[Freedom]

I can relate to you, because I’ve been in that position myself, and I’m somewhat still in that position. Since I haven’t completely left yet, my move has been from total immersion to being on the “fringes” of the LC. How did it happen? I can’t really say for sure, but there were I few things that I did deliberately.


First of all it started with the realization that the LC was effecting me negatively spiritually, and even my mental health to some degree. I was constantly stressed out with the burden of going to meetings all the time and pretending like it all was benefiting me when it wasn’t. So I got to the point that I had to do something for myself, so I started telling people I was “busy” (which was really true). At first there were some who were a bit taken aback by that, but after a while I guess everyone gave up on trying to get me to go to meetings.

I’ve noticed that there is this idea in the LC that if people cannot be easily influenced such as pushing them to attend meetings, it’s better not to “waste your time” with them. In my situation, it wasn’t too difficult to distance myself from the LC. Actually, no one even asked me why I wasn’t attending meetings like I used to. Had they, I probably would have told them my reasons, but I didn’t feel like it’s worth bringing up otherwise. I feel by them not knowing that I’m “negative” gives me the opportunity to have a positive influence on those I know in the LC. There are many there looking for answers, maybe even a way out. Because there is so much positive reinforcement of LC ideas among members, it’s not an easy thing for someone to come to the point where they see there is something clearly wrong with the LC.

Of course, all the time there are opportunities for LC members to see there is something wrong, however, the obvious problems are always minimized and reasoned away. For example when someone stops attending campus Bible study, because they don’t feel comfortable having the RcV Bible shoved down their throat, everyone might be told that this person had too many opinions about Bible versions and that’s why they stopped coming. When a longtime member leaves to attend a different non-LC church, everyone might be told that person became “lukewarm”. When someone questions Lee’s teachings, people might say that person is “in their mind”. Anyways the point of saying all of this is that I think for those of us who are in the position of wanting a way out, there is no positive reinforcement for our decisions. There will always be feeble attempts by LC members reasoning away our decisions saying that we are being “petty” or “negative”, etc.