Re: Sword of the Spirit Internet Links « Result #1 on Jul 28, 2008, 8:51pm »
ahhh... the Lord's Day celebrations. How could I forget. It was especially exciting seeing the community leaders reactions when I told them I wouldn't be able to make it. PoP also has them on Saturday, typically a Saturday night dinner followed by a painful social hour.
Did anyone else have "Lord's Day" ceremonies on Saturdays?
Am I the only one who thinks Clark is a megalomaniac? Note all the control he attempts to wield in here as to how Sundays ought to be spent.
Of course, the way we spent Sundays was most often to go to the Community Gatherings, so that the "day of rest" often wound up being the most rest-free day of the week.
Re: My history with the PoP « Result #4 on Jun 17, 2008, 7:51pm »
Thanks for sharing. I've known a few others who were raised in the PoP, but never joined. Some of them refuse to talk about the PoP; even if it involved being critical. It seems that the experiences of being raised in the community had such a profoundly negative influence on their lives that they find it more comforting to deny it, or push it away, than to look at it and deal with it. I applaud you for writing about it. I know it is not always the easiest thing to do.
It seems like we share some common experiences of the early childhood years: getting into trouble. I was shocked to read about your recollection of being the property of the community. To the extreme of even being placed in a different home if that is what the community decided. Of course, a PoP member would retort that this would never happen today, and they would probably be right, but there is still this theme that members are primarily committed to the community that is still very strong today. I remember when I was in the PoP, there were powerful pressures to conform and I found myself becoming more and more detached from who I really was and more in line with what the PoP thought I should be.
Also congruent with your experiences, I felt the 'shunning' of the other members when I left. This is somewhat understandable given the nature of my exit - I did not go quietly. I emailed a paper outlining my experiences as honestly as I could to all of the members I had known. Nobody responded. I remember Joel Kibler, the coordinator in Minneapolis, MN did ask if I would like to meet him for coffee. Please forgive the overly strong analogy, but this would be like a rapist asking the victim if they could get together and talk about it.
In the PoP there is no true freedom, just conformity. Individuality is strongly discouraged and the group and its leaders are always above the member. The problem with this is that the PoP has shown itself to be very unpredictable and unstable. Just a few years ago the 'prophecy' and citybuilding campaign came about. What's going to be next? How left or right of the spectrum will the PoP go?
Re: My history with the PoP « Result #5 on Jun 16, 2008, 11:03am »
Thanks, Barbara. Those of us who experienced the PoP as kids tended to get lost in the shuffle. I know quite a number have had issues with depression, drug abuse and other problems (one I grew up with committed suicide).
I also know some who are still involved, but they seem to be mere shells of what they were as kids...
Re: Greetings and such « Result #6 on Jun 14, 2008, 7:02pm »
Hey, and welcome!
I got a chance to briefly read your story. Thanks a lot for sharing. I'll leave a comment on the story thread when I get a chance. I think you'll be a great addition to the forum.
We could also use your help with editing the PoP Wiki page. There are a couple papers by Adrian that have not received any attention in the criticism section yet.
I'm planning some empirical work on the PoP through the ICSA (International Cultic Studies Association) that should be coming out in the CSR (Cultic Studies Review) in the next couple years also.
Re: My history with the PoP « Result #7 on Jun 14, 2008, 2:22pm »
I remember your family very vaguely. I also grew up in the South Bend branch of the community. I was very young (under 6) when your family left so I don't remember the scandal surrounding it. My father remembers your family more. My parents were one of the families that "picked up" and moved from California to join the community in 77 (an action I still cannot fathom!). My father ended up leaving the community about a year and half later for some of the same reasons, I assume, your parents became discontented with the group. My mother stayed in the community and since that meant divorce you can imagine how awkward my early years were. A divorce!! Among God's chosen people!
Anyway it was nice to hear someone's story who also "grew up" as part of the community. It seems I see more stories of indivduals who encountered the community as adults vs. who experienced it as children. I spend my first 16 years as an unwilling member of the community and identify with many of the attitudes you mentioned in your story.
My history with the PoP « Result #8 on Jun 12, 2008, 10:20am »
I suppose that my username gives some hint as to who I am (Dr. Reimers' son.)
My parents were among the original 29 members. I was the first baby born into this fledgling community, so many of the formative years of my life were spent in within the community. In a way, I was the prototype for how the community should raise children - and make no mistake, this was regarded as a community effort. My childhood and the community were intertwined - the one simply did not exist without the other.
