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Drake · 12-16-2017, 11:21 AM

Ohio>”So is Kumbaya's comment really false? Did it really demand my correction?

Dear brother Drake, to be honest with you, when you dismiss the claims that ex-members have suffered, you do yourself a disservice. It would be far better for your cause to make admissions concerning the serious failures of the past, rather than deny them. ”

Brother Ohio,

Thanks for your response.

To your first point above I don’t think correction is demanded... but perspective would have been helpful. Not for my sake, but for hers. She opened this thread asking questions of clarification. Why not share your view.. that tithing in your experience was not a legalistic thing. Perhaps that alone would have given her the understanding that what she thought was tithing was something different. Or your experience as Treasurer could have provided an understanding that local church members do not tithe directly to LSM 10% of their income for life. Lacking such perspectives from someone she trusts she now emphatically declares, just a few short posts later from her original inquiry, that local church members do indeed tithe 10% of their income to LSM for life. Now, let’s assume her dad told her that and that is how that idea got to percolating... then, she could easily have said just that and avoided making the general allegation that since her dad said it then it must be true everywhere because I have four decades of experience that refutes that .... and you do too. In fact, had she said her father told her that and that is why she believed it none of us could find fault in the simple innocence of a daughter that takes as gospel what her father told her even if she might have misunderstood what he meant. Yet, I usually engage, predictably, when someone makes an assertion that goes well beyond their means to know and when I have information to the contrary.

I’ll tell you something along this line of thought that touched me recently in this forum. It had been my observation that this forum will embrace most every person’s rhetoric as long as they oppose Witness Lee. Maybe not embrace the teaching itself but allow the unchristian narrative to run unchecked. I’ve mentioned this before. I saw it happening again, and then Nell posted a note on “a line in the sand.” Her thought was that disagree as you might about many things, but there are things we will never compromise or cross the line in matters of our Christian faith, etc. Something like that. Anyway, I was deeply touched by her message and though we probably disagree on many things I was 200% all in with Nell on that. Where do we draw the line even if and when we disagree?

So Brother Ohio, if the question had gone to why did the local churches give to DCP then that would have been a different conversation. Certainly, different than everyone tithing to LSM 10% of their income for life.

Thanks
Drake

12-16-2017, 11:21 AM	#83
Drake Member Join Date: Nov 2016 Posts: 2,075	Re: First Post kumbaya Ohio>”So is Kumbaya's comment really false? Did it really demand my correction? Dear brother Drake, to be honest with you, when you dismiss the claims that ex-members have suffered, you do yourself a disservice. It would be far better for your cause to make admissions concerning the serious failures of the past, rather than deny them. ” Brother Ohio, Thanks for your response. To your first point above I don’t think correction is demanded... but perspective would have been helpful. Not for my sake, but for hers. She opened this thread asking questions of clarification. Why not share your view.. that tithing in your experience was not a legalistic thing. Perhaps that alone would have given her the understanding that what she thought was tithing was something different. Or your experience as Treasurer could have provided an understanding that local church members do not tithe directly to LSM 10% of their income for life. Lacking such perspectives from someone she trusts she now emphatically declares, just a few short posts later from her original inquiry, that local church members do indeed tithe 10% of their income to LSM for life. Now, let’s assume her dad told her that and that is how that idea got to percolating... then, she could easily have said just that and avoided making the general allegation that since her dad said it then it must be true everywhere because I have four decades of experience that refutes that .... and you do too. In fact, had she said her father told her that and that is why she believed it none of us could find fault in the simple innocence of a daughter that takes as gospel what her father told her even if she might have misunderstood what he meant. Yet, I usually engage, predictably, when someone makes an assertion that goes well beyond their means to know and when I have information to the contrary. I’ll tell you something along this line of thought that touched me recently in this forum. It had been my observation that this forum will embrace most every person’s rhetoric as long as they oppose Witness Lee. Maybe not embrace the teaching itself but allow the unchristian narrative to run unchecked. I’ve mentioned this before. I saw it happening again, and then Nell posted a note on “a line in the sand.” Her thought was that disagree as you might about many things, but there are things we will never compromise or cross the line in matters of our Christian faith, etc. Something like that. Anyway, I was deeply touched by her message and though we probably disagree on many things I was 200% all in with Nell on that. Where do we draw the line even if and when we disagree? So Brother Ohio, if the question had gone to why did the local churches give to DCP then that would have been a different conversation. Certainly, different than everyone tithing to LSM 10% of their income for life. Thanks Drake