Is It A Cult?

So, the strange message I got Monday, was from a family whose college daughter they fear is slipping into a cult. 

Instantly, I can think back and realize she has never attended any of classes since I have been at that church.  So I am surprised how, this young lady is headed in the wrong direction.....?  Apparently, she has done two conferences with this suspicious group and very interested in going all the way through their offerings.  Think real $$$$$ here!

I am always the ultimate skeptic, so I am not going to consider the family's concern as valid nor invalid.  I have to do a little research to figure this out for myself.

Now the group in question is one of the many of the self improvement groups professionals consider to help invigorate their careers.  The internet presents them in the light of being a leadership training / self help / inspirational conference provider.  Now I know nothing about this group, but I do know of the ilk - my last company sent all of their golden boys to the offerings of similar providers.  A quick look at their web site and you can find that they address the usual problems Americans are troubled by: poor self image, poor communication skills, poor non-verbal communication skills, poor ability to interpret their surroundings, etc.  You can go for the big bucks and learn how to dress for success, talk like you are educated and successful, have real confidence in yourself, learn the latest ideas on teaming, etc. 

All external fluff, cause it is the inside of man that needs changed not their outside....  But we are talking the world's values here after all.  The founder has even written a book covering his ideas by comparing what the code of the samurai with what great leaders (like you should be) have in common.  You too can learn not be a loser.  Everybody wants that, right?  And yes, I did read quite a bit of the book - it is just not a subject I am interested in.

Whomever did their website design gets a Kris' Golden Gummi Award!  It is very well done - does everything to project the group in a positive light - and yet say as little as possible about what it is they do or what you can expect to gain from attending their seminars!  Its content is totally vacuous! And as a prospective client I am interested - why?

Since their site presents nothing about their product, very little about their instructors and lots about their benevolence activities - obviously we are looking at a group whom has public image problems!  Or, at the least. has taken flak from the public and so now are trying to show that they do benefit others.  At least that is the message one can get from reading through their site and what is not on their site.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

If we start with Dale Carnegie and his, I'm Okay, Your Okay, (don't even get me started on that guy!).  Continue on in time to seeing how eastern religions were combined with those ideas to form Eckankar, a popular 1970 through 1980's cult.  And then springboard into the millennium with numerous self help and positive image groups - you have to wonder why.

From a totally human perspective, I have no problem with any of the non-religious groups.  They provides a service for people to try and get ahead via attending.  But, I do have a problem with this young lady taking this route.....

Why?  Because she is a Christian.  To be thinking in such a way that she NEEDS this training in order to "get ahead", then her eyes have to be fully and completely focused on the world - not what she is called to be as a Christian.

If you are a Christian and you are having self image problems, you are wanting to "get ahead", you want to be in leadership, learn to communicate better - have I got an offer for you!

• Turn your eyes back upon Jesus
• Get down on your knees and humble yourself before Him
• Turn off the TV, pick up your Bible and start to STUDY it
• Go to a real Bible school where relationship not religion is taught
• Go on the mission field or into service for Him, not yourself

If you can do this, you will have accomplished not only everything you will have been seeking but also all in an eternal sense.....

Now, my advice to the family?  Try to woo her away from the world and its success she is hungering for.  Encourage her to attend Ecole Hall in Cannon Beach, Oregon for a year.  Her church is heavily involved in missions in Seattle, Mexico, Liberia, Chile, etc.  So, plenty of opportunity out there - just within their sponsorships.

Failing this, try to support her discovering she is not a loser and if she hates her life - change it!  Get a different job, better education - even at night, whatever it is that will help her gain the confidence in herself she lacks.  Going to a conference and not changing anything back home, is not going to help her in the long term.....  Will she go, I would bet on it.  Will it hurt her, I doubt it.  Will she succeed because of it?  You never know how God is going to either frustrate your activities or use them for His benefit - not yours.

Prayer item.

Of Family, Friends and A Horrible Day

It was a day for the books, I tell ya.....

Yesterday, I drove down to where my mother lives, a little over an hour from here, to have lunch with her and my sister.   And, weren't they both in just a mood!  I have seen stray cats in my yard get along better than these two hissing and spitting females.  If anything, my presence merely gave them something different to hiss and spit at.  Kris, however, does not do well in these situations so I was torn between being an adult and getting their faces - or - being a complete smart ass and mocking them.  Wanna guess which one I chose?

As I said, it did not go well; I may not have chosen wisely.  It is really unfortunate I never was able to crack the education and training of my early years in European schools.  I have often considered that I am far too polite and willing to take far too much (flak) from others - in the name of politeness.  Especially, when in reality they just need a good smack upside their head with a brick.  Sigh.

Unfortunately, I really wanted a few hours alone with Sommer so we could talk about father.  The major reason I have created my little biography on him is so that his last wife (and possibly any of the other 7) whom might like to remember him, could have a little memory book.  (Yes, their versions would be heavily edited not to include other wives, etc..)  With any luck, I will have it done come the end of next year - but I really need my sister so I can work some of her material in.  Being the golden-child, her perspective is a little different than mine.  Sigh.

Then back home was bad news that my mining friend of so long ago is now bedridden, his lumbars apparently collapsing and leaving him unable to sit up or walk.  This makes me very sad to think of him in this way.  Even sadder in that, when I was down visiting him last January for his birthday, he totally shut down any attempt to witness to him.  God has got to - well God has got to nothing - but I tell you this man really needs to make peace with his Creator mighty quickly....  Maybe you can add Dick to your your prayer list for the next few months.

My only other message was a strange request for some counseling advice from a family in the church I barely know.  But, I will save that one for tomorrow because you might be interested in the subject matter and it will be a bit long to explain.....

