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Originally Posted by Ohio
One brother, whom I knew in Cleveland and Columbus in the mid-70's, who took it on himself to "perfect" me, often would tell me about "those Texas brothers, who were 'absolutely one' with WL."
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As I have become aware of the Texas dynamics in the early days of the LC, it has helped me to better understand why the LC turned out the way that it did. Something that James mentioned is how so many of the Texas brothers knew each other at Wayland Baptist College. Apparently a large group of students came into the LC from this college. I think that this is an important detail in the formation of LC in the U.S.
It’s not every day that you convince a large group of students to drop their Southern Baptists affiliation and pick up something completely different. For whatever reasons James and Benson had the ability to make this happen, they could get the students reading Nee, and they could have their hand in Major Ian Thomas visiting the campus.
I think that James might have downplayed the amount of influence that he actually had at that campus, but it is not hard to put the pieces together. He was the one who introduced Benson to Nee/Lee. Obviously James easily fit into a leadership role, and had the type of personality that could influence people. I think that Benson was the zealous busybody who quickly became the example for everyone to follow. As I see it, the elephant in the room is the factor of
personality at the roots of the LC. What Don R. has to say about Benson is very insightful (emphasis mine):
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Originally Posted by Don Rutledge
Another practice he [Benson] had was to never be discouraged or downhearted…
Benson was very generous with his money and his possessions and his time. He never shirked from pulling his share of the load and then some. This was in spite of his physical limitations. At one point in the first few months in Houston, a brother learned of some box cars that needed to be loaded... Only Ray Graver could keep up with him as he labored furiously night after night loading the box cars. We were paid by the box car not by the hour. He became the acknowledged leader among us because of his character and ability to inspire others by his example.
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Benson had an intensity that far exceeded any of the other brothers. He was always considering what was needed to establish and to build up the local churches.
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I know that James moved to LA early on, but it seems that in the meantime, an intense atmosphere developed in Texas, those who were leaders raised a high bar than everyone needed to meet. It appears that zeal was projected onto others right from the very get-go. I don't condemn anyone for being zealous, but I do take issue when they expect others to match their self-made standard.