The Future
IPFS — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/InterPlanetary_File_System
Publishing my Website on IPFS — https://youtu.be/N4RKKHSyZlk
How to Use IPFS With the Brave Browser — https://youtu.be/hpwh_zLpnCE
Type username to filter posts in this community
IPFS — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/InterPlanetary_File_System
Publishing my Website on IPFS — https://youtu.be/N4RKKHSyZlk
How to Use IPFS With the Brave Browser — https://youtu.be/hpwh_zLpnCE
Old news by now, but a well-known Wuhan coronavirus super-spreader event occurred in Korea in February, and of course, a "sect" was involved. The leader of said sect is tied to the disgraced former president, Park Geun-hye, and couldn't help but remind the nation of those ties during his televised apology. The sad part is that the cult problem continues unabated, in Korea and elsewhere.
Purity culture was a twisted mess of ungrace-producing, fear-based teaching on love and relationships. It was destined to produce damaged individuals and marriages. Naturally, UBF twisted it further by adding its own brand of legalism, hyper-control and, of course, disregard for ethics.
Young author, Joshua Harris, became the posterboy of purity culture with his book "I Kissed Dating Goodbye". I remember his book being passed around in UBF because it seemed to be validation for UBF's no-dating policy (no-dating-and-marry-the-one-that-God's-S
As he matured, Harris began to rethink his prescriptions against dating. He heard from people whose lives had been damaged by the movement and teachings that his book had helped launch. In recent years, he pretty much disavowed "I Kissed Dating Goodbye" and pulled it from circulation. He went on an apology tour of sorts. Then, his own courtship-initiated marriage dissolved, as well as his seemingly well-grounded faith; if repentance means turning your life around, a thorough repentance it has been.
An article in the aftermath of Harris' "deconstruction" begins:
"As we culturally deconstruct the dreadfully misguided marketing effort of purity culture, it’s important to recognize that isn't the truth of Christianity. As happens too often, fallible humans completely garbled the message."
At a certain point in my life, I was frustrated with the UBF life. My parents thought I was getting ready to split, so they used the common tactic of offering a marriage. And I--with no real social skills, no prospects and a feeling of crushing loneliness--said yes when they proposed 18-year old ________ ____ from _____. She had previously been arranged in her early teens to marry another guy, who rejected the whole idea and left UBF soon after going to college. I agreed to sponsor her as my "fiancee" so she could get a visa. I met her for the first time at the airport in ____ after she flew over from _____. I'd never spoken to her or even written to her before. As we were told to, we went to get legally married in Court to get the immigration process started for her; she was 18 years old. Immigration law dictated that we live together for at least 2 years and provide proof of this after 2 years; this was to prevent sham marriages for immigration purposes. My parents and UBF leaders had us live separately for those 2 years instead. She lived in ________. We did as we were told and lied to the Immigration Service that we'd been living together. We never actually even touched each other until the "official" wedding 2 years later. We weren't the only couple who were told to flout immigration law like this.
In a TEDx talk, Dawn Smith speaks about growing up in an abusive "evangelical" cult and what it took to leave the only environment she'd ever known.
Senior UBF member 1: Second generation missionary AA came to Chicago this summer and shared a gracious testimony. AA said that Missionary KK and HH had legally adopted her and brought her from Korea. We were so moved. UBF member: Yeah, Missionary KK and HH legally adopted AA when she was of college age to help her come to the United States for college study. AA's parents (both UBF members) are still alive and well in Korea. (Note: "UBF member" is just mentioning this as common knowledge in the UBF chapter that KK and HH run. "UBF member" is NOT reporting this in order to report possible malfeasance.) Senior UBF member 1: Wait a minute. AA's parents are still alive in Korea? UBF member: Yeah. AA's parents agreed to the adoption so AA could come to study in the US. AA was having trouble getting into college in Korea. Missionary KK and HH have helped more than one UBF child by adopting them for this purpose (schooling in the US). Some have been younger than college age. Senior UBF member 1: (showing a surprisingly vital BS detector in spite of decades spent in UBF) That's not a real adoption. That seems like a fake adoption (implying that this is all strange and unethical). Senior UBF member 2: (to Senior UBF member 1) That's just your opinion. (Crosstalk ensues, in which Senior UBF member 2 repeats, "That's just your opinion.")
The Podcast "You Are Not So Smart", particularly the episode I linked to, is a great resource for those trying to understand why UBF members defend their cult (tribe) at all costs, defying all the evidence and explanations we dropouts have published over the years showing how and why it's clearly a cult and their leaders are abusing and fooling them. And now we're seeing similar stubborn rejection of facts and fact-based, rational decision-making in the world at large, which is entering a new age of nationalism and hate induced by tribalism. Staying part of their tribe seems to be more important to people than the pursuit of truth. Hard for me to learn that maybe all the effort we made to discuss and argue and explain and reveal critical information was in vain, because that's not what makes people change their view.