{"id":115,"date":"2011-12-08T03:51:03","date_gmt":"2011-12-08T10:51:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/emergentvillage\/?p=115"},"modified":"2011-12-08T03:51:03","modified_gmt":"2011-12-08T10:51:03","slug":"choice-lamb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/emergentvillage\/2011\/12\/choice-lamb\/","title":{"rendered":"Choice Lamb"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/106\/2011\/12\/choice-lamb.jpg\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-116\" title=\"choice lamb\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/106\/2011\/12\/choice-lamb.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"480\"><\/a><br>\nI receive emails everyday at <a href=\"http:\/\/nakedpastor.com\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">nakedpastor<\/a> from people who have left the church. They share with me their struggle to learn how to live without it. Here\u2019s a slice from one such letter:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>We were told to leave a church because we had become tools of Satan in the fellowship. So we were handed over to Satan to do his will for punishment. All because of a difference of opinion regarding actions we believed were unloving.<\/p>\n<p>Anyway, person after person has encouraged me to find another church with comments about how much I need it, and how in danger I will be without it.\u00a0 My gut is that I will be trading one concentration camp for another, and I even picture barbed wire in my mind.\u00a0 All promise they will be safe places for me.<\/p>\n<p>I am one of the voices who tells myself that I will be in danger without a local fellowship. It\u2019s exactly as you said \u2014 I don\u2019t even believe that I can safely walk in freedom.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>When we say we are welcoming, do we examine what that means? What do we mean? What do people think we mean?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I receive emails everyday at nakedpastor from people who have left the church. They share with me their struggle to learn how to live without it. Here\u2019s a slice from one such letter: We were told to leave a church because we had become tools of Satan in the fellowship. So we were handed over [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":369,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[1099,22,42,41,44,43,40,45],"class_list":["post-115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cartoons","tag-cartoons","tag-church","tag-comic","tag-david-hayward","tag-goats","tag-lamb","tag-nakedpastor","tag-wolves"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Choice Lamb<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I receive emails everyday at nakedpastor from people who have left the church. They share with me their struggle to learn how to live without it. Here&#039;s a\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/emergentvillage\/2011\/12\/choice-lamb\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Choice Lamb\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I receive emails everyday at nakedpastor from people who have left the church. They share with me their struggle to learn how to live without it. 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