Quote:
Originally Posted by Ohio
TGA, let me provide a brief history, summarizing John Ingall's book:
JI was an elder in Anaheim for years, a well-respected pillar and "founding father" of the movement in this county. He helped put together the hymnal, edited books, gave conferences, etc. Anaheim is where LSM was headquartered, and its manager was the profligate son of WL named Philip, who was an obnoxious, drunk, unregenerate bully who abused church leaders around the globe.
JI and numerous other godly men around the globe began to resist LSM's takeover activities and at the same time attempted to remove Phillip from LSM management after several women were molested by him. Instead of listening to these men of God, WL and his lackeys ran a smear campaign accusing JI et. al. of forming a global conspiracy to overthrow his ministry, and branded JI a rebellious leper who needed to be quarantined or shunned by all.
That's the abbreviated version. "Short, quick, and to the point" as they used to instruct us.
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The only other thing I would add is that JI would come and give conferences, so he wasn't just a name in the hymnal and RcV, he was someone who ministered a very sweet ministry. You felt like you had a relationship with him and it was unthinkable that after all those years he would be poisoned. What made it worse is that everyone acted like zombies, afraid to even enquire what happened for fear of also being branded as rebellious. You would like to think that after so many years there would be many brothers and other elders that would not accept at face value what they were being told but would look into these matters to see if they were so. But there wasn't. Then years later when we learn the real story you realize how completely shameful the whole thing was. And, he wasn't the only one. Ther were at least 5 brothers that left in a similar way by standing up to WL and being slandered and publicly ridiculed.