Unregistered

I was in the Church in Anaheim in the mid-seventies (74-76?). Initially, we met in a building on Ball Road. I cannot remember the years as well as well as I remember events. I joined the Church right after the Church in Anaheim was spun off of the Church in LA. During those years Ron Kangas, who I knew pretty well, John Ingalls and Max Rappaport were the functional leaders under Witness Lee. They were Lee's favorites. His son, who later became a subject of controversy, had no spiritual leadership role in the Church. I never heard Lee's son speak once during a Church meeting. Those were interesting years. Almost immediately after I left, Max Rappaport left which was a shock to everyone in the Church. Max was a fiery speaker, and Lee loved him. Then the great rupture when John Ingalls left. John had a great deal of prestige in the Church. He was #2 to Witness Lee and EVERYONE deferred to John as the one who stood in for Brother Lee. When he left the Church, it was a real shock. For me it was vindication, as Ingalls reasons for leaving were the same as mine, and nobody ever questioned John's integrity.

My last run-in with the Church was when a publisher contacted me asking me to defend him in a libel action that the Church had filed in Anaheim against the writer and the publisher of a book that accused the Local Church of being a cult, among other things. I declined that case as I had had enough of the Church in Anaheim or Living Stream Ministeries by then.

There were other characters: one individual who did the books for the Church and the tax returns for a number of elders was charged with securities fraud and spent three years in a federal penitentiary. I saw him on television recently on Jim Bakker's television show (actually nothing more than a two hour advertisement for the products that Bakker sells).