Re: Has Anyone Ever Heard of Radiant Life Church in Sacramento
Posted by:
timeforchange
()
Date: April 03, 2009 04:54AM
I must say I have heard my fair share of maligning, not just from Tony but by others elders and staff. Still to this day I can not shake off all the times I was personally "corrected" or yelled at. I can count how many times my actions or thoughts were called stupid.
It has taken me a long time to rise above all the negative things that were said. I think what is most shocking and sickening is all that I let be said about my spouse. This as far as I am concerned was the great failure of RLC. The separtion of families. The purposeful and strategic manipulation between parents and children or spouses. This is complete rebellion against the heart of God.
This behavior takes a extreme amount of pride and arrogance. I do believe that these are called rebellion which is witchcraft. If I have heard properly some of that may have been used too.
Recently I was speaking with our university's "cult" professor, as I shared my family's story, yet again Radiant Life's status as a cult was confirmed to me. The behavior of isolationism, open rebukes, belittleing, abuse of authority, extreme discipleship, and mental superiotity are all classic cult behaviors. RLC can no longer hide in the shadows and pretend that are the elect church of Sacramento, all they are is a cult. Apparently not even a good one. Look at the mass exodus. People are finding freedom.
I was encouraged to call it like it is, no hiding, but to walk in the freedom God has granted. I was also encouraged to thank God for rescueing me from this darkness and oppression. So today I want to say, THANK YOU GOD FOR FREEING ME AND MY FAMILY!!!!
Some days though I wonder what will happen, will vindication for all of us come, and my heart is grieved by my own desire to those who have caused harm be brought to justice. However, in the midst of this conversation this professor said to me, "all you can hope for is for the whole thing to implode, so that no one else can get hurt." I realized then that I should not be grieved by desire justice for the hurting. The time for repentance and reconcialtion came and went. Now this thing is in God's hands. Any time Isreal didn't make the right choice destruction came. I do believe the failing of RLC is not far. They cannot sustain in the current capcity.
Friends take comfort that though it appears they are in business as usual; they are not. Their time of judgement will come, but it won't be on us, it will be on God.
It has taken me a long time to rise above all the negative things that were said. I think what is most shocking and sickening is all that I let be said about my spouse. This as far as I am concerned was the great failure of RLC. The separtion of families. The purposeful and strategic manipulation between parents and children or spouses. This is complete rebellion against the heart of God.
This behavior takes a extreme amount of pride and arrogance. I do believe that these are called rebellion which is witchcraft. If I have heard properly some of that may have been used too.
Recently I was speaking with our university's "cult" professor, as I shared my family's story, yet again Radiant Life's status as a cult was confirmed to me. The behavior of isolationism, open rebukes, belittleing, abuse of authority, extreme discipleship, and mental superiotity are all classic cult behaviors. RLC can no longer hide in the shadows and pretend that are the elect church of Sacramento, all they are is a cult. Apparently not even a good one. Look at the mass exodus. People are finding freedom.
I was encouraged to call it like it is, no hiding, but to walk in the freedom God has granted. I was also encouraged to thank God for rescueing me from this darkness and oppression. So today I want to say, THANK YOU GOD FOR FREEING ME AND MY FAMILY!!!!
Some days though I wonder what will happen, will vindication for all of us come, and my heart is grieved by my own desire to those who have caused harm be brought to justice. However, in the midst of this conversation this professor said to me, "all you can hope for is for the whole thing to implode, so that no one else can get hurt." I realized then that I should not be grieved by desire justice for the hurting. The time for repentance and reconcialtion came and went. Now this thing is in God's hands. Any time Isreal didn't make the right choice destruction came. I do believe the failing of RLC is not far. They cannot sustain in the current capcity.
Friends take comfort that though it appears they are in business as usual; they are not. Their time of judgement will come, but it won't be on us, it will be on God.
