[aron]

Globalization of Christianity via sloganeering and catch-phrases becomes an invitation (to me) to shallowness at best, and error at worst. "God loved us and sent His Son" and "God is light" are arguably summations by their authors, and can be profitably unpacked in scripture (and experience) over a lifetime.

But scripture is scripture, and theology is theology. "The Father is the Son" and "God became man to make man God" are examples of the latter. "The Age of the Word is over; it is now the Age of the Spirit" as well. In my mind, crude and over simplistic at very best, and an invitation to deviation in actual practice as it spreads into the world. And that's what I contend happened, on the mainland China as the Shouters morphed away from LCM control. The slogans took on a horrific life (or, anti-life) of their own.

Good theology brings us to appreciate what Paul meant when he wrote of the height, the depth, the breadth of the kingdom of God's Christ. One may hold forth simple theology, and perhaps one should, but it carries it recipient into inexhaustible beauty as they subsequently traverse scripture. The danger of Lee's sloganeering is that it carried one away from scripture, and into Lee's ministry. The focus shifted from scripture to ministry to minister. And I think it was deliberate. The disaster that followed wasn't anticipated (who ever could have?) but it followed hard upon.