My story

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It may be helpful for my readers to understand where I come from, what I’ve been through and why I stand against any religion, which would include most of modern-day Christianity (or Churchianity). I will start this story off in my childhood. I grew up in a pretty secular environment, although I remember my Mom leaning towards Catholicism. I remember reading the Bible here and there but I didn’t really understand the stories contained therein. My eyes had not yet been opened. I remember going to a Baptist church with my mother in my teens, and I said the “sinner’s prayer,” even though I had no idea what I was saying. So, I thought, I’m “saved” now…whatever that meant. Time passed and I went into the Navy after high school and became a Hospital Corpsman (a medic). There, while stationed in Okinawa, Japan, I was invited to a church out there, but because of a lot of the restrictions on military personnel over there at the time, it was brief, and I couldn’t go out there very often. It wasn’t until I got stationed in California, that I was invited to a “worldwide” church – in a Walmart, no less!

So, I accepted the invitation, and soon became a member of…a church. I won’t say which one, just that it was “worldwide,” it went by four initials that began with “I” and ended with “C,” was started in the East Coast by a man that we’ll call…Kit M’Lean (sorry, I can’t use his real name because I’ve heard he will sue you if you talk bad about him, even if it’s true – so godly, am I right??). So, this “church” was very particular. “Kit” (obviously, not his real name) was the self-proclaimed son of an admiral, and he brought that military mind-set to “his” church. If you guessed that this guy is a megalomaniac with narcissistic tendencies **ding-ding-ding** – we have a winner, you would be right. But, he was charismatic, and that’s how he preached and that’s how he got so many people to follow him and his ilk.

They proclaimed themselves to be “God’s modern day movement.” Get this, they called themselves the “One True Church”© and that everyone outside of this specific church was going to hell forever! That’s why they called their church “The Kingdom.” This meant, of course, that you couldn’t date or marry anyone outside of “The Kingdom.” Oh, and if that wasn’t enough, to protect your “purity” (a made up word that they liked to throw around, especially at singles) and not be tempted to have sexual relations with the opposite sex (horrors!), they would usually, unless you were seriously “dating,” require you to go on “double dates” with other singles (from their church only) in the area. Do you know how much of a pain it is to have to plan all of this a week in advance for at least four people, hoping that something doesn’t pop up during the week (or, even worse, on the date), and then have to dress up for it and still act nice towards your “sister,” of whom you may or may not be attracted to or have no desire to be with??

Oh, and tithing 10% of your gross income was absolutely required. You know, to “build the Kingdom.” And, if you forgot to pay your tithe, they would literally come and knock on your door to take it – er, I mean, “get it voluntarily” from you. And, let me not forget that, as a “disciple,” you had a “discipler” (or “discipling partner”) assigned to you for “accountability” purposes. Only afterwards, did I realize that it was this person’s responsibility to let the higher-ups know what was going on with me. I know, looking back on things now, how come I didn’t see all these red flags! It also makes me grateful that I didn’t get married in that church, as many who did do it “the right way” and got married in that church are separated or divorced now. That’s what happens when you attend a church that was super-legalistic like this one was/is.

Another thing was that they didn’t know how to rightly divide the Word, so, in fulfilling the Great Commission, they had five “points” to be saved. These were, in order, 1) hear the Word (because faith came through hearing), 2) believe the Word, 3) Repent of your sins (not simply a “mind-change”), 4) confess with your mouth that “Jesus is Lord,” and 5) be baptized specifically “for the forgiveness of sins.” Now, none of these things are bad in and of themselves. Without hearing and belief, you can’t be saved. However, faith comes to you from God; you cannot conjure it up yourself. Now, the others are all works that you have to do: repenting of your sins, confessing Christ as your savior or being baptized are not wrong…but neither do they save! No work that you do saves, it is only Jesus’ finished work on the Cross of Calvary! Everything on this list every believer should do, but those works do not save that person! The equation is simple: it’s faith in Jesus’ Finished Work + nothing = Salvation! Mankind has nothing to do with his/her salvation – it is completely of Him, not of us! Remember that we are saved for good works, not by good works.