Re: Has Anyone Ever Heard of Radiant Life Church in Sacramento
Posted by:
Iseenow
()
Date: April 03, 2009 08:15AM
Thanks for posting this. I have suffered the wrath an humiliation of the "apostle" a number of times. What amazed me is that my spouse would never have let any other man talk to me or about me that way without saying something. We both simply took it from this supposed man of God. Nothing was done that actually propeled us forward in our faith once we were sucked in. It's all a ruse to get you in and then the other shoe drops.
Quote
wantingtruth
Thank you for your input Iseenow. It seems that we’ve all been through quite a lot. There is an issue that has not been discussed much on this forum regarding Tony Cunningham, and that issue is one that I believe has caused much pain and distress over the years. In order for this to affect you, you will have had to have known Tony for some time and been inner circle or part of some ministry. The issue I would like to bring up can aptly be called “THE WRATH OF THE APOSTLE”. This is personally one of the most difficult subjects that I have brought up.
There seems to have been a desire for perfection in others, and when they didn’t measure up, or worse, when Tony was in some “mood” he would verbally attack you. It was often because of some minor failing, or even for not thinking as he did that he began his assault. His fits of rage were never kind and left his victims feeling subhuman. Is that the way of Christ? Of Jesus it was written that a bruised reed he would not crush.
For me personally, Tony’s rage was in response to my asking an innocent question about a passage of scripture. On another occasion, he let fly for 30 minutes while my thinking was “I’ll take it because he’s a man of God, and maybe I need the correction”. Tony, of course, felt free to tell me what a complete failure I was and how God had passed me up. He said things to me that I would never say to my worst enemy. Nice. That was my senior pastor. Things like this happened so randomly that I elected for a long time to just stay out of his orbit. The effect on me was devastating, and left me feeling very unsafe around him. Why? Because one doesn’t have to look hard to find my faults. My affliction is that I am human.
I know that I am not alone in this and would welcome others’ input into this experience.
Some on the outside might look in and see those close to Tony and think that he must really be something because he acts like it, and those around him view him with such awe. The problem is that while some of it may have been awe, most of it I believe was FEAR. FEAR became such that no one would question him any longer, and the prevailing thought became that to hear from Tony was the same as hearing from God. One by one, we all lost the courage to stand up to him because the potential for him to go off on you was just too high a risk to take.
FEAR, false teachings, extreme discipleship, a code of silence, cutting off of family relationships, the cessation of friendships with ex RLC-ers, sure makes RLC look pretty cult-like. The main contributor by far was Tony. Most of us just wanted a place to love God, and grow close to our brethren. To find a place to serve. And we were used to serve someone who was not God, but who wanted god-like honor; someone who gave full vent to his anger whenever he felt like it or had had a bad day. I really pity those that remain. Some might say that I am bitter and hence am unable to comment on such things because I am in sin. I disagree. I am not bitter, but I do distrust Tony. He has earned that distrust, and I sincerely hope that he realizes the enormity of his errors and repents and leaves the ministry.
Re: Has Anyone Ever Heard of Radiant Life Church in Sacramento
Posted by:
Guess Who
()
Date: April 04, 2009 02:58PM
Along with putting up with the wrath of the hired hand, I have another question. How many of you and or others you have known have been duped out of money. One of the recent stories I had heard from someone involved Tony's very own Ponzi scheme (s). He tells someone if they will invest money with him in one of his many supposed investments they can expect a better return than just letting their money sit in the bank. He promoted his supposes ability to increase wealth in his SOMA strategic advance class. One of the class projects was to take $1,000 and look for ways to increase it 10 fold. That he was trying to teach SOMA students how to do this put him in perfect position. Now he could ask variou students for their money and then he would use that money to pay someone else back or for his own personal wants and desires at the time. He would just keep getting money from people and using to pay others back that had "invested" with him. I can think of at least 8 people off of the top of my head who I know this happened to. Some eventually received their money back others didn't. If they left the church they were now not serving God so the chances of getting their money back all but evaporated.
