In The Soup

I've told before how the Lutheran Campus Pastor, while I attended college, had us gathered for a meeting.  He said,'Just answer, yes or no.  Red or dead, which one.'  He wanted no discussion.

The kids, I was at least ten years older than most of them, kind of hemmed and hawed.  Some said red, a couple said dead. 

I looked at him and the group.  I broke his rule.  I simply couldn't just say one or the other.  I replied that I would be neither.  I would either join the resistance in the hills, or th Underground in the city.

There was a long pause.  This guy was so serious, solemn even.  Nothing more was said.

The red or dead bit was the culmination of my increasing friction with him and others in the LCA.  Collectivism, liberalism, leftism, whatever you care to call it, had been creeping in and corrupting the church just as it was all of life.

It was very seductive, even to someone who had been in the world, had his own business and travelled widely.  It was done softly and gradually.  But I just couldn't swallow the bilge.I had been raised to think for myself and even though they tried their best, I didn't buy leftist rhetoric. 

Some people cave, even when they know better.  They may think it's God's will or they may just go along to get along or use the former as an excuse. 

The whole experience was rather churning.  I had principles I would NOT abandon, no matter what they threw at me.  And yes, that included girls, believe it or not as well as 'peer' pressure.. 

So I'm very familiar with collectivist academic/church tactics.  And I see how kids who have little or no preparation can be turned, little by little til they become 'true believers' or more likely useful idiots.

I have passed that love of Liberty to the kids and we taught them to think for themselves too.  We shall see where it takes them now.

I got out of the soup, stopped stewing in the marxist miasma.  It preyed on our best intentions, our 'hope' to help.  But they are short on teaching self reliance preferring entitlement.  All the leftist trimmings are included

Getting out of that soup, have I stepped into the fire?

I'm as firm in my convictions now as then, even more so with my experiences as the heat increased.

It will stand me in good stead, come what may.