[OBW]

“Why do some want to stop folks from writing about what they know? What are they trying to hide?”

That is exactly the issue. Except for Process, virtually none of you know about the church in Dallas, and cannot contradict the accounts of the people who live there. I cannot see that anyone was trying hide anything. They were speaking of their knowledge.

Tell your story. Tell actual stories and tell what they actually mean. If there is a clear issue of abuse by the LC, its leadership, its teachings, its practices, make the point.

So the following preceded the account of BlessD’s humiliation. “Anyway, it's been intimated that The Church in Dallas was somehow without problems in this area, and Matt came out to refute that notion. Please consider another thread with reference to The Church in Dallas, The Thread of Gold:”

The story that follows is an excellent example of the kind of abuse (or for the squeamish, excessive exercise of authority) that happened within the LC. This story is one that actually speaks to real abuse of power, control, authority, etc. It is a clear example for this thread.

But it was presented to say something about Dallas. Read it again. Houston and OKC were the primary players. They happened to be in Dallas. Nothing about who was clearly there. How does this say anything about Dallas? Maybe that Benson and/or Ray had way to much sway in the whole region. Or maybe James. It says something about the “witness elders,” whoever they were, that sat by silently, cowards to speak up against the perpetrators (or maybe simply learning how to do it themselves). Would we be blaming the pilot of an airline if this had happened at 30,000 ft. over any particular city? Curse that pilot for not knowing what was happening on his plane!!

“You can’t use that example because it has Dallas in it. That’s not fair because the sister was from Houston and her parents were from Oklahoma City; and, even if our doctrine says that when you’re in Dallas, you’re a member of The Church in Dallas, in order for this to be admitted into evidence, she would have to be a card-carrying member of The Church in Dallas; and, just because elders were there from 4 different churches, Hope himself wasn’t there, so this is one example of abuse that shouldn’t have been brought out.”

That is a misrepresentation of the argument concerning this event. It seems to reinforce exactly what I said about a lynching. Everything that had even the remotest mention of Dallas was evidence of what Dallas was like. No one has made a case that this incident had anything to do with Dallas except for being host city to the perpetrators. For all the ranting you say that Don and I have done, this is clearly your error, not ours.

The facts do not support the position taken. Move on. Not to ignore actual problems, but to face the actual problems.

To paraphrase another, I’m stopping this in its tracks. Stopping the gross error in judgment for bringing this example out as a way to vilify Dallas. There are plenty of things available for you to use to pick on Dallas. This one is not close. It is a crime against logic. Might as well blame me for Watergate because I was in one of the bands in Nixon’s inaugural parade. It is just about as great a leap of logic.

Make the argument that BlessD’s story makes, not an argument that it does not make.