Post edited 11:50 pm – June 11, 2010 by RevJohn

I've been having an ongoing discussion with the members of the Deist Alliance, and some of them have taken issue with the vows I require for ordination. I explained that I did it so that the Church doesn't become some kind of cult, among other reasons, and you may see the dialogue here –

http://www.positivedeism.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=4520

I started this thread because I'd like to hear input from existing and prospective members regarding the things mentioned in the other forum. Should the vows be “mandatory”, or just some suggestions?  Is there anything you think should be a vow and isn't?  I'm open to suggestions/criticisms/areas of agreement, etc.

The people have spoken here and elsewhere, and I have removed all references to any rituals, besides our own discussions of them.  Most folks don't like the vows and I can certainly understand that, but I hope folks understand why I put them in place.  I was trying to ensure that the Church didn't go down the road of organized religion, but I guess I went about it the wrong way.

So, I think it's pretty clear that the vows shouldn't be mandatory but should they be here at all, even as guidelines or suggestions?  I put them in place to show what we stand for and to make sure somebody didn't turn the Church into some kind of cult.  They hit a little too close to organized religion from what most folks are saying, and that makes sense to me, so is there anything else we can do to make sure that some guy out there doesn't get ordained and start his own cult of personality?  Am I being paranoid, I mean, history is full of these people.  There are plenty more references to the vows than there were to the rituals, so I want to make sure we get this right before I go changing a large part of the site.  Maybe we could just agree to the principle of Thomas Paine's "God exists, and there it lies", without making some kind of promise.  Please let me know where you stand on this, either here or on Positive Deism.