How to help people whose friends and relatives are active members of the LC

[bearbear]

Wow that was really brave to pull out Philip Lee this quickly. UntoHim is right though, it may be best not to bring it up again until she is ready.

I had to slowly expose flaws in the local church system my wife herself was subconsciously aware of and slowly build that up to how it's damaged our family members. I also showed her verses in scripture which clearly state we're expected to have a heart for the poor and obvious things like that which Lee's ministry goes against.

After I felt she was ready, I had her read John So's testimony. She believed everything he said but still made excuses for what happened which was hard to believe for me. Don't underestimate what spending years in the LCs can do to build up mental walls in a person. Eventually, I had her read John Ingall's testimony and she was a little bit more open.

She ultimately chose to leave after I said I couldn't go on spiritually in the LC. Then we started going to different churches and she got to see for herself that there are other folks crazy or crazier for Jesus out there. Then she started realizing how much she was fooled into looking down on these Christians by the LC system. She also came to realize that the LCs are even more of a denomination than other churches, it's non-denominational in name only but in practice it's almost more hierarchical and centralized than even the Catholic church, not to bash Catholics because I've met some that love Jesus and know more bible than 99% of LCers.

An elder's wife from our locality severely reprimanded her for entertaining the thought of leaving. This of course backfired Hallelujah! The whole time after we left, everyone from the LC tried to get my wife on their side after they realized I was deadset on leaving. But we wouldn't budge because we weren't willing to let go of our newfound freedom, however bad the consequences. I felt we were like the Israelites who were leaving the system of slavery in Egypt, though we lost all our comforts (friendships, relationships etc.), we chose to cherish our freedom more than the things we left behind (unlike most of the Israelites).

I'm thankful for the love and help the saints from the LC showed us during our time there and I wish I could find more ways to appreciate them. I still love the people, but man does it feel like they are enslaved by the system. I wish it could be the other way around sometimes where we are the ones bringing them out of the system and not them trying to bring us back into it.