Quote:
Originally Posted by djohnson
OBW what you say is true: just because a group that splits off from the RC continue to look, smell and act like the RC doesn't mean all will. My analogy applies to those LCS spin offs that indeed do look, smell and act like the group they supposedly left.
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Depends on the look, smell and act you are talking about. Some are good, some are bad. There are a lot of wonderful things about the LC folks. They are, by and large, very good Christians. This is part of their look, smell and act.
The bad stuff comes through their hierarchical and exclusive organizational model (although they would deny that it is either until doomsday), which may in part be fed by their somewhat impersonal connection with God (i.e. he is more a Commodity to them than a Person sometimes.)
The problem is not: No signs, no name, dorky clothing, testimonies, old hymns, odd terminology, calling, pray-reading, shouting, fist-shaking, going to conferences, having one cup, calling it the Lord's Table, sitting in circles, carrying black satchels, etc, etc, etc. All that stuff is part of their look, smell and act, and it doesn't mean much, really. It's just what is obvious.
The problem is the
authority model--"The Ministry" and "The Ground." If you see or smell those then you've spotted a problem.