Quote:
Originally Posted by Matt
By the way: The fact that local eldership was constantly overridden and usurped was not a unique situation. It was and still is pervasive throughout the LC system.
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The irony of both
Matt's post and
Hope's recent posts here and on the
"Baptist" thread is this: they appear at odds at first, but I do believe that both are providing fair and accurate assessments. The differences lie in who the "reporter" is and what the "reporter" has witnessed.
For example, my childhood and my LC experiences brought me face to face with some awfully painful times of bullying and abuse. I have watched churches being devastated by it. Not always, of course, and there were times of exceeding great joy, but my final days in the LC reintroduced me to the topic again and again.
SpeakersCorner, on the other hand, who has a similar tenure as me in the GLA churches, sees things differently, and understandably so. Our upbringings, our characters, and our experiences are both different, so one would also expect our views on many details would differ too.
I do hope we could understand this phenomena as we begin to address this topic once again. I know I have a lot to learn, and tolerance, kindness, sympathy, forbearance, and understanding are among those at the top. Perhaps my best help in this arena comes from my wife. Being forced to listen to her extremely different views
about the exact same event, has forced me on countless occasions to realize that other people can see things differently.
