I have run across this label several times while looking at other cult issues. I know that there was a lot of cult-buzz around the "Church of Christ" in Boston at one time, but I don't know if the general name relates all to the same group. Is it a tightly controlled denominational name?

There was an offshoot of the Churches of Christ called the International Church of Christ that was led by Kip McKean which I was a member of and I can say without a doubt they were a destructive church with cult characteristics.

Here are some links for you for further study:
[www.culteducation.com]
[www.kipmckean.com]
[www.reveal.org]

Over the last few years this group has dissolved with many of the congregations parting from the McKeans control.
Kip McKean has started another ministry in Los Angeles recently. I don't know what he is calling it but a quick google search would probably yield more information on that.

wc, thanks for bringing this to the forefront once more. Colleges are "hotbeds" of cult recruitment as we all know ("get 'em young and naive").

I've lost many friends to cults at college. I was "recruited" (thankfully, they failed)by the campus crusade of 'The Bible Speaks' which seems very much like 'Church of Christ'.

wc, if you care to share any of your experiences while attending this destructive church it would be enlightening. Please don't reveal too specific experiences so as to keep your anonymousness intact.

Hi Sparky,
I will gladly recount my experiences with this church. I need to mention that not all in fact most Churches of Christ are not or were not a part of this particular Church of Christ.
I was recruited in college many years ago . I was dealing with a substance abuse problem at the time and I went to AA - which calls for a belief in God or higher power. As I had very little religious indoctrination previous to that point in my life - I assumed being the curious person that I am, that I needed to learn about and figure out a little bit about God before I could believe in God. In addition to that I was away from home for the first time and I had very few/ no friends so I was quite lonely dealing with the pressures of college, working and halting my alcohol consumption.

While I was in this suggestible/ state / mode a young attractive lady from the international church of christ invited me to a group Bible Study where i met one of gentlemen who was from that US state as me (instant rapport) who began the intense process of mind reform via their 2 on 1 personal bible studies process of recruiting members. From the start, at the group bible study they used love bombing which felt great for me at the time since I was so lonely.

Interestingly enough during the process of indoctrination they brought up the allegations that they were a cult and framed it in a way that it appeared that they were "being persecuted" and this was one of the main beliefs that they pressured me to believe before I could be "saved" or baptized in their church. This rang alarm bells for me at the time, but since I had very little training or knowledge in this area and I was desperate for a group of friends, I chose to ignore them to my later dismay and then benefit. Another belief that they insisted I believe was that they were the "one true church of christ" on earth and that all other denominations were following satan and were not the "true church of christ on earth".

One of the techniques they used against me in the high pressure 2 on 1 bible studies was that of a written confession and the verbal confession of my sins. Before joining the church I already felt guilty over some of my so called sins which stemmed from my abuse of alcohol. Because of my abuse of alcohol I had violated some of my personal moral values and former beliefs about myself which resulted in some personal guilt and shame in my psyche. They used this guilt and confession as a way to access some control over a part of my brain and the confession gave me a sort of "spiritual hit" because it felt good to get some of the guilt I was carrying around off my chest.

I accepted these beliefs and succumbed to these tactics with some recalcitrance which I quickly sublimated so I could gain admission to the Church. After displaying sufficient belief and demonstrating that their mind control had a sufficient foothold in my consciousness I was accepted i.e. "saved" by the church via full immersion baptism in front of a congregation of about 300 or 400 other members of the church. I was instantly assigned a discipler - basically a person in the church who was assigned to me to monitor and maintain obedience to the church and to inculcate further indoctrination to the church's wacky beliefs via weekly written confessions of my sins which included any mental sins such as lust, doubt etc...

I was pressured to move in with my discipler and a couple of other members of the church so that I would be around "godly" people all the time.
So, for 11 months I lived with these people, did personal bible studies, attended church bible studies, attended church services and did discipling sessions with my discipler. Basically every single moment of our free time was utilized by the church to keep us occupied and unable to think for ourselves. The amount of time required by the church was so great that my studies began to suffer. This disturbed me and started me on the road to questioning the church. I also have a personality marked by large amounts of curiosity, so I began learning the bible as best and as deeply as I could. This resulted in me locating inconsistencies in the church teachings with the scripture. I would mention these inconsistencies to my discipler who would quickly reframe them and promise that the church would try to address them while simultaneously saying that my doubt was satanic. These explanations were insufficient explanations for me and I started to think that perhaps the allegations of the media concerning the church being a cult were correct. The "straw that broke the camel's back" for me was a conflict in scheduling I had with school and the church. I took a class that conflicted with churches schedule and I was told by a leader in the church that this was "satan" interfering with my duty to the church. I called my mom told her about my situation and looked up the cult awareness network in the phone book - which at the time was not controlled by the Church of Scientology and started airing my grievances and doubts to people who were not in the church. Finally I came to the conclusion that this church was a cult and that I had to get the hell out of there. I left my home with no where to go basically and I had to live in motels ( which resulted in significant credit card debt) until I could locate a more permanent living situation. I slowly began the process of deprogramming my self via attending meetings of CAN( which is now controlled by Scientology), talking to former members and by undertaking a study of mind control, philosophy( Nietzche -haha), psychology and thought reform.

They did not let me go without a fight though. I would run into them on and near the campus I was going to school at and they would attempt to get me to believe that what I was doing was of "satan" and that I was doomed to go to hell. My knowledge of the scripture helped me through that phase of the journey though, because I could quote scripture that contradicted their assertions about my status as a "saved" person.

Eventually after getting my bearings back and deprogramming myself sufficiently I started to speak out. I was on a TV show and I gave a speech in one of my speech classes about my experience that resulted in at least one person not joining the church. I would also actively interfere in their efforts at recruiting on campus by confronting them when I had the time.

I can happily state that I am now an agnostic atheist partially because of this experience.

Please forgive me for any grammatical errors - I have not written very much recently!

There are other details in my story I will put down here later and if you have any questions please feel free to ask me!

Correction to the above.

This: "While I was in this suggestible/ state / mode a young attractive lady from the international church of christ invited me to a group Bible Study where i met one of gentlemen who was from that US state as me (instant rapport) who began the intense process of mind reform via their 2 on 1 personal bible studies process of recruiting members."

Should read: While I was in this suggestible/ state / mode a young attractive lady from the international church of christ invited me to a group bible study where I met a gentlemen who was from the same US state as me (instant rapport). He and another cult member began the intense process of mind reform via their 2 on 1 personal bible study process of recruiting members.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/16/2010 06:08AM by wc.

In NZ it has been proven to be as sordid events arose,were revealed.

There are some very good testimonies:

[www.tolc.org]

I was involved briefly for several weeks on campus at Sydney University.
They tick all the boxes of a cult in virtually every facet.
The first thing you need to deduce is to whether a group is with the original CoC or the ICoC - the latter being the most intense and cult-like.
The name is usually after the city (eg Sydney, London, Auckland etc).
Back in those pre-internent days, the group would not tell you who they were affiliated with- and you had no way of knowing what they were all about.
Various alarm bells were evident from the word go, most of them had left home to live together in groups, and the student leader had actually disowned his own parents.
Having to sit down and right a list of sins - and then confess them to a "discipler" was ridiculous, as well as humiliating.
This Discipler was then going to be your guide to "challenge" you in every aspect of your life.
I got out in the nick of time, this group is one to watch.

Be aware that this group can morph and change it's name quite unexpectedly.
In Western Sydney for instance, they are known as Westchurch.
On Universities and Colleges they can go by various names, such as Campuschurch or Campusview etc etc.