I was walking down a street in the Coconut Grove when I was accosted by several men who wanted to talk about being a Christian. I was wearing my clerical collar so I thought at first they wanted to find out about Christianity from me, but I quickly discovered they wanted to make a Christian out of me. They were part of the Alamo Christian Foundation which I subsequently found out was a cult whose founder was later imprisoned for tax evasion, illegal weapons possession, and child rape.

I didn’t know about the unsavory aspects of the group until later, but I immediately felt uncomfortable with them. I was being singled out because they took me for a Roman Catholic for whom they had a fierce hatred. They asked me to pray with them which I agreed to.  One of them  put a newspaper on the ground for me to kneel on. I declined and when they persisted to demand that I kneel. I asked for Scripture reference that required kneeling for prayer. They then handed me a card with the sinners prayer on it which I was expected to pray. I declined saying that I would pray as the Holy Spirit led me. That wasn’t good enough so we parted company.

Since then I have been suspicious of anyone who has demands about how we must worship God or who is too sure about who is and who isn’t a true believer. I try to follow the teaching of Christ, not the crazy ideas of nutty (and dangerous) people.

Read 1 John 4:1 and remember: God loves YOU unconditionally.

Wayne