[OBW]

That last quote is interesting. I vaguely recall reading it. I guess it just hit me differently than it did Terry.

For one thing, the group can never repent for someone else. They can openly turn from the destructive path on which former leaders have led them. And they can repudiate the attitudes that were so prevalent among those leaders.

But for me, there is no simple repentance or apology to be had in that way. New leaders can decide to go somewhere different. They can stand against the abuses of the past. The only question that will never be satisfactorily answered is "why didn't you step up when this was originally going on rather than now after the bullies shave died?" Why is it that so few have had the guts to stand against the status quo. The writer of this book is clearly one who did stand — hesitantly at first. But he did stand.

My concern for the group is that if they do not have leaders who will stand for them against the bullies now, what makes them the leaders they need when the bullies go away by attrition? Or do they become ready to follow the next charismatic voice to rise among them or come from outside.

I would say that John Myer actually led his flock out from under the situation. That gives legs to his book's title, "A Future and a Hope." If he were writing anonymously from behind the lines inside an assembly still cowering under TC's whims (or those of the BBs in a different context), then it would have been better titled "A Dream for the Next Generation." But no matter how small the group, they walked away and have a bright future and something in which to hope.

Those who suffered the abuses do not get the apologies they need. They will not hear from the ones whose first and only righteous act will be to repent to the LRC as a whole, the Christian community around them, and specific ones that they have harmed in various ways. Lee hinted at the first step. But he was offered a 3-step program and could only do enough that there is still a quarrel over whether his leg actually moved.

Now those that remain, like John Myer, have surely repented for his complicity in the errors of the past, even if only through lack of will to stand firm. It is unfortunate that this will be as much repentance as will likely ever occur.