Wow. I know this topic is old but I stumbled upon it after having read the article.
Let me start by saying my weekend as a pilgrim was on a Walk to Emmaus. Since then the community I am in has separated from the Upper Room (United Methodist) Walk to Emmaus and is not independent and known as Seven Mile Walk with Jesus.
The article is a complete distortion of what I have experienced.
First, I can't think of anything at all from the weekend I would describe as Roman Catholic. For example, the claim that what is taught is works based is just absolutely, categorically false. One of the "secret" parts of the weekend, which must not be so secret since I am writing about it, is when we are given the chance to nail our sins to the Cross. This is clearly seen on the weekend as the work of Jesus on the Cross and how our sins are accounted for. Nobody is taught "works" except that participants are encouraged to find a ministry they can be an effective ambassador for Christ. However, at no time is this talked about, taught, or even hinted about that this is how salvation is attained. It is presented as our chance to honor our Lord by doing the things He has called us to do, such as feeding the poor, ministering to the sick and imprisoned, etc.
This nailing of sins to the Cross is called "Dying Moments" and paper is used and nailed to the Cross, not communion bread, on "Walk" weekends. I have no idea what is done on Cursillo weekends but the author is just wrong here as far as I have experienced, and this is supposed to be an article about Walk to Emmaus, not Cursillo.
As for this being a cult, it must be the worst one in history. On the weekend it is continually stressed, continually, that the community is just that, but it is no way a substitute for your church.
It is funny that the writer complains about men and woman not attending together while also telling us this is some Roman Catholic infiltration. The Catholic version of Cursillo is a mixed gender weekend. Men and women attend Cursillo together. Walk to Emmaus and Seven Mile Walk with Jesus have men and women attend separately for what I think is a very good reason; some of what the weekend (as noted above in nailing sins to the Cross) is about confession and sharing experiences with other men (since I am male I will relate this view) about things regarding pornography, for example. How likely are men to be open about their struggles with this type of sin if women, even if not his spouse, are present? Confession to one another is biblical.
The secrecy has nothing to do with hiding anything. We have no issue with sharing what happens on the weekend. It is truly just to keep the surprise element, that is the ONLY reason for not talking about what happens. If I think a person is ready to attend the weekend and they won't go without knowing what will happen I will describe the weekend for them.
It is interesting that the author lists the talks while writing that the weekend is "cloaked in secrecy." It's not very secret when he can name the talks completely correctly and in the proper order.
The cross shown in the article, by the way, is something I have never seen. I have attended as a pilgrim, served on a number of teams, and been to countless gatherings (which are just worship and fellowship times and something you can attend). Not until I saw the image in the article has I seen that cross. I would be shocked if any evangelical would object to the crosses used on the weekend. We wear crosses given out at the end of the weekend to the pilgrims in our community, they are made of nails welded together in cross form. There are no other symbols on it.
It is true that the weekends are ecumenical. But on the Walk to Emmaus and Seven Mile Walk with Jesus weekends it is quite rare for a Catholic to attend. And Cursillo weekends are, as far as I know, NOT ecumenical. For example, communion is taken on the weekends. If on the rare occasion a Catholic is on one of the "Walk" weekends they are invited to share or not as they feel called in the Lord's Supper. I suspect if I could even go on a Cursillo weekend as a Protestant that I would not be allowed to share in communion. The whole reason Walk to Emmaus was begun by the Upper Room is because the Catholic Church objected to the use of the term Cursillo and wanted the Protestant versions of the weekend to be clearly distinguished from theirs. That hardly seems like some subversive attempt to sneak their views in to Protestant churches.
As a Methodist myself the ideas of Prevenient, Justifying, and Sanctifying Grace come from John Wesley. It is explained as Prevenient Grace being the Grace God shows us in inviting us back into relationship with Him, Justifying Grace as the moment we accept the free gift of Salvation given to use through the death and resurrection of Jesus (and not any works), and Sanctifying Grace as the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives in convicting us of sinful behavior and helping us to grow in our relationship with God and live more godly. Do evangelicals really object to this?
