Quote:
Originally Posted by bearbear
If the LCs are ever struggling it represents a huge problem because it's up to the LC movement to save the rest of the world from fallen Christianity and bring everyone to see the light in Witness Lee's high truths and astounding teachings. Can you really call it the Lord's recovery if the movement is shrinking and after an exodus of Caucasians, is left with no one but Chinese? The result is tremendous pressure on everyone to make the Lord's Recovery happen even when it clearly isn't happening.
And who then is to blame? Never mind DayStar or Linko or all the purges of brothers who stood up to Philip Lee's abuse, It cannot be Witness Lee's fault because he's the mouthpiece of God from which all these profound teachings about God's economy and God man living come forth. The only people left to blame is everyone else. So people in the LC movement accept and are blind to double standards because it fits into their worldview of "the Lord's Recovery" with Witness Lee as their de facto proxy saviour.
Witness Lee put this blame into words in many of his later writings such as the ones related to fellowship concerning vital groups. I remember having to read sections where he assigned blame on everyone but himself for the lack of growth in the LCs escpecially among Caucasians. The tone seemed to be such that it was always someone else's fault but never inherently his own.
This mindset carries over even to the BBs which I recall and is also recounted in Meyer's "A future and a hope". During a semi annual training, Ed Marks expressed how ashamed he would feel if he were to meet Witness Lee in the after life for failing some expectations with leading the Lord's recovery-- as if he were to answer to Lee and not Jesus after death!
|
In the LC, one of the biggest points of frustration for me was the whole blame game that goes on. Because everyone is programmed to believe that "the Recovery" is the pinnacle of life, what happens when issues arise or the LC fails to meet expectations? No one can blame the system itself or any of the leaders, so the blame falls upon everyone else. Come to think of it, Lee's entire "new way" ministry was all a big blame game. Let's blame the failures of the LC on not having enough "vital groups", or blame it on members not being smart enough to learn from the JW's and practice door-knocking
.
I remember being in a meeting one time where an elder was frustrated that there wasn't much increase with the college work. He told us "if you all aren't going to bring in new ones, why should we bother to open our homes for you?" I was a bit taken aback to hear that, but it helped to wake me up to see what was really going on. I realized that there was the need for leaders to "prove" themselves in terms of having some amount of success. Us small potatoes were just pawns and a means to an end. Ultimately, because of what members perceive the LC to be, it requires all kinds of nonsense to happen to promote the image of the LC.
There were other situations where I remember us small potatoes being blamed for whatever went wrong. We were always the ones who got blamed, but we were just doing what we were told - yet another double standard. That is why I previously mentioned how they criticize anyone taking initiative as being ambitious, yet they also criticize those who are"inactive" or "lukewarm". Which do they want? They can't have it both ways. It's a lose-lose situation for members. The reality is LCers are basically powerless to engage in any kind of activities that would provide benefit and maybe initiate a change for the better.