LSM's Plagiarism - An Initial Inquiry

[Hope]

Integrity, cutting things straight, character, Christ like compassion, humility, openness are a few matters that a servant of the Lord should cultivate. Note Rom 1:14, I am under obligation (a debtor) both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. NASB The apostle Paul owed many people and had been helped by many. The apostle Witness Lee often boasted how he had the highest revelation and all other Christian teachers had junk. How could Paul be a debtor to the foolish? Yet our apostle Witness Lee was the only person since 1945 with the Lord's ministry? He seemed to owe no one, not even the churches and brethren who had supported him in so many ways. Often instead of expressing gratitude for the brothers, he would belittle them and if some gave any push back, they were thrown under the bus.

I knew Witness Lee personally. He was like an older brother and friend. He gave me good personal advice on more than one occasion. Unfortunately, those in the LSM/LC had a myth about the brother. He was excellent in all things period. No problems were ever addressed. Thus his flesh developed. As we mature in age, if we are not under the daily experience of the cross our natural tendencies will grow more prominent and we will become stronger in the works of our flesh.

Eventually his self promoting reached an extreme level. One of the manifestations of this was his inability to take from other Christian teachers and feel no compulsion to acknowledge them. Yet, he zealously guarded his own work and always sought recognition for his work and contributions.

It is possible to have great gifts and to be entrusted with much and have a bad ending. Look at Sampson. What a failure!! And the entire nation suffered as he did not lead the tribe of Dan against the Philistines. Look at Solomon. Is he not perhaps the greatest failure in the Bible? He built the temple but the nation was divided because of his life.

In the 50's and 60's and early seventies, the Lord was surely working in wonderful ways. Witness Lee was a part of this and had he been just a little bit on the humble side and with pure motives, then who knows how much blessing he could have brought rather than the damage, division and confusion which has become his heritage.

This article on plagiarism is so sad. It grieves me that it can be written but I agree that it needed to be written. Thank you brother Nigel.

Hope, Don Rutledge
A believer in Christ Jesus who is seeking to be a true disciple.
John 8:31-32, Jesus therefore was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, "If you abide in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. " NASB

[Oregon]

Originally Posted by Hope

I knew Witness Lee personally. He was like an older brother and friend. He gave me good personal advice on more than one occasion. Unfortunately, those in the LSM/LC had a myth about the brother. He was excellent in all things period. No problems were ever addressed. Thus his flesh developed. As we mature in age, if we are not under the daily experience of the cross our natural tendencies will grow more prominent and we will become stronger in the works of our flesh.

This is an interesting comment and brings to mind a recent experience. I have a few tape cassettes of Ron Kangas giving a conference 5 or 6 years ago. I thought…..”you know….I should be fair with this guy and give him a shot” and took the tapes and listened to them in my truck going from job to job. He was deeply impressed with Witness Lee and how perfectly in order his office was.…that all his ties and socks were arranged in order by color. This was transformation to RK. This was the expression of a god man who had been totally transformed.

My thought was….”well….there are probably a lot of people who don’t even believe in Christ who are like this.” My wife is an immaculate record keeper. She has a place for everything. A number of years ago we were audited by the IRS. It was very extensive and lasted several months. They wanted to see absolutely everything. Guess what…..every time they asked for another item my wife knew exactly where it was. The end result……we got a hundred and sixty dollar refund from them after the audit.

Is my wife a completely transformed god-man sister? No. She is a dear sister in the Lord and a godly woman no doubt but this is just here nature. She is like this in everything.

[Ohio]

Originally Posted by Hope

Integrity, cutting things straight, character, Christ like compassion, humility, openness are a few matters that a servant of the Lord should cultivate. Note Rom 1:14, I am under obligation (a debtor) both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. NASB The apostle Paul owed many people and had been helped by many. The apostle Witness Lee often boasted how he had the highest revelation and all other Christian teachers had junk. How could Paul be a debtor to the foolish? Yet our apostle Witness Lee was the only person since 1945 with the Lord's ministry? He seemed to owe no one, not even the churches and brethren who had supported him in so many ways. Often instead of expressing gratitude for the brothers, he would belittle them and if some gave any push back, they were thrown under the bus.

I knew Witness Lee personally. He was like an older brother and friend. He gave me good personal advice on more than one occasion. Unfortunately, those in the LSM/LC had a myth about the brother. He was excellent in all things period. No problems were ever addressed. Thus his flesh developed. As we mature in age, if we are not under the daily experience of the cross our natural tendencies will grow more prominent and we will become stronger in the works of our flesh.

