Re: The Living Word Fellowship, The Walk, John Robert Stevens
Date: February 08, 2020 12:49AM
Aardvark Wrote:
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> The fellowship you describe is not the same one I
> experienced (at least in the one church I was
> associated with). The shepherds and sheep were
> loving, not demanding or abusive. Or maybe God
> protected me- I don’t know. I’m sorry that you,
> and apparently many others had a different
> experience.
>
> My current struggle is to reconcile these two
> viewpoints - cognitive dissonance. I’ve spoken to
> many others who have the same struggle.
>
> Hope all find the peace and healing they are
> seeking.
I know this is an old message, but I am playing catch up and came across this thread.
I had a very similar experience during the 70s and 80s. I grew up in the San Gabriel church under Dick Lloyd's leadership. Went to the Kingdom Schools for several years. Most of my memories and experiences were very positive...BUT, I know I was isolated. I remember rumors of things taking place in Sepulveda and San Diego churches; I had friends in the Anaheim church who they tried to remove from their families; and I remember strange secretive things happening, that I know now, were hiding abuses. None of these things happened to me, and I had a hard time believing them at the time. I grew up happy in a small loving congregation isolated from the abuses taking place in the spiritual hubs.
I left the church around '86. The response to the death of JRS was the beginning of the end for me. The way people reacted to it. The strange belief that he would be resurrected, like Christ. Then MH and GH getting together so soon after JRS died? I knew in my heart that they were messing around before JRS died and this was a power play. As the Word changed and M&G started settling into their new positions, I could smell the rot, even in my sheltered little church. I knew then that if those telling me they spoke the word of God were so "fallible", how could I be sure they truly spoke the word of God? That is when I left the church. From there I became an agnostic, and eventually an atheist. To this day, I hold Dick Lloyd in the highest esteem, and believe that he was as true and genuine as they come. MH, I never liked. I could see through her from the beginning. GH, I liked even less. As a young adult, I thought he was a pompous ass. But those were my impressions from afar as I never interacted with either of them directly.
Since finding this board, most, if not all, of the suspicions and rumors have been confirmed by multiple sources. The LWC is and always was a cult. It may have had pockets of good loving people here and there, but it was rotten at the core from the beginning.