Wendy and I got back a week ago from the International Cultic Studies Association Conference in Brussels, Belgium. I have been meaning to post something about our experiences there, but we both went straight back to work and have been very busy. I will try to post something longer when I get a chance, but there is one thing I did want to comment on.
While there, I answered a long questionnaire as part of a survey that a graduate student from Spain was doing for her dissertation. In answering the questions based on my Trinity experience, what blew me away was just how cultic Trinity turned out to be. I know that there are some people out there who want to believe that Trinity is just an abusive church, or a somewhat authoritarian sect, or some other thing that comes up short of being a cult, but according to what I was seeing in my answers to this questionnaire I would have to say that Trinity fully earns the label of being a cult.

Counselor 47,

Good to hear from you and glad your trip went well. I look forward hearing much more. I recently read the online version of [u:b78c795f40]Churches that Abuse[/u:b78c795f40]. I too was amazed how well TF fits the definition of abusive cult. Maybe all these cult leaders do go to some secret cult leader school!
cultaware

One thing that bugs me is people who have some casual connection to Ole or the group who think they know what is going on there at Trinity better than do the former members. For her book Wendy formally interviewed several former members, and we still have the tapes of those interviews. And yet, certain people want to discount the experience of these folks just because they came to the block once or twice and had lunch with Ole and found him to be charming. I guess the old dictum that there's a sucker born every minute still holds true.

counselor47-
Glad you and Wendy are back!
The fact that Ole can appear charming to some within the counter-cult community and they don't believe what you, Wendy and other ex-TFI's have to say is proof of the dictum (mine) that some within the countercult community are book-smart and people-dumb.
God bless you both,
Mark

The world never ceases to amaze me. Here's what just happened to me:

Part of the grade in the class that I am in right now is based on a certain mandatory number of hours of community service that each student must perform. These community-service hours needn't necessarily be for a faith-based organization, but should be done for some community-building effort. A couple weeks ago I read about the Dallas Street Church in the good ol' [i:8ee1d80e73]Dallas Observer[/i:8ee1d80e73] and went to check it out; I drove out there this afternoon:

[www.dallasobserver.com]

This looks to me to be an example of a "good", non-abusive, grassroots, community-building ministry that is focused on ministering to the homeless population in Dallas. I'm going to do my community service hours for class there and more than likely will continue to volunteer with them after the class is over. They're doing what appears to me to be a variation on the Dallas Project over there, finding housing for the homeless and building their ministry at the same time.

While I was down there I was talking to a man who was working around the place, giving him my contact information and all that, and at one point he asked me about any pertinent experience I may have,
professional skills, volunteer experience, stuff like that. I mentioned the Army, and mentioned having worked with TFI. The guy's eyes met mine when I mentioned the name of Trinity Foundation, and I saw recognition in his eyes. I hastened to add that I left after about five months when I figured out that TFI is a destructive cult. He said that he'd heard of TFI and he'd heard that they're a "bad group" too, and that he'd been warned about associating with them. I was a little surprised, though I shouldn't have been.

Here was a guy deep in South Dallas (for y'all not familiar with Dallas that is the straight-up 'hood) doing street-level, grassroots work for and with the homeless in that community, and even HE told me that "word on the street" is that TFI is a dangerous group and that they do not work with nor refer persons to TFI. So here is PROOF that word has gotten out. Even in the trenches so to speak, they know about The Columbia Bunch. Even advocates for the homeless in Dallas avoid them now.

Makes me sad in a way, that OA is such a phony, but happy and hopeful also to know that somebody in this city, (which is notoriously bad and even, I'd say, borderline abusive toward it's homeless) is out there doing something immediate and practical to help the poorest among us. I look forward to working with them in the future.

what do y'all think?

[www.kdministries.org]

Soon I'll inquire about the financial statements, etc. connected to this ministry and will report on that here.

When I was down there in the 'hood hanging out and helping out at at DISC today, somebody also warned me about an "homeless advocacy" organization called Victory Outreach. I started looking around and they are listed in RR's database. I looked into it further and drove over to where the local Victory Outreach ministry is and you know what? It's like two blocks away from, well, The Block.

What a coincidence. There a lot of little storefront "street churches" around there, some reputable, some not, some unknown. But the people at DISC know about TFI and Victory Outreach and wanred me about both. Interesting, right?

Oh yeah, here's something else odd: today I was downtown and there was this big Falun Gong demonstration, protesting the treatment of Falun Gong members in China. That really took me by surprise. Cults REALLY ARE everywhere, huh?

Not on topic I know, just found it interesting.

zeuszor:

This would be a discussion for another thread.

The topic here is Trinity Foundation.