Rocky

If you need a refresher, I recommend Undertow. Not that Penworks is soliciting praise. She's not. But Undertow is HER STORY. Can any reader on this GSC thread reasonably characterize the substack article similarly to how a cult researcher characterized Undertow? “Charlene Edge writes with clarity and sensitivity. This memoir on her experiences in The Way International will help readers understand the subtleties and complexities of cultic groups.” Edge, Charlene L. Undertow . New Wings Press, LLC. Kindle Edition.

That's her claim. And you believe her why? Because you already believed it before you read it? If you didn't have a massive amount of confirmation bias, what in her essay convinces you of any claim she makes?

Does she provide footnotes to the hundreds of corroborating reports and articles? That's still weak sauce. It doesn't present anything that could convince anyone who doesn't already believe it. IOW, confirmation bias. In order for it to be anything with communicative power, she needs to rewrite the entire first draft

My greatest enemy is societal ignorance.

Have you ever considered how life could be without some religious framework permeating our world view and giving us no alternative to thinking there is an enemy around every corner?

She can do what she wants, obviously. It's not a matter of me (anything). It's a matter of what she wants to do or accomplish with what she writes. More power to her. However, for her to see more impact (power) from her writing, she's got some work to do. If all she wants is to say it, great. She'll get all the feedback her readers care to give her.

Regarding D Craley, I'm confident he would never have been in the shoes of a woman with a late-term pregnancy. If he wrote such an op-ed, bless his heart. But it's important for anyone giving any thought to what such a woman would be going through, I suspect NO healthy woman, with a healthy pregnancy, and a healthy fetus, would even be considering aborting. Just sayin'. Not opining in this comment about the morality of abortion at any stage of a pregnancy. Just trying to imagine such a scenario.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08N866JX4/ A very quick search on Goodreads.com brought this title, Writing the Memoir: From Truth to Art by Judith Barrington. I haven't read the book, but about 20 years ago I took a college class on Newswriting, because I was working for a small newspaper and didn't have a journalism degree. The instructor was a seasoned journalist and editor. Beside the basic who, what, when, where, how, and why, he drove home that news writing is NOT done well in passive voice. That's even more important in memoir. EVERY human has a story, actually LOTS of stories. Stories make humanity sane, actually. What in the world did humans do BEFORE the internet? Before message boards? Before the printing press? If they wanted to effectively communicate important lessons from generation to generation, they had to have LOTS of storytellers. Everyone here CAN be a good storyteller, even Mike. Even me. But it's a skill that needs to be developed and sharpened throughout one's life in order to be effective. /rant

Yeah, those two definitely are not reasonable Christlike models of behavior. But so what? What is the purpose of any person writing any memoir or memoir like short piece?

That would be a violation of GSC rules.

I've been trying to figure out why this substack doesn't sit right with me. The way this person wrote it, she is NOT telling HER story. That won't mean anything to anyone who needs to hear HER STORY. Her story might help people needing to escape the cult or wise up before they get caught up in it. This quote is just weak sauce. WHAT did this human see and hear? Did SHE experience an unwanted pregnancy? If so, how did it make her feel? How did she cope with the emotional and medical ramifications of the pregnancy? What was HER outcome? Maybe this human writer needs to read some of the work on vulnerability Brené Brown has published. Btw, a discussion about abortion policies in and of itself is a political topic. A retelling of history of TWI is retelling of historical events. For them to matter to readers, they have to come off as authentic.

Victor P. Wierwille! The version of this someone sent me yesterday had a claim about it being illegal to quote Way Corps grads. That was a deal breaker for me. But this one, though VERY long appears to not have that claim in it. I appreciate her formatting of Victor's name.

Picky, picky, picky.

Or as I like to say, self-justifying rationalization.

Sounds like it to me also. And yes, grabbing women by the vulva is not very Christlike.

Then again, IF they just wanted to say what they said, more power to them. They didn't persuade me of anything either. However, why would ANYone demand they justify their belief? Maybe they just want to say what they wanted to say. Religion despite the fundamentalist perspective we embraced for a(n apparently brief) time in our lives, my view is people are not persuaded by logic, except some of the time in American courts of law. And not even then are people (even judges/justices) convinced by facts absent emotional arguments. I just don't give two hoots why any person claims to be a Christian. I DO believe, despite significant emotional events that cause adults to change their views dramatically (i.e. Apostle Paul), in the world today, and despite decreasing embrace of churches (as we understood the term before we even had heard the Greek word ekklesia), many people are Christian because that's how they were raised. IOW, cultural anthropology. Then again, for people who still hold to the view that to be a "genuine" Christian, one must believe that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead), more power to them for their belief. And more peace to them by hopefully letting go of the need to convert others.

