I was implying that I “COULD HAVE”… but that would have done more damage than good!
And, unlike SGM leadership, I would NEVER gossip and humiliate a couple like that by pointing out their sin to everyone! :mad:

LOL…Exactly DB!!!!

I’ve said that for years! They just look at me like I’m crazy!

I could give them examples of “courtship couples” that “messed up” but that would hurt the parties involved and just make it stricter and more oppressive for the youth and singles. Ironically, those that “messed up” had some of the strictest parents.

You have such a way with words, girlfriend!! You crack me up!

You can date and stay virgins and you can court and be shagging like ferrets.

You never know.

So as it stands today, I don’t think I would date, unless it had some serious boundaries communicated up front, intentions spoken, so it does look a bit like courtship I guess. But that is just me, like I said.

I too loved your comparison to Ruth and Boaz..well said! Welcome to the posting side of this wonderful site!

Where do you find this stuff? Or more to the point, how? Seriously, you’re amazing!

Oh, just a little gifting God’s given me. (Non-SGM approved, of course.) ??:

Your story is pretty incredible, in that you were able to buck the system and find happiness in your own way. Good for you, and thanks for sharing a different perspective of SGM.

Ellie,

Where do you find this stuff? Or more to the point, how? Seriously, you’re amazing! :smile:

I just love the author’s arrogance. Does he really think people are searching for information about his church and using the word “cult” in their searches because his Sovereign Grace church seems “foolish” to them?

Give me a break!

If something seems “foolish” to me, my first reaction is NOT to think “cult.” Or actually, to think much about the thing at all. If something strikes me as “foolish,” my general reaction is to shrug it off. People typically don’t research “foolish” things – they simply shrug and move on.

And certainly the word “cult” is not synonymous with “foolishness.”

People attach “cult” to their internet searches because they suspect abusive practices. Or they’ve heard things about an organization’s control over its members…or they’ve heard about shunning…or they’re aware, however vaguely, of someone who has been devastated by the organization.

I will confess, I used to search for “Sovereign Grace Ministries” + “cult” quite frequently. And it wasn’t for any of the reasons that this dude gives! Rather, it was because I sensed something odd going on, something much broader, that MANIFESTED ITSELF in the almost universal compulsion to engage in ALL the practices that the guy lists.

It was because I sensed something “odd,” NOT “foolish.”

Oy. The arrogance! And the completely blindness, the complete inability to step outside his own perspective and see how it’s NOT his church’s emphasis on true Biblical holiness that makes people think they might be a cult. Rather, it’s that his church treats its cultural practices as though they are Biblical absolutes.

This guy’s blog post is Exhibit A for how SGM people truly do think that they have an exclusive, superior understanding of the Christian life. I mean, does this guy really think that he can so blithely write off all of “Evangelical Christianity” as so hopelessly lost, stupid, and Biblically illiterate, that they would mistake Biblical holiness for cultic practices? Or even “foolishness” (whatever that means!) for cultic practices?

The majority of Bible-believing Christians have no problem with teachings on modesty, or with parent-led youth groups, or with stay-at-home moms, or even with the idea that we need to be “purposeful” in our pursuit of romance.

He is building a straw man for himself so that he can quell his deep fear that perhaps those stupid, inferior Evangelical Christians might just be onto something as they Google his organization.