Many have been excluded from the community these years and in many towns there is no community any more.
I heard they say the reason of it is lack of love.
Yes, they are right that they are lacking love. Only the solution is not exclusion of even more brothers-sisters, but inclusion of those they have rejected as hopeless, extending their love to those.
17 comments:
Hello,
I'm the Mr. Kluge, wo is mentioned in the beginning of your blog. :-)
I find your blog very helpful for people who have left the community or has been excluded. I'm in contact with some of them or their relatives in Germany. Some of them don't understand English. So I have translated your blog for them into German.
On my website I've already set a link to your blog. But for many german users it would be more helpful, if they can read it in german. Would you allow me to put my translation of your blog into my website?
Best greetings,
Gerald Kluge
info (at) sekten-sachsen.de
some of us liked to invent some new words, one that I have heard and it is suitable is "Ausschlusswahnsinn"
[by homo ludens]
Take care! The so called translation make use of different tenses and words which change the original meaning.
Here are just two examples, how the translator changed the original blog, whether by mistake or intension...
November 3, 2007 "Gruppenegoismus"
"We are to assess, warn and encourage each other and unbelievers."
I would correctly understand: "Wir haben einander und Ungläubige zu beurteilen, zu warnen und zu ermutigen."
but the translator writes: "Wir schätzen es, einander und Ungläubige zu warnen und zu ermutigen."
"Even we are holy, we are not yet perfect, we ourselves are in a process of sanctification."
Changed into past: "Auch wenn wir heilig waren, waren wir nicht perfekt, wir waren selbst in einem Prozess der Heiligung."
The whole translation is reflecting a static point of view rather than the changes in the author's subjective opinion.
I neither agree with the translator's nor with the blogger's point of view.
Anonymous:
"We are to assess, warn and encourage each other and unbelievers."
I would correctly understand: "Wir haben einander und Ungläubige zu beurteilen, zu warnen und zu ermutigen."
R.A. I am not native German nor English speaker, but I don't know whether Anonymous has translated well. The word 'haben' seems not to make sense in German here. In English syntax 'have' has the meaning of external obligation, but I think in German 'haben' functions not in thus manner. But I may err. Maybe Anonymous knows better German.
It seems, that Kluge has not translated it word by word, but I don't see the reason, why it is seen so bad to highlight here.
Nevertheless, I think it is really good to pay attention to translation, Anonymous. The second remark of Anonymous about tenses is quite relevant. Who knows, maybe Kluge really wants to see L as somebody who is still enchained so much to community time, that he translates unattentively this blog's author as speaking melancholically in past tense.
Some reasons for it gives Kluge's remark about the link for this blog:
"Aus seinen Postings lässt sich gut das Gefühl des Hin-und-her-gerissen-Seins zwischen Bewunderung für und Kritik an der Sekte nachvollziehen"
I wonder G.Kluge's person.
I think he has never been in the community, and I think his opinions about community are designed only by his remote position and by his experiences with other 'such kind of sects'. But neverheless he seems to believe, how the things are in community. His hypothetical assumptions perchance hit the target, but mostly his unability to understand the main features about community's theology and practice causes anguish in me.
But what can we wait from man, whose church (catholic) is the most attacked one by our community. I think he sincerely wants to help the ex-members of sects in general and he cannot be oriented only to one congregation. There are many sects and I wish for Kluge, that he would go on. There are many sects in Germany, much work to do.
I was thinking recently about reasons, how could it be possible, that Kluge had no information about community's missionary actions among unbelievers, saying in his website, that “missionary work with atheists is unknown".
I think this is partially because of Kluge's laziness to search further information about this issue and also because his unability to draw the logical conclusions of 'Werbe-flyers', which surely weren't hung only on the walls of church buildings.
But I think there is also reason to think, that behind this is our 'effective and anonymous' missionary tactic: to snatch, flee without leaving fingerprints. Those, who hadn't 'common ground' with us, hadn't any information about us.
****
That's why in my country almost nobody knows, that this community was here for over 10 years. Nobody knows, that they were here and that for today thery are left.
I've asked privatly our States Councellor of Religious Affaires, whether he knows, that this group of Christians were in our country. Nope. He was uninformed like everybody else here in my country.
That much about the light of the world, which must be seen for unbelievers.
Sad.
Community is in a constant fear of persecution. Everybody wants bad for our community. Persecution might be also an excuse of not evangelizing publicly among the religious people. There were some occasions, when our evangelisation was detected and we were warned not to do that in their church.
But what was the base for phobia of persecution, when we evangelised on the street, where are unbelievers, too?
I was quite eager in evangelising in my country and I don't remember any persecution from them, speaking on the street. But nevertheless, I didn't invite nobody of evangelisized ones to our flat ('residence' of our community). Because it was by default feared in our community, that this person could do something bad for us, misuse or misunderstand our way of living etc. Many other such kind of fears were existant in our community.
There were surely some precedents, that parents worried and would have called to police, because they had lost connection with their child, who decided to live with brothers and had not found anymore the 'common ground' to speak with them. But the background for this phobia (in my country) is not the hostile attitude of unbelievers towards Christianity in general, but particularly towards our community (because of above described reason).
I remember well my first experiences of my missionary actions: I wondered, how friendly were my fellow countrimans, who live in quite a secular country, when I was evangelizing on the street. When you read comments on newspapers, they may be sarcastic, but speaking eye to eye they are mostly very kind with you.
So, there wouldn't have been any reason for such phobia, because other denominations manage to evangelize openly.
The actual reason for fear was, that we knew - our beliefs and way of life are quite weird for unbelievers. The excuse: "They wouldn't understand our spiritual reasons for our beliefs and way of life" is but a very intrinsic feature of every sectual behaviour.
