Quote:
Originally Posted by aron
The last sentence of the post being considered says, "I've left for some time, and have come back recently. - a young working saint."
The person left for some time - now, we don't know this person's circumstances but most leave with disillusionment. What was promised never got delivered. So they go out, seeking the temporary comforts and distractions of the world.
So why do they return, to what didn't work the first time? Why re-imbibe the failed promises of old? I believe it is this: they want something "more", and know it's somehow connected to the God of the Bible, and remain convinced that LSM has the "proper interpretation" of that promise.
The perceived alternative is what many young people on this forum write of - giving up on God altogether. The assumption in both cases is that God is accessed only through LSM interpretation of scripture. Either it must be embraced in toto, or 'God' rejected altogether.
But many of us who've gone on to read the Bible apart from it's current pen-builders (we have God in our theological box) have come to see that these are false alternatives.
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Leaving the LC is no easy feat. And that is just the beginning. One still has to decide what happens next, what they believe, and what they really want. It seems though that it can be difficult to really think that far ahead, especially when the primary concern is simply escaping the clutches of the LC, and sometimes even abusive situations.
All too often, I saw people in the LC who were amid a constant cycle of meeting and then not meeting. I saw church kids leave, only to get caught back in, pressured to attend the FTTA, etc. What drives people back? Is it because they don't know anything else? Probably so.
I don't see anything in the LC currently that would be a particular draw to make people want to be part of it. Of course, those who were there when the LC was in its heyday can point to such and such an experience that happened at Elden hall and they derive meaning from that. But what about all the rest of the LC members? What do they really have going for them? Unless someone has had particularly positive experiences within the LC, they are left trying to rationalize what the LC is not. And all too often it ends up being a situation where they stick around because they know nothing else, or they keep falling away and coming back because they think the problem is they can't measure up to the demands of the LC.