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MY GOD!!! Someone who didn't insist that you listen to the sermon and insisted that the problem is YOU!!!

That is incredible that a pastor's wife would be so caring and do something so helpful!!! I'm not being cynical or anything- it's amazing to me! The ones I've known were either standoffish or preachy- ALL of them. One was even viciously abusive towards my wife. (I'm ashamed to admit that I was more concerned about my wife's anger than I was about the abuse- which I didn't really pick up on until we'd been there for a while. She was right to be angry!)

That is the kindest thing I've heard of a church person doing to a walkaway- or someone who has a problem with a sermon. I used to go downstairs in the church we used to attend during the sermons. Mostly I was ignored, but a few people DID pressure me to go up and listen to the sermon (nobody offered to turn down the volume when the sermons were especially triggering). The preacher's sermons were borderline dominionist or at least "give more more more!"

I was triggered last night by a show on TV. My other half wanted to watch it, so I was stuck. It was about the "Founding Fathers" and their connections to the Masons. It talked about "prophesies" and "New World Order" (I since learned that the words on the Great Seal of the US isn't "New World Order", but "New Order of the ages" or something like that.)

I had some trouble sleeping because of it.

Anyway, I avoid triggering situations- for instance, at my in-laws (my mother-in-law LOVES the dominionist station because it plays "old shows") I carry a portable radio and a set of headphones so I can sit in the one comfortable (for me) chair they have and not be triggered by the preach-commercials. I never watch online videos about pentecostals, even if they have proof of a lie or even proof that the preacher/speaker was advocating treason. I also never go to religious websites and have the religious channels deleted from the TV lineup.

Maybe I should have used a radio last night. (GRIN!)

It's a story I've seen too often- even in the last church we attended.

There seems to be a couple of different types of steeplejackers- those who are better trained and those who are not. The better trained ones are more subtle and stay behind the scenes- quitely pushing the church towards dominionism. Then there are those who might not be as well trained*- that are rather overt about their Pentecostalism. The priest of the church we used to attend said that he had to expel between four and twelve people a year** for what is called sheep-stealing- getting people in the church to start attending Dominionist/Pentecostal services and leave the Episcopal church.

He did note that they always seemed to come in pairs or multiples of two, the last time I talked with him about it. I warned him again at that time that I used to hang out with the Assemblies people who were being trained for taking over churches- and they were trained to do it in teams (and it was in multiples of two).

I'd be looking for a second "quiet" Pentecostal/Dominionist, working behind the scenes to encourage your church on a move towards that steep slippery slope, as well as keeping an eye on the noisy/crazy one.

In fact, knowing how poisonous they are, that person should be asked to either let go of the nonsense or leave.




* I'm pretty sure that at least a couple of the "overt" Pentecostal steeplejackers in our past church were working with quiet ones- as a distraction or front. They ARE that organized, and again I stress that they are TRAINED to steeplejack.

** He was very patient with them, and tolerated their behavior for long periods of time, so you could pretty much say that there were steeplejackers "working" year-round at the parish. He only expelled people when they successfully got an Episcopalian to drop out and join the Pentecostals. The quiet influence ones were succeeding in their efforts in the church - during the time we knew him he went from being rather liberal and accepting to being very conservative, very fundamentalist in ways, and leading the move against homosexuals in the diocese. The last time I saw him, he'd invited the creationists to speak at the church. He also opened his pulpit to "students" from the local Pentecostal "Bible College" (now ersatz university) and hired them for positions in the church. They DO target the leadership for conversion to their way of thinking.

I mentioned this very thing in another thread. It's been known for some time. (In the thread about "Real rules of Pentecostalism".)