. Even if one claims he was an atheist at his rule, he used the same godlike rule the god of the bible used. And it certainly was easy for him to manipulate a mostly Russian Orthodox population. The other myth is that Russia became atheists when he took power. Religion never left Russia. The state simply didn't want anyone competing with the one party state. After the Soviet Union fell the churches went back to being open, but they never left. Russian Orthodoxy was still the pet religion of the state as long as it knew its place.
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#5
RE: Missionary Program
(November 23, 2014 at 9:23 pm)Exian Wrote: I would have bet good money that this thread was Losty's.

I don't know what that means. ??
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#6
RE: Missionary Program
(November 23, 2014 at 9:36 pm)Bboppinb Wrote:
(November 23, 2014 at 9:23 pm)Exian Wrote: I would have bet good money that this thread was Losty's.

I don't know what that means. ??

Big Grin

We know. But Losty may have to explain it to you. Just hang with us.
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#7
RE: Missionary Program
(November 23, 2014 at 9:40 pm)Minimalist Wrote: We know. But Losty may have to explain it to you.

With photos, if we're lucky.

Welcome to the forums, Bboppinb.
"Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape- like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered."

-Stephen Jay Gould
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#8
RE: Missionary Program
Hiyas.

Sounds like classic cult conditioning to me.

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#9
RE: Missionary Program
(November 23, 2014 at 9:42 pm)Tonus Wrote:
(November 23, 2014 at 9:40 pm)Minimalist Wrote: We know. But Losty may have to explain it to you.

With photos, if we're lucky.

Welcome to the forums, Bboppinb.

Hey thanks. Still clearly trying to find my way around but this all looks like a good time.
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#10
RE: Missionary Program
Welcome

A Charactoristically Losty Thread
If there is a god, I want to believe that there is a god.  If there is not a god, I want to believe that there is no god.
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