Quote:
Originally Posted by Ohio
One of Lee's greatest "gifts" was to convince us all that we could not survive without him. The continued elimination of so many other gifted brothers made this "addiction" all the more apparent. Like a smoker who feels "so much better" with a cigarette in his hand, most of us could not imagine a church life without Lee.
None of us was thoughtful or courageous enough to inquire whether our "deadness" had anything to do with Witness Lee in the first place. We were doing everything he commanded, clinging to his every word, and he then had the audacity to blame us, calling us Laodicea, and then threaten not to speak any more? Someone should have immediately stood up to whistle his approval! What a scene that would have been.
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Two scenes stand out in my mind from the "vital group" days. One was when two of WL's henchmen - sorry, co-workers -- arrived to our burg. They assembled all the troops and willy-nilly clumped us together in groups of six to ten. Then they declared that we were all "vital". To demonstrate our vitality they had us come up front and sing songs. "PSRP/BNPB makes the eagle fly" we sang, while waving our arms like birds.
The second scene was some time later, when we had not sufficiently endured in the Anaheim-mandated vitality, and a very cross WL gave a message in which he said that we all were dead, dormant, stagnant, etc, and threatened to "cut us off". What a cry we raised when the elder shut off the video --
Ohio's "addiction" metaphor is apt -- we were like druggies at the methadone clinic whose future supply was in doubt. "Whatever will we do? No fresh speaking from Witness Lee?" Oh, the declarations of repentance and fealty that loudly filled that meeting hall! Not to God in heaven, or to the sent Spirit of His resurrected Christ, but rather to the latest speaking from Anaheim. We would do anything, anything, if only WL's ministry would remain open and available to us.