Why Do We Keep Doing This?

[OBW]

In some of today's reading, I encountered the brief write-up introducing a short podcast series designed to investigate the complete collapse of a major independent church in the PNW that began imploding when its lead pastor was requested to step down of allegations of abuse (position, not sexual) back in 2014. The result was rather swift as the huge church with over 12,000 in attendance each Sunday in at least 13 different locations disbanded and to the extent that it still exists in any form is no longer recognizable as such.

My goal is not to talk about them, but to draw a comparison in the write-up about its underlying problems to the LC. It begins with the asking of a question:

. . . [W]hy [do] we keep doing this—elevating leaders whose charisma outpaces their character?And for the LC faithful, the added question: "Why do we keep following the dead when the living cannot make anything truly palatable spiritually from the dregs of past messes?"

While I am not asking for a serious analysis with "charges," I would like to understand how those of us who were around at various times — Daystar, the minor "rebellion" surrounding the ouster of Max R, the ouster of John Ingals and others (and the event surrounding Phillip Lee for those within Anaheim), on up to the turmoil in the Mid-West — could rationalize away the problems. For example, why were there not more concerns about the church indirectly becoming involved in manufacturing and sales of items generally not within the reach of or useful to the membership of the LCs?

Why did it not bother us that the chairs sold to us by our own Taiwan mfg entity were identical to commercially available chairs made by others? Did we have a license to the particular design? (Maybe none was needed?) But if applicable it might never be caught as long as they did not sell them to the general public. I know as a young student/career accountant something always seemed a little off to me, but I never asked any questions.

Why were the red flags missed or suppressed?

I know we will say that we have talked about this before in different ways. And while this could lead to underlying spiritual issues of the leadership, it also should lead us to consider how we were unable to spot the kinds of problems that were festering right under our noses?

Like my admissions, I guess what I am looking for are personal mea culpas of any sort. Not necessarily huge revelations, but some introspection of how we missed the ones we were around for.

[Raptor]

I know as a young student/career accountant something always seemed a little off to me, but I never asked any questions. Why were the red flags missed or suppressed? how we were unable to spot the kinds of problems that were festering right under our noses?

I believe it is due to a combination of two reasons, 1.) PSYCHOLOGICAL, 2.) SPIRITUAL

1.) PSYCHOLOGICAL - GROUPTHINK

Groupthink is a psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of people in which the desire for harmony or conformity in the group results in an irrational or dysfunctional decision-making outcome. Cohesiveness, or the desire for cohesiveness, in a group may produce a tendency among its members to agree at all costs.This causes the group to minimize conflict and reach a consensus decision without critical evaluation. Irving Janis pioneered the initial research on the groupthink theory. Janis identified a number of different "symptoms" that indicate groupthink:

Illusions of unanimity - lead members to believe that everyone is in agreement and feels the same way. It is often much more difficult to speak out when it seems that everyone else in the group is on the same page.

Unquestioned beliefs - lead members to ignore possible moral problems and not consider the consequences of individual and group actions.

Rationalizing - prevents members from reconsidering their beliefs and causes them to ignore warning signs.

Stereotyping - leads members of the in-group to ignore or even demonize out-group members who may oppose or challenge the group's ideas. This causes members of the group to ignore important ideas or information.

Self-censorship - causes people who might have doubts to hide their fears or misgivings. Rather than sharing what they know, people remain quiet and assume that the group must know best.

"Mindguards" - act as self-appointed censors to hide problematic information from the group. Rather than sharing important information, they keep quiet or actively prevent sharing.

Illusions of invulnerability - lead members of the group to be overly optimistic and engage in risk-taking. When no one speaks out or voices an alternative opinion, it causes people to believe that the group must be right.

Direct pressure - pressure to conform is often placed on members who pose questions, and those who question the group are often seen as disloyal or traitorous.

While groupthink can generate consensus, it is by definition a negative phenomenon that results in faulty or uninformed thinking and decision-making. Some of the problems it can cause include:

Blindness to potentially negative outcomes
Failure to listen to people with dissenting opinions
Lack of creativity
Lack of preparation to deal with negative outcomes
Ignoring important information
Inability to see other solutions
Not looking for things that might not yet be known to the group
Obedience to authority without question
Overconfidence in decisions
Resistance to new information or ideas

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groupthink#Symptoms
https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-groupthink-2795213

2.) SPIRITUAL - EVIL SPIRITS

(Read all of Matthew 13). He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that a man planted in his field. Although it is the smallest of all seeds, yet it grows into the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches.” Matthew 13:31-32. Here the Lord is emphasizing the amazing growth of a tiny mustard seed. Just one individual seed, such a small thing, quickly grows into a large bush with complicated branches where evil spirits find a base to lodge in and operate, capturing others into the system of the bush, not the normal growth of the wheat crop, and thus usurping the word of God.


