Interim: I Saw the Sign

Someone very close to me is in a cult-like church.  I knew it within five minutes of hearing about her newfound spiritual home.

I'm taking a short break from my Healing series to talk about how I knew.  Forewarned is forearmed.

One of the first red flags was the comment, "We've finally found a church where they DO things together.  They are always together.  They do everything together!"  Isn't that great?  Doesn't that sound fabulous?  This is how cult-churches prey on the lonely.  The offer a home to those who need connection.  The problem is manifold here.  They ONLY do things together.  They judge you if YOU go outside the church to hang out with others.  They give you subtle clues that you "really should be with us."

The next alarm was, "The preacher is really great.  I love most of what he says.  He did say one thing that struck me as skewed but otherwise, he is really great."  See?  The bells going off in your head are already being ignored because these people are SO FRIENDLY.  When you have to make excuses for your pastor....that's a big deal.

Thirdly, the men and women have totally separate Bible studies.  Period.  Now, don't get me wrong, I attended a women's Bible study for years and hosted some too.  I wasn't anti-co-ed studies, however.  But my cult-church appeared to be; controlling churches often are.  If they can isolate the men and women, divide their forces, they can whisper in their ears about their proper "roles" and get them to fall in line.

Finally, I asked her how her church feels about women.  Long pause.  "Well, I am not quite sure..." (more hedging).  "The pastor did say something from the pulpit about wives that really bothered me....but I think maybe I just misunderstood."

Sigh.  No, you didn't misunderstand.  This is sad to watch.  Please listen to your reservations.  Don't get into the mess that we did.

I promise you that there is a world out there of loving, caring, people who are believers but won't do this to you.  And, you want to know something crazy?  The best place I've found to connect with those people is MLM companies.  90% of the people you encounter are devoted Christians, they are positive and encouraging, they want to spend time with you as a teammate and friend, and they all come from different churches so they don't care if you don't attend their church.