Blatant contradictions

Hi,

I'm in the process of registering an account on the forum, but just couldn't wait to get a couple of things off my chest.

One thing that annoys me the most about the LC is how their words and actions are often blatantly contradictory. Just to give a few examples:

- they say they are all independent non-denominational local churches, and yet their entire service is based on a book full of bullet points written by Witness Lee, professionally published, and sent out to all the LCs around the world by what is effectively their mother church in Anaheim; and many of the more senior saints attend upwards of 4-5 international gatherings every single year

- the Coworkers preach all the time about how theological disagreements among brothers don't really matter and we should all be tolerant of each other's beliefs, and yet if you dare to question the all-mighty Prophets Nee and Lee you're basically dismissed as a heretic

- they preach that all those who profess a belief in Jesus Christ and the Triune God are genuinely our brothers and sisters in Christ regardless of how they pray or where they meet, and yet at the same time, if they don't attend the LC and buy into LSM's teachings they're considered to be living in sin


I'm actually curious, if someone who was in the Recovery longer could tell me, where do they get all their money from? Usually something that screams "cult" to me is when an organization demands excessive amounts of money from their members, but I've never seen this to be the case with the LC, which is one of the reasons I stuck with it for a while despite some reservations. They of course collect offerings like any other Christian group, but their collection boxes are quite discrete, they never make a big deal out of it, and one brother explained to me they make a point of letting people give anonymously and discretely so nobody feels compelled to give more than they can afford. I guess they make some money from book sales, but the prices mostly seem pretty reasonable, considering the relatively small scale of the print runs, they can't be making a fortune off book sales. And when they do charge for a training or something, it doesn't seem like it would be nearly enough to cover all the expenses. And yet somehow they have enough money to put on elaborate international conferences every year with no cost to enter, they fly their Coworkers from Anaheim all over the world, and they build multi-million dollar buildings to house their LCs. One brother recently explained to me that LSM had split out its real estate branch into a separate corporation to shield LSM from liability related to construction. I assume some of the people they call "coworkers", "elders", "responsible ones" or "serving ones" who serve in a LC full-time are also being compensated by LSM somehow? I just don't get how they can do it.


Sorry this turned into a bit of a rant :P

I've been reading your forum with great interest, very comforting I'm not the only one to ave gone through such an experience