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| Peter Lineham |
'PERFECT' FOR ABUSEThe latest chapter in the sad story of the Commonwealth Covenant Church as survivors speak out. If you judge a movement like British Israelism by its fruits it's hard it imagine you'll find anything edifying.
Massey University history professor Peter Lineham says the CCC presents "a really peculiar story in some ways".
The church fused Pentecostal beliefs with British Israelism, a belief the Anglo-Celtic people and similar groups were descendants of the mythical Ten Lost Tribes of Israel.
He cautions against calling the CCC a cult, but is not surprised to hear some of the claims against it.
"Within the tightness of a small church group, it's a perfect place for bad behaviour to take place because people feel caught up in loyalty and will disempower people against a leader if a leader is accused of abuse."
Some of Lineham's commons fit like a glove with the WCG experience... or more latterly PCG, RCG, ICG, LCG etc. You'll find the article here.
2 comments:
"He [historian Peter Lineman] cautions against calling the CCC a cult, but is not surprised to hear some of the claims against it."
Balderdash, Mr. Lineman. :-)
You gotta wonder what part of "abusive cult" he doesn't understand.
Or just what kind of hellish nonsense a group would have to indulge in before he would feel comfortable using the term.
What occurs to me is that influence and leadership can and do exist without needing to be spiked by dubious mythology.
The concept of the myth can be corrupted and used to promote, foment, and impliment an agenda. Or you can falsely reduce a powerful or popular concept to the status of myth to suit a particular agenda. Basically, falseness breeds more falseness. It's just another form of lying or deception.
BB
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