Statement and Testimony from Former Member of the
Word of Faith Fellowship Church in Spindale, NC USA

Posted on HYPERLINK , 6/8/00

It is hard to begin. I never thought that someone, such as myself, would eventually end up in a cult and spend years there. I chide myself for my ignorance and look back and see the many warning signals. Things were said and done that caused me to question. However, doubts were eased when those in authority in the group explained things to me in a way that I could receive and understand; this didn't stop more questions from arising. One day, the inevitable happened. I had questions for which there was no biblically based answer and the issue then became how to keep me quiet and in line without talking to others about my feelings - rather than merely giving me information to pacify any doubts about the direction that things were taking.

It wasn't until I left and began a search to find what was going on and a search to know where I went wrong that I began to understand, more fully, what a cult is and what mind control is.

I have found that cults come in many sizes and shapes. I first thought cults were groups of people who didn't fit into society, maintaining their own way of life. I was partially right. A cult is defined as a movement, or group, which maintains an excessive devotion or dedication to a person (usually a strong leader), idea or thing. Because of this, cults manipulate and control, maintaining the power structure by any means possible.

A cult develops its own social network, established by its own values and standards. The members of a cult usually do not socialize with those outside the cult. They marry within the cult, raise their children in the ways of the cult. Members form a total dependency on the group to the point of suspending their individuality and critical judgments. The goals of a cult are designed to advance the leaders goals, sometimes to the disadvantage of the individuals that make up the membership. People sacrifice money, time, homes, personal possessions, work long hours - all of which take an amazing toll upon their families and relationships.

Cults use fear, manipulation and control as tools to keep a hold on their community. A religious cult will often threaten people with going to "Hell" if they leave, or perhaps being the recipient of divine judgment on their lives. If they speak against the cult, they are taught their lives will come to ruin. Cults limit the amount of information that the individual members can receive. They are taught that if they want to know anything they must come to those in authority and ask. If they do approach the leaders they will inevitably be put off with statements such as "you are not ready to handle the information". Through manipulating what people know individuals eventually lose their ability to critically judge a situation and think for themselves.

Cults have a centralized authority, a man or woman upon whom rests the ultimate decisions with no checks and balances. Everyone comes into line with their leader's ideas and perceptions about what takes place. The leader may get his authority from a higher power and thus becomes God's voice. This one person in charge always hears the voice of God and dispenses God's guidance and direction. This one person interprets the scripture and tells the followers (congregation) what is "God's Way" for their community of believers. The church is then obliged to follow suit and anyone not doing what is dictated from the pulpit receives discipline at the hands of church leadership.

This discipline comes in several forms. "Blasting" is one of the forms. A strong loud scream into someone's face, over the phone, or in their presence can be given when something is not going according to the designed plan. Most people in the cult hate being screamed at like this; they will do what is necessary to avoid confrontation. Other methods of discipline are: having to sit in the back of the church during service; not talking to people; working in the church but excluded from all church social functions until some type of contrition takes place. Church discipline can also include isolation. Keeping people (teens or adults) separated from their peers, isolated in their homes, not talking to anyone except under controlled conditions until the individual "repents" from whatever "sins" the church says they committed. One individual was isolated from people in her home and in the church, and constrained to sit in a small room upstairs and listen to the leader preach because her sins were so bad that "God wouldn't allow" her in the sanctuary. Sometimes children are not allowed in the sanctuary for just this reason (It often bothered me - what message does this send to a 2nd grader?). It is never a human who makes these decisions; it is God speaking what type of judgment should take place for an erring member. The reason you know it is God speaking is because you are told "God said". If you don't agree, or feel it is too harsh then your argument is with God and not a human being.