Eventually his self promoting reached an extreme level. One of the manifestations of this was his inability to take from other Christian teachers and feel no compulsion to acknowledge them. Yet, he zealously guarded his own work and always sought recognition for his work and contributions.

It is possible to have great gifts and to be entrusted with much and have a bad ending. Look at Sampson. What a failure!! And the entire nation suffered as he did not lead the tribe of Dan against the Philistines. Look at Solomon. Is he not perhaps the greatest failure in the Bible? He built the temple but the nation was divided because of his life.

In the 50's and 60's and early seventies, the Lord was surely working in wonderful ways. Witness Lee was a part of this and had he been just a little bit on the humble side and with pure motives, then who knows how much blessing he could have brought rather than the damage, division and confusion which has become his heritage.

This article on plagiarism is so sad. It grieves me that it can be written but I agree that it needed to be written. Thank you brother Nigel.

Hope, Don Rutledge
A believer in Christ Jesus who is seeking to be a true disciple.
John 8:31-32, Jesus therefore was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, "If you abide in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. " NASB

I referenced this post to bring this thread forward. The highlighted sections are quite telling, especially by one who knew Lee personally.

[aron]

Originally Posted by Hope

Unfortunately, those in the LSM/LC had a myth about the brother. He was excellent in all things period. No problems were ever addressed. Thus his flesh developed.

That's a strong statement by someone who saw him up close. I was on the fringes but what I saw was in agreement, and I'd challenge our readers: did anyone ever see a problem with Witness Lee successfully get addressed? Ever?

If not, either he really was perfected, or else the system that he ran was rotten.

[aron]

"A Question about Plagiarism"

Liao suggests that one of Nee's major sources for his tripartite anthropolgy might well be J.B. Heard's The Tripartite Nature of Man: Spirit, Soul, and Body, which Nee "failed to give credit to". Leung also surmises that Nee perhaps copied much from some of his sources. I believe, however, that such assertions to possible plagiarism are not doing justice to Nee. For one thing, Nee himself in the preface to The Spiritual Man acknowledged that he was not the originator of the teaching (on the difference between the spirit and the soul), as well as noting that "I have freely quoted" the writings of certain authors and "because there are so many places where I have referenced them, I have not made specific reference to the sources."

For another thing, the notions about plagiarism and presumption to originality are very much products of contemporary Western culture, which are probably not commensurable in many Asian contexts, especially not in the first half of twentieth-century China and particularly not for non-academic writings.

From: Understanding Watchman Nee: Spirituality, Knowledge and Formation, by Dongsheng John Wu. p.79

Not sure if Nee made this admission after his book became widely popular, or before. My memory says that the publisher acknowledged Nee cribbing sources wholesale, without attribution, in subsequent editions, not the first printing. But I don't remember where I read that.

Also interesting that differences in culture may result in different perceptions vis-a-vis acknowledging one's sources. But if we're inclined to give Nee a pass, here, I doubt Lee also gets one. Lee was fully immersed in Western culture. Unless he felt that he was above the law, like Nee before him. "We don't care about right and wrong, just about life", etc etc.

Perhaps Nee really was operating on a higher plane from everyone else. He wrote from the perspective of his mystical union with Christ. Therefore dry, objective, scholarly stuff wasn't his oeuvre. Instead, as Witness Lee put it, "So subjective is my Christ to me, real in me, and rich and sweet. . . " Who cares about untidy things like facts?

This Christ was so subjective to Nee and Lee that citations weren't necessary. Eventually with Lee, even the Bible wasn't needed, because of the immensity of his "God's economy" revelation. He could take those parts of scripture that lined up with the revelation, and toss the rest. And who needs to listen to the people from the "cemeteries", anyway? You know, the ones who actually can read the Greek and the Hebrew? Lee already had a trained cadre of yes-men. He was all set.

"So subjective, is my Christ to me. . . . "

[Freedom]

Originally Posted by aron

"I have freely quoted" the writings of certain authors and "because there are so many places where I have referenced them, I have not made specific reference to the sources."

Imagine if someone, say a college student, was caught plagerizing. When asked to explain their actions, they give Nee's excuse that there are just too many works referenced to bother with citing anything. Yeah that would go over really well.