Quote:
Originally Posted by Drake
Igzy)[B] I am trying to understand why two brothers who were likely contemporaries, heard the same messages, experienced the same church life, perhaps similar corporate living arrangements, may have even broke bread together could have interpreted the whole affair 180 degrees differently
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I have never heard anyone at anytime ever tell anyone else that they can't leave the church life. Holding people, verbally or physically, against their will would be an abusive practice.
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Well, I think you are missing the forest for the trees. My pain and resentment were caused by the LCM indoctrinating me with the belief that there was no legitimate way to go on with the Lord outside the LCM. Period. That's it. Thus the subject of this thread. If the problem had simply been that I didn't like the difficult LCM culture or wasn't up to it, then I just would have left and not looked back. But I was brainwashed into believing I was offending God by leaving. This caused me much pain.
That is the point that is relevant to this thread, not any other difficulty I had with the LCM.
I really don't know what to make of your claims that you never heard anyone say that leaving the LCM was wrong. That is like a long-time conservative claiming he didn't know conservatives wanted to cut taxes. Your naivete, if that's what it really is, is off the charts.
Let's be clear that I hear this taught time and time again, from the top to the bottom of the group. There can be no mistaking. Others here can bear witness to this too.
I heard Lee teach it. I heard him say that no one who has left the movement has been able to go on with the Lord. He said no one who left has become a "prevailing Christian," whatever that is. Like he would know. Did he have a magic mirror back in the 1970s so he could look into everyone's life and see what happened to them?
I heard Benson teach it. He said there was no way to go on with the Lord and nothing of value outside the movement.
To leave the LCM was to leave "God's best." That was the mantra. How would we know what was God's best anyway?
I heard it taught by our elders. One said, "If any of us had a way to leave, we would. But the Lord won't let us." His statement was meant to drive home the idea that though the movement was hard, there was no legitimate way to leave. This was the mentality that was drilled into us and this was the mentality we lived with.
When I told an elder I was close to I was leaving he accused me of going against my conscience.
Stories were told about people that left the movement and who died or suffered horrible tragedies, and the meaning was clear: Leave at the risk to your body and soul.
And I heard it many other ways.
There can be no mistaking about it. I don't know what planet you've been on for the last 40 years, but either you are in denial or incredibly ignorant. I don't know how else to say it.
But your claim that the LCM did not teach that leaving the movement was effectively rebellion against God is about as ignorant a statement as I've ever heard by someone who claimed to know what he is talking about.
It was this indoctrination that caused me to suffer while I was in and after I left. It was wrong and it was abusive, as you have already acknowledged. The LCM needs to officially and publicly repent from this idea and offer to pay for counseling and other reparations for anyone hurt by it.