I had a holdeman deacon call me today. Said he had an admonition for me. Wondered if I would mind not shaking the hands of the members. Said it's been that way for many years and I should respect that.

I told him that shaking hands is a social thing and that I had no desire to kiss him. They can keep the kissing thing an exclusive h thing. Civilized people shake hands.

How long can they keep on with this arrogant attitude?

If they reach out the hand I reach out and shake it. I thought there had been a change to allow it up to everyones conscience. If they lean forward I tend to lean back. Hugging is always OK it seems. I do not think it will go on much longer. They now have the intranet. When I was young they did not even have radio and No one had TV. If they do not shake my hand I can still pray for them. And if they reach out there hand and I did not reach out and shake it I think I would feel condemmed.
Howie7

Speaking of kissing... you should have told him to kiss your a**!

Out of curiosity: What was the guy's name?

Bryon.. wow!! That's wild!! He is asking your help to keep church members in line with what he thinks his church members should be doing. Interesting.

Look on the bright side, Bryon, at least he didn't invite you to one of those men's meetings.

Byron, take it as a compliment, if the only sin they can think of that you participate in regarding their ability to give admonition, is the sin of being friendly to the holdies, you are probably in pretty good shape.

Those people's leaders are certainly lost, and have no clue what true religion and undefiled before God is, that is for sure.

dang, why doesn't he call is members and ask them not to shake YOUR hand? He has no jurisdiction over you. Do you intend to hearken?

Too bad Scott is off in Mexico, thinking in Spanish, or he could give us an impassioned speech regarding the feminine in Holdeman deacons.

I don't know why you guys feel threaten by this. And what are you doing among them anyway or poking your nose in their business if you feel that way? You know their protocol.

And VS, the effeminate is those that can't walk away from it.

Brent

Brent;

I have never thought of it that way but it may well be an effeminate issue to be [unable] to actually walk away from such things. On the other hand if there be an effeminate person, the thing was likely handed to him by the conditioning in some kind of way.

"The sins of the fathers are visited upon the generations following." At some point mankind does well to walk free from the dark things that each generation has inherited.

Here's something that I have observed: To be placed beyond the limits of fellowship of a professing christian group causes one to carry the negative things of the group along with him. Quite likely the positive things will evaporate to some degree until an intervention of a higher power occurs. Just an observation...

I had to laugh bout that Bryon. It's amazing how they still try to bring x members under their authority. It reminds me of my wedding!!

We had a holdeman guy stop by the other day to talked to my husband. When me husband asked him why so few have talked to us he said its because the holdemans are worried that they'll get themselves in a bind because we might quote scripture to back up what we say and they won't be able to. My hubby is like "isn't there something wrong with that picture?" The guy didn't know what to say...
I've always heard the holdemans complain that the x's know their Bibles so well and that they quote scripture when the h try to tell them something. They fail to realize that they don't know their Bible, just the BD&P. I asked one gal to tell me of some scriptures that backed up the OTVC thing and she said just read in the BD&P, it's all there. She proceeded to tell me that God is in heaven crying because now we're going to hell.

"I've always heard the holdemans complain that the x's know their Bibles so well and that they quote scripture when the h try to tell them something."

Micky,

From what I've been able to observe, most people leave their birth church for religious reasons. This may appear good or as the only justified reason, but really a long view or bigger picture shows it is not good. It happens in every denomination. The ex's are most generally more religious and contentious.

They endless study the Bible to justify the condemnation of not being in the church they can't overcome, or they go build in another denomination becoming a voice or leader there, or they start their own churches, and on and on it goes with forums, books, and such things.

I have an old friend raise Holdeman just like myself I recently reconnected with, and he was relating the story to Stan and I how one day he took some of his friends to his parents house, and his Holdeman dad was getting acquainted with his friends heritage, and then he turned to his son, and said, L here is nothing, meaning he had no religion. And to know the guy is about the truest thing there is. And it's way more refreshing then religious claims and assertions. That's why I warn my agnostic friends not to turn it to religion because that's just as bad a religion.

But listen, I'm not going to justify members of any church not knowing the scriptures when they claim such grandiose and outrageous things in the name of God. Then the ex's of churches knowing their Bibles better becomes almost refreshing.

Brent

Had to laugh at a deacon at a funeral I went to a short while ago He was my newphew and I hadn't seen him for a number of years. HE said he wanted to talk to his uncle and annt and came and sat behind us to talk. I turned around and offered my hand. He held his out, jerked it back and then held it out again. (We did shake hands.) He had a half grin on his face and his eyes were twinklling. I'm unsure if he had embarressed himself or was teasing me. AT one time he had a very mischievous nature. calledoutPTL