Quote:
Originally Posted by Evangelical
If Drake crossed any lines, it was because he was baited into it.
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Bro Drake seems to be okay to me. I'm just mystified how he can be in the LC as long as I've been out.
Basically, when I discovered the LC is a cult he joined it. WOW! What's more, it took me 10 years to discover that the LC is a cult. So it mystifies that he hasn't discovered that after 40 years. He seems smart.
Maybe brother Drake, and Evangelical, have spent all their time in the dreamland section of the LC. And we on LCD weren't so lucky.
At any rate, it neither breaks my leg or picks my pocket that they are in the LC. Same for those in the Mormon "The Church." Or Tom Cruise. It's the death cults that concern me ... and the sex cults (tho that one is okay too, I guess, if it's only consenting adults).
That to me is the important factor. There are what I call "consenting cults." Those cults don't use force to get members, nor use physical force to keep them. Members are free to come and go as they please.
Consenting cults are psychological cults ; like personality cults, cults of loyalty to a dynamic leader.
Just like my brother Drake, I don't know why people join them. This latest cult in the news, NXIVM, offers, "personal and professional development seminars through its "Executive Success Programs"." Oh, and getting to sleep with the world's greatest genius, Keith Raniere, and have his initials burnt into your lower abdomen. WOW! Sign me up!
I have to admit that I'm a funny guy. I think the local church must have permanently bent my Palm Tree. (Or maybe I'm just outta my tree ... you decided). I realize that trying to save others from the local church is just whacking at the leaves, and not the roots.
The problem is much bigger than the LC ; like solving the problem of why humans join cults in the first place, of any kind. It's a widespread problem, even in Christendom.
In the early days of Christianity there were lots of cults. Putting aside that the Romans considered the Jesus movement to be a cult, during the post-apostolic period there arose in the Jesus movement what came to be called heresiologist's, or those fighting against heretical cults that was springing up.
Today we have even more Christian cults. Walter Martin is famous for pointing out and fighting against Christian cults in his, "
The Rise of the Cults: An Introductory Guide to the Non-Christian Cults" and "
The Kingdom of the Cults: An Analysis of Major Cult Systems in the Present Christian Era."
He founded the Christian Research Institute (CRI). He also listed Lee's local church movement as a cult. To which
Hank Hanegraaff later released "We Were Wrong."
As a result CRI can no longer be considered a credible Christian Anti-Cult institution. They lost that when Walter Martin died.
So here we are, whacking at the leaves. Before LCD there was "The Bereans.net." They were an anti-cult website. They had a Local Church section, that because of historical content, and many personal testimonies, was much better than LCD. At least they addressed the wider problem, of Christian cults of every kind.
While here, we're only concerned with the LC cult. We don't even care about those in the title of this thread.