House Church Talk - conferences/agendas/our freedom

[David Anderson]

Hi there Claire, you wrote:

>I am not impugning these men's intentions, they want to straighten us out 
>and get us all behaving in a way that they deem scriptural.  But the road 
>to hell is paved with good intentions.  We don't appear to learn from 
>history.  I see the hc much like this child's rhyme, "When she was good 
>she was very, very good, but when she was bad she was horrid.

Thanks for writing! But are you not, as well, wanting people to believe 
and act in a certain way, my friend? 

>A lively discussion is taking place about this on New-Wineskins; I felt it 
>was safe to share there as they strongly support non-hierarchal views and 
>equality of women.  I have learned that these organizers believe women 
>should keep silent, believe in hierarchal leadership, and only 
>homeschoolers are allowed to be in this authoritarian leadership (the 
>elitist hc/homeschool/ nexus) and now they want to have their work funded. 
> I suggest they take their cue from others, which may already have 
>occured, and promise the religious right large families full of Republican 
>voters in return for support.

By what mechanism are they seeking control everyone? Is it a membership 
drive, a web site, a TV station, something somewhere to sign, some kind 
of a pledge, something centralized with the authority to bind other 
churches? How do they want to be funded?

I know for certain that Jon Zens, whom I thought was a planner, favors 
female participation in meetings, as did another planner I used to 
communicate with. I favor it as well as does Gene Edwards who were both 
invited to speak. Neither do I believe in hierarchical leadership nor did 
I encounter anyone at the conference who did. Neither was anything ever 
said, to my knowledge, about home schoolers having special privileges in 
the churches. 

I have, btw, encountered plenty of "elitism" among house churchers, sad 
to say.

I have not attended the conference in several years. Perhaps you can 
update us with some documentation. Quite possibly there have been recent 
developments and I have insufficient info. It's a changin world, no?

Though I do have different views myself on a few issues, I was treated in 
a brotherly fashion at this conference and did not perceive that 
"control" or anything "centralized" was on the agenda.

     David Anderson