The article is lengthy and full of many more distortions, mistakes, and just completely wrong thoughts (which I do not have time to address but will gladly do if anybody has a question) on what a Walk to Emmaus or Seven Mile Walk with Jesus weekend is like and what its purpose is, which is to simply bring Christians into a deeper and more committed relationship with Jesus Christ.
Hi GregLuke, I have never been to an Emmaus Walk weekend but I've been researching it for a long time now. It first came to my attention when it 'infiltrated' into my church. People who attended seemed to me to be very secretive about it. And that automatically raises my antennae. The reason for the secrecy was said to be because of the surprise element of the weekend. But that means there is manipulation involved. And bear in mind folks are secretive about it. When asked about the weekend, WTE members won't reveal anything about the 'surprises' and say they can't explain it, you have to go to find out. That is definitely being secretive and manipulation.
Then I discovered that some people in the church were getting hurt by the reactions they received from WTE members when they expressed their dislike for the weekend after attending it. It was as if they were expected to enjoy it but when they didn't, they were treated like they had refused a generous gift.
That was when I really started to dig into it to see what I could find out about it and believe me it wasn't easy! Something which I keep coming across is that when people express their bad experiences with WTE, others say things like "well I never saw anything like that happening". But the fact is it did happen to the people who say it did.
So when you say that the article posted is a complete distortion of what you experienced, that doesn't negate anything in the article. It's just your personal experience.
Your post interested me because it's first one that indicates a split from the UMC. This is something which I suspected may happen because it can be how cults start.
Regarding the Roman Catholic elements, there are certainly some there. For instance the "Prayer to the Holy Spirit" is definitely a hangover from the Catholic Church. My wife is an ex-Catholic and she had a "child of Mary" book and this prayer is part of a novena in it. The prayer itself makes no sense and gives no context of what it's about.
I regard nailing sins to the cross a residual Catholic thing also. I don't think that happens at every WTE group but it appeared one Sunday morning in my church instigated by some WTE members and I found it to be very ritualistic. It doesn't reflect the reality of scripture. I don't have to nail my sins to the cross. Jesus took them on Himself when He was nailed to the cross. I don't see any equivalent in the Bible for this type of ritual.
In the Dying Moments part of the weekend, I've read in the WTE Team Manual that bread is used to represent sin and brokenness and then another loaf is used for communion. This is a not Biblical. Using bread to represent a person's sin and brokenness is again redoing what Jesus has already done. His body was broken for us in taking the our sin on Himself. There is no need for us to do anything which represents our sin. This type of 'acting out' is really binding people to ritual and is definitely going down the route of works.
The Emmaus Walk cross is a very specific type of cross. There are many pictures of it on the internet. It has a Papal type Chi Rho symbol on one side and 'Christ is Counting on You' inscribed on the other. This notion of Christ counting on anyone is again not Biblical. We count on Him not He on us. The Creator of the universe doesn't need to count on anyone. If your group doesn't use this cross, then it's a most unusual group indeed.
Many people feel that ecumenism is something which weakens the message of the gospel. When involved in ecumenism, truly born again believers tend to water down God's wrath against sin and the fact that Jesus died to pay the penalty for sin as a penal substitute, instead they talk up God's love without it. But God's love is that He took our penalty on Himself. His love came at the ultimate price to Himself and I don't believe that's clear in the talks at the weekend.
Regarding grace, this is something on which evangelicals differ. People like Calvin and Spurgeon taught that God alone chooses those whom He saves. Others taught it's not God's choice alone, people choose to be saved. I think, without going down that route, I'll leave that argument for another day, but the thing which bothers me is the 'obstacles to grace' talk where it seems people are told that sin is the obstacle to grace. Now that for me is where it takes a wrong turn. Sin is the reason why grace is necessary in the first place. Without sin there would no grace. So how can sin be an obstacle to grace?
It's true that sin does withhold us from God's blessing and hinder our relationship with Him, but it's His grace which overcomes that sin. We can't do it. Only by relying on His grace can we be in right relationship with Him. So to say sin is obstructing grace doesn't make sense to me.
Ultimately, the problem I see with WTE is that it doesn't necessarily bring Christians into a deeper and more committed relationship with Jesus Christ. It seems to me it's causing a deep commitment to WTE itself. And that causes division in the church.