Tony and his ponzi schemes are just one more example of his self serving and narcissitic tendencies.
There are a few people going to jail for their ponzi schemes. What about his turn to serve some jail time for scamming people. If everyone would start to make their stories public on this forum and maybe even tell your story to the state attorney general, the FBI, or just a visit to the local police department to file a complaint more would change. One of the major ways this RLC cult controls people is by getting them to keep secrets through a variety of manipulations especially shame. Who wants to admit that they were scammed by someone and lost money. I have heard it before. Well we didn't have a signed agreement or maybe "I misunderstood" or "he's a man of God so I'm sure that the money was used for advancing the kingdom of God". Right, more like advancing the kingdom of Tony.
If a complete pagan is being held accountable for a ponzi scheme, how much more should someone who does it in the name of God.
Tony Cunningham and Bernard Madoff, not any difference at all except for maybe a couple of zeros.
Tony and his ponzi schemes are just one more example of his self serving and narcissitic tendencies.
There are a few people going to jail for their ponzi schemes. What about his turn to serve some jail time for scamming people. If everyone would start to make their stories public on this forum and maybe even tell your story to the state attorney general, the FBI, or just a visit to the local police department to file a complaint more would change. One of the major ways this RLC cult controls people is by getting them to keep secrets through a variety of manipulations especially shame. Who wants to admit that they were scammed by someone and lost money. I have heard it before. Well we didn't have a signed agreement or maybe "I misunderstood" or "he's a man of God so I'm sure that the money was used for advancing the kingdom of God". Right, more like advancing the kingdom of Tony.
If a complete pagan is being held accountable for a ponzi scheme, how much more should someone who does it in the name of God.
Tony Cunningham and Bernard Madoff, not any difference at all except for maybe a couple of zeros.
Re: Has Anyone Ever Heard of Radiant Life Church in Sacramento
Posted by:
TomWilson
()
Date: April 05, 2009 07:46AM
Quote
Guess Who
Tony Cunningham and Bernard Madoff, not any difference at all except for maybe a couple of zeros.
The difference besides a bunch of zeros are that Bernard Madoff was smart enough that he doesn't have a string of complete business failures and his own scam didn't really fail miserable it succeeded greatly and wasn't brought to a halt until after he got caught.
As for Tony paying for his crimes and yes they are crimes. I feel confident that many, because of the teaching of scripture regarding taking a believer to court have not done so. However Tony Cunningham's behavior and the fact that more than one of his peers as in local Pastors of other institutional churches in the Sacramento have called him to repentance, but he has hardened his heart and continued to both deny and justify many his false teaching and abusive behaviors demonstrate that he is not a believer as well as all those who have stayed in leadership at RLC knowing and or participating whether passively by refusing to bring him to accountability or actively participation in his crimes.
Those who have had money stolen and manipulated from them should contact the County District Attorney, State Attorney General, the IRS, the CA. Franchise Tax Board, the Employment Development Department Underground Economy Operations (Since we know he takes personal tithes under the table), and the FBI.
I am not saying this out of a desire for vengeance, but of love for the victims.
Re: Has Anyone Ever Heard of Radiant Life Church in Sacramento
Posted by:
whatajoke
()
Date: April 06, 2009 07:10AM
Is it confirmed Bambao left? Any others? There was supposed to be another significant member? is this the start of the fleeing of the Arpilleda sect?
If so that is good news to see some very good people freed? Good for you Chris and glad you finally realized it is Tonys show and you aint gonna change nothing.
If so that is good news to see some very good people freed? Good for you Chris and glad you finally realized it is Tonys show and you aint gonna change nothing.
Re: Has Anyone Ever Heard of Radiant Life Church in Sacramento
Posted by:
SilentJ
()
Date: April 07, 2009 02:03AM
I would like to ask a question to everyone here, readers and writers alike: After everything that you have gone through involving the deceptive corruption of RLC, what good news and/or testimonies can you share about your new-found freedom? Perhaps these stories will help others see what they are missing on the other side of the fence.
