I'm going to start throwing a few comments over onto this thread from Facebook so they can live on over here on the LCD forum.
FB comment:
Here's what the FTTs are good for: training you to submit to asinine rules and never question so-called deputy authority. The FTTs are literally Witness Lee propaganda schools, not Bible schools. You *think* you are going to study the Bible, but really it's to learn all about Witness Lee and his heretical teachings which you are taught are completely orthodox. Meanwhile you *think* they are orthodox because you never actually learn anything about genuine christian apologetics. Proper exegesis is irrelevant when it's literally all about Witness Lee and his eisegesis.
In fact, you might get through 2 years of this "school" and never hear terms like exegesis and hermeneutics.
And since they can wave the "We Were Wrong!" article around to somehow prove that other christians believe they are so orthodox, you blindly believe you are simply because you are told so.
For the record, I was all in when I went through my 2 years of the FTTA. I sacrificed my Registered Dietitian career to go. It's only when looking back in hindsight now I can see clearly what it was. I felt like the training gave me a "vision" that kept me. I now realize if you hear something enough, anyone can have a "controlling vision."
The FTTs produce the cream of the crop "serving ones" who can go to their localities and be under the thumb of LSM through their local elders. It's literally about producing the best rule followers and the ones who will do LSM's bidding from afar.
The entire goal is to produce saints completely sold on Witness Lee who will continue propagating him and his "ministry." The graduates can then serve on college campuses and unethically recruit new converts in and slowly get them hooked on buying LSM ministry materials and training services.
Millions upon millions are spent every year on paying for the serving ones to recruit college youth in.
The environment is so unhealthy. You aren't allotted enough sleep and the militant style and way it is run produces so many people with anxiety, depression, insomnia, and other mental and physical issues.
Due to its militant nature, one change I think LSM needs to make system-wide for all its trainings is to have psychological evals for all prospective trainees.
Here's a video I put on my main FB post that shows a slice of the FTTT. Note the matching LSM clothes, sleeping in matching clothes, LSM logo on the sheets...
http://bit.ly/ExtremeFTTPractices