The 1987 High School Training In Irving 8-17-87

[PriestlyScribe]

How many of you surviving ex-church kids actually made it through this LC/LR meat grinder? If you did go, please forgive your parents for sending you there - they knew not what they were doing - or, maybe they did?

The most disgusting thing about this for me was to see the Trainers bashing the natural desire for boy-girl relationships while at the same time the head honcho of this operation Philip Lee, brother Lee's #1 son, was known by many to have a history of abusing women behind closed doors in the Living Stream Ministry Office!

This video proves that John Ingalls was right when he claimed the "NATURE" of the Lord's Recovery had changed into something that greatly troubled his conscience. (Check out his e-book at www.JohnIngalls.com )

The famed "G-MAN Performance" begins at 1hr 15min
https://youtu.be/Q1087V4MiVw

In case the video get's taken down off of YouTube you can also find it here on Rumble:
https://rumble.com/vfjhe3-hs-highlights-part-1.html

P.S.

[PriestlyScribe]

To help with navigation inside that 2hr video I have added the following to the video description. If anyone would like to pinpoint other sections and maybe even provide actual names of people like the Trainers it would be appreciated. I am pretty sure that is Ray Graver at the beginning setting up tables and later seen smoothing wet concrete:

@47:00​ Burning
@49:00​ Nighttime Baptisms of brothers
@52:00​ Bathtub Baptisms of sisters
@01:10:00​ Brothers going crazy at the podium
@01:11:00​ Mystery of Human Life Demo
@01:14:00​ Brothers special singing at podium (cool head move)
@01:15:00​ The G-MEN PRESENTATION (procession)
@01:27:00​ The G-MEN MARCH (drill team demonstration)
@01:29:00​ Special Proclamation
@01:33:00​ Bell Ringing Brothers at the podium
@01:37:00​ Brothers Quartet at the podium
@01:44:00​ Testimonies at the podium
@01:49:00​ Daytime Baptisms
@01:54:00​ Small boy with BIG Ball Cap reciting at podium
@01:56:00​ Corporate Singing

P.S.

[alwayscurious]

What are they burning at 00:47??????

[PriestlyScribe]

Part Two of this event is now uploaded at this link: https://youtu.be/_oxLbUKWZZg

P.S.

[aron]

Originally Posted by PriestlyScribe

01:54:00​ Small boy with BIG Ball Cap reciting at podium

Right before this, a man stands at the podium and says, "As you can see, brothers and sisters, there's a lot of need of training and discipline in the Lord's Recovery. We don't do this in a kind of performance, we do this to show all of the young brothers and sisters that training is needed to carry out the gospelizing and truthizing and the YPGs. It requires a lot of discipline and training. And I think that these young brothers and sisters have demonstrated that the Americans have the possibility to be trained and that the Lord's Recovery in America has a bright future."

Before I comment, I first want to point out that this movement started when a young Bible student copied someone else's writing and published it without attribution, as his own. Many were fooled, that some great spiritual giant had arisen. Witness Lee even said that he was shocked when he found out how young Watchman Nee was - he thought he must be a wise old man! But when it was discovered that Watchman Nee was just cribbing Jessie Penn-Lewis, it was waved off, that it was some kind of homage. (try telling that to your 10th-grade history teacher)

Watchman Nee was a clever youth, with an apparently remarkable grasp of the English language. He later spoke at Keswick, and they were amazed at his language skill. So he was able to spin Jessie Penn-Lewis forth and it seemed like he was some kind of mystic. And when it was pointed out, the publisher admitted it but said, Hey, he's Chinese. They do this, you know; to them, it's not stealing.

So the act of appropriation was ignored, the clear warning sign was waved off, and they thronged to hear Nee, and a movement was born. But the seed, the root of it all was self-oriented will of fallen humanity. Everything that followed continued in this line, going right through Arlington Texas in 1987 and beyond.

Originally Posted by PriestlyScribe

The most disgusting thing about this for me was to see the Trainers bashing the natural desire for boy-girl relationships while at the same time the head honcho of this operation Philip Lee, brother Lee's #1 son, was known by many to have a history of abusing women behind closed doors in the Living Stream Ministry Office!

Many think that the predations of Lee's sons Philip and Timothy were some anomaly, a thing apart from the other experiences of the Lord's Recovery - but the entire LR existed to just provide a haven for their predations. Everything, all the speeches, the trainings, were there to provide a base, a nest for the Lee family.

One of the YouTube comments says that it reminds him of the Red Guards. Yes, and it should. The whole move, or training, is to create unthinking automatons who'll comply with whatever "flow" or "move" emerges from Witness Lee's household.

