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Originally Posted by Trapped
Suppressing critical thinking is huge. I cannot tell you how many mental battles I have fought with myself worried that a thought I had that is not 100% in line with Lee's teaching might be from Satan, or from my self, or a source of poison, or me being deceived because I stepped out of the ark for a second, or me being in darkness. When the words of the Bible are as plain as day!!
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The LCs run a comprehensive thought-suppression system whose perniciousness lies in how well it masks itself. When I was there, we were told that trying to think for ourselves would only cause us to be confused. We didn't trust the word unless it was lined with "the interpreted word"; if not, it was considered to be fallen human concepts.
We were promised an alternate reality that would magically transform us: we would be "metabolically reconstituted with God" by following LC practices and teachings. Problem is, this path entailed a thoughtless state, in which we couldn't notice the lack of transformation. By tacitly agreeing not to think, we lost the ability to discern that we were being robbed of our basic human rights and freedoms.
And if we came to spots where today's teachings contradicted those from last year, or contradicted the Bible, or overturned basic Christian precedent, we'd repeat one of the thought-suppression mantras and keep going. Even when, deep inside, we knew something wasn't right. Our renunciation of thought kept us from trying to figure out what was really going on.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Trapped
Explaining to your family is difficult. Definitely keep the emphasis on the Lord and that you love the Lord and want to follow Him, and that you love your family. I know one family where even an adult child decided to leave the church and attend another church, and the parents told them they were leaving the place where God is going to accomplish His heart's desire. With the possibility of those kind of statements coming your way, you need to be firm in your convictions. But you also need to bring your convictions to the Lord to make sure they are firm in Him.
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A key is to have compassion and not to become adversarial. The people pushing the thought-suppression system are, to some extent, its victims.