[Drake]

Ohio>”For example, we both know that LSM did not exact a tax on all LCers based on our 1040. Neither was tithing a legalistic practice.

BUT ... we both know that agents at LSM pressured every LC elder and worker to buy books, send their members to the "Feasts," send their young people to the FTTA, etc. Leaders who were not so "compliant," were occasionally made public spectacles. That doesn't have to happen very often to make a lasting impression. After an event like that, occasional reminders suffice, and LSM can return to their regularly scheduled program about the "liberty of the Spirit" which supposedly only we enjoyed.”

Ohio,

I rarely respond to your posts because of their oft vitriolic character. However, your post below was a reasoned response so I’ll give it go.

First, if you and others would respond to absurd statements like the alleged tithing of 10% income to LSM then I wouldn’t feel compelled to do it. Since, fellow posters rarely step up to challenge those absurdities, then I do. That may give the impression that I avoid a central argument in preference for a selected argument and thereby i get accused of “dishonesty”. Fact is, honesty cannot be had in a conversation while absurd allegations are used as part of someone’s argument. Absurdities distract from what could be a reasonable conversation with differences because they impose upon others the assumption that the absurdity is valid. So, as long as a poster insists on absurdities I am content to expose the absurdity, not because I am dishonest, but because no reasonable conversation can be had while the absurdity stands.

Now, to your point quoted above. I feel zero pressure to buy books... they are mostly available online. Perhaps decades ago before the internet provided fluid access to the ministry or before the books were available through Amazon then there was an interest in making sure the local churches had access to all up to date speaking and were on the same page. I understand that because the ministry is not a free for all. For me, it is not a question of liberty of the Spirit as we all can read whatever we want as individuals. It is, as with any ministry, your purpose, your mission, and your calling.

Allow me this example. I like C.S. Lewis. I read a lot of him. I like the parallels in the Chronicles of Narnia in much the same way as I like those in Bunyan’s Pilgrims Progress and Holy War. No one tells me what I can and cannot read personally. I have all the freedom in the world, restricted only by the Spirit, to follow my conscience in what I ingest. However, the freedoms I enjoy as an individual do not transfer to the meetings of the church, else there would be complete and utter chaos. There would be disorder and punching the air. I do not impose my individual liberty in the Spirit onto the rest of the brothers and sisters in the meetings of the church. I do not have the liberty before the Lord to occupy others time by reading the Voyage of the Dawn Treader in the meetings. Why? Simply, because that is not how the Lord is building up the Body of Christ in that setting. You will say, that is an extreme example because no one is advocating reading Narnia in the meetings. Okay, but that is not any different than reading G.H. Lang in the meetings..... a point of contention in the history of the local churches that is counter to the vision, mission, and special calling of those in the local churches. Those localities that are contentious about that can do their own thing and have for that and other reasons.

Therefore, Brother Ohio, everything you describe are perfectly consistent with those following a mission, not seeking mammon. Be it the ministry that builds up the Body of Christ, FTT, encouragement to attend conferences, feasts, trainings, all those to my reckoning are part of the reason why LSM even exists. If not for that then they are just another Christian publisher.

Thanks for the conversation.

Drake