I've separated the early posts from the Dale Jackson thread. Please leave that thread to the intent of the original poster, which was to simply exchange personal information about Jackson. Dale Jackson's name has been removed from the thread title and post titles of this new thread. I believe that is reasonable.
That said, awareness' story should not be buried simply because Jackson or his family object to his name being mentioned on the Internet in an unflattering way. Jackson was a leader of a church and he used his authority to aid in the unrighteous public discipline of a brother in Christ. This should not be surprising at all because it has happened so many times in the history of this movement. The only people who don't seem to realize that are the people still in it.
If awareness' story, now told in detail, is even close to being true, the action against him carried out by Mel Porter with the aid of Jackson is inexcusable and should be recorded publicly as yet another instance of the demented, abusive religious state of the LC movement in those days--a state which, though more refined in the current day, is no less dangerous, as those abused by the movement in the 21st century can testify.
People deserve to be warned about this movement. History also should record these matters so that others can better appreciate and understand the failings of closed, controlling, hyper-zealous, secretive, hubristic religious societies like the Local Church movement.
It is ironic to me that Jackson's son claimed awareness was "wild" and "ranting and raving" in his mentions of Jackson. Given awareness' calm and even good-natured detailed recollection of the mess he was subject to in Miami, that seems to be a false reading.
It seems to me it was the leadership in Miami, led by Porter and Jackson, which were the ones wildly ranting and raving, back when it was easier to get away with such things because there was no Internet on which to report it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by awareness
Anyway, Mel got worked up, and started proclaiming, "If you are not with us then get out." And he was pumping his fist in the air, repeating it over and over. Then the whole meeting went into bizarre-o-land, and the whole church (except for me) were up on their feet proclaiming what Mel said while pumping the air ... "IF YOU'RE NOT WITH US, THEN GET OUT ... IF YOU'RE NOT WITH US, THEN GET OUT ..." It was a frenzy right before my eyes. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. The light came on and revealed a cult. It killed any fondness I had for the local church. It broke whatever was in me that made me believe in the local church.
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