Quote:
Originally Posted by awareness
Hey Dave. The elders back then in Detroit were Ron Kangas, Harry Ahlers, and Tim Scroggins. They replaced the elders that had taken the ground in Detroit, who had come out of The Assemblies of God.
I hung with 'em all, including RK, in his living room, who I loved dearly. I saw up close that his wife didn't love him like I did. She obviously saw him differently than I. I wonder why?
It was then, when I discovered that Lee had sent in his elders, that pushed out the existing elders, that I saw Witness Lee was acting hypocritical to his own teaching on the autonomy of the local ground.
But I was so gong-ho back then I just shelved that in the back of my mind.
Then Lee ordered migrations. And another one was added to the shelf.
There were more revelations of Lee hypocrisies along the way. My self was getting heavy.
The one that resulted in me getting the boot was the claim that Lee was The One And Only Apostle on the earth. And that's okay, the cognitive dissonance built up til I couldn't take it any more. My shelf was about to break, anyway. And I needed to throw it all out, and use my mental shelf for better, more true, things, perchance.
So thinks Nigel for lending a hand, to that end.
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Awareness,
Here is a different take on the church in Detroit history.
Titus said that Harry Ahlers was never appointed as an elder. Harry assumed the leadership due to the leadership vacuum.
Brother Lee probably never intended to replace the original leaders of the church in Detroit, but to add RK to bless them with the rich word that he had at that time.
Paul Onica, Sr. was one of the original leaders. Paul told me that he did not like that brother Lee had sent Harry Ahlers to Detroit, and told me how Harry ordered him around. Paul submitted to Harry because he thought that WL had sent him to be a leader there, but never was told anything about that. Harry one day ordered Paul to pick up a young sister and drive her to the meeting. Paul refused to do that because his wife could not go with him. Harry did not like Paul valuing his own integrity higher than submitting to authority and told Paul he may as well leave then. Paul said, Fine, I've been kicked out of better. So Paul left.
I told Paul what Titus had said about Harry, and Paul said that makes a lot of sense. He was very happy to know that. He also asked me about Tim Scroggins, but I didn't know, and he said that was fine, it doesn't matter. He said that it was really the main leader's failure to let things happen like that. I understood he meant RK.
Regarding the migration of Detroit to Ft. Lauderdale, Titus said that brother Lee was against it. It didn't make sense. Harry was the one promoting it.
RK said pretty much the same thing. In messages in the trainings, RK said that when Detroit migrated to Ft Lauderdale, he was the only one who asked bro Lee what he should do, and bro Lee told him to come to Anaheim.
He implied that the others went to Ft Lauderdale without seeking bro Lee's will.
(RK didn't seem to think that as the leader he should have thought about more than just himself.)
I know the church in Detroit had a phone conference with bro Lee. Most of the saints think that bro Lee was encouraging them to migrate, but I haven't heard a quote or an approximate quote to that effect. What they recall is wild stuff said by Harry.
Alta Shakespeare wrote to Titus after the church migrated and told him that if he had sent Dick Coleman instead of Harry Ahlers to Detroit, the church would still be there. Dick was a level-headed, plain-spoken, virtuous, down-to-earth, mature human Christian. Titus apparently listened because when we tried to retake Detroit in 1976 and then successfully in 1979, Titus send Rick Coleman, Dick's son, both times.