[Curious]

Re-reading the document that begins this thread raises more questions for me. I see that it was written after the death o f WL, though it is a commentary on directions he initiated, (and towards the end, seems to have actually regretted).

I suspect this document to be a very interesting one to look at for those who study cults and extreme groups, and to investigate the thinking at the time of the person who produced it. (This type of document is probably extremely rare). For example, did the writer firmly believe he was writing a genuine document to genuine hearers who would respond in a genuine way? Was their rejecting response, both towards the document and himself, a massive unforeseen shock to the writer? Or did he at some level at least, suspect it would result in him being ‘shunned’, so that he was in some part prepared?

This document represents two things clearly, a person who simultaneously could see the problems crystal clear, and was prepared to explain them thoroughly, and at the same time is just as thoroughly loyal and devoted to the ‘system’ that he can see has gone wrong. I just wonder, (as am indeed a curious bunny), how his understanding and thinking about that all was, at the time of writing and submitting to those in charge. Any detaching from the theology of Lee that may now exist for this writer, is not evident in the document. Had any such doubts arisen for him before or at the time of writing?

I would be very interested in learning some more about these things, to fill in the picture.

It may seem to be irrelevant questions, or it may be important to help understand the way a person within a system (of error) may handle that error and attempt to put things right. And in worst case scenario, it may show how a perceptive and sincere person may be all the more vulnerable to being brutally mistreated, within such a system.

Leading on from questions section to the 'my opinion section!', I now have the following to say. WL underneath it all, had a basic Christian foundation, which it seems caught up with him in the end. The foundation he put into his followers was flawed in ways his own was not. Those who have followed on have instituted things in ways that are best illustrated by looking at King Rehoboam, a son of, and the first successor of King Solomon. found in 1 Kings chapter 12.

Followers who gain leadership of a system are often much more absolute and rigid than the ones who start up the system. Because leaders are inspired and inspiring people, they create energy around themselves, a capacity their followers either don’t have, (or in some cases, learn to suppress). Whether inspired rightly or wrongly, those who lead have a gift and an ability to exercise it, which comes naturally to them. Followers who succeed them gain the power but in the main, have been followers for a reason, they are not inspired in the way the original leader was. Therefore, they look for security, and the departed leader’s inspiration provides it. So, they fortify the doctrines they inherit, beyond what the original leader did.

WL changed things as he saw fit. He was not afraid to 'adapt' including 'contradict' his own teachings if it suited a ‘current’ agenda. Followers who succeeded him, the BB’s, have the challenge of trying to lead without being inspired or naturally inspirational. That creates insecurity in them, they don’t have their own strong sense of direction for the ‘movement’. To resolve this, they fortify and make rigid, all the teachings and doctrines of the original leader. The motive behind it is to make the successors feel assured, not to better serve the people. That’s why it operates at the expense of the people, and ends up being harmful to them instead.

1 Kings, chapter 12, verses 14. ‘My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke; my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scourges'. King Rehoboam was perhaps not trying to follow his own father’s ways in the spiritual sense. But he was entrenching and worsening some of the practices of Solomon’s style of rulership, in a harsh and domineering way, to benefit his sense of security at the expense of the people.

That’s my theory that when ‘followers’ inherit leadership, they become harsher than their predecessor. I have the impression this is a true observation in the LC. It seems WL himself would have agreed with this document towards the end of his life, but not those who followed him.