Christians live today in an extraordinary tolerant time in Europe. Even the weirdest beliefs are reflected in most worsest case with sarcasm. It is not comparable with periods of European history, when Christians were put to death because of their beliefs.
I think, if our community doesn't want to use the opportunity to OPEN themselves right now, there might never be better chance for doing it.
I encourage to OPEN, because it seems, that community isn't conscious itself, how closed they are and are becoming even more closed.
The website of our website is not something that shows openness. There are only first names of the topics' authors.
The website http://sites.google.com/site/testtaize1/ shows even a grade more serious closedness. There are no names, no background information, who are behind these topics there.
Closedness was expressed also in our social behaviour, as explained before. I think community has already got used with such kind of anonymousity, that they don't find it strange to live like animals in secret furrows. All outside contacts are cut off. The only reason to feel themself to live socially opened is that, the inner comunication channels are open.
Decreased is not only the number of members in out community. The inner communication without outward supply has degenerated community's English language. I think that they aren't conscious, in which level their English is.
I think, the reason is, that in our community the native English speakers were in minority. But English is the lingua franca in most the countries for our community.
The second reason is, that our themes we spoke about, were limited. We spoke mostly only about spiritual things, when we were in the weekend-meeting and had to speak English, not our native language.
First in the community I started to learn English. I wasn't able to express myself in that language at all. But after several months I managed to understand everything we had discussed about. And expressing myself about things they wanted to hear me (about my spiritual state, sins, etc) was not very difficult to acquire, too.
They often asked me, whether I understand, what they speak during topics. There wasn't any reason for asking something like that. The reason for my quick accommodation with this language wasn't, that I'm talentive in languages, rather that the vocabulary of our 'community standard language' was extremely simplified and easy to acquire. I think our comparatively high standard of theological talks were delivered by very simplified language.
Of course, in every denomination there is a certain 'inner language' and inner habits, which aren't also easy to recognize by insiders itself. But according to my estimation our community is on the lower limit of this. As mentioned already by somebody else in this blog, we generated new words, and as I expressed before, we gave the new meaning to the words like 'love', which is understood only to insiders. Also the word 'humane' got a strong negative meaning for us. 'Humane' is nothing, that we have to strive for. For our 'spiritual training' everything 'humane' is useless. We don't need to train the 'humane' muscles, but spiritual ones. 'Humane' was something like useless fat, which we wanted to be free from in this spiritual training, in our exhausting life and fight for consecration.
So, I see danger, that if community goes on with this phobia of outside attacks, then soon they aren't able anymore to make themselves understandable at all to this world. And the reason is not the spiritual blindness of outside 'humane world', but the inner deformations, developments and degenerations of language and lack of topics to speak about with this 'humane world'.
R.A. writes we didn't invite people to our flat, being afraid.
Yes, we didn't hurry to tell everthing about our life-style, but from time to time we invited the evangelized ones to our flat. Of cause, if there was one talk on the street or at a religious meeting without further meetings, it had no sense to invite. But if we met several times lor at least had changed e-mails, it happened.
At least once a brother just came from work, started to talk with somebody in the bus and then came home together with that person.
Once we arrived from the weekend by public transport early in the morning and invited a foreigner (we met in the bus) to our flat to sleep until her time to take her next transport toward homeland. Well, she had interest to talk with us.
I agree that in our contries there is extraordinary religios freedom. And the secret way of evangelizing was strange for me sometimes as well.
I agree with L. that there were exeptions in this matter. But these were rather very rare cases. In my presence there in the community these cases didn't occur (at least in my country). Of course, I was in the community only for one year, BUT - if during this year there were NO such cases L. mentioned here, then it shows something. I wasn't the only active in the missionary work in our community (in my country). From this I may conclude, that my (of course, only subjetive) opinion here isn't just my misconception of evangelizational tactics, but rather the one which is in accordance with community's understandings.
Yes, there were single native English-speakers and rather limited topics, but I don't think that the English was extremely simplified. Of cause those who hadn't learned English before didn't reach very high level, but those who know English better tried to keep it up: to correct the mistakes etc.
I think R.A. has some talent for languages.
Concerning 'humane', I remember some distinction between 'human' and 'humane'. One was the opposite for 'spiritual', the other was positive. But it wasn't used much.
"But if we met several times lor at least had changed e-mails, it happened."
I think in this point I'm myself an evidence, which would break several myths concerning our community. I will bring only two of them here.
1.
Kluge's ignorance about missionary work among unbelievers - I raised up in a totally secular environment. No of my close relatives are religious. Neither was me.
2.
Concerning the sentence I quoted above I would introduce, how I came to the community. One missionary had once a talk with me. After that we changed e-mails. Then there was a long break and I started again to send letters. This period lasted approximately one year, I think.
During this period in my mind there didn't never pop up a question to ask via e-mail, from which congregation is this missionary. During this year I didn't get any picture about his person, his background. OK, let's say, that it was my fault. But isn't it strange also from his side, that he didn't tell anything about his congregational background during this year?
So, forget the myth about the openness. I know abut this missionary too much. He was a foreigner and was sent to my country with task to evangelize. So, he was conscious enough about the missionary tactics, which must be applied.
Well, we all were 'missionaries' who had to evangelize.
I don't say we were open, only that not so closed as R.A. explains.
R.A's comments continue as a new post (I removed a full name)
Because of my old e-mail address I wanted to hide, I have removed couple of my comments that encouraged to write me privately concerning the translation.
My valid e-mail is at the bottom of the page.
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