[UntoHim]

Originally Posted by aron

To be more precise (although this may veer from 77150's thought), if we note that Mr Lee was rather contentious and adversarial with his fellow believers; instead of being inclusive calling them "dark" and "degraded" and "Babylonian", etc, mayhaps we also are being unduly contentious with the LRC die-hards and true believers? We wave the differences high in the air while downplaying the many commonalities?
Most here would quickly reply "no"; okay, but am I "in bad faith" if I raise the question in a discussion? Because I do, occasionally, think that question.

Thanks aron for this post. There are some good points you raise. "unduly contentious" is something that a forum administrator has to deal with on a daily basis. Yet, one man's unduly contentious is another man's righteous indignation. And when it comes to matters surrounding Witness Lee and The Local Church there is plenty of both to go around. You are correct about there being more waving of the differences high in the air as compared to emphasizing the many commonalities. This, I believe, is a function of the high ratio of former LC members as compared to current and recently former members. I have hoped and prayed for this ratio to be brought closer together, but so far it has not happened:verysad:

Now getting to the heart of your post.
am I "in bad faith" if I raise the question in a discussion?

The answer is absolutely, positively.....maybe, maybe not.
Let me give you a hypothetical (maybe not so hypothetical)
Let's say you have a person who enters into a conversation with you about you and your wife. The conversation (innocently enough) initiates with the subject of spousal abuse. You carry on a lengthy conversation for a considerable amount of time, both agreeing on the evils of spousal abuse. Then, out of the blue the one party inquires “so, when did you stop beating your wife?”. Even IF the one party was indeed beating their wife the other party was having the conversation in bad faith. This is to say nothing of the instance where the other party was not beating his wife at all.

Good faith is good faith. Bad faith is bad faith. Only the offending party really knows in their heart whether or not they are acting in good faith or bad faith. Unlike God, I do not have the luxury of knowing what is in somebody’s heart. I can only look on “the outward”. That is all I can judge upon, and that is all God can expect me to judge on. What God does expect of me, I believe, is to “judge with righteous judgement”. This is a hard thing for me, and I take it very seriously. Currently, I am the only person administering this forum. I have asked others to help me out with this burden but thus far have had no takers. I am not asking for the congressional medal of honor here, only for some understanding that I am just one man, with one man’s heart and mind.

All this being said, the member/poster in question has not been censored or banned in any way. I have publicly questioned their good faith in posting in a particular thread. I was asked for an explanation and I gave one (albeit not to this person’s liking). As usual with this member/poster, the retort contained too much information to discern what the retort actually was. Such is life on an internet forum I suppose.