Every morning I wake up and tell myself that I will think no more of what happened to my son, my husband and myself over the summer at our old church. I tell myself that it is over and done and that our lives need to move forward. While we are moving forward, I don't think to stop telling about the hazards of what is happening under the false pretenses of peacemaking is what is meant to be. Everyday there seems to be something new to remind me of what happened there. A phone call from someone, an e-mail or perhaps someone we bump into.

Everyday there seems to be something that is telling me that I can't stop, that this peacemaking ministry that seems to be invading more and more churches is something that needs to be approached with caution.

Even if everyone does not agree with everything that I have been describing, at least all the people involved or about to be involved need to be fully aware of the probable outcomes of what a program like this can do. Some circles call it "peacefaking" and that is what I call to attention. Isn't it unhealthy to pretend that nothing is wrong? The Peacemaker's Ministry promotes that it is unhealthy to pretend that something isn't wrong if it is, and yet that is exactly how the program can work. When the leader or leaders decide that something about you is not to their liking , they fix you. So then when it is all over, you are now to their way of thinking. Isn't it wrong for someone to basically make people do as the leaders say by a motivation of fear that otherwise they will be brought down because of it or put into a mediation to make them think only the leader's way? Isn't it wrong to have to put on a smile and nod agreeably with the leaders so as to avoid getting thrown into mediation "to make you peaceful"?

The facts need to be put out there with all of the rules and regulations of the peacemaking/conciliation/mediation ministries, not just the ones that they plaster on brochures to make it all sound so good. Even the devil himself can be made to sound good if he is described the right way. Think of it, free real estate property after death, heated grounds so there is no need to worry about snow shovels or aching bones from the cold. All you need to do to sign up is basically nothing, just wish for it or do only as you please in life. So easy and all will be taken care of for you. Sounds great, doesn't it?

But all I was doing was describing hell and the way to get there.

It is the same with all programs; we need to use caution and most of all trust enough in ourselves to learn all we can and not to take some human's word that all will be perfect if they say "trust me." It is up to you and the wonderful God-given brain that he has given you to study things to the fullest. Not just let a few who are implementing these programs in the shadows for their own purposes of control to tell us about things and then for us to just believe.

While they seem to be out in the open telling us about why they need a program such a mediation in a church, then tell me why some like at my old church have teams of "peacemaking" guards watching everyone? Most of all, why are these guards not announced for all to know, rather than keeping them in the shadows, just like a good part of this program? I had no idea that some people at that old church were given the power to read people's minds and hearts and to actually know what was going on inside of someone. Please, tell me the name of the course so that I can read minds. Or perhaps I need to stop by one of those roadside houses that I see on occasion, you know, the ones that advertise that for $15 bucks they will tell me about me and my future. Right now, at that church, and how many others, are there teams who are watching you and reporting about you? During our time of turmoil there, the pastor even went to our friends so that he could persuade them to talk to us and then report back to him. What kind of peacemaking method is that?

Remember 1984 by George Orwell? Remember how it was about a time when the truth didn't exist as such, but was merely what the leadership -- or a better word for it would be "Big Brother" -- said it was? The only way that people were supposedly free was by total obedience to the party and the acceptance of their concepts. The story was told by a man who worked for the Ministry of Truth whose work it was to correct all of the records whenever the leadership decided that the truth had changed. The leadership's slogan was "Who controls the past controls the future: who controls the present controls the past", and they used it continuously by changing the past to make it fit with whatever the leadership wanted.

In the book, the leadership was always watching you, and the "Thought Police" were ready to punish people for thoughts that were someone's own and not the leadership's. Do you remember how, "Thoughtcrime was not a thing that could be concealed forever? You might dodge successfully for a while, even for years, but sooner or later they were bound to get you."

Now, substitute Peacemaker teams for the "Thought Police" and the leadership or mediation companies like at my old church and others for "Big Brother" and you get the idea of why people should be concerned. Or at least questioning their fates, for it is their fates and their children's and grandchildren's that are going to be affected. If you believe that it isn't going to affect you, you are fooling yourself.

Think of it. The concept is brilliant. A program to encourage people in churches to get along. A concept meant to come in and train teams to watch the people in a church and when they see what they think is wrong in someone's heart, they step in and correct it. Great thought if it were truly doable. Even the main founder of the program called Peacemakers tells people to not look for the speck in someone's eye. And yet that is exactly what these teams are trained to do. Is it that the Sande Peacemakers have somehow learned to overlook the logs in their own eyes? That is the way it seems.

Do you truly want someone to look at you and decide that you and your heart are not how they think that they should be? Do you think it is right to let someone have that much control over your life? There is only one who should decide your heart and he is not a part of Peacemaker Ministries or the company at my old church that those who don't change their hearts quick enough get sent to. Ask about these things. Ask how they are paid for. Ask to be shown in the Bible where it states we should do mediation. And, most of all, ask about those who judge your hearts and why they are so quick to judge. Ask them who gives them the right to do this.

God does not command us to judge others. Matthew 7:1 Judge not, that ye be not judged. Matthew 7:2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. Luke 6:37 Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven: