Quote:
Originally Posted by OBW
And it should be evident that [Nee] was taking care to stop anyone from pointing at his egregious behavior again by returning from his relatively brief exile in the 1940s (at the invitation of Lee) to give those messages that became Authority and Submission and denied anyone the right to make any charge against him again.
In effect, he responded to charges of sexual impropriety against him not with evidence that he was innocent, or with apologies for his failures, but with faux spiritual authority to avoid ever again answering to any man's charges. He thumbed his nose at everyone and demanded that they revere him as the most spiritual person in any room no matter his failures.
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Regardless of what actually lay behind the 'storm' or 'turmoil', it didn't produce transparency or humility; rather a doubling down on command-and-control. Just like with Lee.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Trapped
My main thought reading the article was "What an incomprehensible mess".
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How is it an incomprehensible mess? In what way does it fail as argument, instead offering a sop for the True Believers? The record shows Lily Hsu was a new believer, young, impressionable, weak in faith, who subsequently renounced both God and Watchman Nee. Her decades-later memories of a show trial in 1950s China don't constitute proof, or even meaningful evidence, of Watchman Nee's culpability. Okay, fine -- that was my stated objection as well (and I'm no fan of Nee).
But what about the facts of Daystar Motor Homes? What about Don Rutledge's testimony? What about Terry Risenhoover? Bill Mallon? Don Hardy? These were principals, not bystanders. These were former insiders, who independently agree. Why does Rutledge mention Timothy Lee's impetus in starting the project, and the Shepherding Words essay doesn't? Others mentioned Timothy's role indicating the appearance of self-interest. Why do Shepherding Words author(s) only write a few facts, while studiously ignoring others? Are they interested in truth? It doesn't look like it.
Psalm 119:36 "Turn my heart toward your statutes and not toward selfish gain." If one looks at
all the facts of Daystar Motor Homes, one sees indications of selfish gain, and Shepherding Words looks like diversion, or cover-up, a sop for the truly (and willfully) naive, for those who desperately wish it were so, who gave their lives for The Cause and don't want it to vanish in a puff of smoke.
Not only was Daystar a shameless money-grab by the Lee family, it was one in a series. It wasn't an anomaly but rather fit a pattern.