Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul Vusik
I don’t think that you can equate pray reading to some “Eastern mantras”, or some odd form of worship. Threre is a much deeper meaning and agendas behind that practice or process, that they try to achieve. So let compare apples to apples, and oranges to oranges. Saying “Christ has risen, yes indeed” doesn’t equal to mindless repetition and outright hypnosis of sorts, to achieve some kind of state of tranquillity, or presence of some being “as when it comes on calling on the lord a million times in the row”.
|
It's important to be fair and precise when offering critique of anyone's practices or teachings, and as such I appreciate the balance in this reply.
While the forms of Calling and Pray-reading in the LC are uniquely stylized, they aren't completely unique within Christian practices. The Orthodox and Catholics have "The Jesus Prayer," for example, which is to repeat the name "Jesus" over and over throughout the day.
One benefit of the pray-reading every morning in my early years was gaining a deep familiarity with the Pauline Epistles, specifically, to the point that I nearly memorized them. The practice of memorizing a large script for a play is very similar to "pray-reading." Surely if someone can safely memorize "Death of a Salesman" or "Cats" they can use the same type practice with the Bible, safely.
The point I'm trying to make is that it's easy to criticize ancillary things like Calling and Pray-reading, but these are NOT the reason that Witness Lee can get away with claiming "My speaking of these main, new revelations in the past twenty-five years has been the oracle of God," and that claim making it through the editorial process into print.
There's other, bigger, problems such as hero worship, undue influence... things that match the BITE model. There are problems of "hiding history" (huge problems). Problems with delusions that the endlessly repeated outline points are "God's up-to-date speaking" that come with a heavy burden (which usually is to vindictively oppose someone for something seen as a threat to "The Ministry" and "God's Move" -- but I digress).