Thank you for your front page story on Kip McKean’s organization.
I have been counseling people injured by their affiliation with
this group since 1982. Just this week, I gave a "grand rounds’
lecture at Beth Israel/ Harvard Deaconess and a nurse came up to
me afterward, and told me how she had problems for 10 years after
leaving this cult. Unfortunately, most mental health professionals
have not received any specialized training in how to best address
the psychological problems of people involved with cults. This woman
said she went to a therapist for help for years and she was clueless
about mind control issues like phobia programming and thought-stopping.
Most therapists hear the name "Church of Christ" and
think of legitimate denominations like the United Church of Christ
or the mainline Church of Christ. It doesn’t occur to them that
there are destructive mind control groups which masquerade as legitimate.
As Ms. Stockman noted, this group has been kicked off many major
college campuses for the harm they have done.
One factual error: Kip McKean was fired by the mainline Church
of Christ in 1979 for being unbiblical in his mind control methodology
taught to him by Chuck Lucas when Kip was at "Crossroads".
Rev. Buddy Martin, then a minister at the Cape Cod Church of Christ,
now relocated to Texas, has been speaking out against this cult
since they began. He has done many seminars to educate the more
than two million members of the Church of Christ.
The methodology of deceptive, manipulative recruitment and indoctrination
has caused tremendous harm. I have met hundreds of people who have
been completely turned off to religion because of their experience.
Now, it seems there are hundreds, if not thousands of people who
might be leaving this group and can use all the help they can get-
especially from family and friends. Many of these people have been
so hurt by their loved ones during the course of their membership,
(not coming to visit sick and dying parents; not coming to weddings,
births) that they might not be as loving and welcoming as I believe
they should be to these disillusioned people. Their loved ones were
victims and need help.
I want to encourage family and friends of members of this group
to reach out and give forgiveness. In my 27 years of experience
counseling cult members and their families, I can honestly say that
I have never met a person who knowingly joined a cult and knowingly
wanted to hurt the people they love. They thought they were following
God’s Will. Now many of these people are discovering they were just
following a man.
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Steven Alan Hassan
Freedom of Mind Resource Center Inc.
PO Box 45223
Somerville, MA. 02145
U.S.A.
Freedomofmind.com fully supports religious
freedom and the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The fact that a person’s name or group appears on our website
does not necessarily mean they are a destructive mind control cult.
They appear because we have received inquiries and have established
a file on the group.
The Freedom of Mind Resource Center Inc. was established by cult expert Steve Hassan.
