Scientological Similarities

Tonight I decided to watch a documentary I've wanted to see since I heard about it.  Being a blogger about cult churches, I felt I needed to see it.  I highly suggest watching it.  It's called Scientology-The Ex Files and you can find it here amongst other places.

Right around 13 minutes and 30 seconds, you'll begin hearing the story of Joe Reaiche.  I want to detail his experience here and compare it with our experience at Milestone Church in order to highlight some characteristic tactics of cults and cult-like churches.

1. Reporting

Joe began questioning the church.  "I had mentioned various things I had disagreements with...then that person {to whom he was speaking} would write a report about that and send it in."  Sounds pretty familiar.

In churches and cults where top-down control is key, those in leadership (or those who want to be) know that the best thing they can do "for the church" is to tattle.  This means they won't hesitate to forward your private emails, go"report" things to the pastoral staff because they are "worried about you," "worried about 'unity'," etc.

2. Internal Investigations

In 2005 Joe was summoned to an internal inquiry called a Committee of Evidence where the secret internal reports on him were disclosed.  He was accused of....breaking the rules of the church.  He says he wasn't allowed to see the reports, call witnesses, or have any kind of legal representation.

This is a classic tactic and is very much what we experienced as well.  You get called into a private meeting where your various sins (as reported by your friends and fellow members, allegedly) are laid before you.  In our case, as our associate pastor was laying out all my various sins and foibles to me as "reported" to the leaders (see #1 above), I was aghast.  The names of some of our very closest friends were being brought up as accusers.  I pointedly asked about one of our best friends who supposedly "reported" on me and was told that this man "wasn't on trial here."  But I was, apparently.  And that's what I wryly noted.  Of course, none of these people were actually present or invited or even called on the telephone.  If they had been, they might have said, "Why are you asking about that?  I never meant that in that way." Or, "I never said that."  But then, that wouldn't serve the purpose of control.

Getting back to Joe: when the final Committee of Evidence report came out, here's Joe's commentary.  "It basically listed out all of my crimes.  Where they accused me of things I said I wasn't guilty (sic)...they said, you're guilty and here's the evidence.  But the evidence was from the reports.  They were here-say."

Yes, this sounds familiar.  Look...our report says you are guilty of these sins.  You might say you are not but the evidence is right here in our internal reports so, therefore, you are guilty.  

3. Problem Children and Containing the "Problem"  

Joe was labeled a "suppressive person" and expelled from the church.  But that's not really the worst of it.  When he went to call his children (also in the church) and tell them about what had happened, he couldn't get through to them.

Joe says, "And then I realized, oh my God, here's what they did.  They had already had me declared a  'suppressive person.'  They told everyone else, including my children."

Well, I can certainly identify with this.  Except we were not labeled "suppressive."  We were in "disunity."  We, too, had broken the church "rules" barring disunity.  We were problem children of a sudden, threatening the whole structure of the church, apparently.

And, of course, this tactic of asking us not to mention anything to anyone while frantically making phone calls to key leaders themselves and telling them about our situation was obvious damage control.  I'll never forget the phone call I got from a friend.  I can remember exactly where I was standing.  She said, "The church is calling people telling them that you guys are taking a break.  What's going on?"  This was not even 24 hours after we had been explicitly asked not to speak to our friends about what had happened.  The sheer balls-iness (read: testicular fortitude) of this is shocking.


After watching this bit of the film, my husband queried, "Is there a playbook they have or what?"

"Yes," I said.  There is a reason it's all so similar.  There are playbooks and there is one author for all of them.  It's the Devil.

I say all of this to point out that there is a SYSTEM of dealing with people in dysfunctional churches.  If you see any of this going on in your church, open your eyes!
If someone from your church tells you that this happened to them, please, for the love of God, believe them!
The worst thing you can do is to look at them incredulously as our best friends did as they sat on our living room couch for the last time and say, "That doesn't sound like the character of our leadership."