Regarding How to Leave a Church pt. 5

Hi Everyone.

I received an email from the recently retired pastor of RICC, expressing his hurt at my recent Roblog post on my experience with RICC. My first reaction was outrage that he dared to compare his pain to mine. That he dared to challenge my righteousness.

Then I went back and reread my post.

I am ashamed to say that I did not like everything that I read. Some of my writing descended into vindication (in both the sense of covering my own actions and casting the blame on others). I got personal. For that I apologize, to both the pastor and members of RICC, and to you, my two dozen readers.

My conscious intention was not to hurt, but to process my pain. Good intentions are admirable, but when they lead to actions that cause pain to others, we should scrutinize them. So back to the drawing board.

I have taken down that post, which is quite rare for me. I don't even like to revise old posts, as we can only grow from our mistakes if we acknowledge them. But a mistake that hurts other people needs to be corrected, and the most immediate and effective thing I can do is to remove it.

I may rework that post, and it may be revised and reincarnated in the future; if it can behave itself. I am not even sure what it will look like, but there was truth in it. My plan is to give it a couple of weeks to cool off, after which I will revisit it. Feel free to contact me if you have thoughts or feedback.