Quote:
Originally Posted by rayliotta
I think this is the same reaction many of us had to RG's pray-reading booklet. It's hard to take it seriously, because if it really meant anything to the leadership, the practice would have changed.
Overnight, no. But in a year, or two, or 30?
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But the pray reading book was a different time. In 78 and 79 everyone was eagerly trying to prove that these things were so with a view towards refuting Mind Benders. I don't think that was cynical. By 1981 the Irving construction project and the significance to Texas brothers like RG and BP was the key focus. The RcV was not yet finished, but almost. EM and RG were beginning to formulate the whole use of footnotes in testimonies which would mean everyone had to have a RcV, and hence they would become "gold bars" to LSM and LSM would embrace the Texas brothers. 1981 was a major turning point in RG's life in the LRC, but this was at least a year or two years after he began work on that booklet.
According to the Mind Benders book Pray Reading was introduced to us here in the US from the Far East, it was based on chanting and practices that have no root in the Bible and it was a form of mind control or brain washing. It was a practice that define the LRC as a cult. If you know the history of Pray Reading you know that it is not right to blame WL for bringing this practice from the Far East. The practice originated with a church that was going through great turmoil and it was so bad they couldn't have anyone speaking a message. The only thing they could meet around was the Bible. The meetings were based on reading some verses, then praying, and ultimately there might be some short testimonies. The church experienced a revival, they described the practice as "pray reading" and then it was promoted as another practice recovered that had been lost.
Clearly the original practice and what is now called "pray reading" are very distant relatives. Not unlike the difference between a TV dinner and a real home cooked meal. I think it is fair to say in hindsight that LSM wanted to package and sell "pray reading". But in 78 and 79 it is very likely that RG was running with the original story, not the repackaged version.