Yes , Rensil and Liz , we asked ourselves the same questions at the time. It is so awful that we were treated as we were . Hard working , intelligent people .. being used and manipulated by them . We were totally burnt out and exhausted giving time , money and control of our lives to the leaders ... D.R. in particular and her cohort.
The financial crisis certainly convinced us that we weren't staying. There was no room for discussion,at the time , no one was " allowed " to ask questions . Also the accusations made of being " demonic " and " backsliders " , which were made to me , personally . How damaging !
So many questions that so called " anointed leaders "still have to answer for , Blessed Child , yet I fear they will never admit to the damage they caused and continue to cause people from ALL walks of life and ALL backgrounds . Some people we know didn't make it back to health ,having suffered so much . Yes , it is a " creepy " and " cultish" set up , even now.

What I will never understand , is how the people who left ... were never aaked " why ? "...never given a chance to state their case .

No one came / 'phoned / tried to find out in a Christian way if we were ok.Instead they were preaching about us " the backsliders " and "the demonic " .

When we " bumped into " Struthers folk once at a funeral and one other time,we were in fact ignored ! How Christian ! What a way for people to be expected to live " death to self " " in the world but not of it " ! When I think back to the life we had to live .... everything was " taboo " from socalising with anyone to holidays to leisure and pleasure , I am glad we survived .

It ALL goes against the grail of being a human being ...I thank God , daily , that He freed us from them and I continue to pray that ALL the people from ALL walks of life will escape their damaging clutches .

One day, someone has to write a book about Mrs Black and what she endured while Mr B went about doing his stuff, leaving her at home with 3 children.
The invisible woman.
Just another thought to cast in to this arena.
I thought very highly of her.

It is good to see so many posts about different aspects of SMC and the experience people have. I would love to follow up on all of these interesting points, but that might make my post even longer than usual, so will just continue with some of my own thoughts just now.

I really am quite intrigued by the comments by BlessedChild. It is as if they are saying that the answer to absolutely everything is to have some sort of “experience”.

That reminds me of the comment by Abraham Maslow in 1966 that, "it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail."

I think that is exactly the problem Struthers has found itself it. They have a hammer and want to treat everything as a nail.

There are a number of problems with this, the first being that it is totally against the teaching of scripture. If you look for example at Acts 6v1-4, it says:

Quote
Acts 6v1-4
In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Hellenistic Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word."

The early disciples did not say, “ah, I see some of you are upset, here are some ways you can feel that you have an experience of God.” No, they realised this was a real, practical problem and needed people who could address it with wisdom. That is what Struthers has to do here, not pretend that having some sort of “experience” is always the answer.

As it says in James 2v15-17,

Quote
James 2v15-17
Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.

That is also what is happening here – the leadership are saying to people, “oh, we really do not want you to be hungry and thirsty”, but they are doing nothing about it. We know there is a Biblical requirement to act justly (Micah 6v8) but the leaders of Struthers try to divert attention from that, making it about those seeking justice rather than the issues themselves. That is uncaring, immoral and wrong.

If you go just a little later in the book of James you find:

Quote
James 3v17
But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.

Struthers fails all these tests. Their idea of “wisdom” – that it is never the teacher that is at fault, always, in every single case, it is the student that is fault is not pure, it is adulterated with selfishness and self-aggrandisement, always wanting people to think the leaders are right and others are the ones who are failing.

It is not peace-loving, as we know there are people who have not spoken to each other for decades. Peace lovers would find ways to resolve this.

It is not considerate, as there are people who still suffer from the sort of treatment they have received and the leadership does nothing to try to resolve that. Leaving aside the many people on the forum I do not really know, I personally know half-a-dozen people who are currently, in 2026, traumatised by some of what happened. It is horribly selfish and cruel of the leaders to allow that to continue and not lift a finger. How can they sleep at night when others cannot? That is not Christian care and compassion.

It is certainly not submissive! You see that in the post from BlessedChild. Not “how can I learn from your experience and insight” but “ I know what is wrong with you even without meeting you”. That is the way of the wordly bully, not the Christian servant leader.

It is not merciful as it “doubles down” on wrongs, insisting the leaders are faultless so if anyone is suffering it means it must be the fault of the individual not the teacher.

It does not produce good fruit, it produces lives that are hurt and damaged (witnessed not only buy this forum but by Diana when she said to the congregation, “you are but a child and cannot cope with the onslaught of the enemy. You think too highly of yourself.”

And this brings me to the second point which is that it simply DOES NOT WORK. The evidence for that is clear – read the testimonies on this site. The Struthers experiment of making everything about a quick fix “spiritual experience” has failed. There are only two options in these circumstances, one being to sort the problem and the other being to shut the experiment down.

I did have hopes that the former might be possible, but it would require humility on the part of the leaders, and an acceptance that their unscriptural magic formula was not working. I am not sure they have the humility to think that way.

