Quote:
Originally Posted by djohnson
Peter I generally agree with your well made point however I would mention that community churches are probably not an accurate comparison. The LCS are not community churches. The LCS is a separatist sub culture that positions itself in direct opposition to other Christian groups which they consider to be whores, etc. In other words in their frame of reference only they are pure and right and God's best and have the one ministry and the one minister blah blah blah...you know the drill. I have never been to a community church that had this collective self-concept.
My their own doing the LCS has positioned themselves to be heavily scrutinized. If you are so pure and right and holy and separate and God's best and have so many riches ...then why is your second generation and third generation plagued with so many social problems? Not all of course but enough to bring into question their thesis about themselves.
I am not promoting community churches but since you mentioned them it is only fair to say I have also never been in one that did not teach the family over and above all else except God. They are very family centric. And if they are not family centric enough for ones taste you just leave and go somewhere else. Such an atmosphere and attitude is a far cry from the LCS.
If a child is raised in a system that prioritizes family below the minister of the age and all that goes along with such pompous nonsense including the abuse of authority then certainly such a group can be held accountable for the negative influence they exercise. And if the leadership engage in outright hypocrisy with special passes given for the MOTA and his family while clamping down on everyone else then they can hardly expect their youth to take them too seriously when they are adults and can at least physically break free from groups hold.
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DJ:
There are a couple of things going on here. Based on this post here and your intial post, I think you are asking
two questions, perhaps related but nevertheless different:
1) Are their particular teachings/practices/culture in the LC which produces excessive fleshly behavior in its second generation - more so than in mainstream Christianity?
2) Regardless of what
caused the fleshly behavior and regardless of whether it was worse than elsewhere, does its mere existence refute the elitest claims of the LC that they "have it" and are so pure?
These are different inquiries. For the second question, I agree that it doesn't matter whether other groups are better or worse as far as fleshly behavior among the 2nd generation. For the first quesiton, however - the one from your first post, the comparator very much does matter. Do you agree? I have more to say, but first let me know if you get what I mean by the difference of questions here.
Peter