RE: Open Letter - Dear Saints in the Lord's Recovery - Joann Casteel

[aron]

Originally Posted by Hope

Dear sister in Christ,

I just read your letter regarding you and your husband's experience in the LC. I posted some on the site "Local Church Discussions." I posted as "Hope...

Your story was so very devastating to read. I feel to write to encourage and confirm. My heart is so broken for what you have suffered. …

In 1989, I quietly left the LC movement. No regrets, just thanksgivings. Your story just about took my breath. I am so thankful I missed out on the terrible suffering you and your husband endured. Surely you are in our prayers!!!

In Christ,

Don Rutledge

One of the protests of the Blended Brothers to the Casteel's FB letter was that it didn't follow the necessary pattern of private fellowship, but went public immediately.

Bill Mallon, John Ingalls and others tried the private fellowship route. I consider Don's testimony probably second only to John Ingalls, in showing what the experience in the Local Churches was initially like, and how it transmuted over time.

The threshold for "tell it to the church" has long since passed, the criteria met. The time to "shout it from the rooftops" has come.

If anyone hasn't read Don's testimony, it's eye-opening, showing what's behind all the hifalutin verbiage of "organic", "processed", "intrinsic" and "consummated". Like the Casteels, this was an insider, who got to see behind the veil, behind the "proper ministry" pretense. This ministry was no more legitimate than a traveling roadshow, calling in the village rubes, to separate them from their pennies. It is a scam. Impressively managed, well-designed, but a scam.

The title phrase refers to the moment when a con artist finishes the "play" and takes the mark's money. If a con is successful, the mark does not realize he has been cheated until the con men are long gone, if at all.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sting