Because they didn’t know how to rightly divide the Word, they thought that everything in the New Testament pertained to us. To their credit, I’m glad that they were at least able to distinguish between the OT and NT, but that’s as far as they got. And – well, not even then, because they brought in elements from the OT, like “robbing God” from Malachi. We are Gentile believers, and so do not follow the Law of Moses. In fact, the Galatians were rebuked strongly by the Apostle Paul, up to where he called them “foolish” (or “stupid”)! The four Gospel accounts don’t pertain to us; they pertain to the Jews. They speak of a “Jewish Jesus” Who came solely for the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Neither are the letters of Peter, John or James written to us. So, stop saying that “Well, James says that ‘faith without works is dead.’” His words were not directed to us! Neither was the book of Hebrews, for that matter. The primary material for the believer born outside of the nation of Israel are the letters of Paul: from Romans to Philemon. It’s his words that are the words of the Resurrected Christ, written specifically for the nations, who didn’t even have the Law of Moses, and had little, if any knowledge of it! Not even the “red letters” of Jesus when He spoke supersede Paul’s writings. He is our Apostle!

I’m not going to outright reveal the identity of this church, but I can tell you in earlier times, these people would have been known as “Campbellites.” For seven years I was with them, most of that time was spent feeling empty. It turns out that I wasn’t alone in this. In fact, there’s a page on Facebook for former members who were so resentful and bitter from the abuse, that they congregated together so that they could heal from the religious trauma! I later found out, through my own independent research after I left that church, that the critics of this church were right. I was in fact in a cult1! I couldn’t believe it! I am a fairly intelligent individual. How could I have been fooled into joining a cult?? But see, that’s how they get you. They attack “under” your consciousness, and embed themselves into your subconscious layer, usually by being very friendly (at first) and “love-bombing2” you. It’s how cults work. One of the websites that I visited stated that if the “church” that I was in wasn’t a cult, then they didn’t know what a cult was!

I should have known better. They reveal their doctrine slowly, one thing at a time (a red flag), and say that you have to be completely “sold out” to their movement (another red flag). Part of that, of course, meant controlling your finances! They would go so far as to make people print out and show to their discipler their complete financial history (HUGE red flag, there)! There was certainly a “hierarchy” there and there was a lot of struggle between those at the top and those that were normal “rank and file” members. It was similar to Multi-Level Marketing. The more “recruits” you brought in, the more “status” and the higher your position in “the kingdom,” with Kit, of course, being at the top. I remember that they always focused on bringing in more people – “numbers, numbers, numbers” guys, they would say, “…there is even a book in the Bible called ‘Numbers.’” Anyone that left the church or try to say that they weren’t the only one’s who were saved, the “leadership” would mark as “bitter” or “divisive” and would tell the other members that they were “heading to hell” and warned them to stay away, unless they follow them there. There was one story I read about after I left where the lead evangelist (that was their word for their “pastors”) told his congregation that he no longer believed that they were the only ones who were saved and the only ones going to Heaven. Can you guess what happened next? As soon as Kit got wind of this, he and some other leaders had an “emergency meeting” and flew down to the place where that church was at, then marked the evangelist as “divisive” and made another church in the same city, and urged the congregation – the “faithful” – to leave that demonic church headed for hell! That original church was no longer associated with them. There were no talks before hand! It was simply on the word of this one guy, who they needed to obey, or else! These are not godly men, despite what they may tell people.

Another thing was money! Not only did you need to tithe 10% of your gross income, but they had this annual thing where they literally required you to “pledge” a certain amount right there on the spot of what you planned to give for a thing called “Special Missions Contribution.” What was it? This church was worldwide and, in order to reach more people across the globe (so they said), they wanted you to part with more of your money to (supposedly) send it overseas, where you will never see it again! Everyone would be packed into this huge auditorium and there would be this emotional film detailing why you “needed” to give (and if you didn’t, well then, you were just a heartless monster that needed to be rebuked). It was a big thing! So much so that there were people that I’ve heard about who were rumored to have taken out personal loans or even mortgages to pay for Special Missions! That to me is ludicrous!! And what did the “church” do with the money that the people had given them? We don’t know for sure, but there was a letter that I read from a former Evangelist in another country which stated that the leadership there were getting together at fancy restaurants and eating $100 dinners every month, all the while telling inappropriate jokes and laughing at the expense of the “rank and file” member. Disgusting! May these people be repaid what they stole from people – some of them working-class single mothers and fathers who were struggling to get by and could hardly afford basic necessities for themselves and their kids! And Kit’s own children, of course, had the best educations, going to private schools, while Kit and his wife lived in a luxury condo in a high-rise right on the beach. I wonder what Jesus would say about their “spiritual” lifestyle.

