I can't speak for everyone here at FCC, but I can speak for the lady who did my pre-marriage counseling. My fiance' and I really liked her the first time we went in to see her. Then, the second time we went in, I was extremely uncomfortable the entire meeting, because she had a very skirt on, and a lower than should have been cut, top. I felt the whole time, like this was a trick, to see if I would let my eyes wonder, almost like she was testing me. The second we walked out, I asked my fiance' if she noticed how much "skin" was being shown during the session, and she noticed it as well. She kept crossing her legs and had her skirt pulled up, exposing at least to her knees, and at times farther up.
So we leave, talk about how that was bothersome, but decide to keep on and finish our counseling with her. She told us, she felt like if any 2 people were properly prepared to be married, it was us, and she assumed, 1 more session would do the trick. So we go to the last session, that's when the nightmare came out, and I nearly blew my lid.
We had a good session, then as we drew to a close, she asked us a few very personal questions. Nothing about sex at all, just personal. She then asked this question, "Why are you guys waiting to have a wedding?" We of course answered that we're shelling out around 10 grand for all the stuff, and we needed time to let everyone know, send invites, get guest lists, plan honeymoon, you name it. That's when she unloaded. She told us that we were living in sin, and that we should leave her office that day, get our marriage license, and go get married. Then she proceeded to tell us that having all our friends and family at our actual marriage was not a big deal. She said, we could plan a big wedding if we just wanted a big show for our friends, but it wasn't important to have them at our actual wedding ceremony, and that because it was meaningless to have our friends and family there, we should go do it at the local courthouse.
Now, she came up with this idea due to her idea of sin, and her belief system that I suppose she was raised in. Of course she is in the Bible belt. The ironic thing was, the big sin we were living in, is not even spoken of, AT ALL in the Bible. It's one of those sins that early churches made up to control people. As a matter of fact, I wish I could go back, and offer her 100 bucks to show it to me in the Bible, because it's not there. I wish I would've challenged her that while family and friends may not be important to her, we feel it is of the utmost importance to have all of the people we love, with us, in person, when we take our actual vows. It does mean something to us. I wish I would've said a lot of things, but I was so angry, I'm afraid I would've literally exploded had I spoken.
One thing this "Christian" should know is, judging, is sin. Making up sins that aren't even mentioned in the Bible, is sin. Just because something isn't done the way people of old did it, or people of the southeast did it, doesn't make it sin. I'm a witness, I was raised in NC and moved to TN. If the way most "Christians" in VA, NC, SC, GA, AL, TN, and KY is correct. Then Jesus died for those 7 states, because, the other 43, don't believe some of the nonsense we believe in the deep south. And I left FL off, because they're the exception, the the NY of the south. Oh yeah, and the rest of the World is all doomed too. I've never been so angry in my life. We paid good money to go here, get some advice, make sure we were ready for marriage, and so on. Not to be called sinners, and told that a ceremony is useless and doesn't matter to have friends and family present. The ironic thing is, we sought this place out specifically, because it was a "Christian" place, and we ARE CHRISTIANS, saved, sanctified, and heading for Heaven. We didn't want to go to some worldly, doctor who didn't have an emphasis on our religion. We sought out a Christian place, to get Christian advice, and we were judged for a made up sin.
Again, I can't speak for every practitioner here, but Cindy Irwin, needs to learn how to be a better Christian counselor before she ever counsels anyone again. I would stay far away from her. If you want Christian advice, without being judged for a made up charge of sin, find someone else.
by Jesse
xxx.xxx.141.218
January 23, 2015
