Healthy Submission vs. Lording it over

[Ohio]

On another post, UntoHim wrote this:

Maybe part of the recovery process for ex members should be a cold, hard assessment of how it is they fell pray to this kind of control, maybe helping them and their loved ones to avoid such pitfalls in the future. I understand fully why ex members are kind of resistant to this kind of painful introspection...it ain't real fun, especially when you are going it alone.

Which prompted me to consider my own history in the LC's, so I posted this testimony:

When I first entered the LC's in the mid 70's in Cleveland, I truly was filled in the Spirit thru the fellowship in the meetings. They truly were life-changing to me in so many ways. I tasted and experienced something purely divine according to God's word, and the normal result in my heart was to submit myself to these ones in the fear of God. From where I was coming from, firstly the RCC and then headlong into the world, this all was new territory for me. The exceeding great joy within produced the fruit of submission in me, and that in itself was a great miracle.

Within a very short time, LSM operatives had begun to take advantage of this godly submission within me and others. By the summer of '77, I was literally told by an older Cleveland brother that, " get yourself ready, you are in the Lord's army, He is moving to the campuses, and you will be told where to move to." Here you can see the effect LSM had upon the LC's, with shepherding brothers reinforcing LSM directives, all at the expense of the young saints, whose only desire was to be pleasing to the Lord.

Slowly, as time passed by, the level of joy slowly subsided, while the levels of control and mistreatment ratcheted up. Sometimes the changes were imperceptible, other times, like during the "new way," radical changes were disguised by "spiritual talk." Of course, each person's character and context was slightly different, and each had his own acceptable limits.

I place nearly all the responsibility squarely on the leaders. They took advantage of God's heritage. Shame on them. Shame on all the evil workers who have hurt God's children. They have become savage wolves preying on God's sheep. (Acts 20.29)

I still think this topic is a valuable one to explore. I have discussed this topic elsewhere with saints, and they had a similar story -- feeling that our "healthy submission" was taken advantage of over time and, in many cases, replaced by a "lording it over." I personally feel that understanding the dynamics here, will help to explain so many issues surrounding LC'ers -- explaining why many stay and why I stayed so long.

As UntoHim originally posted, we do need an "assessment of how it is [we] fell prey to this kind of control." Or as I have said often before, "how could something so good become so bad." I welcome any and all comments. Even to this somewhat provocative phrase "so good."

[IDon'tKnow]

Well I guess that related to this thread I posted on the previous thread this

I remember one brother told me that basically he wasn't experiencing anything, but that he had faith that he was experiencing even though he wasn't. Anyway I get the impression that when it came down to it he had been brought to a point where it didn't matter whether the ministry matched his experience, his inward feeling, his outward situation, anything, all that mattered was that the ministry was the correct interpretation of the bible, and that if anything within him disagreed with the ministry that was from the self and the soul and not to be trusted, after all the ministry said so. This definitely seemed to be my experience anyway, and from looking around I wouldn't be shocked if it reflected the experiences of many. My point is that I think that to a certain extent the ministry brings people to the point where they due to the inherently subjective nature of spiritual experiences (How can you really tell the difference between the spirit and the soul anyway) are unwilling to trust what they are experiencing simply to trust what is spoken in the ministry, after all it was from the minister of the age hence his spiritual experience is to be trusted. I.E. people are brought to a point where they are no longer capable of trusting any of their own faculties. Would this count as mind control? I don't know. I would be interested in hearing the experiences of others related to this.

Also can I suggest that when speaking about the responsibility for what went on I think it is best to get away from thinking of things in terms of 50/50 responsibility or 60/40 or whatever. I think in terms of responsibility it is best to simply state I am 100% responsible for my being controlled, and that the other person also is 100% responsible for what he did. I think this is practical because in the end we are all valible, fallen human beings and we cannot rely on others to be perfect and know what they were doing. More importantly it is up to us to learn from our own mistakes (we should probably learn from others while were at it too), but it is up to everyone else to learn from theirs.