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Originally Posted by Evangelical
Ohio, Witness Lee said elders should not control or interfere in marriages. To my knowledge this does not happen in the local churches.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Evangelical
Witness Lee was against elders interfering in marriages so what you describe must be bad elders.
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For the record, in the LC I was a part of, there was a couple who got married, but before the marriage happened, an elder tried to put it to a stop so he could match the brother up with a different sister. As far as I'm concerned such behavior on the part of the elder was completely unacceptable, and any group who doesn't want to be called a cult shouldn't engage in that kind of behavior. Ironically enough, this is not the only case of such meddling/interference that I am aware of. And there are plenty of cases I know of where a significant amount of guidance for a relationship/marriage was through 'fellowship' from the elders.
When I attended young people's conferences and throughout my college years, it was constantly reiterated to us that all relationships should happen through 'fellowship' with the elders. This is not fellowship that just came at a local level. It was widespread throughout the Southern California region that I'm from. Additionally, I received one-on-one 'fellowship' more than once about not engaging in any relationship without prior approval of the elders, and one of these occasions was in a LC 500 miles removed from the locality that I was from. So, as much as you or anyone else wants to deny it, there is a systemic problem that exists in the LC.
If you wish to claim ignorance to the problem, then I will assume you are telling the truth, however, when faced with the facts, why wouldn’t there be any desire or concern about a change being needed? All I have seen coming from the LC direction are attempts to rationalize or downplay the problem. At the very least, the fact that multiple people from multiple locations have relayed similar experiences of inappropriate interference and meddling, that would be indicative of the systemic problem that I have referenced. And we are even told that WL spoke against this. Why then is it the predominant culture in the LC? Why does the FTTA forbid relationships? Why do the elders so freely offer ‘fellowship’ about relationships when approached? All the evidence points in a certain direction, and is indicative of this being a culture/ideology that the LC wishes to embrace. Sorry to be so frank, but when this is the culture/environment you were born and raised in, it provoke a strong reaction when there are claims made that no such problem exists in the LC.