Cults maintain an isolation from society at large. This may not be the type of thing that took place in Jonestown or in Waco, TX, but it is isolation. There is no socialization in the community in which you live, no freedom to form friendships outside of the cult, no freedom to go to another church except if the cult leader says you can go and assigns someone to go with you as a "guard". Visiting family members becomes an ordeal, because you must take another cult person home with you, as a guard, to see that you are doing all that God says to do. Coupled with this, you must call the cult headquarters daily, some have called several times a day, to "lock-in" (a cult term which means telling them all that is going on). All media is controlled; no TV, no radio, no newspaper, no magazines, no books. If someone is taking a class at a local school, then their books are obtained for them through someone in the cult that can be trusted. The members attend a local community junior college in groups - so that they will be guarded. Their classes are controlled by the cult leader as a cult member works in the guidance and counseling office and submits the schedules or the students to the leaders.

Cults have a sense that they are the only ones that are right, the rest of the world is wrong. If it is a religious cult, then other churches are in the "false" and the cult has the only truth. Sometimes the leader of the group will bring in videos of other churches who are obviously preaching error and show these to their cult group with the explanation that this is what is going on in the world and aren't you glad you are here.

Mind control is extensively used to change one's thinking to conform to the dynamics of the group. For a religious cult this seems to be the natural thing, because the bible tells us to have the "mind of Christ", and to be "transformed" in your thinking. So to have your thinking transformed from the pulpit is something a church member would not blink an eye at. Mind control involves limiting the information a person has so that there are less alternatives to choose from. Family life is secondary to the cult. The benefit of the cult must come first. Family life is considered perversion if it stops you from doing "God's will". And there is group pressure. If everyone is going to work, and yet they're exhausted but they still go on, then peer pressure dictates that you must also work. Men in the cult spend 70 hour weeks (with anything beyond 40 hours 'voluntary' - they are expected to volunteer).

People who are outside the group are threatening. Safety and refuge are within the bonds and protection the group offers. There were those who left the cult and never heard from again - you were told not to ask. Then there were those who left the cult and came back to tell everyone how "rough" it was out there and what a bad decision they made by leaving. These warnings were echoed over and over again, long after the person went home and returned to their current life. You are told what to believe from the pulpit. Everything that came from the pulpit was "truth" - it didn't matter if you couldn't find it in the Bible, the pulpit said it was "truth" therefore it was. After a period of time you find yourself going to a man and not to God and heeding the voice of a man over the warning inside that signals error... error.... error....

Most people don't ask questions because the bulk of people are working long hours. The exhaustion of some just makes them unable to think. Part of cult dynamics are long hours working. People will come home exhausted and get up at 5 or 6 AM to start the day over again. The only day free from work is Sunday, at which point people nap between services. For some, there was no time to think or talk. It was one perpetual round of cleaning houses for people, remodeling for people, sewing for people, building for people, etc...

Financially, the cult benefits from all this work as church members regularly "volunteer" for contract labor. The companies that are under the auspices of the church will contract for cleaning, remodeling etc. The people will pay the company and the money goes directly into the church, because the company used "volunteers" from the church to do the job. This is God's Way of finances. Recently, the church lost a building to a fire. The building was used as storage for the members' furniture (when you move in with someone you don't need your furniture). The insurance company gave the cult $25,000 to reimburse the owners of the furniture. This money was not given out to the people it was intended for, but put into the church coffer. This is God's way. When things like this get exposed, you don't know whose integrity to question, the leadership's or the God that gave them the directions to do this. No one has ever seen how much money the cult takes in or where it goes. Churches provide their members with financial statements, cults don't.

All evangelism ceased. The bulk of people had come to the cult thinking that they would be sent out as ministers, but there was no evangelism, no going forth, no great commission. The church was told from the pulpit that they needed to have the "work done in" them before they could minister. Evangelism was thus replaced with business ventures. People now lived with the cult members, worked with the cult members, got their money from the cult members, sent the children to the cult school, socialized with the cult members. This way everyone knew everything about you and your life was totally under the control of the cult. It was a total control of your milieu. Further, you had to get permission to visit family, and only if there was no project that the cult was in the midst of doing. All things had to be at right times. The cult said you had to go in God's timing.

