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Originally Posted by Unregistered
..what about all the internal 'cognitive dissonance' discussed here experienced by some members....and the idea of oneness and no division. The person under oppression from all that leven becomes divided within themselves also, an even deeper, internal division. Tearing down their soul and sanity. So sad to me. .
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Under the shiny happy faces in the LC there's a dilemma: to be shiny and happy, one can't think, but to "be in spirit". Thinking is supposedly of the soul, which is fallen, controlled by Satan.
Yet the Guru of the Flock, Witness Lee was allowed to think. He'sd continually look at scripture and say, "This shows us that..." and make his point. Many of them were based on teachings of other reputable ministers, but often he'd do a 'mix and match' and make up his own 'revelations'. In this he followed Watchman Nee, who had a collection of 3,000 'Christian classics', so we were told, and extracted all the 'truths' from each one.
So now, LC members hear that there's no need to read any other Christian ministries but this one. All the 'chaff' has been sorted from the 'wheat'; no need to bother. But my point has been, if WN got to read 3,000 different books, why can't we? To me it makes no sense. . one must then suppress the cognitive dissonance, in order to go on.
Or WN being trained, led and prominently supported by women, of which 8 or a dozen could be easily named, and are by the LSM, and yet 100 years later women should be silent in the church? It makes no sense. The only way to go on is, stop thinking and "enjoy Christ". But how can you enjoy Christ when you've suppressed such nonsense?
WL in his teachings could be capricious and ideosyncratic; he'd look at one section and say it showed thus-and-such, and in another similar, if not identical text, say that it showed something quite different. So you're supposed to ignore the discrepancy? The psalmist in one spot cursing the enemy is "Christ defeating Satan" and in another spot it's just the natural man David in his soul, violating the principles of love and forbearance taught in the NT? I kid you not, it's right there in black and white.
I could go on and on. The examples of this in the LC are nearly endless. Instead of being allowed to openly consider, and discuss, and come to resolution (or at least improvement), members must paper over contradictions and double standards and pretend to be living in an earthly utopia. And the greater the gap between appearance and reality, the worse the internal stress and incoherence becomes.