Camp? Ahhhh. Well that’s a story to tell.

I went to a lot of them. Many summers lost to 3 camps. I did youth camp (before I got asked to leave for being me. Me who didn’t drink, do drugs, listen to music, watch TV etc….) I’m sure many think I sound bitter. I’m not. I was very hurt and confused by the abusive way I was treated. But I have had a lot of help and support and now know I was never in the wrong. But Struthers. You were. I was still a child!!!!

I wish I had been confident. I wish I could have asked for help. But they strip absolutely everything away from you. So you need them. And when they tell you to go….. you have nothing.

Please. If you are reading this and still go…. Just consider what is being said. We actually care and are trying to help by sharing our stories.

Golden rule never trust anyone in the congregation. They repeat like parrots back to the leadership. Then the leadership hold it against you.
Everyone here is a victim of abuse of that dive of a place.
It makes you distrust other churches.
The leaders think you will swallow their crap about miracles. And that the devil why try to keep you away from the church.
C you are a hero for leaving the church, jump on here and give your story to everyone. And correct what’s being said about you.

Al Duff - thank you for your insight and observations. I can't dismiss your personal experience but I do disagree wholeheartedly with the view that Miss Taylor was 'gifted'. Well, not in any 'supernatural' sense. Where she most certainly was gifted was in how to influence people.

It is simply not possible, in my view, to claim that the leaders had any sort of special vision / gift / holiness and square that with the 'fruit' that has been produced. You cannot, by any modest understanding of christian theology, explain / understand / reconcile their actions and behaviors. This thread is evidence of that - and a lot of it highly traumatic.

I do take your wider point however that she did achieve a measure of success which one might regard as impressive, especially given the circumstances you previously describe. I absolutely do not and cannot ascribe any of that to divine intervention or spirituality. And, in fact, I would argue that to continue to do so is what allows the church to continue to operate. It needs to stop.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/29/2024 07:01PM by blackwatch.

Rainbow - I'm with Daisy on this one - I appreciate your contribution (as I do everyone's) and I hope you'll continue to tell your story.

S30 - welcome and thank you for posting. No, the forum isn't the work of satan. That's just lazy isn't it? How pathetic - trying to warn people away with drivel like that.

It's quite the opposite - this has been a source of encouragement and help, a balm if you like. I hope you'll stick around and continue to share.

Interesting you mention other churches. I've touched on this previously. At the risk of tarring everyone with the same brush, I have a deep-seated skepticism of anyone, no matter how well-intentioned, that wants to lead or command a congregation.

Social services need telling about what they are doing to kids.
No child should be shouted over, or rocked or encouraged to do demon deliverance whilst underage.
Everyone needs to contact social services. It’s a serious matter.

If people believe god tells them the sins of others, they should be sectioned. A way to answer back to them, is to ask are you sure it isn’t Satan?

Thanks for all your recent posts, folks, which I’ve read with great interest. Welcome to the Forum, S30, and thanks for sharing some of your story about growing up in SMC. Shocking to hear that a leader advised your mum to divorce your dad, and while you were present too. I hope your parents did not take the advice. Sadly, it’s not the first case that I’ve heard of advice being given to married couples in SMC to separate.

Struthers leaders do not honour marriage and almost don’t care what state any marriage is in. They teach that God must come first, Struthers church is second and then your marriage/family comes third (or last). However, that’s not what the Bible actually teaches. The New Testament epistles are full of instructions on maintaining a good marriage and in caring properly for your children. These issues are viewed as being important for a healthy Christian life. But Struthers just make their own rules and teach them to the next generations. If they say it, then it must be correct. The way some of the women treat their husbands is appalling. I think this stems from the dominant position of women in Struthers: it’s still the case that most of the leaders are female.

Blackwatch and AlDuff have mentioned Miss Taylor. I was terrified of her as I believed that she could see everything that was going on inside me and must surely condemn all of it. I guess someone can be spiritually gifted but also become controlling and narcissistic if the sense of power that they acquire gets to them. Miss Taylor laid down many rules relating to clothing, especially for the girls and women, such as disallowing the wearing of trousers and jeans, plus enforcing the wearing of hats. She hardly ever left her hometown of Greenock and Hugh Black had to continually persuade her even to visit the Glasgow Church to speak at meetings. She used to tell us that God had spoken to her during the 1950s, and told her to start a movement where holiness was to be outworked and supreme, and the movement would be separate from all other churches. She told God that she couldn’t do this on her own and asked Him to give her somebody to help her. Shortly after this, she got to know Hugh Black, who had come out of The Brethren, and they started the movement which became SMC. There’s still a view that SMC should stay separate from other churches, including Pentecostal ones. I don’t think there is any mixing or joint services with other churches or groups, apart from Teen Challenge work.

