Quote:
Originally Posted by aron
"In our church we are so free. We are free in thinking."
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Few thoughts here --
1. In the beginning of the Recovery in the US, most of us had left the restrictions of overly structured and aging denominations. Growing up in Catholicism, their Mass was like a one act play, duplicated repeatedly. As an altar boy back in the 60's, we had Mass 5x each weekday morning, and I was sometimes called on to assist back-to-backs, when no one else showed. I could do that in my sleep -- "
hey, wake up and ring the bells." So I knew a little bit about restriction and bondage in the context of liturgy. Then they changed the mass into English, yeah!
2. In the beginning of the Recovery in the US, the LC meetings were really free. For me, and others I knew, the meetings were really liberating. There was fresh light from returning to the word, and much joy of the Holy Spirit. Knowing the Lord within was life-changing. That did not last long. Within a year we had our first "storm" --
choose you this day who you will serve? who is for Lee? who is for Titus? Slowly restrictions, requirements, and regulations crept in to steal our liberty, and bring us under subjection.
3. Lee had a way of sounding so legit. The court cases were proof positive. To outsiders, he could sound so kind, giving, and loving. For some reason, this form of politics never seemed to alarm me. How could he tell outsiders that there is absolutely no control over the LC's, and then tell the elders that they had the "liberty" to decide what time the prayer meeting should start? Truth was, we had Anaheim and Cleveland jockeying behind the scenes to rob us of all local liberties.
4. The matter of control would come up occasionally, but Lee (and Chu) was able to quickly diffuse it. I remember one time him challenging, "
Who do I control, I can't even control a mosquito?" We all laughed, and thought the whole idea was absurd. Francis Ball would chime in, "
Brother Lee is simply an old minister whom we all love." Yes, that's right, how dare some guy accuse him of "controlling" anybody.
Looking back, I felt like a mushroom. Kept in the dark, and fed manure.