When I was 5, we moved across town to a new house. My memory is fuzzy, but I think proximity to other community members was a critical factor in our location. We ended up next door to my godparents (also PoP members, and who had shared the first house with my parents for a few years when I was a toddler.) In the immediate area (about a 3-block area) were something like 9 or 10 other PoP households. My playmates were all PoP kids, obviously. Somewhere in there, Dad got hired by Charismatic Renewal Services to run the annual conference at Notre Dame. His star was rising in the PoP, although he was never really considered for a coordinator job.
I remember that sometime after the 1975 conference in Rome (which I was at), there was a schism between the PoP and the Word of God in Ann Arbor, and it was very messy. They were suddenly the enemy.
As kids, we had youth meetings we were expected to attend before the mandatory main community meetings. I really, really hated Sundays: go to church in the morning, eat brunch, then a long, boring youth meeting, then a longer, even more boring community meeting, and your day is shot. But we'd go to Hell if we didn't go, because community meetings were as important as church, so there you go.
Once I turned 10, there was the community summer camp, which was "strongly encouraged." I don't remember much about it: I just remember that it was a miserable experience and poorly-run. I remember that the following year, Dad gave me the choice of going to camp or going with him to some sort of 2 or 3-day video series on being a good charismatic Christian in Gettysburg. I went with Dad. The year after that, the PoP established their own Scout troops in lieu of their own camping. Of course I signed up.
Growing up as a community kid was pretty rough for me. I hated it when other community adults would babysit or I'd have to spend the day there: it was expected that I'd know their rules (which I didn't always, they weren't always the same), and they were allowed to punish me as they saw fit. Then, if the babysitter punished me, my parents would punish me as well for misbehaving. Nothing like getting spanked twice for breaking an innocuous rule you weren't even aware of. I remember once being told that I belonged to the community, and if the coordinators decided I should move in with a different family, my parents would have to give me up. Of course, I never really fit in with the non-community kids at school, either.
By the time I was 12, things started changing a bit. Mom was becoming increasingly outspoken, and Dad refused to "put her in her place." His head and the coordinators were dismayed that he would do things like consult her about adding members to the household or making major purchases. He started falling out of favor with community leadership, but he was still one of the critical people who made the annual conference work. In fact, as a conference organizer, he had made a name for himself as one of the best in the business - so much so, that when an international retreat for Catholic priests was being organized in 1984, the chief organizer arranged to bring my whole family over to Rome so he could be part of that team (CRS went along with it.)
We spent 3 months in Rome. During that time, my parents rediscovered their spiritual roots and got valuable time away from the influences of the PoP, personal heads, men's and women's groups and whatnot. They were already starting to become discontented, but the trip to Rome was really the catalyst for their exit. When we returned, we quit participating in community activities. It was only a matter of time before Dad was forced to resign from CRS, and we walked away from the PoP.
The months immediately following were awkward, to say the least. We still lived in that same house, surrounded by lots of PoP members. But we suddenly didn't exist. If we were out shopping and a PoP member saw us in the grocery aisle, they'd turn around and go down a different aisle. We were literally shunned. Not that that's a bad thing, mind you, but very awkward. One minute, you're a special person and God has a plan for you and God loves you. The next, you're demonspawn.
I'm sorry this is so disjointed. It's been a very long time, and my memories are quite fragmented. At the same time, my parents' involvement with the PoP had a profound effect on who I am: I spent the first 13 years of my life essentially as community property.
![[Home]](http://s4.images.proboards.com/menu/home.gif)
![[Help]](http://s4.images.proboards.com/menu/help.gif)
![[Search]](http://s4.images.proboards.com/menu/search.gif)
![[Login]](http://s4.images.proboards.com/menu/login.gif)
![[Register]](http://s4.images.proboards.com/menu/register.gif)
![[Search This Thread]](http://s4.images.proboards.com/search2.gif)
![[Reply]](http://s4.images.proboards.com/buttons/reply.gif)
![[Send Topic To Friend]](http://s4.images.proboards.com/buttons/sendtopic.gif)
![[Print]](http://s4.images.proboards.com/buttons/print.gif)
Author
![[aim]](http://s4.images.proboards.com/aim.gif)
![[homepage]](http://s4.images.proboards.com/buttons/www_sm.gif)
![[Quote]](http://s4.images.proboards.com/buttons/quote.gif)
Logged
