[zeek]

Originally Posted by InChristAlone

Communists were a marginal group in the US, but in China they managed to take over the country. Mao became a dictator in China. Chiang Kai-shek and his government had to retreat to Taiwan, where Chiang Kai-shek also became a dictator. There were two Chinese states ruled by dictators at the same time. And I believe if it were not Mao and Chiang, it would be another Mao and another Chiang. (It's the same analogy with the USSR, where one dictator replaced another dictator. Czars were followed by Lenin. Lenin was followed by Stalin. If it were not Stalin, it would be another dreadful alternative named Trotsky).

The US never knew dictatorship. America was born as a republic, while China has always been a monarchy or an authoritarian regime. Puyi, the last Chinese emperor, reigned until 1917, while the US never had their own monarchy.

American saints bought a pig in a poke, i.e. they didn't know what they bought with the LRC. To put it tentatively, firstly, they were told that the Lord loved them and they had to love the Lord. Then they were told that if they wanted to love the Lord, they also needed to love His church. And next step was a substitution, when they were told that if they wanted to love the Lord and His church, they also had to be submissive to WL because he was the MOTA, his vision was God's vision, and the LRC was the only genuine Christian church. By that time, the saints had been brainwashed well enough not to get off the hook. WL just "helped" American saints to substitute their values for his values.

I agree generally with your comments about China and Russia. But you're describing particular political conditions that were present at the time not cultural patterns related to an "Asian mind." European Enlightenment values had not made deep inroads in China or Russia in contrast to the US which was born of those values and where those values continued to develop. I don't disagree with your characterization of the LRC but I don't think that you have explained what made the US a "breeding ground" for the LRC. Lee avoided pushing Nee's "Spiritual Authority" probably because he figured, Americans would reject it. But, he was able to sell a kind of spirituality that negatively sanctioned reason to Americans who should have known better. If what he was pedaling was an "Asian mind-set" why did we buy it?