Weigh-Down Workshop: A Response To Lu
March 18, 2007 by Katherine Coble
I’m not going to be afraid of a pint-sized prophet out in Franklin, folks. I’m not even going to be afraid of her lawyers. Because when we’re here speaking the truth about matters of Faith I’m claiming the blood of Christ.
Good. Now that we’ve got that bit of family business out of the way, on to the true matter at hand. My friend Lu wrote an long and impassioned comment about Weigh-Down on another post yesterday. I was going to respond to her comment over there, but she said so many true things that I wanted to really talk about them, not just ‘comment’.
Part of being truly healthy, I’m learning, is focusing on the whole part of me, not just my weight, and not just my spirit. I think God desires us to focus on our emotional, mental and physical well-being as much as we do the spiritual.
God is in the details. All the details. What Lu says is a perfect summary about the way to walk with God. As I was reminded earlier in the week by Jackson’s post, so many people have this hugely mistaken idea about what it means to be a Christian. Some of them are Christians themselves. It’s too easy to give God only part of your life. A bit on Sunday, maybe some devotions throughout the week. A prayer tossed out here or there when you’re up against the wall. But that’s not why God made us in his image. He wants a relationship. With the whole person.
While I think spiritual health will impact our whole being, it won’t make us physically fit.
And spiritual health won’t make us mentally fit either. That’s part of my objection to many homeschoolers. Granted, I know several families who homeschool (Hi, Tricia!) and do it well (Hi, Tricia’s kids!). But there are a lot of other families (Hi, distant family members!) who presume that as long as the kids ‘know Jesus’ they don’t need to bother with knowing much else.
Whenever anyone over-stresses the spiritual aspect of Christian life, I think they miss the larger point about truly living for God.
It really does make me angry when people misuse the truth of God to further their own selfish aims. I’ve gotten to the place where I won’t patronise a business that markets itself as a ‘Christian’ business. I want you to fix my sink. Last time I checked that was a wholly non-religious endeavour. More and more businesses toss out the “we’re Christians” excuse as a way to grease the wheels and run a psuedo-con. We saw that firsthand at J L Kirk, and I’m reminded of it whenever I pick up the Christian Classifieds. Each edition of that little paper has at least three MLM type scamjobs advertised when I look through it. The implication of course is that surely these people won’t scam you because they’re good Christians. What tommyrot.
They all talked about how they … felt compelled to come from all over the US to join Gwen’s church, because of what she did for them in Weigh Down.
Exactly. What she did for them. Some people use the name of God to reel others in and then turn it into an opportunity for themselves. There’s not one thing holy about that behaviour.
Thank you for your post, Ms. C. As always, succinct and powerful.
I temped for a guy in the financial industry who constantly touted his Christianity. Indeed, when I interviewed with him, the second thing he said (after “good morning”
was “Since you don’t technically work for me, I will say this: I expect you to be a Christian just like me.” Of course my Spidey-sense went bonkers, but I had to have a job. (I was on my 13th month out of work at the time.) I can’t enumerate the times that man used his alleged faith to bully people into doing his bidding or giving him business; he actually would collar people at his church and demand that they do business with him “because we Christians have to stick together.” In the meantime, he was trying to cheat on his taxes, get around the do-not-call laws, requiring his hourly employees to work overtime and refusing to pay them for it, ad nauseum. It was when he cut off the phones (after moving his office to the suburbs and leaving me to finish up the final paperwork) and started forwarding calls to MY PERSONAL CELL PHONE that I called the temp agency and told them to get me out.
He had the nerve, when I gave my notice, to tell me that he knew I wouldn’t work out because I didn’t seem to love Jesus enough.
I told him that hypocrites like him were the reason Jesus is coming back with fire and a sword.
Grandefille — good for you!! I worked for someone like that as well, though not as legally crooked, but just as arrogant and abusive regarding his “Christianity”. Blech… gives me shivers when I remember my time there.
Kat — you nailed it, totally and perfectly.
And yeah, I caught the “she” in their answers too. Another of many red flags that flew high that night.
Lu, be soooo glad your hair stood on end! Our family has lost two members (husband n wife) and their children to this cult. Now we have been informed by them via email that they will no longer attend weddings and funerals…they all firmly stand by the smiths when anyone who views the autopsy photos would be nauseated at that those parents did to that poor child…now cruella has the nerve to set up a fund begging website for the parents defense…of course no comments from the outside allowed…just what I would expect…it makes me so angry that the truth about weigh down being a front for remnant isn’t out in the open…and guess who is on the cover of this month’s Good Housekeeping??…a weigh down princess…course remnant and its beliefs are no where in sight…