Changing the subject a bit, unintentionally:

As I walked past my neighbour washing his car and said ‘Hi!’ and he waved cheerfully back, I remembered something. A SMC person was visiting us, years ago and saw this person. The SMC person proclaimed ‘He’s very dark’.
It’s an interesting phrase used in Struthers church, and intrigued me because he’s a very uncomplicated and pleasant neighbour and totally nice every time I see him. Our kids played together.
So what does it mean to say someone is ‘very dark’?
It’s a phrase I didn’t ever like and looking at it now from a distance, it’s kind of weird.

Yes, I remember the phrase also, that someone was ‘very dark’. It means they were seeing something in them, usually relation to their eyes and it normally was connected to occult influence.
Now, I know there are people we see in natural life that we can instantly take a bad reaction to whether we are Christians or not.and I wouldn’t ignore that, but one thing Struthers was totally obsessed about was demons. Everything wrong seemed to be connected to a demon and it’s an incredibly unhealthy way to live. Yes there can be spiritual oppression which once again, many of us will have experienced, but there are things that have a perfectly natural explanation and should be dealt with at just that level…naturally.
Getting back to the previous reports, it is so damaging to attribute every kind of mental illness to a demon when a doctor (whom God gave to help us) could provide us with the help we really need, whether that be medication for a time or a particular therapy. As Christians, we should be giving God the glory for placing professional people at our disposal, who know how to wisely and compassionately treat our illnesses and not jump to the immediate conclusion that a demon is involved. We need a level,balanced approach to these things and not being branded as being demon possessed…..is that even a thing if you are a Christian? Is that a correct doctrine? As a born again, spirit filled vlbeliever, is it biblical that you can be controlled by a demon? I can understand and oppression over your life but full out demon possession?

Building on the very useful points made by Iquitthestrutherscult

It is helpful to realise from time to time that Struthers teaching changes without warning every 5 years or so. There has never in 50 years been coherent agreement about anything across the leadership. There has never in 60 years been common understanding of what Struthers believes in among the branches. And there certainly isn't at this sad and declining point.

The clearest example of this is that Hugh Black thought this was to be an evangelical and Pentecostal outreach organisation but Mary his daughter and Taylor seemed to look down on and largely despise those Hugh had brought in to sit in meetings in front of them. This took the form of them often – very often – making public statements that instead of lots of shallow Christians (like us) they would much prefer having half a dozen “committed” and “holy” people in their meetings. Frequently adding (because of the dire regard they had for the men in the church) they expected they would all be women. They wanted SMC to be a holy huddle, not Hugh’s vision of a church growing and planting.

The result of this was you would hear Hugh say “do an outreach” then another church leader would say “go to the holiness meeting”. You would go to the holiness meeting and be upbraided for the selfish and inward looking of your Christian life: “Go and witness!”

Though what was consistently made clear in both contexts was that God was usually very, very angry with you.


And there were many other examples of unclear leadership:

Huge investment went into cake and book shops in the 1980s and Hugh Black spent much church money printing many books. Yet some leaders spoke openly of their disfavour with this direction.

Some Struthers branches are madly focussed on exorcism. Yet some never preach about that or see any ministry of that kind occur.

Some leaders hated loud amplified music in the church and declared it to be demonic. Yet some liked Radical Alternative.

Some leaders taught that to choose the unmarried life was key to spiritual progress. Yet no people choosing the single life have been selected to be in charge of a Struthers church for 67 years.

Many members were clear when it started that they saw the school as a dreadful misstep for the church to take. And some of the branch leaders bravely agreed with them 30 years later when Spiers and the church executive argued and split the church and the whole thing had cost £3-5 million then collapsed.


So Iquitthestrutherscult asks perfectly reasonable and important questions which the Struthers leaders are completely incapable of answering because most people in Struthers, including most of the executive, have no coherent idea what the beliefs of the organisation are. Far less could they write them down, justify them from scripture and apply them consistently across the branches

To address this long term problem there has been for many years a public request for a pamphlet to be produced indicating all the teachings of Struthers and all the things a new attendee would be likely to see in meetings and experience in their interactions with leaders.

As pointed out, it is commonplace for a Struthers leader to show off their deep spiritual character by looking at a perfectly normal person and whispering to others claiming they see "a darkness" or "evil" within that person.

So let's write that leadership habit down in a helpful pamphlet:

“When you come to a Struthers meeting you may notice a leader whispering to her friends and nodding in your direction. This is probably because they see in you dark and demonic spirits and are sharing that insight about you with a random set of their friends. She may share this with you in private at some point, never share this with you, or stand up in a meeting and point at you and screech her opinions at you publicly across the church hall.”


