Someone reached out today and asked if he could buy a book which I wrote a few years ago and then removed from Amazon because I was threatened that if I didn't, I wouldn't inherit the kingdom.
I don't think whether or not I inherit the kingdom is up to any man other than King Jesus Himself. But just in case, and just in case I would experience some genuine shepherding if I did so, and possibly to prove to my husband that I am still the submissive sister I always have been, I immediately made my book unavailable for the past 3+ years.
Nothing has changed over those years; in many ways, things are worse. My pain and my path for survival and for thriving are not in a vacuum. We are social beings, and I believe social health is a major determinant of our physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health. Our amazing Creator gave us the means to richly communicate, and doing so is vital. Fellowship is a matter of spiritual life or death, I believe.
My writing and offering the book I wrote was/is for communication, for fellowship. I was in indescribable pain, being ostracized from my husband, his family of origin, and most of my church community when I wrote the book to seek and offer help among any others who could relate to my pain.
I welcome any and all feedback... though the only written review of my book so far does grieve my heart. Still, I welcome it, because it only validates the perspective of multiple highly trained professionals who have told me that "the" church that had been my community for nearly all my life is a cult.
So I want to respond here to "Mystic John" who wrote the one review of my book so far.
Dear "Mystic John",
Firstly, who are you? I am willing to have my identity completely visible, because I have nothing to hide. I would be honored to have a genuine conversation with you. I mean that wholeheartedly. Perhaps you would also like to speak with my now-adult children who have been witnesses to their parents' marriage, to their extended family members' involvement in our lives, to our once very busy "church life", and to our nuclear family's demise. They, too, have been, to various degrees, targets of extremely cruel treatment in what we had believed to be our spiritual home and hospital, "the" church... and if you can handle it, my adult children will be sure to be extremely honest.
Which brings me to another question. Why do you claim that nothing in my book can be trusted? This is my life that I wrote about. I am very aware of laws concerning libel and slander, and I have always exercised to be meticulously honest. I realize that many things I wrote about could seem inflammatory; indeed, abuse, neglect, hypocrisy, religiosity coupled with total disregard of human needs are inflammatory topics. I was careful, therefore, to write about things I can prove and about which I am personally privy. For most claims, I have written proof and/or witnesses if you need those. So what in my book can't be trusted? Oh, yes. You already stated your answer: “Nothing in it can be trusted.”
Mystic John, it is very unkind, to put it mildly, to anonymously accuse an abuse victim of being untrustworthy, calling her book "misleading" and "damaging"when she finally, after years of seeking resolution privately, began to share openly about intolerable abuse. The damaging and stumbling factors in my story are what have been done and not done by leaders in, I assume, your church community, since you seem to have cause to defend it and seem to have feelings and opinions about a book that addresses MY experience in MY marriage and MY (former) church community.
Finally, Mystic John, you state that my book is "replete with sincere feelings and opinions." I agree with you that my book is full of feelings, and that my feelings are sincere. I am thankful to not be beyond feeling. Ephesians 4:19 comes to mind, that some can be beyond feeling, calloused, having lost sensitivity. I pray I would always be full of feeling about things that matter, including the health and safety of God's children. What is your feeling about any of the facts disclosed in my book, if they are indeed true (and they are)?
Where I disagree with you related to this clause is the matter of my book being replete with opinions. I haven't read it for a few years, but I recall being careful to record my factual experiences, and the feelings of unimaginable grief at the loss of my (what I believed to be) godly marriage life and community that were so precious to me.
I'll have to re-read my book, and look for what opinions I expressed. I am averse to opinions, generally, since I was raised under a ministry that taught that there are demons in our opinions, and I don't want any demons. But I do care for the truth, Mystic John. And by the truth, I mean that both spiritually - the Lord Himself being the truth, and also in practicality, the truth spoken and lived out of human beings.
So please feel free to share anything from my book, in the comments, that you found to be my opinions, misleading, and/or damaging.
As I have said in the past, I am not responsible for relieving anyone's pain that is inflicted by the suffering of fellow members - this is unavoidable. The awareness of abuse can cause symptoms experienced by the direct abuse-victims. As mentioned in my previous blog, secondary traumatic stress is real, but it is not the awareness of the abuse that is damaging; it is the actual abuse that is damaging, especially when that abuse is systemically carried out and covered up in a church setting. Becoming aware of abuse can result in extreme pain and grief in those who have once admired the perpetrators, who care for the targets of abuse, and who lovingly don't want anyone to be cruel nor mistreated.
Grief and pain in a social network are healthy and necessary if there is ever to be change - in this case, if there is to be a confronting and an end to abuse. Awareness can lead to healthy action.
This is what I hope for - not to damage or mislead readers.
If what I wrote about in my book is true - and it is - then in a fashion consistent with most others in my former church community, you are not only failing to sincerely care about a victim of abuse or to be bothered enough to confront perpetrators of that abuse and do your part to ensure that the abuse stop. You are going further to accuse the victim of dishonesty, of misleading and damaging the readers of her account. I can only deduct that what matters to you is to protect the image of perpetrators and of the unhealthy organization that has permitted, covered up, and perpetuated abuse of dear believers over many years.
Based on God's Word, having gone to those I could confront both personally and with witnesses, to no avail, I am telling the church through my book and blog. I can't bear the abuse, especially when I see it affecting others (not the least my children), and I know my experiences are not unique, isolated events - I am aware of many others who have suffered much worse than I have, in the same church community.
So, Mystic John, thank you for your feedback. If you are willing to talk with me, I welcome that. My phone # is on the home page of this website, as well as below. If you are not willing to talk with me, yet feel to publicly express your misguided (or dishonest?) opinions, accusing my autobiographical writing as misleading and damaging to "careless" readers, then I grieve yet another validating data point that you may be part of a cult.
Your sister (I assume you are saved) in Christ, in truth, and in love,
Ruth Wise
310-486-3168
Oh - and I am making my book available again (returning soon): https://a.co/d/6hqrblW
"Fear not, little flock,
for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom."
Luke 12:32

Hit-and-run tactics are standard procedure for pro-Recovery internet crusaders. It is their specialty, if you will. I would be genuinely surprised if “Mystic John” responded to you here or elsewhere.
Another commenter here made a statement claiming that someone named “Ron” from Living Stream Ministry ran that account. If this “Mystic John” turned out to be Ron Kangas, that wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest.
In August of 2001, in a letter to Steve Isitt, brother Albert Zehr - a prominent former leader in the LC - made the following observations regarding the Lord's Recovery Movement:
"In their hearts these dear ones have elevated the teachings of Witness Lee and the doctrines of the recovery to be commensurate with the WORD. They perceive these to be God's "present day speaking." Unconsciously, this makes them infallible and unquestionable. They become part of one's very faith and foundation. This stance requires total subjective loyalty and acceptance and makes an objective review impossible if not blasphemous. The longer one is in this mode the more of the lifetime that has been built on it the more inconceivable it…
On a hunch, I scooted on over to the place on Amazon where Lily Hsu's book is for sale.
My Unforgettable Memories: Watchman Nee and Shanghai Local Church
Well well well, it seems our same Mystic John person left a one star review for that book as well, and had similar negative things to say.
Several years ago, that Amazon account had many more caustically written book reviews and had the full moniker "Mystic John - Discerning Reader." It showed the email address of the owner of the Amazon account as ron@lsm.org The account was following a number of persons/items on Amazon that would cast the owner in a very negative light, and these follows, most of the reviews, and the identifying information were subsequently deleted.