Life after the LC

[Freedom]

Originally Posted by aron

The whole system is designed to take away choice. First they're told, at about 8 or 10, that to avoid perdition they must believe into and receive Jesus Christ. "You don't want to burn in hell for eternity, do you?"

Then, they're told that only the overcomers will get millenial bliss. "You don't want a thousand years of outer darkness, do you?"

Then, they're told that if they're not "building the Body" then all the sentiments of love and fealty to the Lord are vain. Suddenly it's no longer about faith but rather about works.

And then they're told that any work outside the ministry of Witness Lee and Watchman Nee is vain at best, and divisive and rebellious at worst.

And at every turn, critical and independent thought are discouraged and repressed. In my 'locality' we were told that thinking only produced confusion. "Get out of your mind" was the mantra.

This is the pipeline Gene Gruhler told us about 25 years ago. All designed to push them into the service of an all-too-human publishing house in Ansheim California.

When faced with such a gauntlet, and lacking problem-solving skills to navigate it, some go to meetings once or twice a week, sing a song, share a few sentences on what they enjoyed of Witness Lee's writings, and hope for the best. But a lot of them bail, and abandon the faith entirely. This church, for its size, may produce more determined atheists than any in human history.

Church kids are abnormally sheltered from the outside world. This usually has one of two outcomes. They either reject the LC and religion entirely, or they become dependent on the LC without realizing it. I was one of the latter cases. Having been raised in an environment where celebrating holidays were forbidden and many other normal things were rejected as too 'worldly', it made it hard to relate to anyone. So there was only one thing to turn to and that was the LC. And elders were all too happy to provide their 'guidance'.