[Ohio]

Originally Posted by Dave

When I was in Detroit I had two small children and I was watching what was going on..."oh Lord Jesus" repeatedly, the shouting in meetings, the constant pray-reading and that was the beginning of the end for me but not the deciding issue. I was concerned about raising my children in that environment. There were other issues and I was fully aware of the issues surrounding the Plymouth Brethren since we were similar.

The bottom line for me was when Ron K. and the other two elders in an open meeting berated another brother, Don O. and I for "not following brothers". Don and I had been involved in bringing in the young people and I had been working the University. We were doing some crazy stuff after going to Berkeley and seeing what they were doing. We were concerned that the elders were not willing to follow some things but we were certainly flexible. Rather than pull us aside and talk to us about it they decide to deride us openly in a meeting. We were just in our 20's and we were doing the best we could full tilt. Don O cried and I was just stunned. Using a basic right in our country there was no due process or fairness. In the end what they did was blow up the efforts of Don O and I and the pursuit of bringing in young people of which I had brought some into the LC from the University.

As we know, these were not unique responses from LC leaders because these are the practices of the LCs over the years!

There are a number of cases where certain gifted brothers were berated publicly to the point that younger brothers lost all respect for them, and began to also mistreat them. In one situation, Titus became so abusive publicly towards one brother, that he faced physical confrontations from others thinking they were standing up for the Lord and protecting His church.