mustard seed - not the grain of wheat of the Lord´s crop in v. 3. Something else, it has life, but not wheat, and not of the Lord.
man planted in his field - not the Sower, but a man, planting for his own work, own interests, not the Lord´s work
smallest - just one, small individual can be the source
quickly grows into large plant- rapid, amazing growth, not into ripe wheat that bears fruit, but into a rough bush, with complicated branches
birds - evil spirits, as in v. 4, they find a place to hide, to have a base of operations, to get protection, to further the devil´s (v.39) strategy to attack, undermine, steal, damage the word of God, the real seed

Examples:

Charles Taze Russell: in July 1878, Russell (only him, a small mustard seed) started publishing a religious monthly magazine and then:


wrote many articles, books, booklets, sermons, approximately 50,000 printed pages
published a series of bible studies, reaching almost 20 million printed copies distributed all over the world in several languages
in 1909, his writing had become the works in English with most distribution and private production in USA
his total works became the 3rd most circulated on the planet, after the Bible and the chinese Almanac
in 1912, Russell´s writings surpassed the circulation "of all the combined writings of all the priests and preachers in North America"
his followers started dividing and branching out
one of the groups became Jehovah Witnesses, today 8,695,808 members

See also: Joseph Smith ----- Mormon Church = 16,500,000 members.

CONCLUSION
It is a system of error, designed by the devil to capture believers and deter them from the realites of the Kingdom of the Heavens and thus damage the Lord´s work and purpose. Evil spirits, like strongholds, operate behind the scenes to hold members captive in the "bush" through psychological means and weaknesses such as Groupthink and erroneous Bible teachings as a trap, thus furthering the damage to God´s word and purpose.

[UntoHim]

I guess what I am looking for are personal mea culpas of any sort. Not necessarily huge revelations, but some introspection of how we missed the ones we were around for.
Why were the red flags missed or suppressed?

I really like Mike's notion of "personal mea culpas". Let's try to be as specific and succinct as possible. I think our readers may be more interested in our own personal testimonies and observations of how this dynamic of "Why were the red flags missed or suppressed" played itself out in our personal lives.

[HERn]

Why were the red flags missed or suppressed?


Wife and I have talked about ignoring the red flags several times. We were lenient and ignored some things because we REALLY believed the LC had the right way to have a church meeting and were right in not having a paid clergy with Nicolaitans lording over the flock. Turns out there are as many Nicolaitans in the LC as in other denominations, and in the LC they are under the authority of their LSM ministry rather than Christ and the Bible. Their practice of pillaging Egypt and hiding their LSM association from college students bothered me. Because I did not have a seared conscience the cognitive dissonance drove me to prayer and Bible reading where I could hear the Holy Spirit speak. Seeing the red flags was a gift from the Lord. Yielding to the Holy Spirit was my obedience to God and His word. Funny how the Spirit’s work in my conscience together with my obedience worked out God’s will in my life!

[Trapped]

...I would like to understand how those of us who were around at various times — Daystar, the minor "rebellion" surrounding the ouster of Max R, the ouster of John Ingals and others (and the event surrounding Phillip Lee for those within Anaheim), on up to the turmoil in the Mid-West — could rationalize away the problems. For example, why were there not more concerns about the church indirectly becoming involved in manufacturing and sales of items generally not within the reach of or useful to the membership of the LCs?

Why did it not bother us that the chairs sold to us by our own Taiwan mfg entity were identical to commercially available chairs made by others? Did we have a license to the particular design? (Maybe none was needed?) But if applicable it might never be caught as long as they did not sell them to the general public. I know as a young student/career accountant something always seemed a little off to me, but I never asked any questions.

Why were the red flags missed or suppressed?

I know we will say that we have talked about this before in different ways. And while this could lead to underlying spiritual issues of the leadership, it also should lead us to consider how we were unable to spot the kinds of problems that were festering right under our noses?

The events you list out did not have a direct effect on me, but I think honestly a part of the "why" is simply that most Christians are not trained or equipped to do so (oh no, now I sound like WL....."most Christians.....")

What I mean is, Christians generally AREN'T standing there actively aware they should have the whole armor of God on. That they SHOULD be on the look out for hidden things, for sins, for wrong teachings, for "off" behaviors. The church is where we DON'T expect the wolves of the world to be prowling (jealousy, money-grubbing, abuse, selfish gain, lying, sexual impropriety, back-stabbing) and so people simply aren't there ready to identify and defend against those things. We are sheep, even as described in the Bible. We read the Bible and think "that's stuff they had to deal with in the early church". Wrong!! We have to be on the lookout now just as much as ever.

