[Trapped]

Hey jigsaw,

I'm short on time to give input on your questions/information, but when I was reading your latest one, and your comment about just how hard it is to leave the brothers you are friends with, I just had the thought that maybe you are in a great place to help the brothers you are friends with to see "what they are in".

I've said this to numerous other posters, here, but I highly recommend reading books on spiritual abuse, two in particular:

1. The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse by Johnson and VanVonderen
2. Healing Spiritual Abuse by Ken Blue

These books are a fantastic start to see:
1) what an abusive church is (even if there aren't physical bruises),
2) that this kind of thing has been going on since NT times and is nothing new (in other words, the LC is just another abusive group, not a "unique" group like they claim),
3) that these kind of leaders are precisely who Jesus got furious at, and
4) it may give you some solid Biblical language if you ever want to plant some seeds about the LC to the friends you are in (in other words, speaking from the word about wolves in sheeps clothing, false apostles, people who tie up burdens on men's shoulders, much condemnation in the LC being "commandments of men", etc....). While people in the church will close their ears to the bible over the words of Lee, using the Bible is about the only way to have any hope of helping them see what's going on in the LC and how serious it is.

If anything, these books will give you an even clearer understanding of the LC, and will help you identify and put more words to things you already see.

Trapped