Likewise there is no agreement or theology on the demonic in Struthers and certainly no bible based teaching on the subject. The use of exorcism and speaking of such things in sermons is simply designed to foster control and fear and, in particular, to maintain the view that the leader and God are high above the scum in the congregation. But let them likewise publish in their pamphlet the teaching and actions people should expect.

“In all our branches we teach that Born again Baptised in the Holy Spirit Christians can be possessed by demons. There may be no outward signs and no conscious symptoms. Nevertheless our leaders can discern things the sufferer is not themselves aware of.”

Thankfully it is not our job to guess what they think or work it out from incoherent sermons based on one leaders claimed “experience”. It is the job of the Struthers leadership to agree and publish their theology and ensure that all leaders agree with it, or step down.

Otherwise the dazed and confused congregations of the past and the present will continue to suffer from the Struthers leaders inconsistency and ever changing teachings - the only consistent part of which is the continual claim (no matter what is being taught or how it contradicts previous teaching) that "this is what God is saying."

So many interesting points are being made, it is hard to keep up with them all.

I thought the Greek’s earlier point about a safeguarding co-ordinator was for example an important one. Here is a concern raised about children being allowed to stay in a meeting were they are taught that mental health issues are their own fault because they are not being spiritual enough or something like that.

The problem is that every single person in that audience who has a professional role – as a teacher, social worker, doctor, nurse, youth worker, police officer or related role is under a professional obligation to report that to the safeguarding co-ordinator at the very least, possibly further. It is in your conditions of employment and your professional standards folks. If you do not report it, you are in breach of your conditions.

How could any Christian deliberately and consciously breach their conditions like that and knowingly commit professional misconduct? It may not be a sacking offense (although, for some of these professions, it may be: social workers are for example very clear that any incidents MUST be reported and it can be Gross Misconduct if they are not) but surely, aside from any work-related consequences, you are driven by your values and would want to uphold standards. Would you be happy for your line managers to see this AI sermon summary? If not, you need to ask why not - is it perhaps because there IS a professional issue here?

You know the answer to that.

I cannot see any way around this. If you are a professional in these or related spheres, speak to your line manager, lawyer, union rep or other advisor and ask if you are under an obligation here. I know you are, but you do not need to take my word for it, there are plenty of others who will be able to confirm this. To fail to even have a conversation along these lines is a total lack of any sort of integrity and you should be ashamed of yourself.

There also needs to be a MINUTED meeting of the Trustees with the Safeguarding Co-ordinator to record a position on this.

Do not shoot the messenger folks! This is not about me or anyone else posting this information here, or about anyone who lodges a report, or anyone who provides a factual summary of common SMC practice, it is about whether these things are right or wrong. Remember these words? Right and wrong? Integrity? Honesty? Transparency? Accountability? These are things the Church has stood for down the ages. Please do not just pretend they do not exist and that the important thing is not to criticise leaders. That is just nonsense.

Another paragraph to add to the Greek’s useful handbook perhaps:

If you become a member of the church you will be expected to put loyalty to the leaders above all else. Things like honesty, professional standards and what the Bible says will have to take a back seat as the single most important things is never to criticise the leaders or to suggest that they should need to explain themselves in any way. It is however really important to criticise anyone who dares to take our words and make them public. This is really dangerous as it could lead to us being accountable for our words or having to explain our position and this is not acceptable.

And…. speaking of leaders, that brings me to what I think is the centre of this matter. I will comment on that in a separate post.

Referring back to the AI summary of a recent sermon that was posted by Falkirk Bairn, who does this teaching benefit? It is very clear it does not benefit the members of the congregations. Most of those in the congregation are miserable. They may not admit that publicly, but they do in one-to-one conversations. Pretty well all of those who have left have gone on record saying this sort of teaching is unhelpful. So it does not benefit the congregation present or past.

What about individuals that are mentioned in the sermon as examples to show how spiritual the leaders are? Do you think these individuals feel all warm and fuzzy to hear they have been put on public display in this way? Was their permission even asked before parading their lives before the congregation? No, it is clearly not for their benefit.

It clearly does not bring glory to God. As we have just noted, it does not help people. It is also (as pointed out in a number of posts above) totally, totally unscriptural. As well as this, it does not bring a response of giving glory to God. On the day of Pentecost and on other occasions in the book of Acts, the result of a movement of the Spirit was, “they all glorified God”. The outcome here is the opposite - “they all said, wait a minute, that does not glorify God”. Then the post was taken down and there were secret talks about how naughty these people were who were making the things they had said public. Not about whether they themselves had done anything wrong of course, that would break the law about criticising the leaders, but about how other bad people had done things wrong by doing nothing but posting in a public forum what they had already posted. How on earth can that be wrong?

