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Originally Posted by Gideon7
I just want to send out a quick thx for the replies thus far- would love more. I also want to say I'm honored that y'all would share some of your story with me- I don't take it lightly or for granted. I realize there must be some deeeeeep thoughts/feelings/memories/hurts/frustrations/regrets/etc hanging around in some of those stories. I realize many have only shared the abbreviated version- May God's grace truly heal and restore as really only He can!
It seems to me that unlike some of the pretty clear "cults"- JW/LDS/etc...- LC just doesn't seem to have the verifiable clear cut one/couple/few teachings/practices that you can point at, stand up, and scream "Aha- Got ya- there it is!" Frustrating... And just to clarify- I don't think I currently see LC as a cult- possibly some cult-like tendencies- but I personally can't go far enough yet to label it a cult- perhaps some of you see it differently?
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Witness Lee liked to say provocative things, that stretched the limits of orthodoxy. But then he'd explain what it meant, and he was always (so he argued) firmly within the orthodox camp.
I don't know if this was deliberate, but it allowed him to be two things simultaneously: "different" and "the same".
He wanted to be different because he needed to distinguish himself from the rest. He'd often say, "Nobody has seen this but us". Or, "Nobody else teaches this". This way he could hold the sheep in his pen. Everyone else, it seemed, was deficient, often hopelessly so. Only Nee & Lee had the up-to-date light; everyone else was passe.
But he also had to be "the most orthodox", as he'd put it. He'd lay out his bona fides repeatedly. He trafficked in the legitimacy of Wesley, Luther, Calvin et al. (But somehow current followers of Wesley/Luther/Calvin were totally in the dark. ??)
The other thing is, a lot of his more inflammatory statements got edited out, and never published. The oral messages were "polished" in LSM/lc lingo. So the stuff that was really 'out there' often never saw the general public.
Provoke and then deny, over and over again. Lee didn't care if he argued continually, and had to explain himself yet again; as long as he was kept the center of it all, it was A-ok. . . this m.o. kept him right in the center of (a small) public consciousness.