Jim Moran and Light of Truth Ministries

[aron]

Originally Posted by HERn

I remember something like some notes scribbled by WL for a talk that showed WL asking why he was being treated badly, does that ring a bell with anyone?

Originally Posted by Dan Azuma

Dear Mr. Azuma:

We are writing to you on behalf of The Church in Fullerton to inform you of apparent copyright infringement found on your web site: http://dazuma.freeshell.org/lcinfo.

As you may know, in April of this year [2003] representatives of The Church in Fullerton contacted the executor of Mr. Moran's estate and purchased all of Mr. Moran's websites, articles, publications, postings, copyrights, trade names, trademarks and correspondence concerning the Local Church that were authored, created, assembled, collected or arranged by Mr. Moran ("the Works"). Because you currently have posted on your website numerous articles and sound files included in the Works, we are writing to inform you that any and all previous permissions or licenses to utilize and distribute the Works have been revoked (see also http://www.ltm.org/info.html). Therefore, as the new owner with the exclusive right to distribute the Works, we request that you remove these materials from your website.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. If you have any questions you can reach us at the above address or by email at: djsady@aol.com.

Respectfully,

Daniel E. Towle
Daniel J. Sady
For The Church in Fullerton Corporation

What bothered the Blendeds so much? Someone expressing their opinion? Or was there something else there in "the Works", to be tucked away?

[aron]

It appears that Moran's electronic domain has been turned into a LC apologist site:

http://www.ltm.org/

[Freedom]

I never had the opportunity to read Jim Moran’s writings when his sites were up. In fact, I didn’t even know what was out there in the wild on the internet regarding the LC back then. All I knew is that around the early 2000’s I began hearing stern warnings not to read anything on the internet regarding the LC.

From my browsing of the archived links posted yesterday, it occurred to me that as an outsider, Jim Moran probably wasn’t aware of much of the “inside” information that we now are. It seems that the way that he might have been a “threat” to them is that there were various URLs that might come up in a google search such as “biblesforamericaexposed”. Thus his sites probably had a fair amount of visibility. It seems in buying up his sites the goal was never to address his writings, but to sweep it all under the rug.

[Ohio]

Originally Posted by Freedom

I never had the opportunity to read Jim Moran’s writings when his sites were up. In fact, I didn’t even know what was out there in the wild on the internet regarding the LC back then. All I knew is that around the early 2000’s I began hearing stern warnings not to read anything on the internet regarding the LC.

From my browsing of the archived links posted yesterday, it occurred to me that as an outsider, Jim Moran probably wasn’t aware of much of the “inside” information that we now are. It seems that the way that he might have been a “threat” to them is that there were various URLs that might come up in a google search such as “biblesforamericaexposed”. Thus his sites probably had a fair amount of visibility. It seems in buying up his sites the goal was never to address his writings, but to sweep it all under the rug.

I found Moran harmless to the LC's. He knew very little which actually exposed the inner workings of Witness Lee, his family, his blendeds, and LSM. Jim Moran was a Moody grad who could not get a job pastoring, and eventually connected with a wealthy Texan donor who had family in the LCM. Moran then devised a plan to "research" the LCM from the "inside" by visiting the Church in Chicago as a "newcomer." Obviously those folks sniffed him out fairly quickly, treating him with kind respect, until he decided he had seen enough.

[UntoHim]

Actually Moran wasn't that concerned with the inner workers of Witness Lee's family, and the fact that he actually tried to experience "the church life" from the inside speaks more good things about him than bad. At the end of the day, Moran was a Christian apologist who tried to specialize in the teachings and practices of the Local Church of Witness Lee, and as with all groundbreaking efforts, it was incomplete.

The fact that he was not able to obtain a ministry position at a local church is totally irrelevant to what he wrote about concerning the Local Church of Witness Lee. His critique of the teachings and practices were, for the most part, accurate and fair. His critique was also not set in concrete - Moran was evolving and maturing regarding his views and understanding of the main teachings and practices. Unfortunately, for Moran, his family and for the Christian public, he died rather suddenly, and his work was left incomplete.

What Dan Towle and "The Church in Fullerton" did in purchasing Moran's website (and subsequently removing it from the web) was one of the most despicable acts in the history of the LC movement. Thankfully this unscrupulous stunt backfired on Towle et al, and the Christian public was alerted, wondering why any legitimate Christian group would go to such extreme measures to suppress information about what was really taught and practiced.

[Freedom]

Originally Posted by UntoHim

What Dan Towle and "The Church in Fullerton" did in purchasing Moran's website (and subsequently removing it from the web) was one of the most despicable acts in the history of the LC movement. Thankfully this unscrupulous stunt backfired on Towle et al, and the Christian public was alerted, wondering why any legitimate Christian group would go to such extreme measures to suppress information about what was really taught and practiced.

Just yesterday, I was reading about the Church in Houston v. Jim Moran case regarding the rights to the domain name thelocalchurch.org. It really made me wonder, just what kind of world are LCers living in? Here you have a single local church trying to lay claim to a name that's not theirs to begin with, wasting the money of saints to pursue litigation. It's the same issue with the church in Fullerton buying up Jim Moran's domains and works - a terrible waste of money. When Jim Moran passed away, Dan Towle et al. accomplished what they wanted to do with regards to Jim Moran, but they by no means solved their little internet "problem". Moran was just one of many critics. His writings and websites were just a drop in the bucket compared to what is available now.

