Quote:
Originally Posted by Evangelical
Thanks Nell.
A rational and logical approach to this would be to consider two things.
Firstly, the 6 year CRI study was by a number of people, independent of the local churches, with no vested interest to either malign or promote the local churches. In fact, for the CRI to reverse their position on this was a big thing to do. They moved from a negative position to a positive one, with no doubt some potential damage to their reputation. Can we say the same about the one author of this article?
This is not to say that what she writes is wrong, only that based on the evidence it seems more doubtful than the CRI study.
|
Another rational approach would be to consider that the CRI did not study the social aspect of the LCM, but only the doctrinal aspect--the Trinity, deification and so forth. There was no significant attention given to thought control, isolation, quarantining, purges, threats, arranged marriages, personality cult, etc. They did talk about some about the LCM one-true-church claims. But they compared it to the Catholic Church's claims. Having been in both the RC and the LCM, equating Catholic claims of being the one true church to the LCM claims is like comparing a kitten to a tiger. It's just a misleading idea.
The bottom line is CRI did not do its homework regarding the abusive social aspect of the LCM. They did not interview any former members. They did not seek to see if anyone was damaged by the LCM. The Bereans message board existed when the study was active. I'm sure CRI was aware of it. But they didn't reach out to anyone, and as Nell said they ignored all correspondence from people concerned that the study was misleading.
At the very least that's bad research, and it should make any thinking person suspicious of shady dealings.