In this article, independent theosophist Henry Stokes and editor of The O.E. Library Critic responds to the arguments put forward by B.W. Lindberg, a member of the Liberal Catholic Church and who tried to mitigate
the remarks made by Mr. T.H. Martyn vs. Charles Leadbeater.
FATHER LINDBERG GOES OVER
THE TOP
The battle
of Kurukshetra is on and the snorting of the elephants has begun. One of the
latest snorts is a letter from Father B. W. Lindberg, formerly a physician in
Kansas City, but now a priest in Leadbeater’s church in Sydney, Australia. This
letter is being circulated in the American Section for the encouragement of the
faithful and the confusion of evil speakers. Father Lindberg replies to certain
statements made by Mr. T. H. Martyn, in his letter to Mrs. Besant (published in
the O.E. Library Critic, January 4th, 1922). I am not concerned with what he
says of “Bishop” Wedgwood, as later developments have confirmed Mr. Martyn’s
statements.
Speaking of Arhat Leadbeater, Mr. Martyn says, in part:
« By this time (1917) Mrs. Martyn had
become intensely unhappy about C. W. L. in the house. She had seen naked boys
in his bed and other facts had come to her knowledge. I refused to sympathize
with her views and for my sake she kept her peace and I held things together.
Later (1918-19) scarlet fever in the house caused Leadbeater and his boys to
move out temporarily and all my persuasions were insufficient to in duce Mrs.
Martyn to have him back again. She point-blank refused —though again in
consideration for my own feelings— she told me nothing of what she knew. I only
learned that on my return from America 1919-20. »
Referring to
this Father Lindberg states:
« Again, as to Bishop Leadbeater being
refused the re-entry into his former home, after his return from a journey—
that to my knowledge is an absolute misstatement. The facts are that at the
time when this particular incident occurred, he was practically confined to his
bed and had not been able to take a journey for a year or more. But as Mr. and
Mrs. Martyn were both going to Europe, and were sending the children to a
boarding school, it meant that Bishop Leadbeater would be left wholly in the
hands of a housekeeper and servants. This they were naturally unwilling to do,
and so other quarters were found in the house of a Swedish friend of mine, a
devoted admirer of the Bishop. To show the very friendly spirit in which this
change was made, a suite of furniture which the Bishop liked was sent by his
former hosts to his new quarters. »
A comparison
of these statements shows that Mr. Martyn says nothing whatever as to a journey
or the state of the Arhat’s health, and as Mr. Martyn can reasonably be
supposed to know the affairs of his own household (which I happen to know from
other sources to be the fact) one might conclude that someone has been lying
and that it is not Mr. Martyn. The explanation of the discrepancy is obvious
enough. Mr. Martyn gave the true reason for the Arhat’s exclusion from his
house in his letter to Mrs. Besant, but being pre-eminently a gentleman of
kindly and considerate character and not wishing to hurt the Arhat’s feelings,
he put him off with the pretext that he was going to Europe and didn't want to
leave him with his servants. And Father Lindberg has swallowed this polite
evasion, bait, hook and sinker. Had Mr. Martyn been less considerate he would
have kicked the Arhat into the middle of the street.
The matter
of the naked boy (Mr. Martyn says “naked boys . . . and other facts”) is also
neatly explained by Father Lindberg. The Arhat was “giving him treatments.”
Just so. But omission is made of any statement as to the character of the
treatment he was giving, and why the boy had to be naked. It is not on record
that the Arhat is a specialist in massage, but it is on record —his own
admission— that he recommended a certain immoral practice as calculated to
increase the physical manhood, and actually gave practical demonstrations in
the same to his boys (see O.E. Library Critic, March 29, April 12). This
reminds us of the Arhat’s excuse for being found with another naked boy at
Adyar, that he was “washing his head.” (“Mrs. Besant and the Alcyone Case,”
page 199.)
It is not
with the intention of reflecting on Arhat Leadbeater, but of exposing the
muddle in Father Lindberg’s noddle that I call attention to the fact that his
statement that “it would be physically impossible for a man addicted to a vice
of the kind suggested in those horrible accusations to lead the strenuous life
of continuous and splendidly effective work that he does” does not harmonize
well with his statement that the Arhat was practically confined to his bed and
unable to take a journey for a year or more a short time after the period
during which the incidents referred to by Mr. Martyn were in progress.
If Father
Lindberg reads the Leadbeater “cipher letter”— and it will be his own fault if
he does not— will he perhaps ask us to believe that the Arhat was merely
instructing the boy H. Z. in the best way of scratching his nose or rubbing his
tummy? As a physician the Father should be able to give us a satisfactory
explanation as to why the Arhat congratulated the boy on finding the sensation
of rubbing his tummy so pleasant, why tummies should not be permitted to
manifest themselves spontaneously, and why he had to write it all in cipher.
As an
unconscious humorist Father Lindberg even exceeds Father Cooper— some feat, I
can assure you.
(O.E.
Library Critic, June 7, 1922, Vol. 11, No. 22, p.5-6)
OBSERVATIONS
Leadbeater
pretended to be an Arhat, i.e. a very high spiritually being who already has
his hidden powers awake and who is close to reaching Nirvana; and that is why
Henry Stokes cynically calls him "the Arhat"-
B.W.
Lindberg was not a true priest because the Liberal Catholic Church is a
spurious congregation that is not recognized by the other churches, and the
defense that he makes towards Leadbeater reminds me the defense that Cardinal
Norberto Rivera made to try to protect his pedophile colleagues.
But there
are many facts that show Leadbeater was a pedophile (naked children, encrypted
messages, boys who accused him). So "Father" Lindberg's defense was
just one more attempt to try to hide thisuncomfortable truth.
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