Quote:
Originally Posted by Thankful Jane
Two Different Persons
A brother who was very close to Benson in the early years said to me about him (paraphrased): "Benson is one of the nicest, most likeable people you will ever meet--that is, as long as you do not 'touch' the church. If you 'touch' the church, he turns into a completely different person." Having known Benson myself, I find this statement to be true. The brother indicated that he found the ‘different person’ change to be very disturbing. (I heard this statement from this brother before Benson had ascended up the LSM ladder.)
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For years I had heard that WL was like the sweetest "
Grandpa," and that helped to shape all my early views of him. I remember hearing that Francis Ball had told an outsider, "
WL is an old preacher whom we all love." The side of WL publicly shaming his fellow workers and elders was hid from me, just as TC's pattern of shaming brothers was hid from many others. I now believe that this tremendous dichotomy of personality is almost a determining characteristic of exclusive systems. One of the root causes is a departure from a living faith and trust in God. Human manipulations become imperative when God decides not to bless the exclusive ways of the leaders.
George Muller was the epitome of ironies for the Brethren exclusives. Darby had successfully "purged" him and his ire, and had succeeded in "weeding out" all of the followers of Benjamen Newton, Darby's other "rival."
Yet God blessed Muller's faith in the living God in caring for the orphans! To Darby's followers, this was just an impossibility. How could God bless the most condemned man on earth?!?
The man Muller was the same at home, as an elder, as head of the orphanage. Sure Muller had a tough German character, but he never turned into a "
completely different person." And this simply proves my premise at my own departure from the program, "
exclusivity is a disease that makes bullies out of beloved brothers." Brothers who stay are forced to change. They often become the same abuser they learn from. Those who refuse to change for the worse, often must depart. They cannot remain and be true to their heart and the Lord.