Why not just move on?

[aron]

Originally Posted by Ohio

LSM has a way of manipulating your heart so that to "just forgive and move on" is not easily possible. Lies and guilt and anxiety and fears from their false teachings haunt the heart from moving on. The many stories and testimonies on this forum are proof.

...The worst of it is not what they say behind your back after you leave, but their lies regurgitating in your gut. This forum helps to vomit out some of that garbage.

Interesting to consider how many return to the LSM fold after making a clean break, or even a quasi-clean one? Like the abused partner resuming the relationship after the bruises have faded somewhat. I mean, hey, no marriage is perfect. Right? The returnee holds the junky thinking inside that it really wasn't THAT bad, and besides, where else can they go?

Originally Posted by Ohio

All LC teachings are leavened. We hope and pray that members can "hold fast the liberty they have in Christ" (Galatians 5.1), and also "hold faith and a good conscience" (I Timothy 1.18-19), as they slowly detox and unleaven their hearts from the influences LSM's rotten teachings and practices.

Here's an example: if you had asked me 6 or 8 months ago what "God's economy" was, per 1 Timothy 1, I'd probably either said, "I dunno, who cares" or would have said to read the WL books on the subject. But just recently I began to unpack the topic on this forum, and like most of WL's output there was little there but idiosyncratic connections and baseless assumptions. And I found other, more scripturally-aligned alternatives.

Similarly, there are probably hundreds, if not thousands, of unexamined assumptions that former members "walk away" with. The invidious nature of LSM's programming is impressive to behold. But most former members probably don't take the time & conscious effort (read: work) to behold the programme as it really is: ingrained, mutually-reinforcing, and thorough, and then to "slowly detox" from its effects.

Nigel Tomes is a good example of one who publicly detoxed himself from previously uncritically-received teachings. Whether he's happier today than 15 years ago, whether more solidly connected to God in daily life, and whether and how much his writings have helped others extricate from the homebrewed morass that is "the ministry" in the LCs, the Lord knows. But clearly he put in the work.