Quote:
Originally Posted by Thankful Jane
Yes, Ohio. No one is saying we did not experience the Lord there. I am not saying that. There was a mixture of both things there. Jesus and a system that would not allow Jesus to be King over each of us.
This is the problem we are talking about. We need to understand what happened there. I was loving Jesus, reading my Bible, reading other's Christian testimonies, loving the brothers and sisters and sharing what I was enjoying from times with the Lord in the Word. I was starting to find my freedom in Christ and realizing I did not have to submit to what men were telling me was God with regard to my practical life. I had not one thought against Witness Lee. I spoke not one word against Witness Lee. I was enjoying God and my Christian family. Then came the ax. It was wielded by the power invested in the hierarchy and I bowed to it and kept my face in that dirt until God mercifully lifted me up out of the pit I had been left in.
Should that have happened? Of course not. That was spiritual abuse, pure and simply.
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Thankful Jane, I agree wholeheartedly and have stated this often. Yours was a tragic case of abuse, lording it over, etc.
It should never have happened! I have mentioned some of the stories of abuse which I have experienced and also witnessed in others. Three years ago, as I stopped serving, I realized the "program produces bullies out of beloved brothers." I wrote this in posts. Your story in
ToG simply confirmed that. It was not just my LC, my regional leaders in the GLA, and a ministry in Anaheim, but Texas too! Sounded systemic! There was too much abuse everywhere! Not with all brothers, of course, but many practices in this "program" are just plain bad. People got hurt. People got abused. Others, who witnessed this, won't admit it. They would like to cover up the abuse, and discredit those hurt ones who left. This is perhaps the primary reason why I post on the forum.
I have never said that every LC member was an abuser, and ... I have addressed only that abuse which could be considered in the mind of the abused as "perfecting," or "being one with the ministry," or the like. I don't like sweeping generalizations, which like prejudices, are not fair.
Now ... when we jump from "instances of abuse" to "everyone is an idolator," I have a few reservations.