The reason we don't talk to real people in real time is because we perceive that they are not listening or will give us a very impractical an unhelpful answer to real problems. Phone calls are therapeutic. Letters are therapeutic. Talking face to face is therapeutic, and blogging can also be therapeutic. And yes, you have be wise about who you share with, but that's not the issue here. Most humans aren't as stupid as this article makes them out to be. Finding out that others feel and think as you do and that you are not "nuts" or "weird" or "off base" all the time, is very therapeutic. It is a wiseman in this day and age that has close friends and good counselors. It's the people who will not listen to any voices but the ones in their own heads that you have to be careful about.
Just so you understand, your Church and Pastor now forbid you and your adult parents from blogging on the internet, having a blog of your own or having a personal website unless associated with a business. You need to understand that there are reasons behind these reasons such an obscene rule is being instituted. While blogging, like phone calling or letter writing or smokes signals can have a downside, there is more to this than meets the eye in your particular church. It is a way to control the flow of information, criticism and presenting views that are counter to those accepted by the Restored Church of God and it's leaders. The internet is the bane of those that abuse or seek to control and that includes our own government in this day and age.
Soon you will hear something from the pulpit as ridulous as "We regret to inform the congregation and we do so with deep sadness, but Mr. and Mrs. so and so, and Johnny Teen has been disfellowshipped from the True Church for blogging and maintaining an unapproved website for their own selfish, egotistical and treading on thin ice reasons, against Church policy. We pray that God will cause them to repent of this electronic sin and for thinking that they can have a voice in this Church of God or the world in general or that they could say anything that would be or any remote interest to anyone." Banning you from blogging is no different from burning your books.
Your church equates blogging with dating too young, underage drinking and pre-,marital sex. They tell you that just because others jump off a cliff, does not mean you should. How's that for good reasoning. If your friends shoot themselves, I am sure they would also advise you not to do the same. Good thing as they give this advice or, sure enough, you would all up and jump like lemmings into the sea. This "just because others..." thing has been a tool of parents forever and will be yours too someday! It's what we say when can't think of how to say it well.
The bottom line is that you belong to a church that needs to control your intake of good information as well as what might be thought of as "bad" information. They also don't care what you think and don't want you expressing it to others. They don't want you discussing theology, Bible inerrancy, history, other points of view or truths that are more true than the ones you get fed every week in church. The sure don't want you discussing the points made in a previous sermon, even though that sermon has commands for you to follow that effect your life big time. Frankly, all churches fear the internet because information is scary to those that would have you believe you are getting all you need from just one true source. You are not.
NO ONE on this planet has the right to tell you what you can read, who you can talk to, what topics you can share personally if you choose or how you choose to give or get that information. Our government is also trying like mad to keep the average American from questioning a lot of things that have gone on in the last five years, and before. Your motives for doing so are not as evil as this article makes them out to be and you are not as stupid as this article portrays the average teen these days. Everything you do needs to be done with wisdom, caution and discretion, but you will not learn how to do this if you are forbidden from taking the class.
Religion and government has been trying to control the free flow of information since time began. It's how control, delusion and illusion is maintained. The people who make the rules about such things very often refuse to abide by the same rules for themselves. You will learn this as you grow up.
No article in the history of RCG has ever been written...yet, that is so chillling as this one. I urge you to think long and hard about its implications to your learning and growing in the real truths that, believe it or not, are not the exclusive property of the one small church and Pastor you have just happened to find yourself in association with. I also want you to suspect other reasons for this being dictated to the teens, while adults were also thrown into the mix in a mere one line as well. Nothing in any Church, Government or Organization is as one is led to believe on the surface...NOTHING.
To blog or not to blog is YOUR choice. To have or not to have a website for any reason, is YOUR choice and the choice of your ADULT parents. No church or man has the right to control your access to the free flow of friends, information, opinions or even bullshit. You'll never develope a BS Meter is you aren't exposed to it. I personally think you are more than you think. Even the proverbs say that it is no great thing to have a totally clean barn, with no cow pies on the floor, as it might indicate you have no animals to oversee on your great farm. Remember, fish can't live in pure water. It destroys their immune systems and is an unreal environment in which to thrive as a fish. Are you not better than a fish...oh ye of little faith?
Much knowledge might bring much suffering but no knowledge brings unnecessary fear, guilt, shame and pure misery. Stand up for yourself. Tell your church to mind its own business and not yours.
Amen...
