Quote:
Originally Posted by Terry
"I'm sure that many of us have witnessed the scene where a group of believers become so proud of their "correct" doctrine that they have managed to puff themselves up into the stratosphere. They are simply better off than anyone else or any other group, and most newcomers sense their sectarian pride in short order. Such groups have totally missed the point, and they are probably already very cult-like...
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In the LC, there has always great emphasis on defining and knowing the supposed truth. For many members this endeavor has eclipsed the warning signs that the movement has gone wildly astray.
Sectarian pride has been a defining attribute of the LC. Most LC members are aware that outsiders view them as sectarian, and they like to protest this characterization. What I have always found frustrating is that LCers claim the way in which outsiders label them are all "false accusations". They never go beyond that to analyze why they've been labeled that way in the first place.
Furthermore, if there is any discussion regarding why they can't intermingle with other Christians, it always goes back to the whole thing of saying that no one else has the truth. LCers are so caught up in what they believe to be true that they think anything else is a complete waste of time, thus rationalizing the sectarianism. It is a self-reinforcing system.