The Poor don't make choices - The exclusive Diocese

'The poor don't make choices/don't have choices' Is what my mother used to say over and over like a creed.

I remember in the Church of England, how I was squashed for being poor, being me and having to live the life I did.

A certain person used to go on about how people shouldn''t work on Sunday and how they wouldn't go to a shop on Sundays, over and over, this was while I had no choice but to work on sundays, because if you are in a basic job with a basic wage, you work what hours you are asked, usually, and if Sunday is part of that, then so be it.
The Pharisees kicked up a fuss about Jesus and his disciples because the disciples gathered ears of corn on a Sunday, and Jesus answered them, asking who would not untie their animal and take it to water on a Sunday if it was Thirsty (I think), I am writing from memory, (how much more if a human being needs food and water and thus works for it on Sunday!).

Anyway, that judgement of things such as working on a Sunday while ignoring the real scripture answer is typical of the scary evangelical side of the diocese of Winchester.
But at the time my answer was: 'The Vicar works on Sunday and you would be dismayed if he didn't, and the same if the fire service and ambulance didn't work on Sunday'.

But when people are rich enough to judge and not understand, rich enough to hold position in the Church of England but judge the poor, I suppose Jesus' answers to those same judgements thousands of years ago, matter to the church just as much as they mattered to the pharisees, they did not want an answer, they just wanted to be superior.

Do you know, I wrote this from thoughts as I tidied my room this morning. Because I remember being judged for 'working' on a Sunday. Yet another abuse from the Church of England, yet another wound that stays with me along with the rest.

Fairtrade:

'everyone must buy fairtrade!'
Was another judgement thrust on me by the same people, same place.

Sadly, I could barely afford Co-OP budget range and the reduced goods.

So I asked 'Why must everyone buy Fairtrade?'

'why, to help the poor of course!'

It didn't help me, because Fairtrade is a very expensive idea, run by the wealthy old church people. I could not afford Fairtrade and was thus judged.
That is another fond memory of the Diocese of Winchester.

What you can watch:

This remains an awfully damaging memory.

They used to boast, all the time, about their family, all the time, every conversation was about what their family had and did, and along with things such as the above situations that belittled me, the boasting made me feel small and useless.

They went on about how their grandchildren were allowed to stay up late and watch rubbish like 'Saturday Night Takeaway'.
They used to let me watch my Buffy Videos every weekend when they invited me back for the weekend, and then one day, after months of me watching Buffy, they labelled it 'evil' and banned me from watching these videos in their house, nor would they talk it through, telling me that 'It was the same as if someone smoked in their house'.
Basically it was always one rule for them and other Church elite and another for us lesser mortals.

This person who suddenly decided my videos were evil, while their grandchildren watched trash, was the same person who lied to me about breaching confidences, accidentally admitted to lying after denying it, and then slated me for me immediate reaction which was to say a mild expletive.
All I heard from them was judgement about my reaction, no forgiveness and no responsibility either for lying or for breaching my confidence, and that is how it always was with them.

One rule for the pharisees and another for the rest of us. I am glad beyond belief that after years of being constantly damaged by the Diocese of Winchester, I have left them behind and seen what Christianity really looks like, and I pray for all vulnerable and poor people being abused and oppressed and judged in the Diocese, that they realise that they are being treated without the respect that they deserve and that they escape.

The Church of England simply took the place in my life of the cult environment I had grown up in, and furthered the damage, and the one good thing now is that I am free from both, at last, and free to learn to be me and be in therapy for the damage done.

The plebs don't all believe the Daily mirror, and will not all start flocking into the dying and outdated judgemental and segregational Church of England, basically because the poor deserve better, and on a basic level most people know that the Church of England is designed for and run by the elite who treat everyone lower than them with contempt while putting on the 'fair trade and aid overseas show'.