[Freedom]

I think others have provided good suggestions. Ultimately, your instincts have told you something is wrong with the LC, and it's better to have realized that sooner than later. I grew up in the LC, so I viewed a lot of the abnormalities as being completely 'normal'. Even when I began to question things, I still tended to dismiss inappropriate behavior as being ‘misguided’ or as still being done with “good intentions.” And that is exactly what I think the danger is in accepting the LC environment and trying to make it work. When you know something is wrong, you either have to act upon that instinct or dismiss it. The latter might work temporarily, but as others have said, what about 10 or 20 years from now?

In particular, I have seen a lot of meddling when it comes to relationships and dating. When I lived in a "brothers house," we were all made to sign forms that indicated we would not interact or involve ourselves in relationships with the opposite sex. I did so without a second thought and at the time, I thought this to be completely normal to restrict oneself like that. Obviously, I was completely naïve, and when you take a close look at what’s really happening, it seems young people are being brought under a certain kind of ideology, completely oblivious to the fact that what is being suggested is completely abnormal.

For the record, don’t accept the argument that somehow all the ‘chaos’ surrounding us when it comes to dating, relationships, etc., somehow validates or necessitates the LC ideology. That is what they will try to tell you. Simply put, adults have the right to make whatever decisions they want, and while such freedom in decisions making comes with an inherent risk, no one has the right to tell anyone else what to do. Part of being an adult is making decisions and living with them.

More than once, I saw LC elders attempt to arrange or destroy relationships as they saw fit. There is also an unspoken ‘rule’ in the LC that anyone seeking to involve themselves in a relationship should seek ‘fellowship’ with the elders before initiating anything. Those types of things, in particular, are the type of behavior that could easily be labeled as cult-like. I’ve seen such things taken to an extreme, and while I by no means attempt to make a blanket statement that applies to all of the LC, I find it ironic that given the LC is so worried about the cult label, that they wouldn’t distance themselves from practices that can be perceived as questionable. The conclusion I came to is that they have no interest in changing or correcting anything. They just assume that detractors and critics will leave or move on.