Recommended Reading
Posted by graduatedjosh on November 29, 2006
By Agatha L’Orange
Dipping suggested that we needed a recommended reading site. So here it is! It will also be filed under forums. So have at it. If you list a book, article, website or something else… please give complete info… at least title and author. It would also be helpful if people included a summary and how this selection helped them.
Thanks, and I look forward to hearing your reading suggestions!
De-Commissioned 
cerebralflatulation said
I’d personally start here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calvin_and_Hobbes
cerebralflatulation said
you can delete that if you want 😀
Angry said
Fellow de-commissioners,
Here is a short article that might have greatly helped Jim McC & Co in the early years:
http://www.thedoormagazine.com/archives/purpose_driven_cult.html
…okay, now to the serious stuff…
Angry
puff of purple smoke said
Fellow de-commissioners,
Here is a short article that might have greatly helped Jim McC & Co in the early years:
http://www.thedoormagazine.com/archives/purpose_driven_cult.html
…okay, now to the serious stuff…
Angry
Classic
genevieve said
Hilarious!
cerebralflatulation said
yep, that link angry just posted was golden.
agathalorange said
Okay, am I the only one that actually saw some relationships between our situation and the funny article???
ex-shep said
Too bad Trinity Foundation has been recently discredited. I will let other do the reserch. I do not want to get too far off topic.
I will say I needed the comic relief. I have one friend who has a collections of Ex-GCI and rattle them off with vaudeville finesse. I think they are wild, but modesty prevents.
I will share one from another quarter. My girlfriend, at the time, and I were riding the bus. We were just carrying on a conversation when she commits this memorable Freudian slip, “So how are things these days in Great Permission?”
Kirsten said
I just posted this on as a comment on another blog, but I will post it here too. I know men’s/women’s roles issues have come up a few times on this blog. One book I consider most influential in my thinking on the subject is “Man and Woman in Christ” by Stephen B. Clark. It’s out of print but the full text is available on line at http://www.cbmw.org (under “Web resources” and then “books online.”) Reasonably priced copies are also often available online.
Clark is a Catholic scholar who approaches the issues from not just a scriptural but also a historical and sociological viewpoint. He does hold the traditional or complimentarian view on roles. I think though whether you are coming from a complimentarian or an egalitarian point of view, his work is worth reading because of his novel approach. Nearly all of it is just as applicable to protestants as to Catholics, as he spends very little time on solely Catholic issues.
Kirsten said
Oh, I should have said “so I will post it here too” since it was a completely different blog (not another post on this site) and it was just posting it there that made me think of suggesting it here.
mamad said
I stumbled upon this article a few weeks ago.
It was eye opening for me and it put into words the essence of why we had to leave our church.
We don’t believe the shepherding movement is Biblical and we realized that GCM bought into a lot of the shepherding movement.
The chart in section 7 was especially helpful.
http://www.reveal.org/library/theology/byczko.html
mamie said
Since book recommendations really should be under the title “Book Recommendations” (I know, these moments of brilliance astound me, too…), I’ll also list here two books that I recommended elsewhere.
For those who would really like to do an indepth study of scriptural interpretations of the Bible that are used to support various gender-based practices in the church, in addition to the two that Kirsten mentioned above, you should read:
1) Men and Women in the Church, by Sumner – very well written; nice balance of personal touch and scholarly hermeneutics
2) Slaves, Women and Homosexuals: Exploring the Hermeneutics of Cultural Analysis, by Webb. Yeah, I know, he really needs some work on the title. But he’s looking at how to understand the influence of cultural context on the interpretation of Biblical treatment of those three groups of people. It can get a little dry but that’s because he’s extremely thorough – very, very careful scholarship.
mamie said
And for those of you whose experiences in GC or any other church have caused you to question the concept of church or even your relationship with God, I would strongly recommend reading “Velvet Elvis” by Rob Bell. It will renew your faith in God and maybe even in the concept of church….enough to think it’s at least possible to do it right.
Orthodox said
I also posted this under the “God’s Will” thread. Sorry for the duplication.
