Following the first post, there's a lot of literature about what happens psychologically when people believe that they have no choice. It is discouraging and dispiriting, and if it's combined with abuse, people tend to depression and despair.
Imagine that you are 3 years old, and continually told that reality is "X". You go to meetings sit with Mommy and Daddy, and continually hear "X". Then you are 4, 5, 6 and go to children's meetings and sing nursery rhymes about "X". Then young people's meetings, high school meetings, and your peers get up and speak and reinforce "X".
What if "X" includes, "You must do as you are told, always trust leadership, they are always right, be one with the speaking, anyone who thinks differently is rebellious against God and marked for destruction" etc etc...? LC members literally hear this day and night from infancy. If this was your experience, what to when you're 25, 35 years old and hear of abuse? Or see it, or experience it? You're relentlessly trained into passive obedience. But something is clearly wrong here! Perhaps the teachings don't make sense, or they are self-contradictory, or don't follow Scripture, or deviate from "orthodox" understanding of Scripture (i.e. traditional church teachings). Or else the family member of the Church Leader begins to abuse the church members, or takes their money.
At that point the programming takes over, and one sees evidences in the speaking. “We do what we are told” was what one Blended RG said to a co-worker in the SE USA during the New Way, who protested against the heavy-handed Ministry "Office". “I’m proud to be an ostrich with my head stuck in the sand”, said another, when turmoil arose subsequent to the revelations of the Office (Philip Lee’s) predatory abuses.
Quote:
Originally Posted by PriestlyScribe
...or the notion that any attempt to defend a "personal boundary" against an abuser in position of authority would render you an enemy of the cross of Christ!
Above quote is from STTIL page 21: https://www.johningalls.com/#/reader/chapter/15 |
The above quotes from P.S. are examples of what people hear from infancy. "Do what you are told". "Don't think". "Don't do anything without fellowship." It brings a state of learned helplessness, of conditioned paralysis. Then, either follows numbness or despair.