A Shooting Hits Too Close To Home

If you are a long time reader you know that the travails of my teenage son have driven me to distraction over the past 18 months.  Pretty much he has been in fail mode for the whole of this time and I am at the point where nothing would surprise me any more - I thought.....

So, Friday night he and his friends all decided to go out on a group date.  What?!?!?!? My son is going to do something right for a change?  Yes, indeed, it seems he is starting to think about past failures and actually changing behavior to what that "grumpy old man" told him was the way to do things.

But, the night did not go too well.  Since I already have heard this on the international news services, in all likelihood, you have heard about this already, as well.  You also probably saw his last ex-girlfriend being interviewed!  ( I miss her she is a sweet kid....)

So, son comes home from having watched, The Tower Heist, with his coed group of friends and is pretty chipper.  He roams off to play video games - I retire to my continued codeine haze for the past two weeks.

A little past two in the morning, he is on the phone with one of the "hotties" of the group when she is killed by a hail of bullets.

Seems she went over to a local parking area, down by the water, nice area actually.  But, still what was she doing there at 2am?  Yeah.  In any event. two gangs got into a shouting match and one group decides to teach the other a lesson and pump some rounds into the cars in the parking lot.  No one apparently knew the girl was in the car - she took four rounds.  Loud mouth from the unarmed group caught one round when he dove behind the car.  Shooters take off, unarmed group calls the paramedics and the police, then they find the girl.

I am hoping son sees this as a wake up call - that trash talking others can have dire consequences.  At least I hope he learns a lesson from this.....  And like so many kids around here, she really could have used a relationship with Jesus.  Sigh.

As for the kids around here, they are all in a bit of shock.  Many knew her, heavens, even I had run into her several times in the past few months.  I was really surprised when I saw her picture on the news yesterday - I did not know her name, she was just a nice, normal kid.

Simply amazing.

Musical Saturday Morning

This video dates from 2009 but the music from 1980's so it works in keeping with my musical theme.  For some reason I always thought that Debbie Harry did this, so was surprised to not find it under any Blondie works.  Nena I guess is whom it was I was remembering.  Well, as you will see they look so much alike!

Oh yeah, the English title is 99 Red Balloons, in German 99 Luft (Air) Balloons.  It was written as a satire concerning the Berlin Wall and how even balloons were perceived threats....

Nervous

So, I am nervously sitting here, waiting to go to see the specialist in an hour.  I am not really looking forward to this.  I dread the thought of hearing the "C" word again.  But, then again, you are stuck with the cards you are dealt and God promises to get us through whatever life throws up in our lives.  Sigh.

Gaelic Girl is coming up this afternoon, my sister flew in the other day, mother is wound tighter that a set of pig-tails on a 7 year old girl and the kids are all being nice.  Middle daughter even brought over some movies and bottles of ice tea to keep me awake and happy.  Hmmmmmm, maybe there is a positive side to all of this?

Swede is up for surgery in a few weeks for whatever they are going to do to him and his condition - it sounds worse than what I imagine will happen to me.  Dutchman is up and about, as are all of the others whom all ended up in the hospital on the same day!  Which is good - though really freaky.  I had so many at church last weekend comment on how utterly bizarre it was that happened all at once.  It was not like we were all out drinking contaminated water or something!

UPDATE:
All of the tests proved nothing other than impaired kidney function.  So nasty tests in two weeks.  Great, just great, they do think it is cancer.....

Oh Fudge-icles!

I heard that from one of the kids at church and had a hearty laugh over that one!  Wonder how much frustration it takes for a five year old to get stressed that bad.  LOL!

But that is a good post title for this week!  Seems yours truly finally managed to do an overdraft on his checking account!  First time ever.  Luckily, I do have overdraft protection but still it really irritates me to make a blunder like that!  So, I had to figure out what went wrong.....

I usually keep $300 in my checkbook as a zero balance so I never have this problem.  My math is indeed so bad that +/- $100 when I balance is about as good as it ever gets.  Then twice a year I write no checks and see what my balance comes to at the end of the month and we begin again.  No, using a calculator does not help - big fingers, tiny buttons - same problem I have with cell phones!

In the end, it turned out that a loan I took out to pay for father's funeral trip costs had a pay date of the 15th, but I did not know that - so had budgeted to pay on the 30th.  Well, since I did not have the payment amount on the 15th, they drew down my savings to zero, maxed my VISA card, zeroed out my checking account and then hit me with $60 in fees to make a point.  Yeah, Kris is not a happy camper now with no savings and negative checking and credit limits.  Grrrrrrr!

As I told God, well thank you for the gentle reminder.....  Now, I really could use some money, any ideas God?

Another Raspberry Moment

So, I was to lose it again on Sunday morning.  I am running late, because I came home late Saturday - I was out playing with Swede after all, then I overslept, kitchen is a disaster thanks to my persona non-Grata son and so I pick up a bunch of stuff off of the table to go in the refrigerator.  I open the refrigerator door and

SWOOSH!

Out comes a cascade of refrigerated products the kids had just thrown into the refrigerator - not even bothering to set things on the shelves!  The worst of it was a tub of margarine that exploded when it hit the floor and then rolled across the kitchen and the diningroom living a trail of grease in its path.....  I lost it.

I threw everything in my arms on the floor and began screaming - out of my sheer frustration with the unbelievable pigs infesting my life!  So great my frustration - I hauled off and kicked one of my counters!

Now you have to remember that although Kris is a pacifist, he was trained to do horrible things to people by the military in his younger years.  The kick was perfect, the one inch thick plywood crumbled under the impact.

Yeah, I now have a very clean floor, a broken counter, extremely well behaved children, and a broken heal bone.....

Another extraordinary event in the history of Raspberry Moments and eight weeks of hobbling again on crutches.  Tomorrow is CAT Scan day neck, foot, abdomen - such fun.