Of course, what's a more reasonable expectation than for a person professing to be or adhere to a given flavor of faith to say she WANTS to believe it? Now, IF such a person declares she intends to offer an intellectual or academic argument for the particular faith, that would be a different story.

The reason this didn't come up with a preview is that there is an emoji in the description. Neil de Grasse Tyson talks about eternal curiosity.

Not that the way I look at the issue matters to anyone (no homework assignment here ) but I see the question of raising a child as an atheist is a question distinct from but still sort of related to morality without religion.

What happens when society stops worshipping God? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Zuckerman https://www.pitzer.edu/academics/faculty/phil-zuckerman/

Wow. I like the "ever learning" part of that, but wonder about "never able to come to the knowledge of truth." One of the most profound "truths" I've learned over the decades seems to be that the more I learn, the more there is TO learn. Problems to be solved, individually and societally, present questions to answered. So far, these ideas, concepts and notions are abstract. I also wonder if never being able to come to the knowledge of the truth is also abstract... or if it becomes relational, or only understandable when reflected upon in the context of whatever problem humankind faces (or faces down) at any moment. For example, society apparently has learned how to harness physical power to escape the gravity and atmosphere of Earth. In that context, "we" have come to fundamental knowledge of certain physical truths/realities. So, in terms of the OP, you posed to us, is there some particular context or for a specific problem you want to come closer to knowledge of truth? That could open up the entire realm of philosophy for endless discussion. In terms of "throwing money at" particular problems to solve them, are you curious about any other strategies to solve any given problem(s) other than public or private investment in potential solutions? ----- On THAT subject, a book that found me over the last week on that very problem, Big Bets: How Large-Scale Change Really Happens, does in fact explore questions of complexities a society encounters when it (or some people in it) want to solve potentially massive problems. Money, in this context, is a proxy for resources. Relevant resources to solve problems include time, the effort of experts, manufacturing facilities, and so forth. From the Goodreads blurb about the book and its author, Rajiv J. Shah is no stranger to pulling off the impossible, from helping vaccinate 900 million children at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to a high-pressure race against the clock to stop the spread of Ebola. His secret? A big bets philosophy—the idea that seeking to solve problems rather than make incremental improvements can attract the unlikely partners with the power and know-how to achieve transformational change. Part career sweeping memoir, part inspirational playbook, Big Bets offers a master class in decision-making, leadership, and changing the world one bet at a time. Shah animates his strategic insights with vivid behind-the-scenes stories, memorable conversations with household names that helped shape his approach to creating change, and his own personal growth as an Indian-American from an immigrant family looking for a way to belong. He distills his battle-tested strategies for creating change, arguing that big bets have a surprising advantage over cautious ones: a bold vision can attract support, collaborations, and fresh ideas from key players who might otherwise be resistant. Throughout the book, Shah traces his unlikely path to the Rockefeller Foundation across a changing world and through some of the most ambitious, dramatic global efforts to create a better world. ----- Nevertheless, your question inspires me. It also has me recall Albert Einstein's reflection on imagination. “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.” ― Albert Einstein and my current favorite bible passage: 2 My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, 2 turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding— 3 indeed, if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, 4 and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, 5 then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.

Humans, even those not suffering any form of dementia, are quite often prone to misguided rationalizations. It also has occurred to me over the last day or so that Christianity (and plenty of other religious belief systems) present/impose an adversarial worldview to any and everyone who embrace it. I'm not saying I completely disbelieve God, but reflecting on my last four or five decades, I can't say I've benefitted from this particular adversarial framework.

Eloquent. Poignant.

https://www.guilford.com/books/The-Mindful-Self-Compassion-Workbook/Neff-Germer/9781462526789 https://www.amazon.com/Mindful-Self-Compassion-Workbook-Yourself-Strength-ebook/dp/B07FJQ8WS1/ Beats the heck out of condemning oneself for not complying with cult demands. A person who accepts his/herself is able to fit in, "belong," or feel comfortable with healthier groups.