Re: Meade Ministries
Date: November 08, 2008 12:29AM
Hi OLI,
I’ll do my best for you:
> I have been interested in ET since I met them years ago. Over the years I have met some really nice ones and others have been the most snobby people I have ever known. One older couple in there 50's or older are soooo sweet and nice. They just seem like really awesome people.
I’m really pleased that some have retained their kindness. I’d love to know who those people are. (A private message would be fine.) I have long hoped that some of them have retained some integrity.
> But the question is; how did Meade convince these intelligent people to follow him to Lake City. I can't understand how he could convince a group of bright young people to move so many miles from their homes up north.
LOL… not an easy question to answer! I’ll try.
> What did he tell them? I couldn't convince one person to leave much less a whole group!
Well, you don’t have divine retribution to throw around. :)
In brief, it wasn’t Charles Meade who convinced them to move to Lake City, it was his wife. He went along with it, for sure, but it was her impetus. By the mid-80s, Meade was over-regarded by the groups. As they shut themselves off, their opinions became ever-more extreme. (There are important general studies on this subject.) So, Meade became not just a good man, but THE man. His wife used this to force the obedience of the group members.
> Also, what is this hold Meade has over all them? They talk about him like he is a god almost. Every home I have ever been in has a picture of Meade and his wife in a frame sitting out somewhere. Why are they so enamored with him?
Originally, it was a high regard that he more or less earned. His original message had value in it. That got things started.
Next, there were some people who did not want to do the hard work of building goodness in themselves and rooting out their flaws. (Which is, after all, hard work!) It was easier to bask in the glow of a “great one.” So, some began to glorify a leader (usually but not always Meade in those days) then to merge their identity with the leader’s. So, there were a lot of people that developed an unspoken and almost sub-conscious ethos that ran something like this:
“I glorify the Great One, obey him, and associate myself with him. Thus, my flaws don’t matter, being overshadowed by his glory.”
(I hope that makes sense – it’s not an everyday concept, but it is very common in the world, and not just with this group.)
Then, of course, some people wanted status. This seems to have been the driving force of Meade’s new wife. And once Mrs. Great One showed that status was the new rule, many people began to eagerly seek it. And glorifying Meade was how to get it. (Sick, huh?)
The other side of that trade certainly mattered as well - fear of not being pious enough. If you don’t play the “glorification of our leader and our team” game, you are demoted, you literally sit in the back, you lose friends, you are never invited to the good gatherings, your children are excluded from the best marriages, and so on. In this group, it got really sick, really fast, mostly because it was instigated from the top.
> Another sad thing I have noticed is the deaths of babies and women from childbirth.
Yeah, I know. As far as I’m concerned, divine healing (or whatever you call it) is a great thing. But, if it isn’t working, the life of your child is more important than a doctrine. These people were forced to choose (a horrible burden) and either chose wrongly, or chose too late in an emergency situation. (Emergencies that cruelly permitted neither delay nor mercy.)
> The girl who babysat their other child was dating my brother at the time. Within a month, the husband was asking her to dinner and wanting to hang out a lot. It was hinted to her that she was being looked at as a potential wife and she backed away.
Creepy, isn’t it? These are people moved by the opinions of others, fear of them and the blinding fear of a punishing god. Decisions are made by reference to the mind of the collective, not by self-reference, or even by reference directly to the bible. (They’ll always quote the bible, but the primary is the authority of their group and the secondary is justification with scripture.)
> Question is, what is said within the church when these situations happen? From the outside it looks like people just move on with their lives and don't give it a second thought!
I don’t know precisely what goes on now, but my explanations above should be very close to reality in general terms. The closed group - the center of reference for nearly all of their thoughts – either rewards or punishes specific lifestyles. Then, since that is THE way and the center of their thinking, they act accordingly. (Or else they recognize the ugliness, have the courage to face it, and withdraw.)
I hope I’ve helped.