[UntoHim]

Actually Nell, I broke these number of posts off into a new thread and entitled it "Women's Role". Anybody is more than welcome to suggest a better title. I was getting concerned that our new friend QOTSA was having her thread hijacked, especially by Mr. Wonderful

In my opinion, the root of the problems we saw in the Local Church go all the way back to Watchman Nee. God provided him with a number of older, mature and wise women in his early life. He got big taste of what God can do through learned and mature women. He was also a careful reader of the Bible and had to notice this dynamic all through the Scriptures. Yet he seemed to abandon what God clearly showed him in regards to women's importance and value in the Body of Christ. Instead, it is apparent that he fell back on the ancient cultural norms and traditions of the Chinese culture. Additionally, if only a fraction of what Dr. Lily Hsu wrote in her memoir was true and accurate, it would seem that Nee actually fell into the worst disrespect and mistreatment that any man can perpetrate upon a woman.See this thread about Lily Hsu's memoir

Obviously, Witness Lee continued, and in some sense intensified, this dynamic within the Local Church movement, and it continues on to this very day. I think it is possible that this "spirit of abuse" towards women reared it's ugly head in the life and times of Witness Lee's sons, most notably his son Phillip. It is my understanding that Timothy was not far behind his brother in his morality towards women.
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