When you read the stories on this Forum and read about the abusive treatment meted out to Struthers members, including to children and teenagers, there is not a lot of evidence of holiness, love for others and holy living. I so feel for those of you who have been raised in Struthers from birth and have known no other way of life and not had friends outside the church. Thanks for sharing your latest blog-post, EscapedtoFrance. As others have commented already, it’s so well-written and sincere. I’m so glad that you’ve had the courage to speak out and thrilled that you’ve rebuilt your life outwith Struthers. Folks, Please have a read at previous blog-posts by EscapedtoFrance. If ever anyone wanted to know what Struthers youth meetings are like, then you can find out from these. Absolutely shocking to treat children and teenagers in such a way.

Rainbow, Struthers has not only not grown, but it has diminished. There are fewer branch churches now than there were and with fewer members in the majority of them. Please share more of your story as I’m sure it’ll help others.

Blackwatch, you were asking about Chris Jewell. I think he gets lots of leeway because they need to keep him on board to handle the finances. I don’t know the significance of him resigning as a Director from the Board. I don’t know whether he still has overall responsibility for the church finances. He ran the New Dawn bookshop too, but that is now closed. Yet again, he’s a nice guy, but one who is beholden to the Struthers leaders and has been for many years.

I have tried to share more but I keep getting warnings that I’ve been hacked and then an error message to say my post can’t be shared. So strange.

Someone else mentioned this. The singing of songs over and over and over again. It was too much. And they changed the words of many wonderful songs just to suit them.
I remember vividly a time when the Pensacola revival was happening. 1995. This is actually a very sad story. Oh my gosh what a wonderful miracle that was. And there was a beautiful girl that sang a song. Charity James sang ‘mercy seat’. The story behind it was that she got called up unexpectedly to sing it. She wasn’t expecting to get called up, she was young. She was wonderful. Struthers jumped on it. They had their own version of charity James that they wanted to sing it. I believe it was Andrew Jewell’s current wife, Rhian.

I was at cedars one night a while after this and they put the Pensacola revival on their TV for us to watch. Oops, even though they told us all not to have TVs.

And it was devastating what then happened. I thought we were going to watch this wonderful moment and enjoy. Pray for the same to happen in struthers. No. They decided to slate her and talk about how disgusting and awful it was that she chose to put on some make up and wear a really lovely dress for her 3rd night performing the song. They believed charity James had let the fame get to her head. The room sat and nastily spoke about a young girl that was part of a revival for about an hour and then they turned off their TV and hid it back away in a cupboard. And yet the wonderful girl had just decided she wanted to wear a dress and maybe some make up to go to church one night to be part of Gods amazing plans. Nothing more, nothing less. Yet a small church in Scotland felt it would be appropriate to talk about her in a very nasty and judgmental way.

Yes. That’s what they chose to discuss that night. I remember feeling uncomfortable and upset. But I was always so torn because I believed they were the hub of the church and I must always agree with them. I desperately wanted to be part of them and accepted.

I heard many nasty things being said in that household. It’s very sad. So sad. They talked about so many people, each other, friends, everyone that attended that church. They all knew everything about everyone. Im sorry to say but if you ever spoke to a leader in confidence you can be sure that all of the cedars household knew your private thoughts, needs and ongoings. It was devastating. I need to say it was not what it seemed. I was so young and impressionable and I let them suck me in.

Imagine slating a young, beautiful woman, chosen of God. Being used in a wonderful way for a revival. Trying to pretend that one of your own was better than her. Where was your revival Struthers? I do not remember a flock of people running to the doors of your church to find God.

The couple I have referred to from struthers (Andrew and rhian) were/are believed to be very up and coming. They were responsible for the student intake of struthers back in around 1996. They are also responsible for a huge loss of church members, a lot of horrific treatment of individuals and a horrible amount of damage to people’s souls and minds. Even Alison Speirs even said at her dining room table one night that this young woman (that they all had on a pedestal) was so stuck in her own bubble, she had no idea of the hurt and damage that she was doing to others. But yet they let it continue to happen. So horrific and wrong.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/31/2024 08:15PM by Rainbow.

Im going to go and celebrate Easter with my family. Im happy to answer any questions and share so much much but I’m unsure how much I can share here. Can I name names?