The man in the video keeps speaking of a "need". The needs of Lee and his progeny are now placed on the gathered hearers, and in Part Two, as Jake Jacobs gets dozens of naiive and easily swayed teens to pledge their lives to fill those of the Lee family. The man also says that America's youth now has potential, has promise. This shows that he knows that the source of the move, and it's beneficiary, isn't American, but something else. But is it heavenly, or is it rather earthly? If it's from heaven, that's one thing, but if it's cloaked Chinese imperialism then that's quite another. And the way you can tell is, look at the fruit - from the 1920s when Nee copied someone else without attribution, passed it off as his own work, and got away with it, to this very day, just look at the trail of rotten fruit.

There's nothing wrong with being Chinese. The Bible says, "Every tribe and tongue and nation" and that means every single one. But that's not what's being examined here. This is rather to expose cultural imperialism for what it is, a fallen human (satanic control) device and a poorly feigned one, at that. All the traits are there, waiting to be noticed. Once you see them, it's so obvious that it's impossible not to.

And that's what all the shouting slogans and fist pumping and yelling and waving was all about: lose your face, submit, and don't pay attention to what you're actually doing, or the content of what's being said to you, and implied. The repetition has its purposes, the sing-song inflections, and the charismania is deliberate, and artfully employed. That's the delirium you see in the audience. Controlled frenzy used as a tool of a power-mad demagogue (or demi-god).

[PriestlyScribe]

Originally Posted by aron

There's nothing wrong with being Chinese. The Bible says, "Every tribe and tongue and nation" and that means every single one. But that's not what's being examined here. This is rather to expose cultural imperialism for what it is, a fallen human (satanic control) device and a poorly feigned one, at that. All the traits are there, waiting to be noticed. Once you see them, it's so obvious that it's impossible not to.

And that's what all the shouting slogans and fist pumping and yelling and waving was all about: lose your face, submit, and don't pay attention to what you're actually doing, or the content of what's being said to you, and implied. The repetition has its purposes, the sing-song inflections, and the charismania is deliberate, and artfully employed. That's the delirium you see in the audience. Controlled frenzy used as a tool of a power-mad demagogue (or demi-god).

Aron, your writing really impressed me. Here is some more hard evidence of "Controlled Frenzy" & "Cultural Imperialism" from 1987:

FTTT Int. Young People Summer Conference | Graduation Ceremony | Aug 2, 1987
Video link - https://youtu.be/1oqk-nkfaoA

@ 00:08:19 Welcome message to attendees.
@ 00:10:45 Names of 29 sending churches in Taiwan are listed. 390 representatives from these churches are present.
@ 00:11:28 Names of other countries represented are given along with the names of the sending churches. A total of 87 churches with 583 representatives.
@ 00:13:00 Witness Lee presents awards to the two highest performing door-knocking teams.
@ 01:00:20 Witness Lee gives a special word to the young people.
@ 01:19:30 Everyone sings "You Need Jesus" with flags and coordinated hand gestures.
@ 01:24:19 Gospel message presented in English by brother Jake Jacobsen. (NOTE: video drops out from 01:39:45 until 01:45:56 when it's restored).
@ 01:48:18 Another brother invites the unbelievers present to call upon the name of the Lord and become regenerated.
@ 01:51:18 Invitation to be baptized. The waving of booklets by interested attendees. Instructions are given on filling out cards for future contact.
@ 02:01:51 Instructions to American saints about transportation.

P.S.

[aron]

Originally Posted by PriestlyScribe

Here is some more hard evidence of "Controlled Frenzy" & "Cultural Imperialism" from 1987:

FTTT Int. Young People Summer Conference | Graduation Ceremony | Aug 2, 1987
Video link - https://youtu.be/1oqk-nkfaoA

There's a young woman testifying at the 50 minute mark, saying that a couple friends wanted to kill themselves, then that the reality is Christ, and the others miss that, and they don't know the meaning and purpose of their human life. All that seems fairly straightforward Christian gospel, except that she keeps nervously rocking back and forth, like a bouncing or hopping move but she can't quite leave the ground. So I'm watching it, and think about young teens and the socialization process that leads them through high school, sometimes to suicide, to drugs, to video games, to dangerous car races (also to church group, college, marriage, jobs).

To me, her voice intonation and body language are saying, "I want to be in the GROUP!! Can't you see that I belong to the GROUP!!" She's using the hop and the rhythmic intonations and the terminology to integrate herself. The translator beside her is doing the same thing with the militaristic hand chop and rhythmic intonations.