We were told that "God" said that people could no longer go places alone, so all the cult members took someone with them when they went out, except for some who seemed to have special privileges within the cult. Any conversations with the outside world that were not "by the Spirit of God" were reported. Children told on their parents, husbands and wives told on each other, there was no one to talk to that you could trust. There was a continual "locking in" - meaning when you were gone for a few hours you needed to call home and tell people there where you were and what you were doing - locking in - so that you could be "covered" in the spirit. This was also God's way.

The scriptures gain more and more scrutiny as some passages are stressed and some passages ignored. The passages being stressed were the ones dealing with rebellion. Naturally, all ones problems were due to the fact that they were in rebellion toward God. Every act of defiance, every look was often scrutinized and disciplined in some manner. People were told all there problems were rooted in rebellion; if they were ill, overweight, or had dysfunctional families it was all rebellion. So, your problems were caused by rebellion. The "word of the Lord" would come to people - "if you submit your heart to God you will lose weight". Submission to God was submission to the cult, they were one in the same. The world was divided into two categories, the ones in the true vein of God and the ones in a false vein. The cult was the true vein and all others were false.

Doctrines began to shift as new meanings were given to old teachings. Questions such as what is salvation, what does it mean to be "saved" arose. It was decided that if you acted like God then you were "saved" and would go to Heaven. All who disobey God will go to Hell. Daily you must obey God in everything or you will go to Hell. There was no grace taught, the carnal man was never mentioned. It was up to the individual to choose Heaven or Hell - your will.

People's sins were dealt with publicly in the cult. Often, people would be brought to the front and singled out with their "sin" exposed to the congregation. Or they would publicly "confess" their sin and express the contriteness of their hearts. In the cult you were taught that Paul said to "rebuke" publicly, so that all would fear. So people were rebuked publicly. If you did not receive this and were upset afterward, it was because your heart was rebellious and you didn't receive. The cult taught if your heart were submitted to God then you would have had the sin broken from your life and you would be in peace. You were upset and tormented because of your own rebellion (in a cult you are always wrong, the leader is always right).

The teaching you received from the pulpit maintained an aura of infallibility. Whatever was said and done was God's voice to you. After a message was preached there sometimes would be quizzing within households on what was said - to make sure you heard. A reverence is demanded for all that was taught, particularly if it applied to human behavior. The cult leader knew the motive of every man's heart, as to "why" they did what they did and could comment on every aspect of human behavior. The church relied heavily upon what the leader said was "God" in the treatment of people. The cult leader was seen as someone who heard the voice of God and obeyed and thereby knew each heart and could tell you what was wrong with a person or what was at work in their lives. The cult leader was considered that perceptive.

If you question the group, the leader, the doctrine, the feeling conveyed is that there is something inherently wrong with you to even question. Your questions are always "turned around" and suddenly you become the one who didn't hear correctly or "twisted" the truth, or lacked understanding. Conveying to you that their doctrine is ultimately more valid, more true and more real than what you saw or experienced. Doubts become a reflection of one's own evil. When doubts arise, an individual's internal conflict became intense. Sometimes people become emotionally upset or torn because of such doubts. When this happens church leaders are dispatched to their home or place of work (at all hours, since they work for the church and live in church housing) to bring them into line. Two, three, four, or more, at a time will surround the individual who has questions and concerns and be relentless in their "hitting it" - verbally confronting until the person breaks and conforms.

Cults have an absolute, or totalist vision of truth. Those who are with them are the ones who have truth. Those who are not a part of the group, particularly those who left, are in "deception", they may be on the point of losing their salvation or have already lost it. If, for some reason, those on the outside pronounce that the group is wrong they are seen as enemies of God. The cult will proclaim their downfall. The cult keeps records on all its people, to use the information against them if necessary. For example, one person was threatened with having her "sins" exposed to her family if she exposed what she knew about the cult. The cult hates exposure on any level. Those who speak ill of the cult are the enemies of God and deserve the judgment of God on their lives.

