[aron]

Originally Posted by Ohio

I remember Titus Chu making this comment ("Lee is our spiritual father. We owe him our lives") to John Ingalls after he flip-flopped his position about Philip Lee's indiscretions... I'm sure it came as a shock to Ingalls at the time, seeing what Lee's supporters were willing to overlook in order to "pay filial respect." ...History shows us that all of Lee's "filial respect" for Nee had self-serving interests in view...

Lee did have other interests, including self-grandiosity, control, and mercantilism, but behind all that is an unquestioned and unexamined Asian mindset. See the next quote by Eph:

Originally Posted by Eph

"Filial" 孝順 is not a western concept, it is completely a Chinese one. It has 5000 years of meaning in it. So when I heard the new term "spiritual father", it caught my attention deeply. It gave you this feeling mixed of solemn, owe, fear, gratefullness, foreign, mysterial, etc. My heart was captured by the teachings of the "spiritual fathers." They are of Christ.

This is an important point because I think it could only truly be made by someone who was born into this. It is very ingrained in this culture, and as I said it really isn't examined. It is rooted in literally thousands of years of social, cultural, behavioral practice. So when push came to shove the spiritual veneer was peeled back and this idea of filial piety revealed itself.

1. TC held WL as his "spiritual father".
2. TC did not hold RK & BP as his "spiritual fathers".
3. Therefore GLA split off from the LSM.
4. See also the Dong split in Brazil. Same dynamic. It wasn't about religion, but about cultural practice.

The problem is that the "spiritual fathers" referred to by Eph are indeed of Christ. But they are not Christ. Watchman Nee is not Christ. Yet look at the Shouters movement in China today, some of whom actually hold Lee as "Lord Changshou", which isn't too far from how Lee held Nee in front of us. If Lee said Nee walked on water, we would yell, "Amen!".

Here is a quote from ICA, on another thread:

Originally Posted by InChristAlone

Eastern Lightning/the Shouters follow in the wake of Witness Lee. The new cult was modified, nevertheless it takes its origin from WN, WL, their doctrines and practices. That's why in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, the shouters join the LC without trouble and even take over some halls. The louder they shout, the more spiritual it sounds for LRC members.

This whole thing is shot through with Asian practices, beliefs, mores, values, yet we never examined it, because we were so impressed with its "orthodox" heritage (Reformation, Bretheren, etc) and Lee's analytical skills (pretty thin, upon further review), and because in the '60s we were looking for something new, with the Vietnam fiasco, women's rights, the environmental crisis, and the civil rights movement. In the West we were at a crisis point (remember the campus sit-ins and take-overs, the assassinations of RFK and MLK, the Weathermen, the SLA, Black Panthers etc) and Lee insinuated himself into this social instability: he was very charismatic in public, humble in private, and would give you enough Bible verses to make your head spin... plus you got to scream and shout! Home, home in the church; once you bought into his scheme you never questioned it, no matter how weird it became.