Samson Society was founded by a man who refused to play the victim. In fact, during the height of his sexual deviance (whilst serving as a pastor & before his chronic sexual sin was publicly exposed), he did the right thing by willingly hanging up his pastoral frock. By doing so, he properly stood up for not only himself / his family but his flock. Mr. Nate Larkin did this (as far as I know) sans any external pressures. Hence, this is why he's my hero.
It is extremely unusual to find a pastor whose humility combined with his compassion fuels enough conviction to make this kind of move.
I cannot emphasize that enough.
I cannot help but believe that so much of God's blessing on the Samson Society is a result of Nate's character in this regard.
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My experience, living here in Mississippi for close to (50) years, is that locally, we're a people group who's deeply unsympathetic to the dramatization of victimhood. Yet, on a national level, the reverse is true. And this is because our default on the national stage is so often to play the victim for all it's worth ($$$). Hence, yes we'll readily admit to being the fattest and the most racially divided so long as you'll keep our federal funding intact and never quit subsidizing our access to entertainment (TV, Internet).
We here in Mississippi are a deeply religious state, yet take great pride in our independent, strong-willed character. So much so that our overall sympathetic tone-deafness typically serves as a de facto quarantine(r) (between us and outsiders).
Living here, you must make peace with / respect the hyper-conservative (read: fiercely religiously independent) points of view (outlook, temperament) being par for the course.
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I've lived within the suburbs of Jackson (capital city) all of my life (except whilst pursuing my college degree). Throughout the past 40 years, they've exploded in growth due to individuals choosing to remove themselves from and therefore reside outside of Jackson. Hence, the energy / efforts / devotion of us suburban Jacksonians has been poured into the suburbs. And these suburban cities (Clinton, Brandon, Ridgeland, Madison, Pearl) have benefited tremendously therein over the previous five decades.
What's significant about this?
It speaks to the notion of having the chutzpah to simply abandon the center and move instead to the extremities. And from there, working collectively to ingratiate this new place / these new places under the mantle of complete independence. This chutzpah is manifested in and celebrated therein through the successful individuality / independence of these edge cities.
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We've considered an overall (big picture) and (somewhat) recent historically distinct portrayal of this place. How does this modus operandi translate to our hearts as residents of the Magnolia State?
We Mississippians have a penchant for both sexual independence (hop in the sack when you're good and ready) and finger pointing / shaming as it pertains to illicit sexual activity (outside of a straight marriage bed). As such we're some of the most pejoratively sexually active people. Loving to hate our sexual selves even while we're conceiving considerably more (than the national average) out-of-wedlock children.
Mississippi is no doubt filled with a lot of exceedingly horny do-gooders / dirty minded holy rollers.
And frankly, I believe that's where our independent thinking catches up with us. But that rabbit is there for me to chase another day...
[Please remember, dear reader, that I was a typical Mississippi bastard child, therefore I speak personally here.]
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Having written / thought through all of that (as I was typing), I'm wondering now if moreso the opposite of playing the victim is simply devoted obedience. In lieu of fierce independence.
New Testament scripture thematically promotes a yielding to the realization / penalty of our sinful nature whilst embracing our newfound glory in Christ. A glory that's consistently espoused itself towards community - existing under his headship.
As we all know, today, so many of us men, Christian or otherwise, find that it's our sexuality that's been deeply corrupted / distorted, thereby blanketing us as sure 'nuff guilty. Samson Society, therefore, is uniquely positioned to promote / drive home the importance of fierce obedience by our demonstrating to each other (& inversely to ourselves) the same - potency of love - that Christ shown within the gospels. It's a love that should firstly be rooted in our allegiance to him and the example he set for us (no matter the scale of the group). I'm hopeful to expound on how that's specifically manifested itself within my life about ten years ago inside the confounds of my first Silas relationship. Stayed tuned for my next post.
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