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Originally Posted by Eph
It took years for me to learn that not every doctrine nor practice of the local church is biblical. Why do the West follow the East? Now I get a better picture from your insight. The filters attract some of the WASP who then become poster boys to us during 1986 migration to Taipei. You have no idea how encouraging it was how you guys came to Taipei under brother Lee's calling.
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When I was in the group, the focus of the "Lord's move", and the prime directive, was to get Caucasian males. Now it clearly seems to be the college freshman. But in the 1980s Lee used to talk a lot about Mid-Western males who grew up on beef and corn and were big and strong. Like that was his doppelganger, his “id”, his ideational “other” who needed to be harnessed and/or conquered. Suddenly, “Authority and Submission” had arrived in the U.S.A., the erstwhile "land of the free and home of the brave."
Maybe there was an inward, subconscious desire to show up the West, who had oppressed the East during the 19th and early 20th centuries. The ancient cultures wanted to demonstrate their validity, if not superiority, and Nee et al were supposedly the chosen vessels. Naturally Nee & Lee would never say this, but like I said look how quickly the Little Flock morphed from an indigenous, “local” movement, to one which was consolidated, centralized, and exported abroad. The imperialist, or "dominant" pendulum began to swing from the West back to the East.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Eph
After 28 years, cultural factor still plays a part in the movement. In the predominating East culture, no matter which country you are in, the local church movement is prospering, way ahead of that in the West..
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No matter how they disguise it, the “alien” factor of the Lord's Recovery is still pretty strong in the West. I spent some time in the churches in the S. California area, and the Chinese seemed to have a “caste” system. The educated ones led, and the uneducated ones unobtrusively mowed the grass and wiped the windows. In the West, you have truck drivers and plumbers and college professors all mixed together (of course I am generalizing, and there are always exceptions).
James 2:2-4 For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes, and you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes, and say, "You sit here in a good place," and you say to the poor man, "You stand over there, or sit down by my footstool," have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives?
This may explain why the Little Flock movement and organizational/social structure has resonated more strongly within Eastern societies than in the West. Because to Western culture it is peculiar and unfamiliar, and to the Eastern mind it is comfortable, and familiar.
Number One, don't waste your time on those who have no means to repay you. Ignore them; forget about them. Number Two, focus on those who are "good building material", who will make our society (i.e. the Lord's Recovery) prosperous and strong. Number Three, obey without question; this is essential to effective and harmonious social functioning. These kinds of ideas echo their source, or parent, Asian social/cultural systems.