Well, while I was still in, some of Kit’s sins came to light, including his violent temper and his arrogance (how shocking). He stepped down and went on a sabbatical to re-focus. But, then, being the megalomaniac that he is, he started another church system, this one competing with the church that he had stepped down from. See, he is such a megalomaniac that he at all times needs to be the man in charge! I’ve often joked that he saw himself as “God’s man” (he actually did call himself that), standing right next to Jesus Christ – he honestly thought he was that perfect! In any case, he claimed this new church was now the “One True Church”©. Well, what about the other church – you know, the one that you just stepped down from?? Were there now going to be two “one true” churches?? I still haven’t figured that part out yet, but it is fun to speculate.

I won’t say that it was all bad, as I did have fun, and I made friends that helped me through the hard times, but only a few of them I actually keep in touch with now. I’ve met with a couple that got out of that cult after I did and ended up getting married. They said that they got out due to some very severe problems that they were having with the leadership there. In fact, it was so severe, that the guy, let's call him Bill, told me when we reunited at a Starbucks, that they were invited to another church. He said that he was kind of open to it (although still put off with anything having to do with “church”), and wanted to learn more about God – but not his new wife, Amanda. She was very resistant to want anything to do with church, although she, too, still wanted to know God. He told me that even when she reluctantly forced herself to go to the church, she absolutely refused to get out of the car. For the entire service, all she did – all she could do – was cry in the car until Bill came back for her. I’m happy to report that they eventually got over it, and, at the last time I heard, they were active members of that church.

When I met up with both of them, I could still see the anger on Bill’s face as he recounted the past and what led up to them leaving the cult. He once told me that his “Bible Talk” (small group leader), a man that I knew well, Roger, was trying to counsel them. Well, when the couple went to this other church, he found out that Roger wasn’t even qualified to counsel him! You really do need training to counsel someone or you can end up making a bad situation worse, as Roger apparently did. You need a degree specifically in the field of family therapy, not a 2-years degree from some tech school that had nothing to do with counseling or ministry. Being mentored by some evangelist wasn’t good enough, either! It may have made things worse. It was good to see them again, although, we only met up once more after that. Which is fine, I still see them on Facebook every now and again, and I’ll see them again in the next ages, too! I’ve met others who left the church and swore they would never go back as long as Roger was there! That should show you how truly corrupt things were.

Well, from there, I went to a few churches (hesitantly, at first), and ended up being a member of a Baptist church near Corona, California. That lasted for a few years, but, ultimately, I felt dissatisfied with it all. I wanted a girlfriend and it just wasn’t giving me what I truly desired. And yes, I tried the whole Christian Cafe, Plenty of Fish “dating apps” thing, too. The online dating thing was very disappointing and a waste of time for me. I eventually met my wife while working. Anyway, since leaving church altogether, I’ve learned SO much about God’s love and His grace and His infinite mercy! And so, I am writing this to share what I’ve learned with you!

If you find things in here that you disagree with or you don’t like (and I’m sure you will) and you simply don’t want to learn anymore, by all means, walk away. It’s not going to hurt my feelings. In the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John, Jesus gained and lost thousands of followers by what He said that they didn’t like, and in the very same chapter, no less! In the beginning of John 16, He said, “They (the religious) will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God” (Jn 16:2, NASB). If I’m to call myself a follower of this Jesus, I can expect no less than this same treatment, for Jesus also said, “‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you as well” (Jn 15:20, NASB). I wish you well on your way!

 

 

2 https://www.verywellhealth.com/love-bombing-5217952

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