What's wrong with the LC?

[aron]

Originally Posted by seeking1

With so many people passing through here looking for guidance, I thought it would be nice to have some sort of official statement or position from this site on what exactly is wrong with the teachings of Lee. Granted, the whole site is kind of dedicated to "what's wrong with Lee", but it would be nice to not have to wade through all the "pet peeves" and digressions that happen on threads. Just something short and concise, maybe even a numbered list. Put on a tab or something where no one can comment...My two cents!

Originally Posted by UntoHim

So, getting back to your original inquiry about having some sort of short, concise list "on what exactly is wrong with the teachings of Lee", I would open it up to all the members to help us out. Maybe a number of the members could make their own list and we could then try to incorporate the most common issues into a concise list. I certainly wouldn't be opposed to such an effort.

With the above quotes in mind, I'd like to propose a "Top Ten" list, a la the departed "Letterman Show". Then, we vote on the lists. What are the top issues? Which issues are secondary, and caused by the big problems. Put another way, what red flags first hit you when you began to meet there, which you had to ignore in order to go on?

My list:

1. Corruption. Witness Lee tried to enrich his family members with schemes like the Daystar which went belly up and cost a lot of people their savings. Daystar wasn't the only scheme that fleeced the flock. Men's suits, cheap chairs; "Let's go... Linko!!" -- anyone remember that slogan? Additionally, WL put his "unspiritual" (his words) son Philip in charge of the Living Stream Ministry office, which he said was a "business", and when that son was caught repeatedly molesting the female workers, WL charged the concerned brothers with treason, that they were forming a secret conspiracy to rebel against his leadership.

2. Subjectivity. The danger of the charismatic movement is that you trust your feelings. You scream something loud enough, long enough, in a mob of screaming and jumping people, and whatever you feel is then "the Holy Spirit". So this group tries to whip you up into hysteria -- "exercise your spirit, brother!!" -- and then they can tell you the moon is made of green cheese and you bawl out, "Aayyyyeemaaahhhhnnn!!!!" In this environment it's easy to ignore what the Bible says, or selectively read it to say most anything. Suddenly the Bible is untrustworthy as a guide, because it's "dead letters"; instead you trust the "sense of life". And you prefer the "flavor" of the LSM and not the "flavor" of any other ministry. Subjective, much? Sounds like a bunch of six-year olds arguing over ice cream.

3. Hypocrisy. We get to judge others, but nobody can judge us. The LC specializes in pointing out the errors of "Christianity", but WL taught that when God sees the church, He sees no fault. So don't dare criticize the church (but please do point out the faults of everyone else).

4. Elevating "special persons" above the flock. Witness Lee was the spiritual giant in the LC. Says who? Says WL, the giant. So if Lee sinned we had to "cover drunken Noah". And if he said that the Bible wasn't as good as his theology, then we picked his theology over the Bible. See the Life-Study (or footnotes) of the Psalms for Exhibit A.

Here's another example: suppose in Acts 8:34 the Ethiopian eunuch had asked, "Tell me, was he (Isaiah) writing concerning himself or someone else?", and Philip replied, "Don't bother with that - it isn't according to God's economy. We all know that nobody can keep their mouth shut." Suppose that the "apostle", instead of pointing us to Christ, simply said that the prophet was being natural, and fallen? We ended up there, when we elevated a man and his ministry above the word of God.

5. Control. When my local church elder wanted to give a conference, the Maximum Brothers in Anaheim nixed it. "Just re-speak the latest conference", they said. In the LC you don't do anything without "fellowship." Otherwise you might be "independent", or even - gasp - "rebellious"! So don't think, don't consider; just do what MaxBro says. One time at a meeting, I heard WL ask, "Whom of you did I control!?" Silence. Nobody dared to speak.
They were all too cowed. There was essentially no freedom to follow the Spirit.

6. Contempt for "works". Peter told the gentile listeners that Jesus the Nazarene "went around doing good" for the 3 1/2 years that the disciples were with Him (Acts 10:38; see also e.g. Matt 9:35, 4:23 etc). In the LC we were told to forget works; they were "dead". Forget the poor, the sick, the distressed, and the confused. Just "masticate the processed and consummated Triune God" (i.e. chant the verses that Headquarters gives us each day) and "build up the Body" (i.e. try to recruit people into the Living Stream Ministry orbit).

7. Pride. We were constantly told about the "rich ministry" of WL. God would probably reply, "You say that you're rich but you're really poor. You say that you need nothing, and have arrived at the High Peak of theology, but you've forgotten the basics of humility and love. Go and buy from Me gold refined in fire. Get some eye salve. Get a clean robe."