So both in public (on this forum) and in private (in discussions that led, among other things, to the decision to take the post down) this teaching does not glorify God. If it did, would they not leave the post up? Have they given a reason for taking the post down?

Hmmm. So, in summary, this teaching does not benefit the congregation or glorify God. What could its purpose be them?

What about the leaders? What does it do for them? This teaching (which cannot be called doctrine or theology as it is not based on scripture) allows them to stand up and say how powerful and wonderful their ministry is and how everyone who disagrees with them is a weak Christian that will never be as spiritual as they are.

It allows another thing and I think this is the real purpose. It allows them not to lift a finger to help anyone.

I think that is the whole point of this teaching. It is all just a very convenient excuse for doing nothing. If there is someone struggling with mental health or anything like that, the leaders do not need to take any responsibility, it is the person’s own fault they are not healed. That is a really insidious side to all of this. The leaders can sit at home supping their Ovaltine and sleep like a baby because they do not ever need to think about what other people are going through. They never have to sit at a bedside thought the night, deal with a bereaved or broken person, help someone struggling to know what to do in a relationship or work setting. They never have to do anything. They do not need to care at all. This is the exact opposite of the Christian message, which says Christ Himself had the option not to care, but instead chose to care, and to act on that.

None of the biographies I have read of “giants of the faith” describe people who feel they carry zero responsibility. It is exactly the opposite. In every case these biographies describe people who are so conscious of the struggle in other people’s lives that they wake up in the morning still exhausted from the labours of the day before and struggling to get out of bed. They do get out of bed though, because they know there are people in need and they need to get out there and help them with these needs. They feed the hungry, comfort the weary, fight for justice alongside the oppressed. They do of course also pray and lead people into an understanding of God, and they attribute their compassion to the One who first showed compassion on them, but they do not ever spiritualise away real human need.

Pick up any Christian biography and that is what you will see, a life driven by the needs of others. Inspired by God, but driven by the needs of others. (There are of course other inspiring biographies out there as well, but I am largely addressing Christians here, which is why I reference Christian biographies.)

Compare that to any Struthers leader. They have not actually done anything. Instead of growing more and more aware of the needs around them, they become less and less aware of others and their needs, disappearing into a little bubble where it is all about them. This is actually an application of the Duning-Kruger effect proposed by psychologists David Dunning and Justin Kruger in 1999 - that the exact skills needed to perform a task are the same skills needed to evaluate performance. If you lack the skill, you cannot see that you are doing it wrong. They do not have enough spiritual understanding to comprehend the problem.

That would be forgivable if they had the humility to seek to grow and learn, but they do not seem to be open to that, they just keep repeating the false “but I am anointed” mantra in spite of all the evidence to the contrary.

By the way, have you ever noticed that, in the Bible, people’s encounter with the supernatural is almost always fear, frequently followed by reassurance along the lines of “do not be afraid”? Along with this, Bible stories make it clear that people are not to be afraid of Christian leaders but to treat them just like anyone else.

Like so many things, this has been reversed in SMC. In SMC, you are not to be afraid of God, you are encouraged to “let go” and “come into His presence” and “ go deeper” (whatever that means), but you ARE to be afraid of the leaders, about how they can reveal your sins of a “darkness” within you. Be honest folks, how many or you are more afraid of the leaders than you are of God? Honestly. You do not need to tell anyone, just think about that.

If a leaders says, “I need to speak to you about something quite serious”, would that make you afraid? If that makes you afraid, there is something terribly, terribly wrong.

All the reflections and points made by contributors above on the recent sermon in SMC a few Sundays ago on a persons mental ill health being a result of demon possession and their own doing have been clear and well made. I completely agree with the points of concern raised and the sense of urgency requested of SMC leaders, those on the board and those who have professional codes of ethics to uphold both in their professional and personal lives to address these concerns and questions openly and in a compassionate manner in terms of the continued impact of the harm this causes.

For those impacted by such harmful messages about mental health, please know that:

- you are NOT demon possessed
- you did NOT bring this on yourself
- For children and young people PLEASE REACH OUT to supports via a teacher, your identified pupil support teacher, school counsellor, school nurse, GP or helpline below. If urgent support is required please call 999 or attend A&E.
- For adults, PLEASE REACH OUT to your GP, CPN (Community psychiatric nurse), helpline below. If urgent support is required please call 999 or attend A&E.


For those in leadership, on the board, SMC members, those desiring to enter leadership and ministry

- physical violence that was preached in this sermon as being part of the experience for leaders as a result of them conducting deliverance ministry is not ok. It’s assault, it’s a crime, and that should not be acceptable and should be reported to police.

