Signs of Spiritual Abuse by Steven Lambert

[Toledo]

I dunno, I guess there are many varieties of the church life experience. I have heard of some of the 33 points, but frankly have not experienced any of them.

#1 ) I listened to testimonies about WL that bordered on apotheosis, and was bothered each time. I wondered why someone didn't tell the testifier that we only exalt Christ. I recognized WL as a terrific bible teacher, but no more. Nor was I ever encouraged to exalt him.

I do recall a time when someone quoted from one of WL's books to settle a doctrinal question. I replied, "I do not consider Brother Lee to be an authority". That did not go over well...

#2) I read a lot here about hierarchy. I suppose that to mean "Multi-level authority". Yet we were always quite firm that there is no higher authority than that of the local church. The churches are local; there is no central governing authority. That is to say, the elders in any given church were not subject to review from Anaheim or Cleveland (the co-workers, on the other hand, were under authority to the leading co-worker in their region, but not to any "higher authority").

#3) There was no "absolute authority" for any local elder. Always we were checked by the other elders. Plus the strong limitation of the Holy Spirit continually restricted us. If I overstepped, time and again I was compelled by my conscience to apologize.

I don't recognize any of the other points, except perhaps #24:
"Requiring members to perform menial tasks, such as cleaning toilets, setting up chairs..."

But that was seen as a Levitical service, rendered to the Lord and not to men. It was absolutely voluntary.

I never saw anyone ever required to act as a "leader's personal valet or slave".

I am not going to deny that much of this has happened in other places. I have read the testimonies. I simply affirm that such was not the case in the churches where I lived.