Isolation within a cult causes the values you live under to become the values of the group. These values are communicated by a cult language, with meaning only to cult members, such as "guarding" (watching and listening to everything someone does), "locking-in" (telling the leaders everything you did and when you did it), "take hold" (pay attention), "skitzed" (frantic), etc. The outside world does not use the cult words the same way that the cult uses them. The cult language becomes another bond.

In a cult, people are often unaware of what is going on and how they are being changed one step at a time. A feeling of powerlessness is created within people. People who try to make decisions, and are told by the leaders that they did not "hear God" or that their decision was not "God", they often get discouraged. Because they are "wrong" so much some just quit thinking, they wait for someone to tell them where to go and what to do. Basically, your confidence in your own perceptions erodes. Your sense of powerlessness increases, your good judgment and understanding tend to diminish. Any distress you experience, you are not allowed to speak about, questions will go unanswered and if you push an issue, they will do their best to suppress your resistance. Cults are a closed system of logic, they may say they want "truth" but in essence nothing is modified except by the order of the leader. Individuals are always wrong, the system, its leaders and its beliefs are always right. As a result, your reality tends to change.

God designed the church to be a "family", which the cult becomes. Many times a blood family is cut off from its son or daughter because of allegiance to the group. People allow change because they want to be accepted, loved and have their deeds approved. Because of this, a person will, speak the language and espouse the beliefs, until such time as what goes on will go against the very fabric of what they feel is right.

Every aspect of your life comes under the scrutiny of the cult leader, which is referred to as bringing your life "under the authority of God". The marriage bed and dating relationships are dictated through the cult. People may come together because of a mutual attraction or just because there is no one else, but approval of an ongoing relationship is through the cult leader. This individual leader hears the voice of God to see what is His will. Once things are established as the will of God couples go to classes and are taught "God's Ways" in relationships. If the couples seem to be getting on and doing the will of God and desire to marry, it is up to the cult leader to tell them "when" they can marry because it all has to be done by the will of God. If an individual's family wants them out of the cult and not to marry another cult member, it is risky. Families have been cut off because of their son or daughters allegiance to the group above their blood family. Once married, couples move into homes of other couples so that a Godly marriage can be established. At least that is what people are told. This is God's way.

Farfetched? Hardly! Authoritarian abuse is prevalent and common. It often goes undetected or is even denied. Spiritual abuse comes from people who are given the respect and honor in a society that lifts up its spiritual leaders. When someone entrusted with the souls of men uses their office to control congregations, the results are catastrophic. It is the abusive leader that demands unquestioning loyalty and submission. People who are strong willed and don't get with the program are cast aside. Some are more vulnerable than others. Some have been taught that questioning their spiritual leader is like questioning God. An excessive desire for power plus religious motives can bring a misuse of spiritual authority.

In the New Testament (Acts 20:28-29) Paul warned the church, saying that "after my departing shall grievous wolves enter among you, not sparing the flock". His warning was a comprehensive one, not just for the time it was written. Cults rose quickly in Paul's time, and he admonished men to be aware because from their own selves "shall men arise, speaking perverse things, drawing away disciples after them". This warning was a daily part of Paul's ministry. He said "remember...for the space of three years I ceased not to warn everyone night and day." (vs. 31) He realized that he was dealing in men's lives, not just statistics. The Bible reminds us that we are all weak people and everyone is vulnerable. God warns us, every book in the New Testament, except Philemon, warns about false teachers, false prophets, false gospels and heresies.

Further, nowhere in the New Testament did Jesus put any of his disciples under the authority of a human being - to spiritually rule over them. It was not the will of God. Ultimate authority rested with Christ himself. Man was responsible to Christ himself. Getting permission from a spiritual leader to go out of town, paint your house, switch your job, get married or have an intimate relationship with your spouse is not scriptural. NOWHERE in the Bible did Jesus give personal advice of this nature to people or establish a human leadership that did so. The bottom line is that cults present what constitutes another Jesus or "another gospel" (II Peter 2:1-3, II Corinthians 11:13, Galatians 1:6-9 - to name a few).

It is mandatory for the Christian Community to understand what a cult is and what thought reform is to prevent another Jonestown or Waco.