Quote:
Originally Posted by aron
One aspect where the LC seems aberrant is their idea of public shaming, where the speaker from the podium, who's "more blended" than the audience member, calls that one out by name, and mentions something about their church life, or family life, or spiritual walk, and the member acknowledges the defect. I saw WL do this with TC, even in a ritualized way (TC even used the word "ashamed") and I saw the current Blendeds do this with rank-and-file LC members in conferences.
Another aberrant aspect is the non-reciprocality. If there's some sin, Paul said that leaders should not be publicly accused except by multiple witnesses. This agrees with Jesus' teaching not to make public the failures of others unless multiple attempts were made by several parties to address the situation.
In the "Deputy God" teaching of the LC, however, this is apparently ignored. It doesn't matter if there are 6 witnesses, everyone must "cover the sins of Noah". To publicly acknowledge leadership failure in the LC is viewed as blatant disrespect and/or rebellion. Members either think that the leadership is so transformed as to be above sin, or that they've got access to a dispensational or positional sanctification not afforded the average person. Neither one of these assumptions is supported by either scripture or common human experience.
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Public shaming is a whole topic by itself, and it appears WL enjoyed it. Just observe the smug look on his face as he shames his translator in this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUn9sGz8gPE
Maybe because Lee abused the public shaming, it caused members to be reluctant to discuss anything publicly. They had enough of the shaming as it was, no need to make themselves vulnerable to anything else.
Speaking for myself, I can say that in the LC environment, there were many times where I wanted to discuss issues which I was struggling with, but I was afraid to talk to anyone lest someone use it as an opportunity to "perfect" or rebuke me.