From an Anonymous comment:
Hey, at least Dave knows his product and his market. His product may be reviled by thoughtful people, but he knows how to hook his marks.
Compare this to Rod Meredith, who for years has seemed to assume that people were with LCG because they thought Rod was HWA's most legitimate successor. What Rod seems not to have understood is that most LCG members were there not because they thought Rod was so special, but because they respect(ed) Carl McNair or John Ogwyn or their local pastor, and they understood that LCG would "hold fast" to old-school HWA teachings more than the liberal groups like UCG and CGI.
So, once Carl McNair and John Ogwyn were dead, and Rod started to introduce his own weird new doctrines (redefining the Gospel, teaching that Christians go to heaven before Christ returns to the Mount of Olives, reinterpreting the "falling away"), he genuinely seemed to be shocked that many LCG members started banking their tithes, and quite a few simply left.
When LCG started, it had some credibility among ACOG groups as one that would remain doctrinally conservative without being insane. That credibility is now almost completely gone, and LCG members are rapidly departing for their choice of more conservative and/or less insane groups.
Dave knows how to work this to his advantage, to siphon off those LCG members who have proved Rod is a lying senile nepotist but who haven't yet figured out that Pack is little more than smarter and younger version of the same.
Rod still brags about meeting Elliott Richardson and other bigwigs, and doesn't think people will notice that all of his meetings with dignitaries happened 30 to 50 years ago. I doubt Rod has even met his Congressman or Charlotte's mayor, and he certainly hasn't had them over for a visit to LCG's administration building. Rod is living in his own romanticized past, while Dave, despite his delusions, is at least living in the present.
This comment comes from NO2RCM. (I have taken the liberty of dividing his comment into paragraphs.):
In response to anon's 4:50 comments about RCM. That stretch where Ogwyn & McNair died was accompanied by Meredith's ugly rejections of Don Davis and Charles Bryce. Davis had been Rod's right-hand man at the beginning of both Global and Living, and RCM threw him off the council for political reasons. Rod also sent Bryce (as CAD) on a mission and then humiliated Bryce by undercutting him on the very mission he sent him to do. That, too, was for political reasons. Rod later violently thrust Bryce out. That left Rod without 4 excellent advisers, men who would give him the straight poop. From then on, the council has been filled with yes-men. Men who have been taken in by RCM's power and charisma.
It amazes me how some of them totally transition from rational men to gushing sycophants once they get appointed to the council. Although not at all apparent, Rod has a real charismatic power that is hard to resist, especially when you aren't even aware of it. This, of course, is why Rod has to give weekly updates about Charlotte, gives a must-play sermon once a month, writes all the lead articles, etc. He has to keep his face in front of people or their heads will clear, and Rod can't have that.
This is where I disagree with anon -- not that many people have left LCG. RCM has very successfully propagandized hatred for all the other groups, so people stay in LCG regardless of RCM. It is my opinion that RCM is actually worse than Pack as far as spreading hatred for the brethren, probably because he does it more subtly and people don't know they're being manipulated. Anyway, it was that 2004-2006 period where things really went south for Rod and LCG -- symbolized by the Milwaukee shooting.
Fascinating discussion.
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