A blast from the past

[Thankful Jane]

Over a year ago, someone presented me with a folder and said I might be interested in the contents. I opened it and couldn’t believe my eyes. In my hands was a full page spread from the Houston Chronicle dated April 30, 1977. I had never seen this article before. The person who gave it to me was in the Church in Houston at that time, and they happened to see the article when it was published. We, of course, were discouraged from reading anything but church materials, so it was a small wonder this person had seen the article. They told me that at the time they were somewhat on the periphery of the church life. They had saved the article. Last year they happened across it and decided to pass it to me.

I have scanned the two part article and posted it in a pdf below. (I had to scan it in four sections because of its size.) Here’s a little background: In my book (www.thethreadofgold.com, now available on our website to be downloaded as a pdf), I tell about a single sister that lived with us who was whisked away by her parents and deprogrammed. As you will see in the part of the article about her, she was from a wealthy Houston family. I had no idea that the account of her deprogramming/rescue had made it to the “Religion” page of the Houston Chronicle. The other part of the article is about the Church in Houston.

Ray Graver was the LC spokesman. His stated intent was to portray the LC as a normal church, not a cult. After reading the whole article, and noting the date on it, I just shook my head. This event, in this “normal” church, took place exactly 1 month before the elders in this "normal" church threw me into a pit, so to speak. This sister had lived with us for about a year. We, including two sisters who were living with us, were very upset when we learned her parents had taken her to have her deprogrammed. Isn’t interesting that in this normal Christian church not one of these normal Christian elders ever told us anything more about what had happened to her, nor did they tell us about this article, even when they knew full well we would never see it because we didn't read the newspaper? According to the article, they took some other members with them to the Houston Chronicle interview, but we were not in that number. None of these others who knew about it said anything to us, either.

How very strange that 30+ years later, God placed this in my hands...The verse comes to mind that says there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed ….

There is an interesting picture of the illustrious spokesman for the Church in Houston. Those who know him may agree with me that the photographer did a good job of capturing a classic Ray Graver expression.

Thankful,

Any chance you could post this on the "other" forum...for those of us who aren't registered here? (It appears you have to be registered to view attachments.)

Thank you,
"guest"

[UntoHim]

Ok guys, I think I have been able to enable "guests" and unregistered users to download attachments. Please let me know if it is still not working on your end.

[Ohio]

Originally Posted by Thankful Jane

Over a year ago, someone presented me with a folder and said I might be interested in the contents. I opened it and couldn’t believe my eyes. In my hands was a full page spread from the Houston Chronicle dated April 30, 1977. I had never seen this article before. The person who gave it to me was in the Church in Houston at that time, and they happened to see the article when it was published. We, of course, were discouraged from reading anything but church materials ...

This reminds me of a similar newspaper article which ran in Cleveland about the same time. I grew up in Cleveland, but migrated with the church to Columbus in September of '77. Actually the Cleveland Press article ran every day for a week at least, with the title "Church or Cult."

What always bothered me was the hush-hush attitude of the leaders. While I was in school in Columbus, every person I ever knew, friends and family and neighbors, were reading about the church I once attended in Cleveland. After I heard about the articles, I tried to get copies, but no one seemed to have it. One would think that reprints would be made available for church members.

Similar attitudes were held concerning the two books, Mindbenders and God-Men. By the time we found out about the books, we were instructed not to read them.

Because of this I had no way to prepare myself for the change in attitude which quickly developed in my family. They had been reading articles I didn't even know existed. We were told, "the brothers are taking care of it."

[YP0534]

Cosmic Christ?

[Nell]

Originally Posted by Thankful Jane

...
There is an interesting picture of the illustrious spokesman for the Church in Houston. Those who know him may agree with me that the photographer did a good job of capturing a classic Ray Graver expression.

Yup. That's why the young people in Houston called him X-Ray.

Nell

[Paul Cox]

Originally Posted by Ohio

This reminds me of a similar newspaper article which ran in Cleveland about the same time. I grew up in Cleveland, but migrated with the church to Columbus in September of '77. Actually the Cleveland Press article ran every day for a week at least, with the title "Church or Cult."

What always bothered me was the hush-hush attitude of the leaders. While I was in school in Columbus, every person I ever knew, friends and family and neighbors, were reading about the church I once attended in Cleveland. After I heard about the articles, I tried to get copies, but no one seemed to have it. One would think that reprints would be made available for church members.

Similar attitudes were held concerning the two books, Mindbenders and God-Men. By the time we found out about the books, we were instructed not to read them.

Because of this I had no way to prepare myself for the change in attitude which quickly developed in my family. They had been reading articles I didn't even know existed. We were told, "the brothers are taking care of it."

When I first saw that article, it was showed to me in a kind of a hush-hush side manner. In later years I began to reflect on why, maybe, they didn't want the news of this article to be passed around. You see, if a member could be deprogrammed, then is must be that they were programed in the first place. If you are having "Christ dispensed into your being" as they claim, that is something that can't be deprogrammed out of you.