My personal testimony in short: while at RLC, the masses regularly bragged about how happy they were with joy and peace and what-not, while I secretly questioned the legitimacy of such claims... there is a ploy to fake it 'til you make it, which is an attempt to sustain your patience with the organization itself, always waiting for your own "happiness" to kick in (Tony is the only dude to hear from God?). Well, I gotta say this... there is REAL joy and peace and such when you are able to arise in the morning with no burden of having to please your master-discipler-commander-chieftain-dude with gifts and honor, but instead listen to what is in your heart from the Good Lord. In short, there is life after RLC, both for those who have left already, and for those who remain ensnared.
What's your story?
J to the Silent
My personal testimony in short: while at RLC, the masses regularly bragged about how happy they were with joy and peace and what-not, while I secretly questioned the legitimacy of such claims... there is a ploy to fake it 'til you make it, which is an attempt to sustain your patience with the organization itself, always waiting for your own "happiness" to kick in (Tony is the only dude to hear from God?). Well, I gotta say this... there is REAL joy and peace and such when you are able to arise in the morning with no burden of having to please your master-discipler-commander-chieftain-dude with gifts and honor, but instead listen to what is in your heart from the Good Lord. In short, there is life after RLC, both for those who have left already, and for those who remain ensnared.
What's your story?
J to the Silent
Re: Has Anyone Ever Heard of Radiant Life Church in Sacramento
Posted by:
Ring barer
()
Date: April 07, 2009 05:13AM
Great question… this is what I had written back in the beginning of the end of RLC… I laughed when I read it because its only become better with time and I can remembers writing those words with no idea of how much better it would get…
Even as I read it I remember the insane amount of support that arose out of this site and the surge of people and testimonies that came forward to bring Mr. Cunningham out into the light… just read back through its amazing!!!
My current testimony is: Freedom!!!… and that’s a genuine response… not a manufactured response to help work my empty self into the graces of a clinical deviant.
Even as I read it I remember the insane amount of support that arose out of this site and the surge of people and testimonies that came forward to bring Mr. Cunningham out into the light… just read back through its amazing!!!
My current testimony is: Freedom!!!… and that’s a genuine response… not a manufactured response to help work my empty self into the graces of a clinical deviant.
Quote
Ring barer
Ok… I’m back… WOW what a week… I could not even begin to tell you all how it was except that it was very productive.
I wanted to tell everyone viewing and participating that I am again very thankful for this site and for those of you who speak out as you feel fit. I can tell you that more people than I could have imagined are being encouraged and effected by this forum and I am happy to say its become popular in a positive way… as a result I want to ask everyone posting to participate in something with me. I think we all have made it clear that RLC and Tony have had a negative effect on not only those posting but far more individuals and families. However, the much more prominent part for me is what has happened as a result of my leaving…
So I am encouraging us all to post on how we are now as a result of leaving RLC…
You see I was very hesitant to speak against or question RLC and therefore very unsure when on my way out. Yet today as I look back I can know testify that my life has become exponentially better since I have left the “covering” and “blessing” of RLC and Tony’s leadership. I what to credit God in saying from the time of my leaving until now my family has become stronger, my finances have increased, my children have improved in their health, my relationships with true friends has exploded, I have experienced and continue to experience resolve and peace in my life and what I am doing, I feel like God is good with me and understands where I am at, I have faith and true convictions that have more to do with a real world view than a RLC façade, I am HAPPY, I am confident, I am no longer confused, striving, feeling guilt, have fear, feel inadequate, feel condemned, chasing empty promises, or feel tired and emotionally spent… I am now, after leaving RLC, doing better than I ever have in m life. Not everything is perfect and that is the beauty… because I understand that no one is perfect, including Tony, and I can only be who I am before God… I am sooo accepting and forgiving of those getting out of RLC because I can identify. I am immensely grateful to those on this site who are willing to show that they have been there too…
And while some of these things are tangible and may not be evidence in your eyes I encourage you to ask those that know me how I am doing as a person now…
I AM THE DEFINITION OF FREE!!! I am only me… and I am content before God and man…
My wife said to me today that what is done on this site is the public acknowledgment that people are not alone in their feelings or hurts as they find their way out. She went on to remind me how lonely our exit was because we had almost nobody that could identify with our situation… yet she also reminded me that today, what we do hear is offer even those just reading, the reassurance that YOU ARE NOT ALONE, WE GET IT AND WE HAVE BEEN THERE… YOU ARE NOT CRAZY OR BAD AND YOU DON’T JUST “DONT GET IT”… there is life after leaving RLC and you don’t have to feel bad about getting to it.
