| Author | Message | ||
| Doug_s Registered user Username: Doug_s Post Number: 31 Registered: 7-2004 |
This may sound strange but I was so lost and miserable before I turned to God I actually embraced the legalism of SDA. I wanted something to protect me from myself and the world. I think that God led me out of my lost condition into a legalistic system like adventism in order for me to truly understand grace. I don't think I would have appreciated my freedom in Christ without first passing through legalism. And in the process of passing through, my wife (3rd gen. SDA) came out with me. Although she still has a lot of resentment towards the church. She's harder on it than I am. Must be that Italian blood. Doug | ||
| Pw Registered user Username: Pw Post Number: 50 Registered: 6-2004 |
Interesting subject about the vinegar/pickles saga. If using vinegar to store pickles is wrong, then I guess that the SDA's are "sour" because the Sunday keepers are "sweet". Uh-oh...I think I started another string of puns. Doug...your turn! | ||
| Doug_s Registered user Username: Doug_s Post Number: 33 Registered: 7-2004 |
That really leaves them in a pickle. You started this you know... Doug | ||
| Flyinglady Registered user Username: Flyinglady Post Number: 303 Registered: 3-2004 |
What kind of pickle would that be?? I would say kosher. Diana | ||
| Pw Registered user Username: Pw Post Number: 53 Registered: 6-2004 |
Relish the thought. | ||
| Doug_s Registered user Username: Doug_s Post Number: 36 Registered: 7-2004 |
I say we put that kosher relish in a tuna fish salad sandwich and serve it up at the next potluck. Reckon anyone would touch it? | ||
| Flyinglady Registered user Username: Flyinglady Post Number: 307 Registered: 3-2004 |
We could just rename it, say it is fake tuna. They just might eat it. Diana | ||
| Pw Registered user Username: Pw Post Number: 57 Registered: 6-2004 |
They'll eat anything if EGW tells them to. | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 473 Registered: 12-2003 |
Even oysters? Oh, that's right--she only ate them in secret! BTW, when I was in academy, our food service lady had a recipe which included something called TUNO from which she made patties. They did taste remarkably similar to tuna. (My mother used to break with tradition now and then and would make tuna patties.[She grew up on an angus farm and was used to having home-grown meat and homemades sausages, etc.] She always fried them in an electric frying pan outdoors on the back deck, however, because the smell was so pungent and persistent that she feared someone from church might come by the house before it dissipated and discover our secret.) Such oddness-- Colleen | ||
| Flyinglady Registered user Username: Flyinglady Post Number: 310 Registered: 3-2004 |
I guess my Mom never did fear SDAs coming by the house as she did fix beef and tuna every so often and a turkey on holidays along with her vegetarian enchiladas. We had few SDA visitors. I know the reason now, but I did not as a kid. How my Mom remained an SDA I do not know. Oh, well that is something I will never know. Diana | ||
| Pw Registered user Username: Pw Post Number: 59 Registered: 6-2004 |
EGW must be rolling in her grave knowing that her followers are not following her orders to be vegetarians. | ||
| Susan_2 Registered user Username: Susan_2 Post Number: 759 Registered: 11-2002 |
Either Loma Linda Foods or one of their other companies makes TUNO. This stuff is truly amazing! It even smells like tuna. One time my mom made TUNO sandwiches for the church potluck. She left them on a platter in the kitchen when she got to church. Apparently the ladies in the kitchen must have thought it was real tuna because after potluck my mom went to get her platter and the lady from the kitchen got it out of the refridgerator still all warapped with not even one sandwich missing. These people don't even recogniae their own fake meats! This stff is totally amazing! Why did they even bother coming up with it? I mean, really, the Gosples are full of stories involving Jesus and his friends having fish dinners. | ||
| Ladylittle Registered user Username: Ladylittle Post Number: 29 Registered: 4-2004 |
 Had an experience with tuno myself. When I was a teenager I had the opportunity of going to Alaska (my favorite state!) to work at an mission run by SDA laymen. They served both vegetarian food and meat. This was my first experience with meat in the kitchen, (and with butchering what the hunters brought in, but that's another whole story!). I learned to make some pretty decent tuna burgers. Several years later I was staying with a 'Bible Worker" as part of my work/study program at the Bible School, when she packed lunches for our trip to give studies in San Francisco. It smelled JUST LIKE tuna! I was sure that it couldn't be, because she was a firm vegetarian. But I was actually scared to ask in case I was wrong. When I finally got up my courage to ask, she told me it was tuno, and was shocked I would wonder. I've had lots of experience with fake meats, but that one is the closest to real of any I've come across. | ||
| Pw Registered user Username: Pw Post Number: 64 Registered: 6-2004 |
I wonder if Jessica Simpson could tell the difference? Is it tuna or Chicken of the Sea? | ||
| Dd Registered user Username: Dd Post Number: 41 Registered: 7-2004 |
