I don't want to attend a church that is run by some legalistic organization with powers given to a select few who feel that they are the only ones who know what God wants. A select few are given power, through these new peacekeeping mediation companies, to not only tell what to do inside of a church's walls, but who can follow someone if they choose to leave, so that they can, as they claim, be sure that person's heart is right. That is what they can legally do with their policies of "informed consent" that are a part of this ministry that is spreading to churches, churches perhaps near you. Like so many of the past programs that have come to churches, this one seems to be the new and emerging "in thing" to do. With the Peacekeeping seminars comes a danger of which my family went through and that is the unchecked power of a pastor who actually is part of a mediation company (although this is not broadcast to the general congregation). By using the original Peacemaker Ministries as a jumping off spot, he could and can take people in the congregation into his mediation company by saying that the peacekeepers in his church can't quite do the job and what is needed is further, more complex mediation done through the mediation company that he is attached to.

In my case, it happened while I was watching and yet not watching. How can someone attend a church for all of his or her life and not notice the subtle changes that are happening in some of the administration of that church? Looking back I did notice, and yet chose to ignore. He was the pastor, surely all of his intentions were totally honorable. I stood by as over time people quietly disappeared, I listened as the pastor claimed to be having direct contact with God, who allegedly was messaging him on how to handle not only things, but in some cases people's personal lives. In the last days of my being there, I saw the coming of organizations who claimed to be the mediators of peace. They became the instructors of some of the hand picked of that church to help squelch any friction that they decide might be happening at that church.

Some of these handpicked peace mediators claimed that they could look at someone and read his or her heart and so then decide to put that person into mediation to correct the person's heart to the proper way. Of course, there would be the signing of legal papers before the heart correction, mediation, peacemaking meetings so that regardless of what was done or said in those meetings, "the corrected person" is legally bound to silence and not only silence but also under a clause that stated that if and when the pastor decided that you might again not be thinking as they thought you should that you were legally bound to go into another mediation peacemaking meeting to show you the way. This is not hearsay, we have the papers that state just that.

It doesn't matter to these peacekeeping administrators that you are not afraid to have your words out in the open, they don't want their words out for anyone to see. They say it is to keep the peace, whose peace I must ask? Their peace? A peace that the whole congregation of a church might not feel if they were privy to what was happening behind the closed doors of the church? What is it that these peacekeepers are so afraid of that they don't want their fellow sisters and brothers of that church to know? I always was told that the truth is the light, and that it is the darkness that will be found in the dark. Why is it that these peacekeepers feel the need to lock away the truth behind closed doors if what they are truly working towards is God's peace? Maybe not all peacekeepers are this way, but it was definitely that way where we went to church.

Are these peacekeepers truly peacekeepers or are they the armed guards of the pastor and his elite that have unchecked powers to make the church not one of God, but of a pastor whose power has gone to his head? I want to believe that the peacekeeping organizations have the best intentions, that God's world should be peaceful. But we are humans, and as such giving some the power to reign over the people in a church is wrong, To give these people a weekend "course in peacekeeping" and then to actually believe that these people are now enabled to read into the hearts of people around them and make the decision that they know what is in that other person's heart is not only wrong but very dangerous. Let me state that I don't believe that people who take this course are bad people, but being humans it is far too tempting to let the power that comes with this title make them something that they are not. They are not psychic, they are not heart readers and most of all they are doing what God has instructed us all not to do, and that is judging others.

I hope that in some way these words can help to make people stop and ask questions if something like this peace seminar comes to their church. For it is only through those who have gone through this and now know the dangers of it, that it can be hopefully stopped before it is too late. Who knows? Perhaps by asking questions, it could truly make this a peace movement and not raw power in the hands of a few. Not only could it save someone from the scarring of emotional abuse that can be caused by this program when done wrong, perhaps it can save a minister or two from making the tragic mistake of what pure power can do to them.

For further information about informed consent, this article helps explain.