I came across this forum last weekend after I met one of the members in Monterey.
I am generally interested in the, I might say, "fringe" schools of thought. So I gave her about 3 hours of my time.
She had white robes on. And a pair of sandals and a white hat and a pair of Ray-Ban sunglasses. The glasses attracted my attention since the very start of the conversation: as soon as she started the pseudo-Christian pitch, I couldn't help but think of how her pair of expensive sunglasses looked so un-Christlike.
I was chilling by myself, sitting at an outdoor table of a local coffee shop in Monterey. She came over with a bag, later found out to be tortilla chips and some cups of different dips, and started eating out of it on an adjacent table. Since, at the time, I was smoking a cigar I called her out and apologized for the smoke, if any would get to her, and asked her to let me know if she was bothered. She answered with "you are a gentleman" and promised to let me know.
She went on eating her chips and I with my book and the cigar and the coffee. When she finished, she came over to throw some stuff in the garbage bin on my side of the coffee shop. It was then when she started talking to me. She asked of the book I was reading, interestingly titled "When God Was a Woman", and after a moment of confusion on her side, I asked her to sit down at my table if she wanted to. We had an interesting talk after that for about 3 hours.
She was incoherent, went on tirades about how she loves everybody and about her brothers and sisters. Eventually, after a long time into the discussion, she pulled out a cut-out of a picture, showing only the eyes of an old man she called "God". She never mentioned the name of the group, never mentioned any locations for the supposed group and never gave out any details about them. She pointed out any pictures of "lightnings", on t-shirts and one on a brochure, uttering "this is a good sign". She started by telling me how he loved everybody and me, with more emphasis on "you", which later on I came to understand the opposite: actually she came across as a very bitter and judgmental person, hating a lot of things about people and especially with a deep grudge for children. This last one was baffling for me.
She was incoherent, in a nutshell. Obviously was in a, what I call, a "preacher mode". It means, there were parts of her stories that obviously were made up on the fly at that moment. Like, how "God" once through a "couple-of-million-dollar check" in the fire. Or on how she hates sex now and once that she "happened to" see sex on a TV somewhere, she came to conclusion that how mechanical and stupid it had looked; I guess seeing porn on random TVs is something that all of us come across a couple of times per day :)
I asked her numerous questions. She was very enthusiastic in the beginning. Towards the end when I hinted I was married, she kind of deflated and the discussion just kept going on with the same incoherent manner. At the very end, I asked for her name and asked if she was OK with taking a picture with me. She told me she was "Kerry" or "kera", or something in that order, and we took a picture on my cellphone.
The discussion left me with a lot of questions. I came home and searched for "amen" and "lightning" and "cult" and some other keywords and, finally, I came across this board. I read the whole thread and now I am amazed by the whole experience even more.
Did you know they actually have a Facebook page now?
Christ Family Amen