Free from the congregation – he was teacher at a World of Life School in Sweden…
June 8th, 2011 § Leave a Comment
The article above says that
“Per Kornhall is the high school teacher running Satan’s errands. At least if you believe what some religious leaders say.”
Kornhall is now working for the National Swedish Agency for Education and this agency has been pointed out as a tool for the Devil by some religious leaders.
He has written a book recently about his experiences as a young teacher in a World of Life school in Sweden (Uppsala), where he sought safety as a young and lost/stray (vilsen) man.
“The pastor makes people give a tenth of their last money — even from their social allowances, because God has said they should. It’s God’s order.”
Everything is motivated with that it’s God’s will and this makes it difficult to contradict or question what the pastor(s) say.
By writing this book he wanted to bring these experiences to an end for his own sake, and he also wanted to contribute with a piece of contemporary history.
He was a little worried that by publishing this book traumatic memories would come to surface, something that never occured though. And he explains that:
“Those memories are well processed.”
Which means that he isn’t afraid of God’s punishment (any longer). The “control and manipulation in the name of Jesus” (also the under-title of the book) failed so he dares to speak out and thus hasn’t felt bad or anxious after the book was published.
But it can be quite different for the young people who have been schooled into this sect at an early age he thinks. When they break up/off they can start acting out, drinking and living wildly, because that’s what they have been taught about the world outside the sect. Thus thinking this is the way to behave. Or driven by an understandable need to rebel? Or maybe both?
And in the worst case this can harm both themselves and other people around them.
Kornhall taught his students about the evolution, of course this wasn’t looked upon with approval, but the leaders for the school didn’t dare to react of fear for the school authorities in Sweden. But when he started to critizise the pastor Ulf Ekman he was shut off.
Here you can read more about Kornhall’s book.
And here is an article that says that Ulf Ekman is critizised for his real estate affairs. At the same time people are working in the church and earning very little money and a lot of those belonging to the congregation are quite poor, but still have to give a tenth to the church. The article says that Ekman and his wife bought a quite expensive house and then renovated it for a lot of money. People wonder where the money come from.
I can’t help but think about other sect-leaders.
Other articles about this school are also talking about blind obedience and authoritarianism, as in for instance “Serious criticism against the World of Life” from 2002 and “The Life of Word School is critizised” from this year.
June 11: The pediatrician Lars H. Gustafsson has written about a similar theme in a blogposting today. Where he mentions the book “Hängivelsen” (The Devotion) by the Swedish author Elisabeth Hjort. Here’s another blogposting about this book.