I know that as we post to those reading our experiences, not only of injustice but of the better life that follows, people will be encouraged… and it is the whole story when we include how the pieces are being picked up rather than just the destruction we encountered…
IF YOU ARE ON YOUR WAY OUT YOU HAVE SUPPORT… YOU HAVE PEOPLE EVEN BYOND THIS SITE WHO HAVE DONE IT AS WELL… YOU ARE NOT GOING TO BE CURESED BY GOD, YOU WILL NOT HAVE BLESING YANKED FROM YOUR LIFE AND YOU ARE NOT SUBJECTING YOURSELF TO CROOKED PATHS BY NOT FOLLOWNG THE TEACHINGS YOU HAVE FOR SO LONG… GOD AS BEEN WITH YOU THE WHOLE WAY AND WILL NOT LEAVE YOU NOW… TRUST ME…
Re: Has Anyone Ever Heard of Radiant Life Church in Sacramento
Posted by:
Iseenow
()
Date: April 08, 2009 04:30AM
I recently heard that Bruce and Kelly Kiniston left the church. I hope so. I really like Kelly. I never thought this would happen. They seemed like one of the in group and so close to Greg and Kelli Huth. Can anybody verify this?
Why would Tony be gone for so long is something that has been speculated on. I would say that maybe he just needs time to gather his family and make sure they are all on the same page. As a narcissist he would not see anything he has done as wrong even to this point. Everyone who has left is wrong and outside of the will of God (I can't tell you how many times this has been said or implied).
Why would Tony be gone for so long is something that has been speculated on. I would say that maybe he just needs time to gather his family and make sure they are all on the same page. As a narcissist he would not see anything he has done as wrong even to this point. Everyone who has left is wrong and outside of the will of God (I can't tell you how many times this has been said or implied).
Re: Has Anyone Ever Heard of Radiant Life Church in Sacramento
Posted by:
whatajoke
()
Date: April 08, 2009 05:10AM
Yay to Bruce and Kelli if true. That was one I certainly did not understand but glad they have rid themselves if true. I can remember being blown off for Saturday morning bible studies at my house because of thier desire to lock in with the Huths.
Re: Has Anyone Ever Heard of Radiant Life Church in Sacramento
Posted by:
whatajoke
()
Date: April 08, 2009 05:40AM
The fellowship groups on the RLC website, formerly known as the miserably failed 242 groups that came about from another whacked out scheme of Pastor Tony, formerly known as the miserably failed cluster and vine concept from another whacked out scheme of Pastor Tony, are now down to 7 groups classified in a few different areas, ie general, family, community. The Kynastons are no longer on there, nor is Mladnich and some others. I wonder what the next concept will be. Maybe they just should have been fellowship groups from the beginning without any competition and manuevering for people. It is very interesting. If you are around long enough or observe long enough it is so easy to see the absurdity in all of these visions and concepts that crop up and fail miserably. Pastor Tony is not around because he runs when the heat is on. I hope your tithes at RLC are not paying for his leisure and mental health time. If so you guys are seriously getting ripped off. You might as well burn your money. LOL.
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