Quote:
Originally Posted by aron
I don't want to force anyone to relive their pain, so will avoid the details of this case. But hearing this and remembering Greg Casteel, and knowing there are others, makes me want to raise a concept called 'learned helplessness', where someone is told over and over, eventually succumbing to the notion that there are no choices, and nothing they can do. Any attempts to act, think, or take responsibility for ones life is supposedly tantamount to rebellion against God.
With that as the backdrop, and facing a bleak "church life", the response is often despair, leading to self-harm or self-destruction. Or at the very least, a fog of sinking lethargy, and apathy.
I want to respect everyone's privacy & dignity, but we're facing a serious issue here. There's extensive research on learned helplessness and how it can affect families and and churches under controlling and abusive leadership.
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Aron, thanks for the post. Do you have any links on "learned helplessness"? I've never heard of it.
I think the weak, new, and sensitive saints in the LC have no agency. I think these kinds of people are prevented from acquiring agency. The only people who do are the elders, workers, and being-blinded brothers. These men reach into the lives of saints and wreck their sense of well-being, confidence, and even sow the seeds of marital conflict. In the LC elders have total agency and power, and sometimes convince troubled ones that if they leave the LC they can't go on with the Lord so that they even leave the Lord who saved them. The Bible tells us that teachers are held to a very high standard and are in danger of judgement if they harm a little one. I should say that I've know elders that don't seem to oppress the saints, but as Ohio has said if you are a man and have leadership abilities the LC training tends to produce "bullies" not shepherding elders.
I think we saw this in OKC with the leading elder (who was a baby blended brother) and other elders reaching into a marriage where the wife has testified to abuse, manipulation and control, where they blindly supported the husband who is an untouchable elder and had the benefit of "the covering" given to the brothers. I think it's interesting that after many months the being-blinded brothers reached into the OKC area and eventually convinced the elders to go along with the removal of the lead elder. (I wonder if this indicates that the LC is becoming a healthier place?) Remember, this lead elder went totally off the rails with hateful emails to the wife that were so full of hate and condemnation and apparently written in such haste such that the spelling and format errors were atrocious. They can be read via links in the earlier posts on this thread.
Does anyone know if the husband has been brought upon abuse charges based upon the statements in the court documents? He's a wealthy surgeon that had the money to hire lawyers to appeal a lower court verdict to a higher court that eventually ruled in favor of the wife.
I've asked God to pull down the satanic strongholds and interrupt the satanic strategies that evil angels have installed in the LC; and to bind satan and his angels who are involved in keeping order in the LC by holding in check the ambition, striving, jealousy, rebelliousness, and argumentative emotions of the LC leaders that would threaten the national leadership in the LC if expressed.
Happy New Year y'all!