Welcome to my blog, TH in SoC. This, my introduction, is actually the last post I will write for this particular blog. Why put a blog introduction at the end? Because this is most likely the first page a first-time visitor will see.
The beginning of this blog is about my experience in an abusive, aberrant “Bible-based” church over a period of several years, and about my experiences in trying to find a “healthy church” after I left my old abusive group. As a result of these experiences, I formed certain conclusions, which I state in the main body of this blog. My conclusions can be summed up here thus: I am an orthodox, Biblical, evangelical Christian. The Faith of Christ is not to blame for the difficulties I encountered. But there are certain leaders within American evangelicalism who have spread an unsafe culture throughout the American evangelical church by preying on its members. This preying is manifested in the craving for money, power and the indulgence of fleshly lust. The latter pages of this blog state possible solutions to the unhealthy culture of the American evangelical church.
A rough “table of contents” for this blog would look thus:
Part 1: Where I Came From – Posts written from 2005 to March 2007
Part 2: Who Broke My Church? - Posts written from April 2007 to July 2008
Under this second category are sub-categories as follows:
A. The Church and Money – December 2007 to February 2008
B. The Church and Political Power – February 2008 to March 2008
C. The Church and Ecclesiastical Power – April 2008 to June 2008
D. The Church and Lust – June 2008 to July 2008
E. Summation – July 2008
Part 3: Who Can Fix This Mess? - Posts written from August 2008 to September 2008
The tone of this blog is forensic, because it is very much an indictment of certain trends, people and practices in the modern American church. One might say that TH in SoC is my handful of theses nailed up in a fit of pathos on the Church doors. In this, I am hardly original, since both Martin Luther and much more recently, Steve Camp, were pushed by circumstances to draft theses condemning the excesses of those who claimed to be servants of the Church, and to nail them up for reading by any who had eyes to see.
If you are a survivor of an abusive church experience, or if you are a Biblical Christian who sees the excesses of the present American church culture, hopefully my blog has some helpful insights. If after reading these posts, you have comments, suggestions or corrections, please feel free to post them, since I will continue to monitor this blog for comments.
And now it is time to move on. I am shifting my focus from an indictment of dangers in the American church to the process of recovery from church abuse. Therefore I have started another blog, From SoC to Points North. (It's at http://soctopointsnorth.blogspot.com. There is also a link under the “Links” heading.) It will be my personal “recovery journal.” I am posting it on the Web because I think it's helpful to read the experiences of people who are seeking to recover a Biblical Christianity from the ashes of an abusive church experience. Hopefully, my experiences will be a help to someone. I'd also like to recommend two other very good “recovery journals,” Gale Warnings (http://galewarnings.blogspot.com/) and The Blog of Lema Nal (http://lemanal.blogspot.com/).
For those of you who followed TH in SoC from its beginning to its end, thanks for your readership. I greatly appreciate it. See you at Points North!
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