Smear Shame Shun

[TLFisher]

I attended Cajon High School in San Bernardino, CA 1984-1986. One of my high school friends Vijay used to tease my younger sister Stephanie by calling her SSS. Not particular meaning. Just to tease. Where am I going with this? I am about to tell you.
These past few weeks I have been immersed in YouTube videos on narcissism and narcissistic traits. Yes, you will find quote a lot of this in the local churches.
Some narcissists use these tactics to silence and maintain control. Here is the local church version of SSS


Smear Campaign
Shame
Shun

I'll add one more specifically for the local churches if shunning cannot be effective:
Quarantine/Excommunicate

I have known ones or known of ones this has happened to:

Steve Isitt
Jo Casteel
John Ingalls
Max Rapoport

Each have been smeared, shamed, and shunned. To my knowledge, only John was quarantined.
Having been witness to a couple receiving grace at East Renton Community Church within the last 10 years, it took that very moment to realize my time in the local churches I was cheated. Thinking smearing, shaming, and shunning was the norm.
I can tell you all, that is only the norm in the local churches. It is not the norm in non-LSM fellowship in the churches I have met with. Grace is what you give. It's okay to ask questions. It's okay to have differing opinions.
It's healthy to have boundaries.
In my post-LC/LSM experiences, I'm at ease. I'm no longer concerned with labels. I used to be defensive when asked if I am an opposer. No longer. I'm at ease. Yes, I am an opposer. I oppose the smearing. I oppose the shaming. I oppose the shunning. I oppose when saints are treated unjustly.
I oppose the brothers given the headship when they are mere men. They are not our Lord and King.

[Unregistered]

Yeah it’s really crazy how they justify the unrighteous way they treat people who don’t fall in line with their LC culture. This is one of the biggest things that happened to me over the years that I was absolutely not prepared for- the elitist attitude and culture. It was pretty subtle in the first locality I started meeting at. For the most part it was undetectable, at least for me at that time, which was my honeymoon with the Lord. But when I moved to another locality it was a lot more obvious. Possibly my honeymoon was over and I wasn’t floating on a spiritual cloud anymore and coming down to earth was a shock. But it was a lot of little things with that new locality. The way certain people treated me. It was almost like I was wrong for being soft hearted and fair. They treated people who weren’t in their cliques as almost outsiders and definitely treated them like they were under them or beneath them if you weren’t as outwardly conformed like they were. It’s like there was this fervor to prove how absolute for the Lord you were, and it was all outward

There’s this interesting scene in the book ‘The wind in the willows,’ where (in my opinion) the author is critiquing modern church people. I haven’t read it in a while so it’s vague but he uses animals of the field (I think it’s the mice I forget) as like an allegory of how some Christians are seemingly nice and righteous on the outside but really they’re very vicious in a judgey cliquey way. It’s a brilliant scene and I feel like this is how some churches are. They have an outward veneer of godliness but the more you are around them you realize they’re very culty and shrewd and they judge anyone who isn’t as “inner-circle oriented” as they are.

After a lot that happened to me in the local churches which caused me to leave, and then looking back, I’m just surprised at how unbiblical much of their behavior is. And studying this “other history” that they want us to stay away from (aka the truth), I’ve just been so shocked at how they really are and they really think and behave. It’s pretty sad because it’s so opposite of what they purport themselves to be.
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[LeftLR]

I was in Anaheim and attending LC's meetings. I heard many leaders within LC's churches proclaim how Good and Great the "Messages" we have and how Witness Lee's teaching is above all other's. I was not baptize within LC. One of leaders within Anaheim told everyone at front of me about my salvation is not recognized by The Lord, Jesus because I did not baptize in LC and the Lord will not accept me. He told me, at front of everyone, to "burn up" my "Non-Recovery version" of the Bible and need to buy a Recovery version of Bible. He and other LSM co-workers kept telling me to "denounce" my previous believe about Jesus. I am no longer with LSM / LC / LB and i do not have to been afraid of their teaching. I am Free with Jesus and I will see Him then day I left the earth.