The LC leaders are extremely naive in thinking that they can sweep things under the rug as a solution to problems. That only works as long as they can stop members from trying to find such information. There are no longer websites like biblesforamericaexposed.com, but anybody out there can come up with new ones. If I wanted to, I could start new websites of my own such as: avoidbiblesforamerica.com or bewareofchristiansoncampus.com. Point is that the LC only exposed its true nature by attempting to sweep everything under the rug. What does it tell people when a group tries to sue instead of respond to criticism on a point-by-point basis. The DCP/LSM/LC method of responding to criticism goes something as follows: "this unprecedented attack against Witness Lee and the local churches is absolutely false and defamatory..." They thus never actually respond to criticism, they just try to paint the criticism as being done in bad faith, having ill motives and no basis. The minute they have to address actual points of concern, all the sudden things don't look so good for the LC.

[aron]

Originally Posted by Ohio

I found Moran harmless to the LC's. He knew very little which actually exposed the inner workings of Witness Lee, his family, his blendeds, and LSM. Jim Moran was a Moody grad who could not get a job pastoring, and eventually connected with a wealthy Texan donor who had family in the LCM. Moran then devised a plan to "research" the LCM from the "inside" by visiting the Church in Chicago as a "newcomer." Obviously those folks sniffed him out fairly quickly, treating him with kind respect, until he decided he had seen enough.

So why the LC over-reaction to "the Works" of Jim Moran, as their cease-and-desist legal brief put it? Why buy it up, bury it, and pretend that it had never existed?

Perhaps their perception of Moran's work as a threat to their version of good order in LC church life shows something about the weakness of their own position. If a Jim Moran can put them to such a state of agitation, then how solid is their standing? Not very.

I think that the "raising up" of the ministry of Watchman Nee, and subsequently the Little Flock, with its more ardent and virulent offspring like the LC, were predicated upon a critique of Christianity as it stood and stands today, so unequivocal as to be de facto rejection. Therefore, we within the LC "ministry" heard a never-ending stream of negative comments about how things stood outside of the our flock. Never mind that WL hadn't met with the Baptists or any others for 30 or 40 years; he could tell us what "most Christians" knew, or didn't know, or were up to, or weren't up to, at any given moment.

But the problem with a programme established upon a foundation of critique and rejection of others, either implicit or explicit, is that it must itself remain free from any reciprocity. Because it owes its very existence to the inadequacy and failure of the "other" (Christianity, which is the Great Whore Babylon, in this case), if the critic found lacking as well, what then? The vulnerability of the LC position was activated when the lens of Moran's examination, however weak, was turned back on them, as theirs was on others. The very "ground of the church" might be exposed as shifty sand, and thus the resulting nuclear strike against a mere mosquito.

[Freedom]

Originally Posted by aron

So why the LC over-reaction to "the Works" of Jim Moran, as their cease-and-desist legal brief put it? Why buy it up, bury it, and pretend that it had never existed?

Perhaps their perception of Moran's work as a threat to their version of good order in LC church life shows something about the weakness of their own position. If a Jim Moran can put them to such a state of agitation, then how solid is their standing? Not very.

I completely agree that the LC reaction to Jim Moran was an over-reaction. I also agree that he was not much of a "threat" to them in comparison to others who have tasked themselves with critiquing the LC. Maybe at the time of Jim Moran's passing, they still thought that they could "control" what was out there on the internet. Time has proven that to not be the case. These days the most they can do is to speak out against why they don't like, they might talk of "lawless users of the internet". Needless to say it's not a good long-term strategy for them.

Originally Posted by aron

I think that the "raising up" of the ministry of Watchman Nee, and subsequently the Little Flock, with its more ardent and virulent offspring like the LC, were predicated upon a critique of Christianity as it stood and stands today, so unequivocal as to be de facto rejection. Therefore, we within the LC "ministry" heard a never-ending stream of negative comments about how things stood outside of the our flock. Never mind that WL hadn't met with the Baptists or any others for 30 or 40 years; he could tell us what "most Christians" knew, or didn't know, or were up to, or weren't up to, at any given moment.

But the problem with a programme established upon a foundation of critique and rejection of others, either implicit or explicit, is that it must itself remain free from any reciprocity. Because it owes its very existence to the inadequacy and failure of the "other" (Christianity, which is the Great Whore Babylon, in this case), if the critic found lacking as well, what then? The vulnerability of the LC position was activated when the lens of Moran's examination, however weak, was turned back on them, as theirs was on others. The very "ground of the church" might be exposed as shifty sand, and thus the resulting nuclear strike against a mere mosquito.

The need of the LC to critique others is one of their defining attributes. It's really the basis upon which they meet - they are the ones who have been "recovered" and everyone else is "fallen". It makes sense why they would be so sensitive then to critique. For a group founded upon elitism to be found to be lacking, or worse that those they critique, indicates that they've amounted to nothing.