Main Entry: veri·si·mil·i·tude Pronunciation: \-sə-ˈmi-lə-ˌtüd, -ˌtyüd\ Function: noun Etymology: Latin verisimilitudo, from verisimilis verisimilar, from veri similis like the truth Date: circa 1576 1 : the quality or state of being verisimilar 2 : something verisimilar— veri·si·mil·i·tu·di·nous \-ˌmi-lə-ˈtüd-nəs, -ˈtyüd-; -ˈtü-də-nəs, -ˈtyü-\ adjective
The YES lessons were not just brother Basil’s “delightfully horrifying” domain, however. In the later levels, notably from level 8 onwards, the YES began incorporating photos into their lessons. You know the cliche a picture is worth a thousand words? Well get a gander at some of these ones. Pay careful attention to the captions.
That’s right. Just like the rules for volleyball, track and field, and basketball, we had to follow “the rules” of gawd’s way of life.
Otherwise known as “know your place”, if you were unfortunate enough to be a woman or a child, in the church.
Nothing by mouth. Note the wife reading the YES lesson to the fussing toddler, while the father lays down the law to the boy.
“Do not be conformed to this world. — Just look how disgusting, filthy, and horrible it is!!”
There’s not really much I need to say about this picture, is there? Talk about your bible freakin’ jigsaw!
Another one in the same vein, that I missed on the first pass through the lessons.
This is ultimately what it all really came down to, in the church. And that’s the “true truth”!!
Friday, 18. July 2008
Was that last photo one of Armstrong himself?
Atonement was always my big break with Biblegod and the Church. I would get thirsty, and made the conscious decision to sneak drinks of water throughout the day. I wasn’t willing to go thirsty on the (what I considered) small chance I would get thrown into the lake of fire for a few sips of water. Not that I wasn’t a little worried that I was surrendering my afterlife.
Talk about psychological and physical child abuse: Dehydrate yourself of burn in the lake of fire.
Thanks for the abuse, Herb.
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Friday, 18. July 2008
Worse than that was the hypocrisy of the adults: Infants were allowed food, by the “liberal” years I was in the church, but I can verify that I’ve seen more than one parent sneak a cheerio or two when they thought no one was looking!
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Friday, 18. July 2008
LOL about the photo being Armstrong — that gave me a good idea, I think I’ll go back through the lessons and take out all the Herbie pictures. Anyone want to take wagers on how many I’m going to get?
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Saturday, 19. July 2008
“God’s laws, along with other rules of conduct, are essential for successful living”.
One thing I’ve thought about many times is how much they claimed to be teaching the essentials for successful living and how much they missed out on. Essential coping skills for life in a modern world. So many things I had to figure out on my own and only after rejecting much of what they taught.
Thankfully I did figure out a lot and life is good.
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Saturday, 19. July 2008
You got that right. Social skills, anything beyond day-to-day living skills, financial security skills, the list goes on and on.
After all, we didn’t need social skills because we weren’t supposed to associate with anyone “in the world” anyway, we didn’t need anything beyond day-to-day living skills because “the end” was always right around the corner, and why bother with financial security, or other plans for the future? There wasn’t going to “be” a future, as far as we were concerned.
All thanks to the cult.
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Saturday, 19. July 2008
Yep, no future. I wasn’t going to make it out of high school, much less get married. Now i’ve been married twice and quite enjoy proving those idiots wrong.
Life is good.
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Sunday, 20. July 2008
LOL being married twice is certainly one way to prove them doubly wrong!
Glad to hear your life is good Tony, in the end, that’s the only thing that matters.
I haven’t done much with my life since we exited, except grab “the world” and try to hang on for the ride (and catch up at the same time). I’m hopeful now though, more than I’ve been up to this point in my life before — even though I’m in a bit of a worse situation than I’ve been before.
I dunno. It’s more of a gradual incline, for me, instead of a presto-change-o-you’re-CURED-it’s-a-miracle type thing. But then I don’t have a religious conversion added into the mix, so there’s that too.
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Sunday, 20. July 2008
I threw in the “Life is good” comment as it is something I’ve been thinking about in regard to the many posts on this and other forums. In my life with work colleagues and family I’ve been complimented for being encouraging and positive, yet in my posts, particularly here, I’ve made plenty of disparaging and negative comments about life in armstrongism.
So, I have been thinking lately that I also need to say how good it is on the other side. I wasn’t a positive minded person until much later in my armstrongist experience and given the doom and gloom that was preached from the pulpit, I’m not surprised.
But I worked with a colleague who was incredibly positive and when i noticed her life compared to mine, I realized the only difference was she wore rose colored glasses, and guess what, the world looked a lot better for her as a result.
So, I’ve been wearing those glasses for many years and life is indeed very good. But those damn niggly feelings of weirdness come back from time to time and this site is a great way to vent the pain of the armstrong influence.
Thanks All.
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Monday, 21. July 2008
I guess one (or “the only”) upside to an Armstrongist upbringing is the fact that you realize it can only get better.
I remember being told that I was going to have to live through the tribulation, that I would have to learn how to sew my own clothes and garden because the infrastructure of civilization would be destroyed by the time I reached adulthood. I was also told that I would have to marry somebody within the church — and having met fellow churchgoers realized how miserable a prospect that was.
So hey, making a good living, marrying a charming, good looking, successful pagan, and keeping Christmas every year is a big step up from where I thought I’d be.
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Monday, 21. July 2008
Good to hear Robin. It wasn’t till I married a church girl, got divorced and started to look around again that I realized how miserable my prospects were looking for a mate within the church.
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Monday, 21. July 2008
LOL don’t forget, not only did we have to marry someone in the church, we also had to marry someone in the church “from our own tribe”.
The comments about the positive outlook on life are pretty much where I’m at right now. Or at least, I’m trying to look at the positives in life. A little easier said than done, but I am hopeful that practice will make perfect!
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Monday, 21. July 2008
Practice does make perfect. Another tip I got came from a book called “Learned Optimism”. In there the author encourages people to treat bad days the way we treat good days.
When we have bad days, we can tend to exaggerate how bad the day is, “nobody loves me”, “I’m so pathetic”, etc.
But when we have good days we minimize how good the day is, we tend to just say “I’m having a good day”.
So, when you have a bad day, just call it a bad day and leave it at that.
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Monday, 21. July 2008
Sound advice! I am also trying not to “sweat the small stuff” — or let others around me make me sweat the small stuff. Now THAT’S easier said than done, let me tell you!
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