In another post [a regular poster to ACC] wrote
The Griz group are now using Christnet Christianlife and Alt. Christnet Evangelical to fellowship and try to move away from the contention that happened on Acc but some have followed them to Ace to try to provoke them and keep this war of words from dieing, they will say for the sake of truth they do this but it seems to me to have a negative effect on Acc. If the "New Acc" is just about what's wrong with the "Old Acc" then how will it ever be any better.
~~~
Well put.
But the question is: what is the best 'Christian therapy' for ACC'ers in these times?
'Received wisdom' in this area includes the following:
1. It is important 'to speak the truth in love'. If the truth involves feelings of anger, grief, contrition, and/or guilt/shame, it is important to express those feelings. They will not go away, or simply be buried in our unconscious. But we need prayerful wisdom about _where_ to express them: some belong to the public arena, others to private emails.
2. An important part of this process is to give thanks for the *positive values* of the groups/people involved. Many of Paul's epistles begin with positive encouragement and thanksgiving for the people he was, a few paragraphs further on, to 'lay into' for their wandering from the faith/truth or whatever... I'd like to see some closure here in terms of giving thanks for Griz, V***, Frank, David, Glenn, Mark and the others. For example, having read many of Griz's posts, I've come to appreciate his wisdom about a lot of things. I applaud V***'s 'contending for the faith' as she understands it. I feel with Frank's sensitivity and loyalty to his friends. I don't know David well yet, so will pass on that one. Glenn? Amazing man: such wisdom and erudition for someone who is basically an autodidact. Mark: despite his struggles with manipulative authority-figures in the past, he's 'kept the faith' - though fundamentalists would doubt that :-) - and uses his God-given mind!
(Who/What else?)
3. Then, when that process is complete (my sense is that it isn't yet), we 'leave these things behind and press on.' But we don't move on until the pathological stuff has been dealt with.
Perhaps a suggestion would be to covenant together to *not* let any bitterness survive beyond Easter. During Lent we lay it all before the Lord; during Easter weekend we surrender it all to the dying Christ; and from Resurrection morning onwards we determine to 'build one another up in our most holy faith', and become 'critical lovers/loving critics' rather than 'uncritical lovers/unloving critics'.
Just a suggestion (I am not your leader, though perhaps as the patriarch here - anyone older than 66? - I'm taking a little bit of an advantage of whatever seniority those years might offer :-)
God bless you all!
--
Shalom!
Rowland Croucher
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