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I'd like to respond to your e-mail about your negative experiences with the church. I don't know if you intended for the message to make it's way through K-Net, but it did. If I remember correctly, I had a brief acqaintence with you regarding the great job you did on your Web Page. I was also in the process of putting together a Web page and you extended your help. It turned out that I never got around to my Web Page yet so you never heard from me. Firstly, I am very sorry to hear about your negative experience with the Church of Christ. I've had many times when I've doubted and thought about leaving but I always prayed that God would help me to see the truth if I were being misled. Oftentimes, it was a matter of a misunderstanding. In response to your comment about Shelley Metton, I would have to say that even our leaders are vulnerable to making mistakes and my experience is that they've been more than willing to listen even if the somments have come from a critical motive. Secondly, I think you have to be very careful when you generalize about people because no one thing can be said about an entire group of people. I notice that you use general terms like "you people" in talking about incidents that happened between specific individuals. For every mishandled situation, there are certainly several situations that were handled appropriately by members. The fact is that most people don't turn their backs on those who fall away although we may not maintain as much contact with them as we would if they were still disciples. Oftentimes, it's because they choose not to associate with us anymore. Thirdly, I can see where you are coming from with the comments about a minimum pledge if what you say is indeed true. Assuming that it is, I know very few people, even among college students, who really cannot afford a pledge of $10.00 or $15.00. As a former undergraduate and graduate student, I was always able to afford this type of pledge on a 15.00hr per week job. Oftentimes, you'll probably find that those who have absolutely nothing for their contribution are undisciplined financially and have probably spent several dollars eating fast food, going to a movie, or doing other activities when they could have cut back just a little bit and easily met their contribution. We can't blame God or the church for our lack of discipline and financial budgeting. I hope this e-mail isn't provocative in anyway. I was just oping to presenting another angle at the issues you address. To be quite honest, these issues are of concern but I would encourage you to not "throw the baby out with the bath water" if you know what I mean. Email D. Jones Contact: Daniel de Sailles
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