[aron]

One great irony of the Watchman Nee experience is that it began as a nativist reaction to imperialism, and became imperialism personified. WN's flat and open rejection of the "denominations" was a brilliantly successful gambit, but what was behind that initial success, but three generations of simmering resentment against Western domination? Suddenly one of their own sprung up, who had seemingly absorbed all the best teachings and could pour them back out. I recall one Western visitor in the '30s to the Hardoon Road meeting place in Shanghai who said he'd never seen such powerful speaking, such electricity in the air. Now Chinese Christianity had a face, and focus, a voice, and a shining prince. And the fact that the movement now was denominated, aka the "Little Flock", was irrelevant. WN was on his way to the top, and he had his vehicle.

And it was eventually exported as a kind of superior, purified Christianity, one percolated by God Himself on the "virgin soil" of China, according to Witness Lee. God had now blessed us all, Chinese and Caucasian, with the consummation of the revelation of previous ages, yada yada.

Nothing of the sort. All the storms, rebellions, purges, quarantines, all the schisms and splits, and, importantly, all the lost and broken people out there trying to "recover from the recovery", are testimony to its quite human element. It never ceases to amaze me how former members who haven't been in the LC for years say they still feel guilty today, for not being there. They still can't shake the program.

What follows is a simplification and generalization, but I think that WN's gift to express the unspoken need of the Chinese people, that they were not inferior to the West, was expressed as a rejection of the "denominations" as improper in God's eyes. WN had ground to build something fresh and new, but it was really the same old human system-building: "We reject you and yours". Us versus them. Another proverbial Babylonian brick in the wall. New brick but same wall. The codified rejection, and delineation of 'us' and 'them' soon had its own institution, with its own name, organizational hierarchy, buildings and training centers, and an expressed and reasoned core theology.

And I stress that a strong basis of this group's self-identification was rejection of existing (Western) Christianity. So it's no surprise that when Witness Lee brought it to the US, he was soon spouting incessant judgments of everyone and everything else. Poor, fallen, natural Christianity; devilish, satanic, daughters of the harlot etc, etc. . . every day all day, WL's constant critique of everything besides WN's blessed "recovery" was woven into nearly every message and meeting. We were convinced that we alone had a "the riches", and "the up-to-date truth", and everyone else was compromised, deficient and inadequate.

So what happens when someone who has uncritically accepted this kind of universal condemnation begins to see vanity in the emperor's own clothes? Suddenly Daystar fails and the money's gone, or WL's son Philip is caught pawing the help. . . experiential data starts to point out that it's nothing but a wisp, an illusion. Or maybe there's an incessant stream of "flows" from HQ, with demands and promises of revival. Yet no revival appears. The proverbial red flags begin to dot the previously "glorious church life" landscape, but the LC rank-and-file, even if they sense it, don't have a conceptual exit point, or door. The preaching from day one has been that there is no exit. Outside the LC is supposedly nothing but empty wasteland. And to this premise, the now disillusioned LC members had repeatedly said, "Amen!"

"Poor Christianity" - "amen!". . . "Babylon the Great" - "amen!" Etc etc.

In thinking about this, I realized that Jesus' admonition that 'as you judge others, so you will be judged' (Matt 7:2) was relevant. WL got us to implicitly and unquestioningly agree with, accept, and absorb the constant and open judgmental attitude. Then, when our own joy began to leak away, we found ourselves without alternatives -- if we left the LC, then we ourselves would become the "judged other", which we'd already agreed on as being true! But being the "judged other" is completely foreign to the gospel of Jesus Christ! Jesus took on the judgment for us! We'd once been the judged and rejected "other" in God's eyes, and had been brought home by the blood of the Lamb.

Originally Posted by Terry

From January 2001 until my uncle passed away in April 2014, I couldn't set foot in the Bellevue meeting hall. It wasn't until my uncle's memorial service that I did. In between many nightmares.

Originally Posted by P. Hayes64

I am currently a part of a small church in Fort Worth, but always feeling tremendous guilt that I am not attending the local church.

Originally Posted by Nell

I was too emotionally traumatized when I left to be that objective. I was afraid what they said was true...that I was a goner... It was at least 5 years before I could go to a church...and when I did, I cried the entire time, especially during the singing. Reading the Bible was out of the question.

Originally Posted by Joy Hillary

Only eighteen months before we had talked together about how differently we felt about the church, and back then I had said to John, "If you go, I'll stay". My priority then was the Church over our marriage, because I had invested my whole life into it. I had altered my life radically to be a part of the 'group'; I was mentally and emotionally dependent on them and I couldn't conceive of living without them at my center.

WN's rejection was the basis of a program, or thought-world, which WL eventually exported to the USA, and beyond; anyone uncritically accepting this program got their thinking, emotions, and behaviors seriously skewed. You could try to leave the physical environment, but the program would still be in you, running. . . it's very important to see this program for what it is. It's based on rejection, judgment, and condemnation. Don't accept it! Yes there was (and is) a lot wrong with the "denominations", and yes Western imperialism in China was arguably rotten. But WN's cleverness and spirituality didn't give us an alternative. It got WN to the top of the food chain, and paved the way for WL's manipulative ministry, which can be emotionally and psychologically traumatic, and spiritually distorting if unquestioningly received.

The facts are in, folks. Enough time has passed. We can now see this system, and the thought-world behind it, for what it is.