[Jay]

Originally Posted by Ohio

Some of this is just naturally geographic. Spokane is remote, and the leaders are not regularly together with the western metropolitan club of elites. Access to the top became quite corrupting to some. That’s just our fallen nature disguised as spirituality. I learned that in high school. Some guys were “in,” some guys betrayed others to be “in.” I call them “risers,” always looking to improve their status using access. Basic politics here. I was never “in,” so I never even tried. This was never so visible as when storms blew thru the Recovery. Who were you with? Which side are you on?

Let me use our forebears the Exclusive Plymouth Brethren as an example. I really think my study of them helped reveal what some couldn’t perceive. Theirs was a history of storms, purges, and divisions. None of which was ever legitimate or actually scriptural. Actually just struggles for power. Picture a rotating spit of lamb for Greek gyros which I love, being constantly carved. That was their history.

Each “carving” removed those who put the Lord first, put the Bible first, put love first, or those who simply hesitated to “despise” the one(s) being ejected. E.g. decades after George Muller was expelled, new members who never even heard of GM, were forced to sign on to JND’s condemnations of him. Sounds a little like how Ingalls, or even Isitt, has been treated. As time went on almost 2 centuries now, those who have remained after numerous purges on that revolving spit have become more strange, mean-spirited, narrow-minded, legalistic than ever. They became more known for their unending list of unwritten rules, crazy interpretations of obscure texts in scripture, and weird esoteric knowledge, all which puffs up. They are so exclusive and elite, they are simply unapproachable.

I've heard it being described as social climbing. But good points yeah. I've seen this in the Western Washington region. We had a new transplant brother from the church in Los Angeles or somewhere down there in Socal and pretty quickly he became a part of the service in Renton, and it was just kinda odd to see it happen that fast. And I kinda realized that it was like a political rank thing and he was climbing it. He was doing his best to get a position but in a subtle way. Type of thing where every meeting he would sit in the front row and be sure to be vocal, even if it was forced. He would dress like the leaders (white dress shirt, tie, black suit as usual). And he quickly was making friends with the leaders but wouldn't be so friendly with others, especially ones he felt maybe couldn't do anything for him. I've never been attracted to that kind of thing my whole life. That type of Hollywood fake social climbing and brown nosing. Always turned me off. But there's a lot of brothers in this region who you can tell are ambitious for position and they're trying to be in one of the ranks. It just seems so off. Particularly after how much Lee talked against ambition. But it's there and they do it and if you're not someone they feel can help them they don't regard you as much. Has nothing to do with Christ or the spirit or life or love or fellowship. It's just all about church life culture glory. Pretty sad