- Joined
- Jul 31, 2021
I respect your opinion, but I disagree. I can believe church clergy or representatives may be able to handle personal matters of their congregants, but you greatly underestimate bad behavior that is inherent within any group of people. Women in particular often take glee in controlling and undermining other women, Christian women are not an exception, they just use church doctrine to do so. I am not talking about counseling a woman who has strayed from the righteous path, but again, petty nastiness. Anyone who has worked in a female dominated workplace knows this is very common, a church setting does not change human nature.Solitary faith is not the objective. The reason for the church is to commune with others. It can be real uncomfortable to open up and be accountable to others. A good church weeds out the gossip and pettiness but still is open enough that shit that Rekieta is doing gets handled early. It's a bad congregation if established family becomes a mandatory reporter issue.
Ideally, the church families are close enough that things like money/salary, relationships, etc, are open without fear. It's a trust issue. There becomes a lot of accountability. For example, if Kayla was being gaslit by Nick over April, she should be able to comfortably ask other wives. Then those husbands would be able to confront him and that gaslit dynamic doesn't work on them. If it's done right, it's not judgy, or gossip, or intrusive. If it's not right it feels judgy, gossipy and intrusive. Nick gaslights Kayla with his "Scandinavian prudes" comments. Nothing Nick is doing is "new", "different" or "groundbreaking." What's different is Nick can't learn from others and has to actually experience the outcome before believing it's real.
I'm not really wanting to get into a No True Scotsman debate about what makes a church legitimate or good, but it is almost universally agreed upon that groups such as Scientology that try to get members to isolate from nonmember friends and family are practicing cult tactics, and I do not give people who claim to represent Christianity a pass on that behavior simply because they believe they are right. I'm not gonna say more on the matter in this thread since it's veering off topic.