CONSIDERING HOW TO BRING THE PROBLEMS
BEFORE BROTHER LEE
October – November 1987
...
Godfred, Dan, and I came together a few times, joined also by Ken Unger on a couple of occasions to fellowship about the situation and what should be done. Ken Unger, who was an elder in Huntington Beach, had himself also become very concerned. We conferred about our burden to speak with Brother Lee, mentioning a number of our concerns that involved aberrations of truth and practice. When we touched the matter of the full-time training in Taipei, Dan responded by saying that if you touch the FTTT, you touch Brother Lee himself, and according to his observation of Brother Lee’s practice, Brother Lee will consider you if you become in his eyes a problem, and then he will proceed to carry out his burden without you. Godfred confirmed this by saying that he had the same realization, that Brother Lee considers anyone who criticizes him a troublemaker and will consider whether or not that one is expendable. This was indeed a most serious consideration concerning Brother Lee. But we did not care to maintain any position or standing for ourselves. We felt that for the Lord’s sake and for the sake of all the brothers and sisters, we must open our hearts to Brother Lee, no matter what it cost us.
This has always been a question for me, too. How do you approach the Local Church Leadership with a legitimate problem in the Local Churches without being perceived as a troublemaker, becoming expendable, quarantined, shunned or otherwise ostracized?
As much as you may not want to hear it, sexual violence is rampant in society today. Nee and Lee both laid the groundwork in the Local Churches by their failures to to deal with this terrible sin in the Local Churches. According to testimonies, it continues today because no one stands up and speaks. Whatever words you want to use, these terms are widely used interchangeably to describe unwanted sexual contact. This is the case generally because State Laws, coast to coast, have different definitions for sexual violence. From RAINNS.ORG:
Types of Sexual Violence
The term "sexual violence" is an all-encompassing, non-legal term that refers to crimes like sexual assault, rape, and sexual abuse. Many of these crimes are described below. Please note that the legal definition of crimes vary from state to state. There are often other crimes and forms of violence that arise jointly with crimes like sexual assault, and these are described as well.
https://www.rainn.org/types-sexual-violence
Who is rainn.org?
RAINN'S MISSION
RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network) is the nation's largest anti-sexual violence organization. RAINN created and operates the National Sexual Assault Hotline (800.656.HOPE, online.rainn.org y rainn.org/es) in partnership with more than 1,000 local sexual assault service providers across the country and operates the DoD Safe Helpline for the Department of Defense. RAINN also carries out programs to prevent sexual violence, help survivors, and ensure that perpetrators are brought to justice.
The question remains: How do you expose a problem, any problem, in the Local Church to the Local Church and/or Living Stream Ministry leadership without yourself becoming "the problem?" i.e. If you see a problem, you ARE the problem. This is the antithesis of "If you see something, say something."
How do you blow the whistle on ANYTHING in the Local Church/Living Stream Ministry?
Nell