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Originally Posted by Freedom
It would seem Witness Lee was exempt from 1 Tim 3:4-5. His family was a huge shortcoming...
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WL was exempt because it was in the interests of furthering the cause to ignore that verse. One thing I realized, over time, is that LC doctrine has strong focus on verses that advance the LC cause, and ignores, downplays, or even rejects verses that are not useful. Whole sections of the Bible which don't match LC dogma are called "natural", "fallen", "soulish", or "men's concepts".
Quote:
Originally Posted by Freedom
That's the difference between Nee and Lee. It seems Nee had a strong affinity for working with women...
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WN was trained by women, and had female co-workers, and counted them as spiritual forebears (e.g. Penn-Lewis, Guyon, McDonough). But once WL got the reins, suddenly 1 Tim 3:12 was "recovered"...
How well do you think a McDonough or Penn-Lewis would do in the LC today? They wouldn't survive a month. I remember RK saying sarcastically that he didn't know which was worse, a rebellious brother or a spiritual sister. What would he do if a Madam Jean Guyon suddenly popped up in one of his beloved localities? He'd have a coronary event.
In each case, The Cause triumphs: it doesn't matter that there is inconsistency between WN and WL, or even "early Lee" vs. "later Lee". It doesn't matter that the Bible is gripped with trembling hands and proclaimed hoarsely one minute, and summarily dismissed the next. What matters is The Cause. Sail on!
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WL recounted that Japanese occupiers in China during WWII would kill a person just like killing a chicken. But something similar could be said about the Chinese, today: people are killed there for their body parts - they're worth more as kidney and liver donors than as living humans. It's a culture that can't evaluate individual worth outside the contribution to the Party/State/People. The Collective rules both the individual consciousnesses and the shared value system.
This isn't inferior to the Western thought-world, in which the Whole is built out of individual, atomistic Parts. Both have advantages, and weaknesses. But it's worth noting here that the oriental 'holistic' view may involve dismissal of Parts which don't fit the purported Whole, which in the LC not only means suppressing individuals, classes (women), and passages of scripture that aren't useful to the Cause at present. When you see the source of these thoughts, teachings, and behaviors, there's really no contradiction at all. There's no double standard, rather there's only one standard: the cause. Call it whatever you want: The ministry of the age, or the vision of the age, or the building up of the body, or the church of Christ's deep longing, or the central lane of the divine economy. Whatever label you want. Even the turmoils and storms, in this light, are seen as purifying fires. Too bad that so many got wiped out, but that's an unfortunate aspect of advancing the cause. As RK put it, sometimes you have to cut off the LCs to save the Body.... sail on!