[aron]

Originally Posted by Don Rutledge

After a meeting, we permitted brother Chang to present his vitamin business. I bought some. Also we were contacted about a savings program that the LSM was sponsoring to encourage the young people to save their surplus. It was called “the little bankers.” An elder in a church would collect and record additions and interest to someone's account. I was asked to take care of the Dallas saints. I had a meeting with some of the young people and a few put in a few dollars. Unfortunately, I put $500 into an account for myself. We all thought we could just withdraw at any time. Then I learned the money went for a last ditch effort to keep Daystar afloat. Say goodbye to it. Later, WL asked me to sign a waver of forgiveness from the LSM. Silly me. I signed the release and kissed the money good-bye. Compared to what many lost in Daystar etc my little bit was something to just forget about.

I never mentioned Linko in Dallas but it was a big deal in Irving complete with models of the buildings to be built etc. Because the church in Dallas would not join in the cheerleading and fund raising from Irving there was more and more a strained relationship. Dallas did give money for Irving and the goal and purpose for the facility was shared. Benson came over a time or two and did some fund raising for that hall after a Lord’s table.

Usually Dallas had a sizable surplus in our bank accounts. On three occasions in Texas area elders meetings Benson and Ray put a press on Dallas to release our extra funds for Irving and LSM. We said no each time as our conscience did not agree that the money had been given by the saints for the questionable projects. This put quite a strain on our relationship..

The above confirms my earlier post on the issue of a minister abusing his authority in the church. Poor business decisions. Fraud. Money laundering. A supposed "investment" with promised "profits" suddenly turned into "donations".

Originally Posted by aron

I'm throwing out the idea that Witness Lee was "the" apostle, or even "an" apostle, if he was leveraging his position to borrow $100K from Sal Benoit and the believers in Massachusetts. Positive cash flow or not, he was wrong hitting up church members for $$ for his kid's business. Totally unethical. (And I presume that what we have documented from MA was repeated around the country. We don't know how much in total flowed from local churches to Phosphorous to Daystar to Timothy Lee).

Originally Posted by Don R

By then I had seen so many snafus from WL that if there was really anything to the teaching of deputy authority, it sure was not WL. Let him take the lead in a spiritual enterprise or a business enterprise and failure was sure to result. And no, James Barber and Ray Graver, the failures of WL were not a test from the Lord..