Frank York, Gary Ezzo's former Editorial Director, just emailed the Duchess with the latest from everybody's favorite "Christian" parenting guru. The GKGW types have never shown an ounce of respect for alternate views or input. Try finding a pro-Ezzo message board that isn't heavily censored, if you disagree with me. Ezzo, and those who propagate his teachings, divide the world into those who follow his teachings and those who slavishly follow "secular mystics." We literally weren't allowed to put our children into the church nursery at the Calvary Chapel we attended, until after we'd attended Ezzo classes. Presumably our infant would have infected the other children with secular mysticism.
Now it seems Ezzo intends to use the strong arm of the law to silence criticism. His corporation recently began an aggressive sales campaign in Australia, and is meeting a fair amount of resistance from level-headed Ozzies. Apparently, using lawsuits to freeze out opposition comes under the rubric of a "higher moral standard."
Here's a press release that summarizes the dispute. Given Ezzo's thuggish approach to debate and disagreement, this seems like par for the course.
Posted by Discoshaman at octobre 26, 2003 01:41 AM | TrackBack
Thanks for keeping us informed. :-(
Posted by: Carol at octobre 26, 2003 01:49 PMDisco, you and The Duchess attended a Calvary Chapel? That would have been a site to see.
A brief anecdote seems appropriate. One of the founders of the small company I work for is an OPC elder. In college in the 1970s in Southern California (we like prepositions here at the Postmodern Clog comments), his roommate sought to lay down some guidelines to help him in his quest to find a Christian woman for marriage. He reasoned that Calvary Chapel should be a good source of civically virtuous, attractive women, so he resolved to attend one for purposes of finding a young woman to court. Having found a steady date, he would get her saved, then eventually tithing to the OPC. Thus would God communicate to him that he had found a suitable mate.
Now at IntelliData, "saved and tithing to the OPC" is used as the gold standard of orthodoxy. It's one thing merely to be redeemed, but to meet this test is to be in the center of God's will indeed.
Posted by: Tim Berglund at octobre 27, 2003 02:02 AMROFL.
Well, isn't it? I mean, that's about when I got it all together, when I started tithing to the OPC. ;-) (I'm only half kidding there.)
But the guy's got it all backwards. Round here at FRC PCA, the MO is to find submissive, genuinely converted Pentecostal and Brethren types, make them fall in love so hard that they do the Ruth 1:16 thing, marry them, and start having lots of babies to baptize and catechize. :-)
Posted by: pentamom at octobre 27, 2003 04:18 PMMy family history has several cases of this classic tale: Presbyterians dating Baptists. The Baptists convert to Presbyterian, and they get married. ;-)
Posted by: Carol at octobre 27, 2003 06:46 PMActually Calvary Chapel was the halfway house for me after I left the Word of Faith cult. What would have been interesting to see was me onstage with Benny Hinn getting "slain".
You guys crack me up btw. But I like your ideas. Missionary dating seems like a great way to get Baptists and Pentecostals over to Presbyterianism. That and literacy advocacy. ;-)
We currently have several Word-faithers visiting our Student Fellowship and church, and God seems to be moving some of them over toward Reformed theology and our church. I know from experience how cool it is to finally learn the whole counsel of the Word, rather than just healing and wealth prooftexts.
Posted by: Discoshaman at octobre 27, 2003 10:51 PMI crack you up?
Oh, maaaaaaaaaan. :-(
Every time I think I might qualify for that "cheerless Calvinist" certificate that I so covet, I mess it up again.
Posted by: pentamom at octobre 28, 2003 12:14 AMROTFLOL!!!!
Posted by: The Duchess at octobre 28, 2003 12:39 AMSo funny! It's such a small world. :-)
Posted by: Carol at octobre 28, 2003 01:07 AMJane:
I can see Pentecostals and Brethren being fertile territory too. (As an aside, I'm amazed at how many people I know with Brethren backgrounds. A lot of them are from the midwest, which may explain it, but still: weird.)
Disco:
CC would indeed be a good halfway house. Not too many years ago (okay, close to ten), I seriously considered taking my family to one. My wife "didn't like the music," so we kept looking. And now we're...well, let's not draw the story out too much. :)
Tim
Posted by: Tim Berglund at octobre 28, 2003 02:35 AMTim-
An entire Brethren church came over to the PCA en masse in my presbytery in Florida. :)
We also have an old-style Pentecostal church in town with a sign that says -- "Charismatic, Dispensational, Pre-Millenial, Reformed." I was so gobsmacked I stopped and asked. It turned out that the old pastor read Sproul a few years ago and liked what he read so much that he added "Reformed" to the church distinctives.
Posted by: Discoshaman at octobre 29, 2003 08:32 AMThere's a guy who is friends with a bunch of people at my church who is actually a "Calvinist Pentecostal" pastor. He had a small church for a while, but apparently the idea didn't go over really huge. He generally has spent most of his adult life doing things other than pastoring.
Posted by: pentamom at octobre 29, 2003 05:59 PMIf anyone hasn't read it, I recommend Frank York's "Adventures in Ezzoland."
http://www.midwestoutreach.org/02-Information/02-OnlineReference/04-Etc/01-TheJournal/Volume8/No2-AdventureInEzzoland.html
Posted by: The Duchess at octobre 30, 2003 06:01 AM