Thirsting For God in a Land of Shallow Wells by Matthew Gallatin (a little idealistic but really said how I was feeling)
Becoming Orthodox: A Journey to the Ancient Christian Faith by Peter E. Gillquist (former Campus Crusade leader who found Orthodoxy while trying to recreate the early Christian church in a home group)
The Orthodox Way by Kallistos Ware (he’s a professor of theology at Oxford and a bishop. This book shows the mystical side of Orthodoxy and was when I fell in love with it.)
The Orthodox Church by Kallistos Ware (outlines the history and practices. I didn’t actually finish this one; couldn’t get through the history.)
Online Frederica Mathewes-Green is a well-respected author and speaker who converted to Orthodoxy. Her website is http://www.frederica.com/.
I also listened to a radio program called “Come Receive the Light” that was really helpful (http://www.receive.org). You can hear program archives by clicking on “Program Archives” on the left and registering with your email address. Each program is about a half an hour.
sista in Christ said
I’ll through Generous Orthodoxy by Brian McLarin up as a suggestion, though I don’t agree with all of it, it is an interesting concept, especially in the light of the elitism that many found in GCM.
Dipping my toes in.... said
Ok, I have some recommended books. But I have to explain first! The books I’m recommending are children’s books and I’m recommending them as books to use as springboards to discuss mind control with your children. They’re recommended for ages 9-12. Ever since my experience with GCM, I’ve been on the lookout for ways to start teaching my future kids (don’t have any yet!) of the dangers of manipulation and mind control, and just familiarize them with what that might look like. The series is called the “Guardians of Ga’Hoole” by Kathryn Lasky. All of the characters are all owls or other animals.
It’s been awhile since I read them, but they popped into my mind recently. I remembered being impressed when I first read them because they were good stories AND a lot of important topics (in my opinion) came up in the series – brainwashing, mind control, subtle twisting of words to make bad deeds seem good, attempts to break others spirits and make everyone alike(a.k.a. “mindless zombies” 😉 ), attempts to get characters to deny their convictions and beliefs, etc.
So for those of you with children or wanting to have children, I’d check them out! GC* didn’t invent subtle mind control and manipulation and they certainly don’t hold the market on un-healthiness in churches. There’s a lot of dangerous stuff out there and I think teaching my future children to make their own decisions and stand on their own beliefs and convictions is one of the most important things I can teach them.
Nate said
Dipping,
Thanks for the head’s up. I made a joke about me and my wife having a “GC* baby” in 7 months a while ago, but in all seriousness, I want my kids main influences to be God, and my wife and I. Probably in that order. They’d grow up alot more normal with more influence from my wife than me 🙂
I’ll look around for those books. Thanks for the head’s up.
Dipping my toes in.... said
“The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse” by David Johnson and Jeff Van Vonderen.
If I could, I would deem this as a “Required Reading” for anyone, GC or ex-GC, that visits this site. 🙂 This book is full of grace and truth. If you are ex-GC, this is a good book for too many reasons for me to list. If you are currently in GC, chances are if you’re visiting here, you’ve seen something that bothers you or nags at you. This book, more than anything you could read here, is a good tool for evaluating whether your situation is abusive or not.
Dipping my toes in.... said
Oh, and many thanks go to Liz and Ex-shep for mentioning it on older discussions! I really appreciate the recommendation.
MidnightRider said
Dipping,
Have you also read _Churches That Abuse_ by Enroth? If so, how do they compare?
ex-shep said
I have read Enroth. It is a good historical read on aberrant churches. It does provide some perspective. He does not go into the recovery process from an abusive group, which is a let down. Any good library should have it. If not, I would use interlibrary loan. I would not run out and buy it.
Frail said
Twisted Scriptures by Mary Alice Chrnalogar was good. I actually have a ton of Post-It notes still in there from issues I could relate to.
Toxic Faith by Stephen Arterburn and Jack Felton was also helpful. One nice thing about this book is almost everybody in Christian circles has heard of Stephen or one of his books. I always thought that his might be a good tool for talking with current GCMer’s.
These books and Enroth’s really helped ‘journal out’ my thoughts on GCM in order to move on with my life!
Agatha L'Orange said
I really liked Toxic Faith myself. It was a very applicable book.