I want to ask the other side of the question: why do people cooperate?
On the plus side, people often like being told what to do. It eliminates uncertainty.
People feel superior, because they are the True Church who obey. Others who don't cooperate are condemned, at least inferior and to be pitied.
Others are inferior simply because they are not us. For instance, watching 'sisters' get relegated to lesser roles was attractive to me as a 'brother' in the LC. I was automatically elevated, just by being me. Why should I give that up? So I cooperated with an oppressive system, because someone else was getting it worse than me. Weird and illogical, but it works effectively nonetheless. Titus Chu allowed himself to be bullied by Witness Lee, so that earned him the right to return home to Ohio and bully the residents there.
Participants simply come to expect that cooperation is what's right. "Even when the brothers are wrong - cooperate." Somehow God will cover things.
They are convinced to go along because, as bad is it is here (the LC), it's much worse elsewhere. It is the MO of the abuser. Convince the victim that you alone love them, that there's nowhere else to go.
Quote:
Originally Posted by formermember
Dana Roberts: "I received a call from a woman who was the youth leader and Sunday School Superintendent of Nee's church in Shanghai. She had been present at Nee's trial in 1956. [One of the charges brought against him was licentiousness.] Nee had affairs with two girls she knew in the church. I have also talked to Nee's lawyer. Nee freely admitted it because the police found the pictures. Why didn't the girls leave? Because they believed that all other churches were evil, and they made a pact to confess to God and stay in his true church.
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