Quote:
Originally Posted by Igzy
So awareness, just so we're all clear. Now that you've refreshed your memory, what exactly did Dale Jackson do to you specifically that you consider abusive? (Here I siding with Peter, asking for more facts.)
|
Okay, here's how it went down. This was near the end of 1980.
The elders were meeting for prayer before the Sunday morning meetings. I asked Mel if the prayer meeting was open or closed. He told me it was open. So I was meeting with them.
I had made it very public that I disagreed with "The Flow of Oneness" which was that the river if life flowed from Christ on the throne, carrying the authority of the throne, to the apostle on the earth, Witness Lee. The Flow of Oneness was being pushed very hard by Mel Porter. In the Sunday morning prayer meeting, when the elders prayed for the flow of oneness, I countered with a prayer for the oneness in the Spirit, and the oneness in Christ. I did the same in the meetings when testimony was given for the flow of oneness. I got plenty of amen's when doing so. Who can disagree with the oneness in Spirit/Christ?
But Mel caught on to what I meant ; that I was speaking of the oneness in Spirit as opposed to oneness by following Witness Lee.
So Mel started an assault on me, and things were heating up. The week before this excommunication meeting I came to pray with the elders on Sunday morning. The meeting hall was empty, but I could hear the Tape/Recording service group meeting behind closed doors. And as I ascended the stairs to the elders meeting I could hear them praying against me specifically by name. I stood and listened amused for a minute or so, laughed, and went on my way not thinking much of it ; not realizing that things were soon coming to a head for me.
The Sunday morning meeting of the excommunication evening meeting nothing significant happened. After the meeting Danny and Kathy invited my wife and I to have lunch at their house. We knew them since the C. in Santa Cruz, Ca. where we all came into the LC. Danny and Kathy were sweet saints, and were not involved in any controversy going on at the time. And it stayed that way during lunch and fellowship afterwords. The only strange thing that happened was when we went out to enjoy the beautiful South Florida day. We noticed about a half a dozen brothers out on their porch about 5 houses down across the street. They were pointing our way. We waved at them and shouted Praise the Lord, with no response from them. We thought nothing of it.
But it made sense in the evening meeting. The evening meeting started off like any other meeting. There was no sign that before it was over the whole place would turn into bizarre-o-land.
A few brothers gave some testimonies and then Dale Jackson stood up. He said something along the line of : "Today a brother had lunch at Danny and Kathy's house and he poisoned them against Witness Lee. And this brother should stand up and confess and repent before the whole church." My name wasn't mentioned, but those close to Danny and Kathy, and my wife and I, knew who Dale was talking about ... and certainly we knew who he was talking about.
Still, I didn't stand up and confess because I had nothing to confess. There was no truth at all in what Dale said. Plus, there was no way he could have known what went on at lunch unless Danny and/or Kathy told, or my wife had told. And they would have had nothing on the order of poisoning to tell. Nothing like that happened in any way shape or form. I was dumbfounded. Why would Dale claim such a thing?
Then Mel stood up, and said something on the order of : "There are brothers in the church that are trying to destroy Witness Lee's works. They are even using Witness Lee's works to try and destroy Witness Lee's works" (if that logic doesn't cause you to go cross-eyed I don't know what will).
Anyway, Mel got worked up, and started proclaiming, "If you are not with us then get out." And he was pumping his fist in the air, repeating it over and over. Then the whole meeting went into bizarre-o-land, and the whole church (except for me) were up on their feet proclaiming what Mel said while pumping the air ... "IF YOU'RE NOT WITH US, THEN GET OUT ... IF YOU'RE NOT WITH US, THEN GET OUT ..." It was a frenzy right before my eyes. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. The light came on and revealed a cult. It killed any fondness I had for the local church. It broke whatever was in me that made me believe in the local church.
But back to this crazy meeting. After Mel got a real lather worked up in the meeting (a froth really), he then revealed that there were three brothers ("you know who you are," he said) offending Lee's works, and they had a week to stand up in a church meeting and confess and repent before all, or be excommunicated.
The three brothers were, myself, Hosepipe, and Gene. Gene was a Jewish brother that converted to Jesus. He was well read in the scriptures. He was a gentle humble brother. He was a Specials-Reading instructor for the state corrections system. He freely gave away his gift and time to help children of saints that were having reading difficulties. He had three problems for Mel ; 1) He didn't accept Lee as an apostle according to his understanding of scripture. 2) He was friends with me. 3) He was friends with Hosepipe.
Of the three only Gene stood up in a meeting to repent. But it wasn't accepted, because he stood up and said, "If I have offended anyone in word or deed please come to me after the meeting." The "if" was rejected.
Hosepipe hadn't been to a meeting in a couple of months. He didn't have a clue that he had something to repent of, and didn't care if they excommunicated him.
I wasn't convicted in my conscience that I had done anything wrong and therefore wasn't going to repent for anything. I had been using Witness works (books writings) to point out where we had gone wrong.
When the week was up, a couple of hours before the evening meeting, the elders showed up at my door. They asked my wife to leave and then I found out what was really going on.
Mel started out by telling me that there were two churches in Ft. Lauderdale. He was the leader of one, and I was the leader of the other half. This was clearly delusional on Mel's part. There wasn't a shred of evidence that I was leading anyone, and I told him so. But Mel was obviously suffering from paranoia. He saw me as an insurrectionist against his authority. So in his mind I had to be dealt with and demonized.
The process started with me being accused of poisoning others. And when it was all over Mel told everyone not to fellowship or having anything to do with me because, I was a snake that would poison them.
And Dale Jackson was used by Mel to target me, and begin the process of demonizing me. If he's guilty of anything it was being Mels' patsy.
I did find out one positive thing about Dale Jackson. Yesterday I was talking to a brother I've know since the C. in Detroit. He stayed in the LC for another three years after I left. He was in Miami when Dale was an elder under Mel. He said, compared to Mel, Dale was a breath of fresh air. He said, at least when Dale gave a sermon it was coherent. While Mel's sermons were so incoherent that you couldn't understand what he was saying.
Mel was, and prolly still is, a mental case. He's local church crazy. Putting any kind of power in his hands is insane. He's an abuser.