But the woman can't even hop in sync with her rising and falling vocalizations. She just kind of nervously bounces up and down, like a twitch or a tic. Now we may say, "She's speaking in front of a large audience. Judgment begins in the house of God. This is a training" Yes, and it's not "in spirit", but in "nervous energy", as she's trying to pass muster with the large group in front of her. It's no different from the dynamics at a LC "home meeting" or "college meeting" or Sunday "Lord's Table meeting" except now the stakes are higher. High school teens and college students find themselves faced with a peer group and try to fit in. None of them wants to be judged, rejected, and cast out. So in the LC they cry out in sing-song cadence, using the special words, and make the special hopping motions. "I want to be-LOONNNG! Can't you see I want to be-LOOONNNNGGG!!" And then the group says "amen" in unison and the warm fuzzies hopefully appear.

The whole "exercise your spirit" mantra is a vehicle to subsume oneself to the group culture. First, one gets into a psychic "state", no different from Primal Scream Therapy or roaring in unison at a concert or sporting event. Yes, sometimes it's good and even therapeutic to shout, but this is cultivated, rhythmic, systematic group shouting. And in the LC, going into this "state" publicly, in front of others, is the orientally-sourced "lose-your-face" way of group acculturation.

No different from getting a gang tattoo or wearing the 'colors'... see the uniform clothing, matching baseball caps and patches, the same language, the same intonations and body motions (hopping, rocking, fist thrusts), and it tells a simple narrative. As one of my elders used to say, "You're in the (Chinese) army now". Group-sourced reflexive non-thought, group language, dress, behaviour.

[OBW]

Originally Posted by aron

Before I comment, I first want to point out that this movement started when a young Bible student copied someone else's writing and published it without attribution, as his own.

I assume this is referring to the three volumes of The Spiritual Man. I recall looking through that online several years ago and noting that in Nee's preface to one of the volumes he essentially said that no one else could have seen this except him. Not quite so bluntly as that, but that is what it meant. And when I later discovered that it was mostly a rewrite or another's work, the last thought that Nee was anything but a charlatan and huckster was lost.

[aron]

Originally Posted by PriestlyScribe

The famed "G-MAN Performance" begins at 1hr 15min
https://youtu.be/Q1087V4MiVw

In the G-Man Performance, watching them parade with Living Stream Ministry banners, and

Originally Posted by PriestlyScribe

FTTT Int. Young People Summer Conference | Graduation Ceremony | Aug 2, 1987
Video link - https://youtu.be/1oqk-nkfaoA

At the graduation ceremony, watching them give speeches in front of an 8 foot tall Living Stream Ministry logo, all with Living Stream Ministry baseball caps and patches on their blazers, and then consider the LSM statement on "Shepherding Words"

https://shepherdingwords.com/the-rel...ocal-churches/

"LSM was established as a Levitical service to publish the ministry of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee...

LSM does not oversee the churches or any of their affairs. Neither does LSM direct the service of the co-workers. Some have persisted in accusing LSM of controlling the local churches. The accusation is absurd. Each local church answers directly to the Lord and is under the oversight of local brothers. It is up to these brothers whether and to what degree the church will use LSM materials or participate in LSM-sponsored gatherings. LSM has no organizational, administrative, or financial control over the churches."

But do other ministries have people to carry banners around with their logo, to plaster the logo on themselves? Can you imagine going to a Joyce Meyer conference of a Billy Graham conference or a youth group training somewhere and everyone had a logo on their forehead? It would look creepy, no?

The Shepherding Words says there's this baseless, satanic accusation that LSM controls people. But if we look at the videos that LSM took of their conferences and trainings, it's pretty obvious to most of the rest of us where this viewpoint came from. And when the public sees this, and then reads RecV footnotes: "All churches must be exactly identical, no differences whatever", what are most people going to think?

[OBW]

aron,

Amen.

[Recovering]

I noticed today (August 18, '21) that the videos are no longer available on YouTube due to a copyright violation.


Although I wanted to at the time, thankfully I couldn't go to the High School Training, due to a conflict with family travel, and technically, I wasn't old enough to go although I know there were others younger than High School in attendance. A number of YP from my area did go, including my best friend at the time and my brother; they both make an appearance in the second video during the testimonies. I remember watching the both videos when everyone came back and feeling bad because I had missed out, but that feeling changed after watching so many of my peers crash-and-burn. Eventually our YP workers distanced themselves from it, and we never really talked about it much after that. I think this event was my first inkling that there was something "off" in church life culture.