- mental health and trauma training should be included for all leaders and those ministering

- other supports for someone experiencing mental ill health should be clearly outlined in services and the safeguarding policy and encouraged by ALL leaders, the board and professionals with a code of ethics to uphold in their SMC lives as well as professionally

- children, young people and adults should not be exposed to any doctrine that their difficulties in their mental wellbeing are a result of demon possession.

USEFUL CONTACTS BELOW:

Urgent and Crisis Support

* NHS 24: Dial 111 and choose the mental health option if you need urgent guidance when your GP is closed.
* Breathing Space: Call 0800 83 85 87 (Weekdays: Mon–Thu 6 PM–2 AM; Weekends: Fri 6 PM–Mon 6 AM) for low mood or anxiety.
* Samaritans: Call 116 123 anytime for 24/7 non-judgmental emotional support.
* Shout: Text SHOUT to 85258 for a free 24/7 crisis text service.
* Emergency: Call 999 or go to the nearest A&E if there is an immediate danger to life.

Everyday and Ongoing Support

* GP Practice: Contact your local doctor during opening hours for medical advice, treatment plans, or service referrals.
* NHS Inform Mind to Mind: Visit NHS Inform Mind to Mind for online self-help guides, wellbeing apps, and coping strategies.
* SAMH Walk-in Hubs: Check out Scottish Action for Mental Health (SAMH) for community programs or visit The Nook in Glasgow's Merchant City for face-to-face drop-in support without an appointment



I also want to note that this sermon that we have referred to has now been removed from YouTube. Should anyone wish the transcript, please feel free to privately message me.



~ Michele Lunan

An update on the Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry Australia from the end of July this year. What they have achieved is amazing. There are 39 recommendations that have been made. I’ve included the news article and the 2 volumes that were compiled as part of this process. We should all take confidence from the huge steps they have made and know that this too can be achieved in Scotland.

Survivors voices made this happen. There is purpose is sharing. It can be difficult, re traumatising but it can lead to change, recovery and growth. It can lead to others being protected. It can lead to legislative change and people being held to account. It can lead to people not feeling it was them but to one coherent voice that said “this happened to me too”. This happened to all of us on this forum.

IF WE WANT THINGS TO CHANGE, WE HAVE A BLUEPRINT RIGHT HERE. THIS IS WHAT WE’VE ALL BEEN SEEKING. AUSTRALIA ARE ACHIEVING IT………………. One voice, no shame, creating the change we seek.



NEWS ARTICLE

[www.abc.net.au]


Key recommendations:
* Introduce legislation to criminalise group based coercion by February 2029, based on options listed in a future report from the Victorian Law Reform Commission.
* Establish a formal lived experience advisory body to co-design policy and reforms.
* Strengthen laws to better protect children, establishing reforms to improve child protection where children are raised or recruited into high-control groups.
* Improve training for frontline professionals. Provide police, teachers, health workers, child protection staff and family violence workers with specialised training about coercive high-control groups
* Develop public education campaigns explaining recruitment techniques, coercive control and warning signs.
* Improve access to trauma-informed counselling, housing assistance, legal support and employment assistance for those leaving groups.

VOLUME 1


Legislative Assembly
Legal and Social Issues Committee


Volume 1 | Crossing the line
Coercion and harm in
high?control groups
Inquiry into the recruitment methods
and impacts of cults and organised
fringe groups

[www.parliament.vic.gov.au]

VOLUME 2


Volume 2 | In their words
Coercion and harm in
high?control groups
Inquiry into the recruitment methods
and impacts of cults and organised
fringe groups


[www.parliament.vic.gov.au]

~ Michele Lunan



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/12/2026 01:54PM by Wise Piglet.

The links didn’t copy right for above so I’m trying again.

NEWS ARTICLE

[www.abc.net.au]

VOLUME 1

[www.parliament.vic.gov.au]

VOLUME 2

[www.parliament.vic.gov.au]

Wise Piglet,you have provided so much helpful and needed informstion. Thank you .

The recent sermon was truly awful . The Doctor, surely, should be ashamed . Hippocratic oath e.t.c.

Imagine being a patient of his .. seeking help with mental health issues? ...

If I ,in my profession , had ever used such language .. I would have had questions to answer .

Vulnerable people ... young people listening to that ... must surely be affected ?

All the posts in response to that sermon ( still on instagram ) have clearly stated the dangerous message .


Who is in charge of their " safeguarding " ?

Following the information about the recent sermon and whilst shocking, it's sadly not surprising. The damage that this sort of thinking and preaching causes is huge - an absolute lack of regard for people's health and wellbeing. This is not an organisation that is safe for vulnerable people or children - we've all known that for a long time, and here they are proving it once more.