Oh, sure, there may be some positive experiences and stories, but that is not good enough I am afraid. Can you imagine going to some sort of theme park where they say, “this is a great theme park, many, many people have said they have had a great experience here. Of course, we do have the worst safety record, and there are as many people who complain they have been really hurt as there are who say they have enjoyed themselves, but just ignore these people, they must obviously be wrong and badly motivated. If you start from the point of view that we are perfect, then there is no other explanation. We do not need to investigate their claims because we know this… well… I don’t know… just because we are perfect, that is how. The last thing we need is any evidence, that might lead us to question our perfection, and how would we get people to follow us then?”

That is what is being said here. That they somehow magically know every single person on this forum, every one of the 120 or more, and all the other out there who have not posted but have complained about things in personal conversations (conservatively estimated at 300 in total) are at fault, and there is no need for any sort of investigation because they already know they are right in everything.

They of course do not even openly admit to the correct arithmetic which is a fact, not open to debate. I heard that at the AGM one of the leaders said that they had attracted a “small number of critics”. The most complained about church in the UK, more complainants than members yet someone can stand up and tell a direct lie at their AGM and no-one has the integrity to stand up and say, “hang on a minute, that is not really an accurate statement, is it, it is more than a small number of critics”.

Do they not believe in integrity and any sort of spiritual reality? How can they possibly hope to bear fruit when this sort of thing happens? That is not “fighting spiritual battles”, that is giving a platform to the enemy. That to me is the ultimate failure, a lack of any interest in the impact of their approach at all levels – personal and spiritual.

Given this attitude and the clear failure of the experiment, I think it would be best if it was simply shut down.

Liz25, I also thought very highly of Mrs Black and I often felt sorry for her. She was such a kindhearted and sociable lady who made a point of speaking to and getting to know people who came to Struthers over the years, regardless of their age. I was shocked and disappointed at the way her husband addressed her and the things he said to her. I witnessed this whilst volunteering in the coffee-shop which she also used to do. HB would also speak about her from the platform with a mocking tone. I don’t mean banter. It wasn’t banter, it was insult. That used to sadden me. What about the Bible verse which says, “Husbands, love your wives..” Christian couples are supposed to show an example of godly marriage to those around them and many do.

I guess she became a typical Brethren wife, only to be seen making tea, baking or keeping house. Without her, HB would never have been able to do all that he did. I know from conversations which I had with her that she felt inferior in the church and that she lacked self-worth. I went to her funeral: it was Mr Cleary who did the eulogy because he had known her from way back when Struthers began. What he said was a breath of fresh air as it was different from the usual funeral talks from the leaders.

She will get her reward, Liz25. She wasn’t invisible to God.

I agree with you Rensil. I recall barely seeing Mrs B to start with then she showed up very humbly and shyly one Monday night and he mocked her from the platform saying how back slidden she’d been but had repented and decided to attend more. I felt that was uncalled for and unfair .

Hi folks - not been on for a while, but still reading the posts. As a child and teenager, I remember Mrs Black as being "musically cultured". A lover of music. That was one part of who she was that no-one could take away from her. I seem to remember she played the piano? Not in public, but had that capability. And I have a memory that singing was important. Yet I don't remember her being in the Greenock choir? If that memory is true, isn't that odd?

Her eldest daughter Alison was also the musical one, we (siblings) always thought that her piano skill was to a significantly higher standard than that of one having laboured through a few years of piano lessons. I seem to remember she had the skill of being able to tell what key impromptu acapella singing was in and accurately join in on the song. It was always a big deal when she returned back to Greenock for visits when she was working or studying abroad.

I think I also remember Mrs Black's dad being in the Greenock Sunday night congregation before he died. Wow. It's amazing what memories can come up when reading a post.

I think our family was asked to look after Mrs Black's cats one year when she was attending the August camp. Not sure that was a wise idea.... We had no experience of cats! Except those howling outside in the back garden from time to time.

Other folk have written in the past about the humiliation meted out to her by having to sit in the back seat of Mr B's car when some up n coming young lady was in the front. Yet I never heard, through the grapevine, of any complaint or emotional upset.

And I agree with Rensil's memory of Mrs Black being very chatty and interested in all folks. I do remember her being interested and having quality short conversations with me as a teenager, asking about school, exams, etc etc

It would be great if anyone older on the forum, who may have known her as an almost within-range peer of theirs, could contribute further memories of her, for instance, which church she originally came from before marrying Mr Black, what her job may have been before running the family household.

This song has popped into my head ....

Quote
Eddi Reader / Boo Hewerdine
There's a door in a wall in a house in a street
In a town where no-one knows her name
She's the patience of angels

Oops. That was worldly. A "pop-song"??



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/09/2026 02:04AM by RedRoad.

I do find it slightly ironic that the three daughters were only able to move into key leadership roles in the church because their mother saw her role as a supporter not as a leader and provided the support to Mr Black to allow him to build them up in that way.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/10/2026 03:11AM by ThePetitor.

Replying to The Petitor.
Precisely.

Yes, poor Mrs Black, married off to Jabba the Hutt!

Al Duff Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Yes, poor Mrs Black, married off to Jabba the
> Hutt!


Steady on old chap! :-)

When I first went to Struthers, I was a school kid, and Mr Black reminded me of Boss Hogg from the Dukes Of Hazard TV show.