[Freedom]

Originally Posted by Nell

James was the Director of the Baptist Student Union at Wayland BC...an employee of some division of the Southern Baptist Convention. Wayland was a small college (still is). A "large number of students" should be viewed in this perspective. I don't have a head count but 10-12 seems to be a fairly accurate ballpark figure.

I would be hesitant to give James and Benson the credit/blame for "making this happen" or any such "plot" as you seem to suggest...at least at this time in their lives. These were seeking students who desired to follow the Lord. They were all friends and very near the same age 18-21, James being a little older. James and Benson were not manipulating anyone at Wayland...all of this was new to them as well. In these early days I believe they were about the same as you and I might have been. We all took a wrong turn at some point.

I had family ties with some of them. When I was in high school, six or so of them piled in a car and showed up at my home, 60 miles from Plainview, to meet up for some kind of thing college students do. They were just normal college students who attended a Baptist College because of a desire to follow the Lord. Benson was a Baylor student. I don't know that he ever attended Wayland...I don't think he did.

Eventually we all got deceived.

Nell

I didn't mean to imply that James or Benson were manipulating anyone. I just found it interesting that the beginnings of the LC in Texas can be traced back in part to a particular group of students at a particular college.

The whole recording presents a narrative that I find to be quite troublesome. I can understand if the students at that college were disillusioned, but I don't understand how such a disillusionment automatically translated into the need to go drive to LA and hear WL speak.