The little secret that they didn't want to get out is that the saints weren't really experiencing that much transformation from the constant flooding by Witness Lee's Ministry, through perpetual trainings, meetings, conferences, and pray-reading sessions. What was really going on is that their minds were being programed.

LSM leadership would like to keep the saints believing that their methods are in the realm of the "mystical." There's nothing mysterious about it. To a large degree, it is brainwashing. And, if the hard-drive can be programed, it can be deprogrammed. But that's not in the realm of the Spirit.

Roger

[manna-man]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Thankful,

Any chance you could post this on the "other" forum...for those of us who aren't registered here? (It appears you have to be registered to view attachments.)

Thank you,
"guest"

Register silly wabbit!

Originally Posted by manna-man

Register silly wabbit!

Um....why?

[YP0534]

Originally Posted by Roger

You see, if a member could be deprogrammed, then it must be that they were programed in the first place. If you are having "Christ dispensed into your being" as they claim, that is something that can't be deprogrammed out of you.

Setting aside for the moment how much Christ may or may not have been "dispensed" during trainings and other Local Church activities, "deprogramming" is nothing more than counter-brainwashing and I'm not aware of anything that would necessarily make such normative-values programming superior to those generally espoused within the Local Church Christian subculture. I also don't know why authentically spiritual Christians would necessarily be immune.

These articles are excellent examples of the naive approach to alternative religions that was popular at the time. Until Jonestown, the Moonies and the Hare Krishnas were the go-to comparisons, which were actually intended to be self-proving judgments. The Local Church at the time protested being included in cult books along with those religions on that basis alone. Once Satan accomplished Jonestown as a pseudo-Christian suicide cult, the game was all the more serious and urgent to the popular culture, particularly among the evangelical denominations and free groups. But that doesn't mean the game wasn't exactly the same.

I found these articles a very interesting read, however, primarily for that very reason. The cult books themselves don't adequately capture this aspect of the popular sentiment which drove the "counter-cult" movement for so long.

But it isn't 1977, and hasn't been for a very long time...

[countmeworthy]

Originally Posted by Roger

When I first saw that article, it was showed to me in a kind of a hush-hush side manner. In later years I began to reflect on why, maybe, they didn't want the news of this article to be passed around. You see, if a member could be deprogrammed, then is must be that they were programed in the first place. If you are having "Christ dispensed into your being" as they claim, that is something that can't be deprogrammed out of you.

The little secret that they didn't want to get out is that the saints weren't really experiencing that much transformation from the constant flooding by Witness Lee's Ministry, through perpetual trainings, meetings, conferences, and pray-reading sessions. What was really going on is that their minds were being programed.
LSM leadership would like to keep the saints believing that their methods are in the realm of the "mystical." There's nothing mysterious about it. To a large degree, it is brainwashing. And, if the hard-drive can be programed, it can be deprogrammed. But that's not in the realm of the Spirit.
Roger

Having been raised as a Catholic........vain, repititious 'prayers' was a way of life for us. It meant nothing...no life...no Love..no meaning.

MOst of us experienced a great washing of our souls in the mid 70s when I came to the LORD JESUS through His drawing me to Himself. He used the LC saints of course to draw me.

The first time we called upon the Name of the Lord from a pure heart we were exhuberant. It didn't matter if we shouted or if we whispered His Name ...so long as it was genuine and from a pure, Love filled heart. The scriptures became alive to us because the Spirit of Truth was revealing the WORD of GOD to us individually and corporately.

Many people truly experienced the beginning process of transformation. But it was quelched because calling on the Name of the Lord, pray reading, the meetings, the dress code, the LC language, the tone........all turned into a methodical mantra. It killed the heart of the saints. Furthermore, as we read scriptures, and life studies, we began to read, see and hear Lee's words...NOT GOD'S WORD.

That is why the Spirit of Truth, the Spirit of Joy, the Spirit of brotherly love left the LSM/LC. It became the spirit of Witness Lee.

[PriestlyScribe]

Originally Posted by Roger

The little secret that they didn't want to get out is that the saints weren't really experiencing that much transformation from the constant flooding by Witness Lee's Ministry, through perpetual trainings, meetings, conferences, and pray-reading sessions. What was really going on is that their minds were being programed.

LSM leadership would like to keep the saints believing that their methods are in the realm of the "mystical." There's nothing mysterious about it. To a large degree, it is brainwashing. And, if the hard-drive can be programed, it can be deprogrammed. But that's not in the realm of the Spirit.

Roger

In addition to the subconscious mind programming, it is also a fact that every time we expose our mentality to an aspect of Biblical Truth - yet do not immediately respond with a willingness and an earnest desire to obey that Biblical Truth - we will become to that same degree paralyzed in regards to reality.

Over time such a practice will degrade people's minds and render them sitting ducks for self deception. And saints are being taught that there is no need for them to discern [judge] any speaking or printed material issuing from the Conferences or Trainings as long as it has it's origin with the one approved ministry!

Same goes for singing all those wonderful Truth-Packed hymns in a routine manner - paralysis will be the incremental result instead of "Metabolic Transformation" as we were wrongly led to believe.



P.S. [Learning how to de-program]