Doug, Remind me...did you grow up SDA? Your story about your 3rd generation SDA wife brought to mind something I have wondered before... I was raised by conservative 2nd generation SDA's who worked for the church. I bought it all - I was the greatest legalist of them all (and boy-howdy...was I ever good at playing that role! ). Now my husband was raised SDA by a single mom with 4 wild children. She didn't have time or energy to make sure all her kids were following all the rules. Consequently, my husband thought the whole concept of Sabbath rules/regulations highly hypocritical. He went to boarding academy and would sneak into the girl's dorm with a smile on his face and beer in his hands! Not me! I went to day academy and lived the pure and holy life living the 10 commandments without error! OK - to my question...when those of us who are lead by the Holy Spirit to see the real Light and Truth finally move away from the SDA church, do you think there is less bitterness to deal with for those who did not buy into the trap of legalism? I am hardly Italian...but I can still feel the bitterness (that I thought was conquered) rise to the surface. As time goes by this occurs less - Praise God! - but I have often wondered....what do you think? Have you ever looked at those who are highly legalistic and thought they tend to be of similar personalities? I tend to believe this is true. Anyone else have an opinion? | ||
| Praisegod Registered user Username: Praisegod Post Number: 94 Registered: 3-2004 |
Dd, I too had to go through some bitter moments as I was sorting things out. Leaving the Adventist lifestyle is almost like a divorce or a death and requires a process of grieving to get through to the other side. Part of grieving involves anger and if weíre honest, I believe that many of us went through that. Perhaps it is worse if you really believed the doctrines were ìtruthî. I know I did. Looking back (with 20-20 hindsight, of course) I now have to admit that perhaps there was also a shred of anger at myself for not seeing error sooner. And at God for not revealing the error to me sooner. Now, having gone through breaking free, I can look back and see that my anger and bitterness at myself and God didnít make allowances for the demonic issues that had a hold on me. I couldnít see that until I was well away from involvement with the church as well as officially having my membership dropped. Praise GodÖ | ||
| Flyinglady Registered user Username: Flyinglady Post Number: 322 Registered: 3-2004 |
When I want to conjure it up, I do not feel a bitterness, but a real anger at the GC for perpetrating a deceit on the people of the church. I cannot do anything to change them, so I have to leave it to God. As for the individuals, I can see the legalism and the dysfunction that it is. I feel sad for them, because until they can see EGW for what she is or read the Bible without the EGW filter they cannot know the freedom that Christ offers us. Diana | ||
| Pheeki Registered user Username: Pheeki Post Number: 376 Registered: 1-2003 |
Praisegod wrote:Perhaps it is worse if you really believed the doctrines were ìtruthî. I think this is true. It seems those who never really bought into all of what they were taught don't understand my anger (such as my husband). I sortof feel like I need my anger in a way to keep me on my toes and keep me from getting sucked back in...know what I mean? | ||
| Dane Registered user Username: Dane Post Number: 14 Registered: 4-2004 |
Hi All, I haven't posted in a while. This summer quarter is a nightmare at the college where I teach. Anyway; I have also observed that the formers who were the hard core "true believers" are more bitter than those, like myself, who never completely bought into everything. Beginning in academy I started having little doubts about certain things. When we left I was upset and it was a major adjustment but I did not have the depth of anger that some of our friends have expressed. A few we know in this category let their anger fester until they left Christianity altogether. So sad. Dane | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 485 Registered: 12-2003 |
What an interesting question. It makes sense that the anger/bitterness might be worse in those who believed the most--yet in some ways, it seems those are the ones who often most deeply embrace their new freedom in Christ once they leave. Richard was very angry for awhile, and it's true; his childhood was much more rigid than mine in terms of diet and some of the specifics of behavior. I don't think, however, that he was more of a "believer" than I was; he questioned Adventism from the time he was a young boy, but like I did, he embraced it with questions. Perhaps our responses to leaving Adventism depend on the ways our personalities are wired. Iit is, as Praisegod said, like a divorce in the sense that one loses one's total identity and surroundings and friends. I worried much more about my losses, including my identity, and Richard worried much more about his eternal security and being right. Our individual concerns really did reflect the ways we were shaped by our families. Richard didn't experience nearly as much depression as I did when we left, and I didn't experience nearly as much anger. I suppose, though, that those two are related; depression, psychology says, is anger turned inward. And also referring back to Praisegod's observation, I don't believe we can discount the spiritual warfare aspect of leaving. There is a demonic claim on Adventism. That's why leaving really "takes" only when we meet Jesus and know that He is more to us than anything else. Praise God that He gives us new identities--that really are much nicer than the old! Colleen |
