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In Reply to: Re: bamboozled posted by Perry on July 14, 2005 at 01:38:33:
My worst personal experience of being bamboozled involved being taken in by a very sick, manipulative, pedophilic priest. By "taken in", I mean that I looked to this person for spiritual direction and thought of him as my mentor in lay pastoral ministry.
I had a very hard time accepting the fact that I had trusted such a despicable person as a friend & mentor--I thought I could spot phonies and that my "rational" approach to religion made me somewhat immune to exploitative holy men. I spent a lot of time after my fairly brief time in the COG trying to figure out what my mistakes had been. Then I go and make the same mistake all over again after giving 10+ years of my life to the RC Church. I was mortified--deeply ashamed. What's wrong with me, I asked?
Mainly what I've figured out is that I'm just as vulnerable to sociopathic manipulation as anyone else, and reliance on external religious or political authority is not a good idea. I'll probably never formally affiliate with another religious or politically motivated group, i.e., give a significant portion of my time, money & talent to the cause of truth and justice.
Like you, I've also gone through a lengthy process of examining my most cherished beliefs, and it does get very scarey sometimes living without much certainty about anything. I do, however, live with hope. I would say I have "faith," if I'm allowed to define that as a conscious, ongoing decision to trust in "todo se passa." This may be a culturally-bound idea that defies easy translation. Basically, I trust & believe in the processes of life & death, even if I don't tell myself that I "know" the ultimate "truth" about those mysteries.
Good topic, btw. Thanks for posting and starting this thread.
