Posted by:
iced tea
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Date: October 05, 2013 06:55PM
I tuned into conference while driving around and shopping today. I'm not sure who the speaker was, but he was (predictably) giving a talk about rescuing those lost sheep.
He told a story (made-up, I'm sure) about inactive "Martha" and her family. When the VTs showed up to visit inactive Martha, "her heart was softened" and she gratefully returned to church. After she and her daughters had been attending for a while, the reluctant husband/dad eventually followed them, and everybody WENT TO CHURCH! Whoopee! They were all so happy.
The speaker then went on to reassure listeners that if they, too, persisted in pestering the inactives, said inactives "WILL come back!" According to this speaker, they are just waiting for their "more valiant brothers and sisters to show them the way" and will surely rush back to church with grateful hearts once they are pestered...um, visited.
This speaker made it sound like not showing up to church meetings was a horrible thing. He repeated the phrase about people's "hearts" being "softened" until I wanted to break something.
It's their heads that have softened, not their hearts.
Of course the sheeple are going to believe this drivel right down to their toes. They will now really think that bugging us, stalking us, and violating our boundaries by repeatedly shoving their religion in our faces will really make us go back -- because their leaders are assuring them that it will happen if they just do their part.
Brace yourselves for more doorstep cookie-dough, intrusive phone calls, unannounced late-night visits, and stalking of your children.
Of course, when lawsuits materialize instead of reactivations, leaders will blame it on the members (who I think are being set up for disappointment, garden-hosings, and maybe worse).