Quote:
I knew people in ministry in the Vineyard church who never under any circumstance admitted to any weakness or sadness or lack of control in anything ...


You have just described my Baptist fundamentalist boss.

It is so weird; it completely freaks me out. And sometimes, frankly, it tees me off. Like, for instance, this past May...one of our former colleagues died unexpectedly. I was fairly close to her; we were Meals on Wheels partners. My boss and I attended her funeral service. It was a Catholic memorial service. Our deceased colleague's priest was supposed to officiate, but he couldn't, so a deacon did it instead. The deacon hadn't known the deceased, so the service was strangely impersonal, and I was kind of disheartened by it. On the trip home, I told my boss that I'd found the service kind of weird and depressing. Of course, that gave my boss an opportunity to tell me how wonderful and uplifting Baptist funeral services were, by contrast. :rolleyes

I felt kind of "had," in a way. I am not used to putting on this front of Spiritual Perfection. When I think a Catholkic service sucks, I say so. When I'm upset about bad liturgy, bad sermons, bad priests, or whatever, I say so. In my Church, we're candid about our problems, and we complain a lot. :lol But apparently voicing this sort of thing in front of my boss just made me vulnerable. It allowed her to come back with this "We're perfect and you're not" shtick. That wasn't the first time she had done that, either. It always made me uncomfortable, because I know for a fact that both she and her mega-church have many problems (I could go into detail but I won't :bluewink ). But no, we can't admit to problems...hafta put on this facade. I wonder how people who put on such facades manage not to crack from the strain.

I know this is a mean-spirited post, and I apologize, but that stuff about not admitting to weakness really struck a chord.

Sorry for off-topic venting!

Diane:bluewink