The God-Men: An Inquiry into Witness Lee & the Local Church

[UntoHim]

Originally Posted by Ohio

We should not in any way get the impression that Duddy or Sparks were sincere apologetics led by the Lord to serve His children.

Well, we're just at the beginning of this book. I don't think we can make such a judgment as far as this book is concerned. I don't think it within the purview of this forum to be judging the entire life and times of Neil Duddy, I don't think there is enough time or interest for that. This book seems like it may be packed full of enough stuff for us to discuss for quite a while.

I also disagree that the "the LC was very secretive in general towards outsiders." The churches in Ohio were very open to guests coming to check us out. We had nothing to hide. The Cleveland Press sent a reporter to investigate us and then ran disparaging front page articles on the CinCleve for a whole week. Perhaps you should change this statement to say "LSM was secretive..." or something you are more sure of.

I was devout member of the Local Church of Witness Lee for around 20 years. I was in Orange County, the "headquarters", I lived and attended meetings for well over 10 years within 15 mins of the Ball Rd headquarters and Witness Lee's home. I lived with a number of what are now called "the blended brothers". I never lived in Ohio or the GLA, so if I said something about that area I would probably not be so sure. When I say the Local Church it is the Local Church of my experience. This is what I am sure of. Also, THIS is the Local Church that Neil Duddy researched and wrote about. I'm sorry that he didn't get out to the GLA, maybe he would have gotten a different impression. But the fact of the matter is that Witness Lee was THE leader, the ONLY teacher for the entire Movement, so Duddy naturally focused in on where Lee was based, and the followers that were in his immediate area.

Please, those of you who are going to get all riled up over what is in this book, feel free to skip this thread. Maybe it's not for you. There are many boards with many threads covering many different topics. That's the way the forum was designed and it was done on purpose. This way people can feel free to participate in the threads that are of concern and interest to them, but they are also free to just skip the ones that either don't interest them, or that they feel might by too contentious.

This is not, repeat NOT, a request that any particular persons refrain from participating in this thread. However, I will not let this thread be continually sidetracked by side issues that are not directly related to what is actually written in this book.

I hope ya'll understand.