Don and Ange have provided insights in the past. I have personally been encouraged by all of their support. The recent post about the Mind Control Forum stuck a note with them and here we read their comment. I felt it was worth bringing to the front for more readers to enjoy.
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Thank you, John for sharing this experience with us. We are inspired by your level of commitment to shine the light on your former cult. We are X-members of the New Testament Christian Churches of America, Inc, which uses many of the same mind control techniques to fulfill their desire of greed, power and wealth. Our group used a slightly different dynamic to control its members, and we were all not subjected to the measure of strict control that we see in WOFF. As one of your friends testified that WOFF was the only way to heaven, we were made to feel the same way about our cult. One of the main goals of spiritual mind control is to convince the members that they have the only answer to salvation. They use Jesus, and the threat of being lost for eternity, to create an atmosphere of fear that leads to obedience. Once a person thinks that his or her spiritual leaders are the Oracles of God, they can manipulate a person to open their wallet and give or do anything imaginable or unimaginable to benefit the Cult leaders. While the physical mind control of blasting was much different in our former cult, it was successful in convincing us that if we left our cult there would be no hope. Our blasting sessions came in the form of a preacher calling a person out from behind the pulpit and publicly humiliating them in front of all of their friends.

We had no friends on the outside of our cult because we were all force fed the scripture, “What communion hath light with darkness”? (2 Cor 6:14) This was used not to get us closer to God, but to further isolate us from every influence outside of our cult.

The more we uncover about the leadership of our former cult, the more we realize that it was never about Jesus. When I heard you describe Greg spouting off about why nothing was being said about Jesus, it was enough to make my oatmeal hit the wall. I’m sorry, but when you have been run through the gauntlet of hypocrisy, double standards and religious mind manipulation in a so called church; it has nothing to do with Jesus, or God. You can scream into someone’s ears for two hours and emotionally and spiritually damage children for the rest of their lives, but please don’t do it in the name of Jesus.

I know that many will probably disagree with what I’m about to say, but I’m not shooting from the hip. Most cult leaders have a history of making large amounts of money and in many cases they use Jesus and the sincerity of those who really want God in their lives, to cover up not only their lust and greed for money and power, but many other dark sins that nobody wants to see or hear about. Many of the holiness movements that require outward appearance as proof of salvation have presented an appearance to the world that hides what is really behind it all. In the NTCC, young girls are made to dress like the Quaker Oatmeal Girl. They are deprived of a normal childhood and married off at a very young age. There are so many accounts of sexual molestations, rape and abuse, but the victims always on every account blame themselves. This type of behavior is condoned by the leadership and many of the leaders are guilty of it themselves. The church is a front to cover up their horrific sins. The Sincere Christians that want to follow Christ are manipulated and they end up giving all of their energy, finances and time to a group that claims to be God’s last move upon the earth. (emphasis added)

I spoke with an X-member who was a dear friend to me the other day. He stayed in the cult for about 20 years, and he found our blog on the internet. He told me that he just got burnt out and he and his wife left the church, and he made it a point to tell me that they were not being critical of the church or its leadership in anyway, but that it was due to his own lack of dedication to God. I told him that that was exactly what they want you to believe. They instill this in the mind of every believer so that if they leave they will blame themselves and will not further investigate the church or its leaders. They teach you that any failure is your own and you only need to look in the mirror and you will find the cause of all your problems. There is no accountability to the leadership. They take no responsibility for your failure and when they are done using you, don’t expect them to come visit you or try to understand what you are going through. (emphasis added)

John, I’m sorry to vent like this, but reading the plight of the members of your personal family and friends in your former cult, it just stirs up so much inside of me. I’ve blathered on enough, but I want to thank you for the seemingly tireless effort you have put forward to help others. When it’s all said and done, I really believe that if you can reach a small handful of people, and help them escape from the bondage they are in, than you will be fulfilling one very important commandment of God and that is to love your neighbor as yourself. It is so hard to convince even one person. We have people testifying of rape and sexual abuse suffered at the hands of the leaders of the NTCC and people still are blind and living in a state of denial. Even with convictions of some X ministers for committing unthinkable acts of raping their own Daughter or molesting children or admissions of using sexual incest by present leaders and pastors, none of which have denied the allegations; people still choose to turn a blind eye.

Our thoughts and prayers are for your family and friends to escape and salvage what they can of what is left of their lives. It sickens me that people are made to suffer in the name of Christ.

Your Companions in Tribulation-
Don and Ange.
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Thank you, Don and Ange for taking the time to read and relate your own insights and encouragement. From your blog found here, it is evident you labor to love those who you may not know personally. Keep telling the truth and you will see a reward that no one can deny.

Thank you, for taking time to visit and read this blog. Please, consume the information on this site responsibly. The author is not a licensed mental health professional and encourages those that need professional help to seek it. The intent of the material is to inform and be a resource. Be sure to tell every member that you know at WOFF about this blog. There are readers at WOFF. Jane told me and Josh confirmed it.

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Scripture references are Amplified Version unless otherwise noted. (Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation ) This is post number 481.