[UntoHim]

Terry, I'm sure Mike will jump in here and answer you asap...but in the meantime I wanted to throw my two cents in because I feel very strong about this matter.

You mention that:

It is possible for a time; after what happened in Taiwan in the late 50's until the early 70's, there were no shenanigans to speak of.

First of all, it is documented history that there were indeed "shenanigans" of all sorts going on in the Local Church during the sixties (presumably the time period you speak of). These may have not involved business deals per se, but Witness Lee was hiring and firing elders based upon their personal loyalty to him during the sixties, meddling in the affairs of the churches and even suing other LC members for possession of property. We now know that he either hid these facts or it was just ignored by his early American followers (Ingalls, Gruhler et al).

And EVEN IF none of the above was true, should this be the standard for a Christian ministry...that "there were no shenanigans to speak of" for 10 or so years?

When I "came into" the Local Church during the mid 70s there were some younger members who said the "glory days" were the early 70s on the college campuses and at the parks and beaches preaching the gospel, etc. Then there were ones a little older who said the glory days were the late 60s when people came to the meetings an hour or two early, and they marched with banners screaming "down with Christianity!" and such....then there were ones even older still who said the top blessing was when Witness Lee first came to America and released "God's Economy" in the early 60s. Then there were ones who talked only about Taiwan and even Mainland China...you get the picture.

Nowadays I hear some LCers in their mid to late 30s pining for Witness Lee's last days when he released all those "high peak truths". I don't know if it's really just a myth or not, but I've heard they actually give the FTTA kids a tour of Lee's house there on Ball Rd so that they can see where "the Godman" lived and worked. I hope this is just a myth.

Anyway, I think it is quite naive to think that the Local Church movement was anything other than what it was up until Witness Lee died. He was in full charge of the Movement from the time he hit the island of Taiwan until he died in 1997. The teachings were all his. The practices were all started by or personally approved by him. The leadership in America was all personally appointed by him with absolutely no consultation.

People speak of 1974 as being some turning point. What changed in 1974? They moved to Anaheim. So? Were ALL the books still in Lee's name? Were the vast majority of conferences and trainings still conducted by Lee? So he let Max Rapoport fly around the country and try to whip everybody up about his latest and greatest "flow". So? He had done that before and he did it after he fired Max. He sued Christians before 1974 (from his very own sect even) and he sued them after 1974. Most of his major teachings were actually taught before 1974, including references to God becoming man, that his Church movement was God's one move on earth and that other Christians were poor, blind mooing cows, etc, etc, etc.

Now, what has happened since Lee died is another kettle of fish. Now they don't even pretend like they have any blessing from God. They just read the outlines and messages, have a few people pop up and repeat word-for-word what is there in the 20-30 year old messages, call it a day and go home.