I felt so loved at UBF when I talked to or interacted with almost anyone other than my local Pastor.
You had a problem with me and so you made everyone angry at me
I could not talk to you about my problems
you would just get mad and not listen
so I did not talk to you
I could talk to anyone else in the Church
but not the Pastor
And then one day I had to leave because I did not agree with someone spiritually older than you. I suppose it was because I interpreted the Bible about a single passage. They told me I could not disrespect my elders.
I think I know why you would not listen
because you think the older never has to listen to the younger
that is why there is more hope for a fool than you
because you are wiser in your own eyes than everyone younger than you
I wish you had more hope than a fool
I wish we could be friends
I loved my UBF
I felt loved by everyone but the Pastor
Then he told them I must be fixed
But fixing me made me worse
because my Pastor broke me
He taught those below him we should not date
but pray to God
that God will send the right person
I prayed to God and thought I found someone
I did not date like he said
I followed the directions the way I thought he meant
But he did not mean what he said
There was secret knowledge reserved for the elite which I was not yet privy to, because I was not old enough. He really meant UBF has a system by which other people will find you a spouse. If I was told that in the beginning I could have obeyed but I was not considered old enough to know. But how could I have known if you did not tell me?
I obeyed what I was told
I was punished with brokenness
because I did not obey the secret rule
I was not told
because I was not old enough
So really Pastor it is not my fault that our chapter of UBF is at risk of being shut down. It is yours because you have the key to the esoteric knowledge of God’s will and you will not share it with those younger than you. You think they are too young to understand, they are too young to understand what they are not told. But you are too old to understand what you were told not old and senile but proud that you are older than everyone else so you will not listen.
If you just told them how people really get married they would not be angry at you for not telling them until it is too late. If UBF put it on their own website people would not have to read it on slanderous websites. There would be nothing slanderous about it because you would not have deceived them. A man cannot be guilty of the crime of hiding evidence when he put the evidence on the Church website for all to see.
I do not think most ex-members are angry that you arrange marriages so much as that you hide that you arrange marriages and promote it as the only way to please God best. Do not be a lamp hidden in a basket to block the light for if the light that is in you is darkness how dark will that darkness be?
When you will not share your light with the flock because you do not want them to know your secret rules the light that should come out of you is like darkness hidden within you and how dark is that darkness.
Put on the UBF website that you believe in practicing arranged marriage or matchmaking or whatever you want to call it but do not call it marriage by faith without explaining what that really means. If you don’t do this, Pastor it will be your fault when the Church doors are closed because you are spiritually too old to listen to the flock and they are too spiritually young to be told the truth about what you really mean.
People are not kicking Muslims off campus for forbidding dating they say openly it is “against our religion”. But when you keep your rules secret to the young so that the young cannot obey them, when the young have broken hearts because you broke their spirit, they ask a stronger man to break down your Church doors.
I want to cry
because I can see the flock no more
because the Pastor said I was bad
But now I want to cry even more
because the Pastor broke the pen
and scattered the sheep abroad
to be eaten by ravenous wolves
I never asked the University to ban UBF. But people are asking because you do not tell the truth. And there I was loved and felt loved except by you Pastor and I am sad that not only do I lose access to the flock but now they are harmed more because you have banned them from campus against my will.
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Snow
The snow makes us watch,
with coffee,
the majesty of marching seraphim,
parading on the wind,
establishing jurisdiction,
enchanting children,
confounding municipalities,
lasting
until a sovereign sun
calls an end,
and all dominion
melts away
Not by strength or aptitude
Nor by fervent attitude
But by the measure of His grace
Revealed in an irregular place.
A dying man on a tree
Crowned and cursed on Calvary
Spoke these words to my face:
“I am here in your place.”
“I’m dying here in agony
To carry your infirmity.
To break the cords which hold you in
Despondent bondage to your sin.”
And with that he breathed his last,
But yet I heard one last gasp
“Think not your condition grave.
It is finished; the Lord will save.”