Quote:
Originally Posted by FoundHim
My daughter's middle name is "shipwreck". As you think of that you can imagine a boat out to sea, lost, no direction, just floating aimlessly among the waves.
My heart grieves daily as I see her left in the shadow of all the teachings, laws, twisted teachings, condemnation and just plain wrong thinking etc. she got in being raised in the LC. Her Dad, my husband was an elder. A good one. But we live now with the result of her complete confusion and failing trust in the God of Heaven. My husband cannot help her, for he is still stuck in the mud of the whole thing.
After "leaving" the LC ( she never really has "left") she is confused, discouraged, goes through extreme bouts with depression. I say she never left because in her young mind, she still thinks it is "God's best" but because of all her failures, unable to keep up, and anger, she attends no meetings. She cannot attend other Christian gatherings as well. She has actually lost her heart to even do so. She is caught up in the "good" world - no drugs or terrible sins, but she has nonetheless lost her way.
She recently told us "I have no place to go. I don't belong in the church. I don't belong anywhere". This was like a knife in my being, for I left many years ago and have seen the terrible damage done to her at the Full Time Training. She has never been the same. How many can relate to this?
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This is a good example of what happens to people in this group. They leave, but can never truly get free. They are so primed to reject "everything else" that when the supposedly glorious church life doesn't pan out, they have nothing left. I wonder what the suicide rate is of second- and third-generation children. Anecdotally it looks bad, but I'm not sure how it compares to other high-demand groups. But my observation spanning over several decades (the last two, I admit from afar) are that the children who leave the LC don't have meaningful Christian pursuit. They were programmed from the beginning that there was nothing else available.
"Condemnation and just plain wrong thinking..." whatever label you put on this group, if any, you can't deny the effect on its recipients.
On other posts, they showed both Witness Lee and Watchman Nee having a form of "perfecting training", where the attendees would be asked to speak, then would be "corrected" by WN and WL. Sometimes this was done with some affirmation, sometimes even with love (perhaps), but sometimes it was a good old fashioned Asian lose-face beatdown. I saw Witness Lee with Titus Chu. At the end, TC said, "I am ashamed...". This is human culture, with the veneer of spirituality. But it's not Christian.
I would ask this (yet again...): if WN and WL could question and critique others, why wasn't this reciprocated? Why couldn't anyone ask them the obvious questions? If women could take leading roles in WN's Little Flock, with Dora Yu, Peace Wang, Ruth Lee, then why couldn't women function similarly in Witness Lee's Local Church?
How could there be several distinct centers of the universe?
How could some Imprecatory Psalms be Christ defeating Satan, others being fallen human concepts? How the inconsistency of interpretation?
How could the Intensified Holy Spirit be taught as God's economy by Paul, if the Book of Revelation hadn't been written yet? And if Paul wasn't teaching Intensification, how could WL say that it was part of his God's economy? Furthermore, if Moses saw Seven Lamps in Exodus 25, why say that their appearance in Revelation 1:12 symbolized ecclesiastical darkness and degradation?
There are probably dozens of other similar questions that could be asked. Once you start to look critically, they become obvious. But we were conditioned not to think, not to ask questions. But Witness Lee could ask questions.