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Thursday, April 30, 2009

Articles For The Emotionally and Spiritually Abused

The Exit & Support Network has a large number of articles for the emotionally and spiritually abused ex members of religious high-demand groups. I have arranged the links below into logical alphabetical sections.

Leaving a religious high-demand group
An End to Guilt
Are Exiters "Out of Fellowship With God"...
Comforting Words About the True God
How Do People Get Out of Religious Cults?
Loving What's Right Means Hating What's Wrong
Prayers For Freedom From Spiritual Strongholds
What Were The Lies and What is the Truth?

After leaving a religious high-demand group
Common Emotional Difficulties
Common Spiritual Difficulties
From Victim to Survivor
Getting the Group Out of Us
Handling Depression, Anxiety, Fear and Guilt
How Did Herbert Armstrong Recruit People?
How to Recover After Exiting a Deceptive, Abusive Group
How to Walk Yourself Through a Panic Attack
Indications of Recovery For an Abuse Survivor
It's Hard to Get Close to God after leaving PCG
Questioning Herbert W. Armstrong
Recovery Issues and What to Expect
Surviving the Emergency Stage
The Healing Process After Exiting a Deceptive Group
What Not to Say to Someone Who Has Left an Abusive Group
Where Do the Feelings Go?
Why Do Many Exiters Turn to Agnosticism or Atheism?

Testimonies by people who have left high-demand groups
"Could No Longer Ignore We Were Victimized"
"Good to Be Free From the Worldwide CoG"
"Looking Back on My Experiences"
Personal Writings about Worldwide CoG
"Predators -- How Dare They!!!"
Stories and Testimonies by Exiters
Struggles With Attending Other Churches
Trauma With Another Church
Understanding How People Are Controlled in PCG

Also :-
Articles For Child Survivors
Cautions if Somebody From The Media Wants to Interview You
Understanding Mind Control Groups
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Monday, April 13, 2009

Top 10 videos of all time at Tangle.com

'Tangle' is a family friendly social networking site...
These are the titles of the top 10 Most Popular Videos Of All Time as shown on the site _here_
It isn't too surprising that they all have a religious theme - if you include #8 which features a radical Islamic professor.
(Note to atheists and agnostics:- sorry, there isn't much for you in this post - unless you want to see if anything much has changed in the 'churches'.)

#1 - 'My Redeemer Lives' - Team Hoyt
"Incredible video about the relationship between a father and son.... and God's relationship with us."
11,574,625 plays, favorited 11,764 times, 2,587 comments

#2 - Lifehouse Everything Drama

"Band: Lifehouse Song: Everything How to get vid: http://www.extremegen.org/store/index.cfm or email me... God is ALL POWERFUL!"
8,430,484 plays, favorited 31,335 times, 8,355 comments

#3 - Little Girl and Psalm 23 - Bluefish TV
"Psalm 23 as only a child can tell it...this adorable video illustration is a must see."
6,242,574 plays, favorited 8,754 times, 2,169 comments

#4 - Baby Preacher
[Que: They start very early at this church & the baby has a future in impersonation!]
1,574,121 plays, favorited 3,806 times, 1,641 comments

#5 - 'Does Anybody Hear Her?' - Casting Crowns
"Watch the music video from one of the hottest Christian bands of today!"
1,407,813 plays, favorited 4,967 times, 555 Comments

#6 - 'Baby Got Book' - rap by Dan Smith
"It was created by Dan Smith while he was working at New Life Christian Church (Centreville, VA) for a Sunday morning sermon."
1,265,024 plays, favorited 6,707 times, 1,444 comments

#7 - Fantasia - Done Enough (gospel music)
"Bobby Jones Gospel Performance and she ripped it like no-bodies business."
938,166 plays, favorited 275 times, 114 comments

#8 - An Alarming Video Every Westerner Should See
"Anyone (like Barack Obama) entertaining ideas of western democracies establishing friendly relations with the radicals of the Islamic world should watch this video. While watching the inflammatory rhetoric of the speaker, remember that this is not a Jihadists from Iran but a professor from Kuwait - a country with every reason to be grateful to the USA for liberating it from the tyranny of Saddam Hussein's invasion."
929,977 plays, favorited 202 times, 187 comments

#9 - Louie Giglio - Laminin molecule
"This blew me away! A snippet from a great message entitled How great is our God! by Louie Giglio, this section talks about Laminin, an amazing molecule in the human body."
920,163 plays, favorited 2,990 times, 340 comments

#10 - Rapture - End Times
"The rapture is coming soon, are you ready?"
Caution: 1 - This is a scary video. 2 - Do not play with a high volume setting!
904,673 plays, favorited 7,115 times, 1,670 comments


The next 10 top videos are shown on this page
About half of them have a religious theme.
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Tuesday, April 7, 2009

The Language of Abusive Churches - Part 2

This list was originally posted in the ‘Ex Pentecostal Forum’ in July 2007. _here_
(I have included some additions that were in the comments section of the post.)

It was also posted in the ‘Post WCG Life and Theology’ blog in January 2008. _here_

I do not wish to offend any members of Pentecostal Churches. It is the pastors and the leaders who use well-known mind control methods that we need to be concerned about.
Ex COG people may also recognize some of the phrases.

Part one is _here_


[extract starts]
“Pentecostal Christianese Translator”


1 - After “Joe” leaves the church it is said of him: “Oh, Joe wouldn’t let us pastor him”.
Means: Joe wouldn’t submit enough and let us control/manipulate him.

