Quote:
Originally Posted by TLFisher
Truth or myth, I heard following "the Rosemead Rebellion" Minoru begged Don Hardy for forgiveness regarding his role in forcing Don's resignation as an elder from the Church in Rosemead. What was the "rebellion" of the mid to late eighties period really about? At that time it was the excessive emphasis on doorknocking that caused my withdrawal from meeting. Others it could have been different.
As for Rosemead, Anaheim, etc, I suspect it was different. It's been said you cannot have transparency without accountability. The co-workers Minoru included are not transparent, because they are not accountable. If the co-workers were accountable, shouldn't there be a corporate repentance?
Until there is, I see the co-workers as part of the problem when they could have been part of the solution.
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I remember being told that three out of the five repented for what they did to Don Hardy. I remember being told that Al Knock repented. But to be honest I can not remember the other two, but my best guess would be Ken Unger, and Bill Duane. I know for sure Francis Ball never repented. My guess is Minoru Chen did not repent because he is still in the LC in a very strong way. If he did repent it was not a true repentance because that would require him to re-evaluate his whole position and manner of conduct toward brothers and sisters in Christ.
I have attached the transcript, that I found recently, of the that meeting in Rosemead on 11-1-1987 where Don Hardy gives a first hand account of what took place in Anaheim regarding his removal.
One of the main reasons Rosemead cut off Witness Lee (WL) and the Living Stream Ministry (LSM) was their attempt to replace the bible meetings with the life study messages. The elders took the stand and said, and I am recalling from many years back, the Life-study messages are good and should be read on your own time. But here on Lord's Day we will continue to go through the bible as we have done before. That is, we picked a book and went through it sometimes verse by verse and chapter by chapter until we finished that book. I remember those meetings were so good and caught me as a young person. The word of God was so precious because so many shared from their experience and knowledge of the word with no help from the life-studies. Anyways there were Leeites in our meeting, lead by Francis Ball and John Kwan, pushing pray reading and chanting of the Lord's Name for the WHOLE MEETING without ever opening or touching the bible. The meeting eventually became a mess. Also at that time Witness Lee was being promoted as the living Oracle of God, the Deputy Authority, and the one carrying out God's move on the earth. It was very clear early on that Rosemead recognized that the LSM was inferring with the meetings. And Rosemead took action to stop it. It wasn't too long after that meeting, with Don Hardy, and what Francis Ball shared, about following a MAN, that Rosemead took action to literally amputate any association with WL and the LSM. They also evicted the Francis Ball and John Kwan from the premises of the meeting hall. We stayed in the word of God and never replaced it. Please do not misunderstand, Rosemead was eventually tagged as "not being one with the ministry" and many, like 70-80%, of the English speaking side left. The ones remaining, including myself, stayed and continued on with the Lord in the best way. The older brothers and elders starting checking the scriptures on the doctrine put out by WL & the LSM and were convinced they were in the wrong. Eventually it was stated WL was not a disciple of the Lord anymore and had lost his way. Anyways let us press forward in our walk with the living God and his Son.