Ron Kangas at the Waters of Meribah

[Freedom]

Originally Posted by Indiana

By smiting the rock and calling God's people "rebels" Moses failed to touch God's heart and gave them a wrong impression that God was angry. But God was not angry with them. Neither were His people rebels. So, God told Moses "You are the rebel", and reassuring him he said a second time "You are the rebel".

"The degree to which God is expressed is the degree to which He is represented", says Ron. And Moses failed mightily to express God at the waters of Meribah.

This mistake was "a sin unto death", as Ron puts it. And, what Moses did in failing to express and represent God is "for our learning", as the Bible puts it.

When I listened to the recordings from the last summer training, it was interesting to hear Ron talk about the situation as if to imply that his intention was just to let God deal with the whole situation and to not interfere. Then of course right away Ron starts talking about rebellion, making reference to the people he's upset with, etc. He ended up doing the very thing that he said he wouldn't do, thought I'm sure that was his intention all along.

It seems that each time these types of so-called "turmoils" have occurred, the LC manages to completely mishandle the situation. Especially considering that almost all of these situations have been internal matters, there is no reason for them to make the automatic assumption that the member who is speaking out is acting in bad faith.

In the past, they have called people who speak out all kinds of names - rebels, lepers, etc. This time, they took that same approach, however, the outcome was extremely tragic. There was a recording posted recently where Ron stated that he felt no responsibility or remorse for what happened, even though much of the initial reaction from the LC was related to his own speaking during that summer training.

The LC really needs to come to terms with the path that it is headed down. It's one thing to have a group where people who speak out are called names. But now they have a tragedy on their hands, and I believe that is going stick with them as long as they try to pretend that it doesn't matter. Do they really think that current members aren't questioning their handling of the situation? Do they really think that current members haven't empathized with this family that they hurt?