Open Letter to Saints in The Local Churches - Andrea McArdle

[UntoHim]

Good points Peter.

Brothers and sisters, Andrea McArdle has not been the only sister to come out to expose what can only be called an epidemic of abuse in the Local Church of Witness Lee. It is bad enough when a culture of abuse is allowed to foster in any group, but when the first instinct of the leadership is to cover up the abuse, the victim inevitably suffers further abuse and attacking. In the case of the Local Church, many times the cover up is to protect the religious system created by Witness Lee, and continued by many of his followers. Anyone and everyone, no matter what their status is in the movement, is expendable. (except for Lee of course) The image of this little sect that they call "the Lord's Recovery" must be protected at any cost - even at the cost of the lives of the littlest of sheep. Our Lord's mandate to leave the ninety-nine to save the one lost is ignored and even despised. The little sheep is left to die, and the wolf is protected and allowed to attack again. How many times are we going to see this scenario play out in the Local Church and simply sit on our hands and keep silent?

Originally Posted by Peter Debelak in response to Bubbles

We are talking about children. And when not talking about children, we are talking about people who are enmeshed in a very intense power dynamic.
Their identities have long been established by acceptance in the group. Whistle blowing or going to the authorities would absolutely undo that, and with it, your very identity.

And when we are not talking about children, in many cases we are talking about sisters that have been abused by brothers who have been placed in a position of trust over them. This dynamic in the Local Church goes back to at least the 1970s with Phillip Lee's reign of terror in the LSM office. Now with the startling revelations of Dr. Lily Hsu in her book, we are now facing the reality that these kind of things have been happening from the beginning of the movement. Lord, have mercy.
-

[Ohio]

Originally Posted by UntoHim

In the case of the Local Church, many times the cover up is to protect the religious system created by Witness Lee, and continued by many of his followers. Anyone and everyone, no matter what their status is in the movement, is expendable. (except for Lee of course) The image of this little sect that they call "the Lord's Recovery" must be protected at any cost - even at the cost of the lives of the littlest of sheep. Our Lord's mandate to leave the ninety-nine to save the one lost is ignored and even despised. The little sheep is left to die, and the wolf is protected and allowed to attack again. How many times are we going to see this scenario play out in the Local Church and simply sit on our hands and keep silent?

And when we are not talking about children, in many cases we are talking about sisters that have been abused by brothers who have been placed in a position of trust over them. This dynamic in the Local Church goes back to at least the 1970s with Phillip Lee's reign of terror in the LSM office. Now with the startling revelations of Dr. Lily Hsu in her book, we are now facing the reality that these kind of things have been happening from the beginning of the movement. Lord, have mercy.
-

I cut my ties with LSM, and lost all respect for WL, when I learned what Witness Lee did to protect his own degenerate and profligate sons and simultaneously disgrace the reputations of those men of God who attempted to protect the victims of these brutish perps. I also cut ties with Titus Chu, who knew all the filthy facts of the behind-the-scenes-situations at LSM, only to reject righteousness and the plight of these victims in order to "take a stand" for WL, his so-called "spiritual father."

The audio recording of Joe Davis in Houston makes it abundantly clear that all of these cases of abuse are known by the Recovery leaders and readily dismissed as rumors. JD made it clear that they "have heard this all before" going back to Watchman's Nee excommunication by the church in Shanghai some 77 years ago.

Does anyone really believe that the elders in Shanghai, all appointed by Nee himself, would arbitrarily excommunicate him over some spurious false allegation that he was "living with his mother." To accept that well-worn tale of persecution proffered by Lee himself is to believe that the elders in the Recovery's largest church in China were dunces, simpletons, idiots, and fools at best. Would they not first ask for witnesses and some examination of facts as demanded by I Timothy 5.19-20? Yes, of course they would!

Yet these bogus stories and tales of old are still passed on to the saints at large in today's Recovery.