[Freedom]

I wish I had some good advice to give to you, but I can completely understand where you're coming from. I was born and raised in the LC, and although I always had reservations about it, it wasn't until my involvement with the LC campus work that I was really forced to consider what I was involved in. For the record, I'm a current LC member who is wanting out (just waiting for the right time). The LC is not an easy group to just get up and leave. If you've already attended another church, it sounds like you're ahead of the game.

Getting to what I really wanted to say, I encountered many of the same issues as you with the LC campus work. Since I had been around for awhile, there was the expectation that I would help out with the campus work at my University. I was okay with that at first. It seemed like a good thing, to try and bring people to the Lord and have Bible studies with them. What I quickly encountered was a disturbing amount of dishonesty in how our campus club would both present ourselves to others and in what our "Bible studies" really were.

First of all, with all the LC University clubs I've seen, there are composed of a core group of LC members and the only non-LC members would be new recruits or campus "contacts" as they might call them. People would come to us and ask us what church we are associated with or ask us what church we go to. I heard people give responses like "we are Christians from various backgrounds". That didn't answer their question, it was just sidestepping it. It caused me to consider, why would they want to avoid that question? Is it because they were ashamed that all the members attend the same church, or was it because they didn't want people to immediately know about the association to the LC? I'm pretty sure it was the latter. I always felt that it was dishonest to hide our association. Why not be upfront about that?

The second issue is like you mentioned, there was this pressing need to try to get everyone using the Recovery Version Bible (RcV) along with other WL materials. When I started attending these campus Bible studies, I was very naive about what it would entail. Obviously since I was a LC member, I already had a RcV Bible, so naturally, that is what I used. I first noticed a problem when newcomers would attend our Bible studies and bring their own versions of the Bible. Many who came were already Christians. Of course, no one outside the LC is going to have a RcV. When people came, some would start telling them about the RcV and how great it is. At the same time, they would tell them how they're welcome to use whatever version they are comfortable using. Here is the catch: we spent the majority of the time in our Bible studies comprehensively reading RcV footnotes. So if someone didn't have or desire to use the RcV, they wouldn't be a fit in our Bible studies. I don't even like to call it a real Bible study, because it wasn't, it was a RcV reading group.

Regarding what is on the internet, I think there are two categories of criticism of the LC, the first being in regards to orthodoxy, and the second being related to internal "turmoils" and splits that LC has gone through over the years. The second category of writings is what really caught my interest, because I began to see the true colors of the LC come out. I did have some reservations about some of Lee's non-orthodox teachings, but I was never really in a position where I could criticize those. When I read the stories of ex-members and some of the situations that they encountered, that is where I really realized that I need to find my way out. I also began to understand why some of the peculiarities (such as only using the RcV Bible exist). I think the bottom line is that if you are concerned about things there is a reason for that, don't ignore that feeling.