Quote:
Originally Posted by Freedom
Actually, WL has been reported as stating that he liked being 'exalted'. Read and weep:
The brothers in the Los Angeles area invited him to have a conference and arranged the place in Pasadena. He said that when he heard that it would be in Pasadena he was happy. These people, he said, "exalt" me: I am happy to be exalted.
-John Ingalls, Speaking the Truth in Love
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Igzy
In my humble opinion, I do not think Lee really wanted worship for himself.
But I think he approved of, let us say, the veneration of himself as a uniting factor in the movement he formed. So convinced he was that unity was the answer to God's plan getting accomplished that he became willing to use questionable means to achieve that unity.
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After much consideration, I find it difficult to accept that Lee allowed the "
veneration of himself as a uniting factor in the movement he formed." We have to put that quote in context. Lee's reputation was on the verge of collapse. Well-respected men of God from all around the globe were disassociating themselves with Lee due to his profligate son Philip, and more importantly, Lee's scheme to cover it up.
Remember Watergate? Nixon had just won a landslide election, with his popularity soaring. What took him down was not the actions of low-level operatives, but his own lies and coverups.
In context then, the saints probably could understand WL having a reprobate son. What godly would never accept was WL's action to coverup for his bad kid, keep him in charge of LSM, and then destroy the reputation of anyone who spoke up about it.
At this point, Lee used the bully pulpit to exalt himself, draw the line in the sand, and basically threaten the whistleblowers with retaliation.
Lee taught that trials bring out our true character, who we are for others to see. Perhaps Lee's attitude was all wrong at that Pasadena Conference due to the stress and pressures caving in on him. I'll grant him that, even though he did set himself up as the exemplary pattern of the god-man living. But ... where was the repentance afterwards? Where was his change of heart?
Never happened. Then at the end of
Fermentation of the Present Rebellion his concluding remarks were that all his "facts" were accurate, and the case was officially closed.