by Andy & Patricia (Gilbert) Roddy
Posted on Wednesday, August 25, 2004 - 12:49 am:My name is Andy Roddy and am married to Tricia Roddy (Gilbert). The daughter of Dana and Donna Gilbert. I am writing solely in the hopes that someone in the "group" will read this and see it from a totally different perspective. I have grown up as a Christian attending non-denominational churches and schools from 7th grade through college. I have taken bible classes every year through college, one of which was taught by a man that held his Ph.D. from Notre Dame in Theology. I know the Bible pretty well. I have met some of the people from the "group" because of my wife, and my contact with these people has been pretty much unpleasant. The only people that I can say showed respect was Jeff and James Warner, but everyone else was rude, disrespectful, and treated us the exact opposite of Christ's teachings. As an outsider, I would not associate with these people because I saw NO LOVE towards people, whether they were Christian or not. My other issue is that I have pressed Jeff Warner on why he cannot contact his sister and the rest of the family and he did tell me HE DID NOT FULLY UNDERSTAND. The decision to "mark" people and cast judgment upon them is ,in my opinion, unGodly. In fact, that is exactly what the Pharisees and Sadducees did to Christ Himself. Christ questioned them and spoke against them and He was excommunicated for "blasphemy". I don't see the difference between this and marking. My last question is, how would they know whether they were marking Christ if He spoke out against them? The answer is, THEY DON'T.
Posted on Thursday, August 26, 2004 - 11:12 am:
I'm Tricia Roddy (Gilbert). I would like to add to my Aunt Pam's story on my grandma Pat's memorial. After the memorial my great Uncle Ed Peyton took my sister Carrie (16 yrs) and I (14 yrs) aside and told us how unGodly our parents are. He said he knew we felt like we didn't have an out but we did because we could go and live with him and Aunt Carmen. My Uncle Roger Kauffman was standing there for this conversation. I was in disbelief that he would try to turn me against my parents. For me on that day after sitting through the memorial and that conversation let me know how right my parents were in leaving the group.