John, thanks much for the lengthy response. My basic question about "
overriding control in Texas before 1977" included my suspicion that neither you nor Jane were initially
aware of it. Btw, I should also change the words "
overriding control" to "abuse," since the word "control" is subject to one's own personal interpretation. There is no question in my mind that what happened to you that May '77 weekend, and the long years which followed, was abuse. My initial suspicion that you two were initially blindsided by what occurred, seems to be confirmed by your learning much later of what happened in each of those "3 cases."
My observations were somewhat similar. After personally enduring some unfair abuse, I began to hear reports from many other saints. I began to learn the "real" story hidden from us for years. Past events which had bothered me, and were forgotten, now became more alarming, as a definite pattern was seen on all levels. Like a snowball rolling down the hill, (
sorry, you guys can't relate to that thing called snow,) I was just overwhelmed with the amount of unchecked leadership abuse covered up over the years.
It's interesting that you mentioned Hislop's book. Being from a Catholic family, that book got incorporated into my "gospel" preaching. How unfortunate. It has been discussed how poor Hislop's research really was. A number of scholars have rebutted his many claims. WL used that book to drive a wedge between many saints and their families.
I appreciated your observation, "
Because of this, some could be on the periphery of the system and not realize the evil that was going on. That is why we often get at each other on the forums, I believe." To further that thought, I may have been at the very center of my local church life, yet concerning the events in Anaheim and Cleveland (or Texas or wherever,) I and all those with me were on the "periphery." We
thought we understood what was happening, actually we were told lies. Worse than lies, because we then joined in with their hypocrisy and unrighteousnesses.
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In your questions to me, you also started with Mr. Phillips’ statements about Jane and stated that it seemed that he acted like a copycat. First, I would never start with anything that Benson said. Remember, think politics. To be clear, Benson’s public statement at the 2005 winter training about what they did to Jane in Texas in 1977, and why they did it, was not truthful. This is explained in posts about that event which can be found on the Bereans forum. For one thing, Benson said he saw what Mr. Lee did with the sisters in Anaheim and then had to do the same thing in Texas. The truth was that Witness and Benson acted simultaneously on Saturday night of Memorial Day weekend. Also, Mr. Lee did not call out the Anaheim sisters as “the three holy sisters” as Benson claimed. Jane talked to Sandee for the first time in 2006, and Sandee said that Benson’s account about this was not true. We asked another one of the three sisters what her recollection was of the event, and she corroborated Sandee’s account.
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It seems to me that both sides of this account could be true. If BP talked to WL prior to that May '77 meeting, and we know they talked much, and WL describes events in Anaheim to him about "
three holy sisters" needing a public rebuke, then BP connected the dots and made leaps of assumptions and played "
copycat" in Houston, as if the supposed "
sister's rebellion" had come to town. I may be wrong about this. Far more serious in my mind was WL's public humiliation of Max Rapoport's wife for the sole reason that Max confronted Philip Lee about molesting sisters in the LSM offices. That to me "
stinketh to high heaven." I can be tolerant of the "mistakes" of many christian leaders, but not this.
Regarding the book
ToG, my very first post on the other forum concerned it. I asked if there was some code available to decipher the pseudonyms, since I knew all the players, yet not the details to connect them all. If I can find that book, I will look at those pages. Thanks again.
