Quote:
Originally Posted by Igzy
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This continues with the current leadership. Clearly they think Lee was a major apostle, yet they are oddly timid to declare this publicly. ...
Simply put, it is double-mindedness and duplicity, which in the end is nutty.
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Not only are they "timid" to declare their relationship with Witness Lee and the Local Churches, they do not hesitate to offer disingenuous statements to the public as follows in two newspaper articles where long time elder, Jerry McGill, is interviewed:
The Dallas Morning News: October 20, 1995
SpringPark residents oppose church
Religious group to continue seeking site
Jayne Noble Staff Writer of The Dallas Morning News
GARLAND - Hundreds of homeowners around the SpringPark addition have signed a petition opposed to The Church in Richardson moving into their neighborhood.
Mr. (Jerry) McGill said that he is aware of the organization, which sometimes is called The Local Church and is named after the cities where services are held. But Mr. McGill said The Church in Richardson does not have any "official ties with any church."
"We have no central headquarters . . . no organizational leader or ties to anything," he said. "We're an independent,Bible-believing church with no affiliation . . . just like a lot of churches in Garland."
"The Dallas Morning News
November 8, 1995
Residents fighting church
Lawyer hired to halt a move to Garland
Jayne Noble Staff Writer of The Dallas Morning News
GARLAND - Homeowners near the SpringPark addition have hired an attorney to fight plans by The Church in Richardson to move into their neighborhood." ...
"Some people say they are also concerned about the church's practices and its ties to other churches in Austin and Arlington, whose members profess to follow a Chinese spiritual leader named Witness Lee.
The churches are sometimes called Local Churches and are named after the cities where services are held.
(...Quoting Jerry McGill, elder in The Church in Richardson: )
Mr. McGill said this week that he has "had fellowship" with those churches, but that each is independent and that members "don't consider that the church, as the body of Christ, is an organization."
This is total prevarication. Jerry McGill, not only "has knowledge" of and "had fellowship with", McGill had been meeting with the Church in Dallas for years in various leadership roles, and had been to many trainings and conferences with Witness Lee. He was attempting to minimize his relationship with the Witness Lee in order to assuage the skepticism of the home owners in Garland, Texas, a suburb of Dallas...clearly hiding something.
Ultimately the residents of Spring Park prevailed. The Church in Richardson was unsuccessful in getting the zoning laws changed so they could "build a church" in their neighborhood.
Nell