Where Has All the Orthopraxy Gone?

[aron]

Originally Posted by OBW

And it is so hard to generalize off of observations. Is Mel Porter the way he is because of the LRC, or are his natural inclinations well-suited for being in leadership in such a group? Do the two aggravate each other?

The problem with so many of the practices is that they are not the cause, but the result. Orthopraxy came to be because of the variant in Orthodoxy. The question is whether we/they practice what we preach. It starts with a skewed Orthodoxy and plays out in a skewed and dysfunctional Orthopraxy.

A few observations:

MP to awareness: "You will take my personality as your own"

Blended Brother to Bill Mallon: "We do as we are told"

Philip Lin to John Ingalls: "In my conscience I know that you are right according to the truth, but according to my culture I must follow Witness Lee".

RK: "Can we ever honor our brother Witness Lee too much?"

TC: "We owe Witness Lee our lives".

Anonymous: "Witness Lee - even when he's wrong, he's right"

All of these are kind of off the record observations, and not codified in official statements; yet a set of observations does allow some tentative hypotheses. Mine was that Asian culture in the LRC, both in teaching and practice, was far more pervasive than we had been led to imagine.

The "orthodoxy" idea is even skewed by this. What principles do we focus on, as we scan the text(s)? Is every church being "absolutely identical" an orthodox idea, or rather a cultural gloss superimposed on the text? How much of the LSM oevre is really orthodox, and how much human (historical reactivism, cultural, and personal) interpretation? Somehow Lee's incessant, frantic search for conformity, and uniformity, doesn't seem like "freedom of the Spirit" to me. But maybe that is my rough-tough American cowboy individualism surfacing here.

On that note: I know that I called Cahn's speech "sanctimonious drivel" on another thread. But how much of my own writing is similar? Posing behind a shield of anonymity, blowing clouds of smoke? I really don't know. The tree of knowledge blinds us from "self". How much love, faith, obedience do I display? How much "bearing one another in love", versus "bitter sniping"?

I think if we want orthopraxy, ultimately we just have to live it. Then those who have been damaged in the LRC (and there are indeed many) might be encouraged to speak, to come forth, and to heal. And sometimes the getting healed involves rolling around in the dust and shouting. Look at the spectacle involved, in the gospel record, when Jesus cast out unclean spirits! We should not be afraid, here. Just be honest, patient, and forbearing with one another. That is true orthopraxy.