I also do think Raptor was correct in his Groupthink response. Why were so many of those red flags missed? Because anyone with concerns looked around and saw hundreds of others contentedly milling around unconcerned and going along, and ......as people are wont to do......just went along with the group. Groupthink, group pressure, group conformity.....man....all those things are strong, powerful forces. They shut your mouth up, shut your thoughts down, force your head down, and make you stamp down your worries so you aren't the problem-causer. Mind control is a core part of the LC experience.

You asked for a personal mea culpa. One thing that I recall was that sometimes, to outside entities (say, governmental), a church would state that it was "part of a network of affiliated local churches around the world". And other times, it would state outright that it was "just a local city-level group with no other affiliations". Of course, the definition changed according to how the church could benefit in each case from it's having or lacking other affiliations. I remember noticing this discrepancy and thinking "ahhh, the elders are so wise" and literally feeling so proud at how skillfully they handled things. But then as these discrepancies built up over the years, it burst out of me one day, "WE'RE JUST LYING!" We're just saying whatever we want to say to get what we want!!!

Why was it so hard for me to see?

1) I wasn't looking for deception from the elders. I trusted them because of their position, rather than allowing them to persuade me they should be trusted.

2) It would have radically changed my view of the elders to admit they were being intentionally deceptive. It's a foundation-rocking thing.

3) The local church literally has pithy sayings and dominant teachings that get mentally plugged in every time a red flag rears it's head. The system has been streamlined that way over the years. "The two-foldness of the truth" comes to mind for my example.

[UntoHim]

Many thanks to HERn and Trapped for these last two posts. You have related your testimonies with both your heart and your head, which I believe makes them all the more valuable to all concerned.

Over the years I have heard a saying that goes something like "If one does not know where they have come from, they cannot know where they are going". Although this notion is not necessarily biblical, there is some useful wisdom in it nonetheless. I find it fascinating and precious how God has used our individual circumstances to lead us out from the system of error that is the Local Church. Praise Him, He has indeed "worked all thing out".
-

[OBW]

The events you list out did not have a direct effect on me, but I think honestly a part of the "why" is simply that most Christians are not trained or equipped to do so (oh no, now I sound like WL....."most Christians.....")

What I mean is, Christians generally AREN'T standing there actively aware they should have the whole armor of God on. . . .Let me respond (or add onto) this one thought.

We may not have had the necessary equipping. And yet the people within the LC are constantly inundated with scripture. I have to say that there is no way to deny that it is often considered the one thing they really did kind of well. They taught us to really get into scripture.

Or did they?

I ask, somewhat skeptically, because I am not sure that constantly reading a lot of scripture is as beneficial as we sometimes think. (I can hear it now; "OBW is saying that we don't need to read the scripture." But that is not what I said. Let me continue before you respond.)

What I am saying is that the way we read scripture and the goals of our reading can make it into something that might lead to a "Ye search the scriptures that points to me but you do not come to me" kind of reading.

And so when faced with a whole bunch of scripture, it is almost natural to rely on someone else to provide at least part of your understanding of it beyond the very cursory understanding. But when you have been doing that for long enough, you would think that a person would begin to have some ingrained knowledge. They might even remember enough other scripture (at least in paraphrase and possibly without chapter/verse sites) that they begin to have a basis to think a little on their own. Unless they have truly left their brain at the door and never think beyond what is fed to them, they should eventually start to sense something not quite right.

Yes, too many of us were not equipped to understand scripture.

Yet in some ways that is not really true. Too much of the nonsense we were fed happened through the forcing of "unnatural" understanding onto otherwise very understandable words. When you read "A = B" but are then told that it is really talking about "F = Q," you have a decision to make. Are you going to 1) stand up and say "how did you get that," 2) go home and look into it, or 3) just accept that you don't know anything and therefore this guy who says he knows a lot must be right?

I know that there are alternative options. But this is a generalization of how we got where we did. I know that some part of it was yet another option in which the alternative understanding was phrased so that we benefitted in personal esteem to know it (we have a higher understanding and vocabulary). And other similar things.

But are we really so "poor in mind" that we abdicate everything to someone else and are therefore prone to being led that far astray? If that is the case, then it is simply the providence of God that so many managed to avoid the LC or see through it up front.

In short (too late!) while I somewhat agree with your idea that many of us were not equipped to deal with what we were hit with, at some level, many of us should have had something nagging us to at least be troubled during our stay. For me, it was (unfortunately) mostly outward issues with certain elders as well as the nearly aloof and missing leadership in Irving in its early years that led to my leaving. It took years to awaken to the doctrinal/scriptural issues. I know I had some hints of it along the way, and even afterward. But as I said, it too 18 years after leaving to really look at it from a scriptural basis.