Quote:
Originally Posted by Ohio
Exactly.
And after having spent my best 30 years actually experiencing his subtle tactics, I can say that Lee and others were quite persuasive. For example, after one storm, Lee proclaimed from the pulpit, "Who did I control, I can't even control a mosquito!?!" Then, of course, we all laughed since we can't control mosquitoes either. I heard the same spin from Titus Chu, yet I watched him publicly shame others without justification, tell them where to live, how to serve, what to do, and what not to do.
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Most of the control that I have witnessed has been the subtle type, enough that it would be hard to bring forth any accusation of control or abuse of authority. Members also know to keep in line, most knowing very well the unspoken rules that exist: just say amen to everything, get out of your mind, be "one" with the brothers, etc. I have to say that the system that WL developed was perfect for controlling people without giving them any idea that they were actually being controlled. That's not to say he intended for it to be that way, but I think the opportunity presented itself at some point in time and it was too tempting for WL to resist.
I know we just discussed this recently, but one form of the control is simple group pressure, such as publicly putting people on the spot to ask if they can do something. Leaders are just so good at giving control a guise of spirituality. It took me a long time to see what really goes on and how manipulative things really are.
As I have said, the control/authority issues that I have run into have been subtle, but nevertheless, they have been there. It's been hard to put my finger on it at times, but eventually I came to realize that there was a problem. For example, a few years back, I realized that I needed to stop answering phone calls from certain LCers. There wasn't any explicit control happening, but I knew that I needed to do that in order to remove myself from situations where I was inadvertently submitting myself to other people who were taking advantage of me.