My husband and I grew up 4th generation Cooneyites. We left ten years ago when my mother died.
I had struggled for years with the beliefs of the system as the Spirit was revealing something quite different to my heart. I’m not going to quote scripture because people will see it how they see it. Suffice it to say, that if you’re really after Truth then studying original language and translations might bring fresh revelation.
One reason we left was to raise our children in the liberty of the gospel and not the fear which Jesus came to do away with. I would not have been prepared to keep quiet about offenses against my children as I know this is wrong. I was a victim of Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) myself, and I know about many more.
A lot of the issues I struggled with I have come to realise were cultural things, while the true spiritual things were being ignored. We were definitely raised in a culture of fear and this is how we were controlled for so long (even out of it). I cannot for the life of me see why God would care if your hair is in a bun when the exhortations of true religion are outright ignored and preached against…visiting the sick and the widows and helping the poor and needy. Nowhere does it say this is restricted to within the church boundaries. Jesus Himself set the example by mixing with those outside. In fact the only times we see His anger ignited was not against the sinner but rather the Pharisees. The church likes to teach they are descended from Jesus time. Well, I can see that…the Pharisees (if there’s any honesty in them at all).
I have come to know God as pure Love, and living a life of rest, because Jesus told me “it is finished.” The guilt, the fear, the shame is all behind me as He meant it to be.
Desalie Lowe
Australia
August 11, 2011