My mother and I moved to Texas when I was 9 year old. I was involved
in a church that I now know was actually a religious cult. They
followed the physical ways of the penticostal church. If a woman
cut her hair or wore pants it was a sin. No swimming, music, tv,
sports, amusement parks - the list goes on. The church I was involved
in eventually fell apart, but there are still thousands of active
churches all over the world.
You are not allowed to do anything without asking the pastor
first. If you do, you are shunned and treated as if you are not
worthy of anyone that follows and obeys the words of the pastor.
I remember people asking the pastor questions about his teachings
because they did not understand a word he was talking about. His
reply was, "If you all would read your Bible daily, you would
understand me!" and "God has given me a gift to speak
above all of those who do not read his word!" We later found
out that the pastor was drunk 98% of the time that he was supposed
to be "above us in God's words" preaching.
Different adults would try to get activities together for the
youth. During the first baseball game, someone fell and broke
a leg. After that, the pastor forbid anyone to play any sports.
He said, " God must not want us playing sports, after all
he proved it by (blank) breaking a bone!"
This man had all control over the money people were paying towards
tithes. Some people were putting a ton of money in the offering
plate and could barely feed their families. Meanwhile, the pastor
and his kids were driving BMWs, Lincolns, etc. and wearing nothing
but expensive brand name clothes paid for by struggling subservient
church members!
I could write a book on my story, as this is just a crumb of
my experience. I know that there are so many more people still
naive to what they are involved in, specifically the church cult
I was involved in.