2 - “Baptized in the Holy Spirit.”
Means: They spoke in tongues at least once, so now they have our stamp of approval. We expect you to believe that this altered state of consciousness is totally controlled by God, and that it only happens in a Christian culture.

3 - “Bitterness.”
Means: The state of mind of anyone who would dare question the pastor’s supreme authority.

4 - “Blaming Christianity.”
Means: This is a common accusation that spiritual abusers make against their victims who try to hold them accountable for their actions.

5 - “Contagious.”
Means: A phrase used by my former spiritually abusive pastor to label anyone who might encourage followers to think for themselves.

6 - “Dance in the Spirit.”
Means: It’s Ok to dance a jig in church, so long as we believe that God gives the moves. Just move your feet, silly. We’ll supply the music. Better not have a human partner!

7 - "Dismiss us from this service, but not from your presence" at the end of prayer.
Means: Yeah I maybe letting you out of the building, but you still belong to us and don't you forget it!

8 - "Don't you want what God has for you?"
I usually got that one when I didn't go down front to pray with everyone else or if I didn't do something the way they wanted me to. Finally, I told one of them, "I want what God has for me, I just don't want what you have for me." Of course, they looked at me confused. I mean how could ‘what they wanted’ not be what God wanted?

9 - "Evangelising."
Means: bothering poor innocent people who really aren't interested to give them the "good news" that they have a choice between hell and slavery to our church.

10 - “Filled with the Holy Spirit.”
See: “Baptized in the Holy Spirit”

11 - “Gifts of the Spirit.”
Means: Well Ok, there are more than one, but WE only want you to speak in tongues. It keeps the service more lively and impresses others, especially visitors.

12 - “Give as giving unto the Lord.”
Means: We need the money more than you do.

13 - "God has a wonderful plan for YOUR life."
Means: Just make sure it fits with OUR plan otherwise it's not from God.

14 - "God has put you on my heart."
Means: I heard some gossip about the problems in your personal life and I want to get the full story from you first-hand.

15 - “God put it on my heart.”
Means: I really want to tell you this (or really want to do this) and if I just say I WANT to, you’ll be able to tell me why I shouldn’t, but if I tell you GOD SAID then you can’t argue with it, can you?

16 - "I have a burden to see you saved."
Means: I am going to harass you non-stop until you get saved.

17 - “I love you in the Lord.”
Means: I CAN’T STAND you in the natural (secular)!

18 - “I wonder if some of you are even saved!”
Means: Your assurance of salvation should not be based in your acceptance of the sacrifice that Jesus made at Calvary, but rather in adhering to my every demand - and that has been brought into question!

19 - “I’ll pray for you.”
Means: Too bad about your situation - glad it’s not me. Glad I don’t REALLY have to do anything to help - see ya!

20 - “I’m blessed.”
Means: Life sucks, but I have my head buried in the sand and am avoiding all issues in my life in favor of seeking after religious experiences.

21 - “I’m discerning an attitude!”
Means: I am about to [abuse you] in public to make you an example of what happens to anyone who crosses me.

22 - “I’m getting ready to read somebody’s mail.”
Means: I want you to think I have psychic powers and can read your mind.

23 - “Jesus came to bring a sword.”
Means: I want you to cut off your family and friends and become co-dependent on me.

24 - “Nominal Christian.”
Means: Normal Christian, not one with super-gifts. Those in other churches. Not one of us because we know we are more holy and could teach them some things!

25 - “OF God.”
Means: What we perceive as good… looks holy.

26 - “OF Satan.”
Means: What we perceive as bad… looks evil.

27 - “OF the flesh.”
Means: Anything people do that we just don’t think is right. (Oh, Grey area!, but more black than white.) Watch out! Satan is lurking…

28 - “Praise and Worship.”
What’s the difference? ….oh yeah…. we had some teaching about the difference from time to time so you could tell when you were praising and when you were worshiping!

29 - “Pray through.”
Means: Pray till you start shaking and acting crazy.

30 - “Sanctify your emotions.”
Means: Turn off your brain and let me do the thinking for you.

31 - “Slain in the Spirit.”
Means: We knock them down & expect you to believe God did it. Side note: Someone stands behind them to help them fall easy. This is our insurance policy, so there’s no personal injuries, hence no lawsuits.

32 - “The Bible doesn’t have anything to say about votes, ballets, etc.”
Means: I am in total control & you will have no say-so.

33 - “This is not a democracy - it’s a theocracy.”
Means: I am in total control here. Whatever I say goes.

34 - “Touch not mine anointed.”
Means: Do what I say without questioning.

35 - “Truth is not always the truth if it is not spoken in love.”
Means: You are in sin if you say anything bad about us!

36 - "We missed you."
Means: "We want to make you feel guilty for missing the prayer meeting."

37 - "We must have regular fellowship."
Means: You better come to every meeting so we can keep an eye on you and continue to “brainwash” you.

38 - "We need to pray for....."
Means: This is my holy and pious excuse for telling you personal things about them so we can slander them.

39 - “We should all speak the same thing.” (based on 1 Cor 1:10)
Means: Always agree with the leadership, anything else is strife or rebellion.

40 - “Yeah, and the Lord would say to thee…”
Means: I’m getting ready to give you your marching orders.

41 - "Yield to the leading of the Lord."
Means: I want to see plenty of people talking in gibberish.

42 - “You are ‘out of your place’ in the spirit.”
Means: You are not complying 200% to my every command.

43 - “You have an independent spirit.”
Means: You have begun to think for yourself again - now stop it, or else!
[extract ends]
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