I would like to know if anyone at all has any information concerning this one particular church. It is in Hutchinson, Kansas and the name of the church is Apostolic Faith Tabernacle. They have a web site here if anyone would like to check it out.

[www.apostolicfaithtabernacle.us]

I am worried about our grandchildren being brought up withint this church. Our daughter has changed the way she dresses to always wearing long dresses and/or skirts. She also always walks behind her husband and they no longer have any television in their home (not that is particularly bad), but they have no way of getting news except through radio that they listen to and from their church. The church believes in "Talking in Tongues" and such as that.

I would love to get more information if anyone has any concerning this particular church. Please help me if you can are willing.

GQ

The church appears to be a member of the UPCI.

See [www.culteducation.com]

I have no experience or knowledge of this group, but 2 things you mentioned I would say suggest they are a cult or cultish sect at the very least. You say your daughter now always walks behind her husband. As an ex-Mormon, this tells me they consider women lesser beings than men and are required to always be submissive to their husbands and other male church "authorities". That is demeaning and borderline abusive for her and carries significant potential for greater abuse. You also said they believed in speaking in tongues. That seems to be a trademark of "charismatic" groups which can get weirder and weirder by the week.

This is an "old" post but I thought I'd throw in my two cents about the Apostolic church.

Checking out the link that GraphicQueen had provided was a real trip down memory lane, with 25 years to cushion the blow.

These clowns were my first introduction to religion. I became inexplicably interested in God and religion at a very young age while being reared in an athiest household. Questions about God or the Bible met with the same answer: They're a marketing ploy for televangelists to rob people of their money. Nothing else.

So, when we moved a couple of years later and I found our next door neighbours were Christians I asked to go to church with them. The neighbours were disproportionately delighted, and thus began my years with this cult.

I started at the age of 10, and was enamoured of all the positive attention I initally received. Being the ugly kid who was always picked on in school, it was nice to go somewhere where my buck teeth didn't matter. It didn't take long to find out I was on an irreversible road to hell, mind you. Apparently there are two sins that God never forgives: 1) Taking the Lord's name in vain, and 2) not coming to an unshakable belief in God immediately when one reaches the age of awareness, about 5 or 6 years. Since I was 7 before I suspected there was a God, I was already hopelessly doomed. That's right, God never forgives a young child for ignoring Him. Ever.

Winning souls to the Lord may earn one enough celestial brownie points to get past that niggling sin so I was told I needed to bring as many people to Jesus as possible. They were all destined for Hell, and I needed to get them to come to Jesus before the Rapture. You can imagine how much more popular I became at school and at home with such Christian determination. I truly lay awake nights, begging God to help me bring the people I loved to Jesus. (If there is a God, and I do believe there is one, I'm grateful He didn't really pay attention to my begging at that time....) Of course nobody bit, and I was left fearful of the afterlife and of being left behnd during Armageddon.

I must say, I never did learn what eternal glories may await the saved in the kingdom of the Lord, since the majority of the sermons discussed hellfire, Satan, Satan's works on earth and "in men" (assuming that means all people and not only post-21-year Y-chromosome holders), the Rapture -- which sounded anyting but rapturous -- Satan, hell, who was all going, etc. etc. etc. If Jesus or God had an iota of love we certainly never heard about it except in the context of "God loves us so much that he has given us this one narrow path, which is a perpetual highwire act, in which to make it to Heaven, otherwise we are sent to the pit of eternal damnation with everyone else".

As puberty hit during my membership in this church, I found it ever more challenging to behave as a good Christian. If thinking about a sin is the equivalent of actually doing it in God's eyes, then I was having premarital relations with all the Bay City Rollers on an hourly basis. I was even starting to worry -- seriously worry, stay-awake-at-night worry -- that if thinking about it is equivalent to actually doing it, then what if I got pregnant? How would I possibly explain THAT??

I finally left at age 13. I'd heard such an endless rant about how I'm destined for hell -- I mean really, you can't sin AT ALL in that church without seriously pissing God off -- and the final straw came when I discovered heavy metal music. The Bay City Rollers were replaced by Iron Maiden and Twisted Sister, if not in my fantasies then at least on my hi-fi, and the church actually told me that I would go to hell for listening to heavy metal. This was Satan's music, apparently a concept supported by Scripture (indeed, there is a reference to Satan speaking through drumbeats...ooohhh). I finally got utterly fed up with the whole thing and decided that if I'm going to go to hell I'm at least going to sleep in on Sundays from now on.

Although this was a different Apostolic congregation than the one in GraphicQueen's post -- I'm in Canada -- I suspect they are all fairly similar, since they seem to be part of an international pentecostal group as per Rick Ross' post.

GraphicQueen, if you are still here, or if anyone else has loved ones in these things, here are some pointers in dealing with them:

- The pastors in these faiths are very convincing in their teachings that the truth of God exists only in Scripture and anything contradicting it is of Satan. Trying to convince someone that this is not necessarily correct is a waste of time. They will turn a deaf ear to you. Don't bother arguing religion with them. My parents tried this with me: "How can you believe that stuff? Don't you know that's not true?" Well, I wondered, how would THEY know?

- Love your family (or whoever got sucked into this cult) but don't accept their "teachings" or efforts to turn you to their church. Just say "No thank you", and if they tell you you will go to hell, just say "I'm prepared to take that chance". Don't let them suck you into an arguement either; just maintain your position that you're not interested but thank you for the concern. Believe me, this arguement can spiral into quite a mess if you let it. Just Say No.

- Let your loved one(s) know you will still be there for them.

I have a few more points but this post is long enough is my computer battery is dying. I'll be back another time to add a couple more things.