Stabbed in the Back By A Cult Leader (Part 2): Cease and Desist

After my my last post, in which "Pastor Jones" informed me that he took it upon himself to release details that I explicit told him were to be confidential because he felt he was "obligated Biblically"  to do so, he tried to contact me yet again on Friday, while I was at work. He came to the house, and left this in the door:

Text:

 I am deeply sorry for the misunderstanding associated with our encounter and my responsibility toward God and the church. The last thing I want is for there to be something else in the way of you coming to the truth. Please know that I care very much for you as many at Grace also do, and I would welcome an in person conversation with you.

My response, in a certified letter I sent off today:

In my last visit to your office, I explicitly stated that the only information that should be passed to the congregation is that I was resigning my membership from the church due to the fact that my beliefs had changed. I said that any further information that I told you was “not to leave this office”.

Information I have received in recent weeks leads me to believe that you have gone far beyond those limits, and your e-mail response confirmed that fact. What you did was plainly a gross breach of trust and confidence.

You claim a theological precedent for your decision to do this, yet to the best of my memory, I never recall you making your policy on such matters clear in any sermon. I highly suggest that in the near future, that you state what your policy is on people wishing to leave the congregation; I believe your members have the right to know where you stand on this.

I also clearly stated that even if I could return to Christianity (which was highly questionable at best), I could not return to a denomination as conservative as the Southern Baptist Convention, and I most certainly could not return to Grace Baptist Church.

All communications from you since that time have plainly implied that your only intention in contacting me was an attempt to bring me back to the church, and to agreement with your stances on theology (your statements on me “going astray” and worries that you have driven me farther away from “the truth” make this clear). 

That shows an appalling disrespect for me as a person, and for my decision as an adult of sound mind to leave your congregation in peace, and quite frankly, it has reached disturbing levels in its persistence.

I Think That Most Fundamentalist Parents Can Change

I've been spending more time on Twitter than I used too, and spending a lot of time getting involved in the joking around that goes on there, and some of the debates that go on there.

Lately in the former homeschooler circles that I am in there on Twitter, there's been a lot of debate going on about whether parents in the fundamentalist home school culture can change (for now on, I'll abbreviate it in this post as FHS culture), and whether we should continue dialogue with FHS culture parents online (here's one of the debates that went on recently).

The dispute has been coming up because in October Ryan Stollar of Homeschoolers Anonymous published a guest post from fundamentalist blogger/TLC reality show star Chris Jeub. Ever since then, Chris Jeub has been trying to have conversations with many of us on Twitter. It seems like he is sincerely curious as to why many of us left the culture, but he can't quite understand us, or why he left.

The conversation started on Twitter, and has made it's way to Homeschoolers Anonymous. I'll present both sides of the debate before giving my thoughts:

There can't be any dialogue with fundamentalist parents until they decide to change:

Sarah Jones, of the blog Anthony B. Susan and activist for Americans United for Separation of Church and State, is one the side of of not continuing the dialogue, here's a few of her arguments from Twitter: