Upon further reflection, my friend has edged back slightly from his pro-ISKCON position. He now acknowledges that ISKCON has a very troubled history, though he continues to believe they have made more progress reforming themselves than most other observers seem to think. He is chanting and praying with them, which I think is a bad idea, but he draws the line at bowing to the statue. At lea
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

My friend continues to be an apologist for ISKCON. In the context of an email conversation wherein I referred to ISKCON as a dangerous and destructive cult, he replied: "With respect, if you are going to call ISKCON "a dangerous and destructive cult", you'd also (by using the same logic) have to label the entire Roman Catholic Church the same. Conservative, f
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Thank you very much, cultreporter, for your informative response. It is exactly the kind of information I was hoping someone would come forward with. On a somewhat positive note, my friend is no longer staying with the group in east Dallas. He says he never intended to stay there permanently, he just needed a place to retreat to for a couple of weeks. He was also offended that I referred to hi
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

A cult-hopping friend of mine is lately staying with a Hare Krishna group in east Dallas. He says he is not converting to Hinduism (he is a Christian), but he likes the spirit of the people there. He says that they have been sensitized to abuses in the past, and are genuinely trying to clean up their act. Personally, I fear that my friend has already been somewhat brainwashed just by his sojourn
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Since posting the above on the Dallas News Religion Blog I have had an email exchange with one of the religion writers at The Dallas Morning News, Jeffrey Weiss, who also happens to be the blogmeister for that forum. He maintains that the reason the DMN has not taken note of either Wendy's book or the lawsuit from Fred Price is that Ole is such "small potatoes." We had
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Part of what irks me about The Dallas Morning Snooze is that, while ignoring all of the negative information about Trinity Foundation--starting with my wife's book and continuing through all the stuff that Glenna Whitley uncovered in her excellent piece in The Dallas Observer a year ago (see )--they continue to promote The Wittenburg Door on their religion blog. Here is what was recently on
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuotecultawareIs TF claiming that they sent a lot of footage to ABC and that ABC editied it to show Price in a bad light? cultaware That seems to be what they are implying, but I am skeptical. If Trinity had sent the full tape then ABC would have known better than to edit it in the way that it was. I bet that the snippet ABC used was something that Trinity had already edited.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Well, you probably should post your comments about Dave McKay on a forum that pertains to him. I know there are at least two on culteducation.com. As to Ole, whatever else might be his virtues, he is not Mr. Nice Guy.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuotezeuszorFor Pete's sake (no pun intended), David McKay makes Ole Anthony look like an Eagle Scout.Part of the problem with Ole/Trinity is that they got so close. I tend to hold them to a higher standard because, at times, they seem to be actual believers. And yet, they continue to disappoint. I really know nothing about David McKay and the Jesus Christians except for what you have tol
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Yes, Zeus, I think Seeking is right about this. Whatever problems there may be with Fred Price and his ministry are rendered moot by the mendacity of Ole and Trinity Foundation. If Ole wants to critique Fred Price he is welcome to do so--it is a free country, after all. But pulling somebody's words out of context so that you make them appear to say the opposite of what the speaker was actual
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Ole, Trinity Foundation, ABC, and John Stossel are being sued for a story 20/20 did about prosperity preacher Fred Price in which they took some of his comments on videotape out of context in order to portray him in a false light. The Dallas Observer's piece on their blog is a good summation of the story. See: John Stossel and ABC have apologized, but on his Wittenburg Door blog Ole say
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuotezeuszorHas he contacted anybody else that you know of? No.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuotezeuszorAnybody ever heard from our little buddy Nathan via email? He has not written me. Nor me. This seems to indicate that he was just interested in defending Trinity in this forum, and not really the "sincere observer" that he presented himself as.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuotezeuszorIt's not like I am digging through their trash or conducting surveillance. Yes, at least you're not doing that. :wink:
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Well, these are potentially interesting developments, but I would advise zeuszor not to go snooping around other people's houses. I know that is the kind of thing we used to do at Trinity Foundation, but now that I have left and have regained the perspective of normalcy, I realize it is not a good thing to do.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Sorry to hear that. We will pray for him.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Quotezeuszor How so? Well, it does continue to call Trinity's credibility into question. If they pulled something out of context for this story then who knows what else they would be capable of doing? I have to say, though, that I am disappointed in John Stossel, whom I have admired as being one of the best reporters on television. I wonder how a good guy like him got involved with the li
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

A good general rule of thumb, but what if there are family members who disagree? For example, the mother believes her son is in a cult but the father thinks it is just a phase that Junior is going through. Overall, though, I think there is some validity to looking to family members as a litmus test. I know my parents would have said Trinity is a cult back when I was involved.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteseekingCounselor47, I would be interested in hearing more about the cult conference that you went to. Was there anything that pertains to this thread or would be helpful for us to know? Thanks, Seeking Well, the main thing about those conferences is meeting the other people who have been in cults, and comparing notes. It is always amazing how similar the experiences are, whether the
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

I agree with Cultaware. There are too many red flags here. One of the problems with Ole and his group is that they are not connected to a denomination. While it is true that there are some problems in the various denominations, the accountability they provide is a necessity. It is problematic for people to go off on their own and try to be lone rangers, like Ole. Personally, I have decided to
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

One thing that bugs me is people who have some casual connection to Ole or the group who think they know what is going on there at Trinity better than do the former members. For her book Wendy formally interviewed several former members, and we still have the tapes of those interviews. And yet, certain people want to discount the experience of these folks just because they came to the block once
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Wendy and I got back a week ago from the International Cultic Studies Association Conference in Brussels, Belgium. I have been meaning to post something about our experiences there, but we both went straight back to work and have been very busy. I will try to post something longer when I get a chance, but there is one thing I did want to comment on. While there, I answered a long questionnaire a
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuotezeuszorQuoteMost cult leaders make you give them a lot of money up front. Ole has a different way of operating. He is patient, if nothing else, huh?I don't think it has ever really been about money for Ole. Of course, now that we know about his stipend it makes more sense, because he has a little nest egg and does not really have to sweat it much. Nevertheless, with Ole it is much more
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuotezeuszorDo you know anything about TFI supposedly being sued, C47? No.
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuotezeuszorCome to think of it, a lot of people (actually, MOST people) on the Block either have a lot of $$ now or will inherit it in the future. And yet, that does not seem to help the members of TFI with their business ethics. I just talked to a person today who says he is owed some money by one of the elders, who is now not returning his phone calls. If this "elder" really believed
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoterrmoderatorWhat do you think Doug? It seems he has very little meaningful experience and has become redundant, to say the least. He is not adding much to the discussion. He has my email address, so if he has any real questions or legitimate points to make he can email me directly. It is a shame, though, because this discussion would be more interesting if someone would advocate for Trinit
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuotezeuszorDo you think that Ole is a "bad person"? Evil at his core? I do. No, I don't think so. I believe that view is too simplistic. Ole has signifcant flaws and should not, IMHO, be in a position of spiritual leadership. However, what goes on at Trinity Foundation is a group dynamic, and everyone there plays a role. I certainly played my role while I was there, and have sin
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Thanks for sharing your story, zeuszor. The thing that strikes me is that now that you have the luxury of distance and perspective to allow you to look at them objectively, some things that did not necessarily seem so bad while you were at Trinity are actually outrageous. For example, the idea that Ole would expect to be briefed about what was said in your sessions with your psychiatrist goes way
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

If one reads this thread from the beginning it is interesting to watch Zeuszor go through the transformation from Trinity defender to former member. He read the book and was intellectually honest about the issues we raised. I would like nothing better than for some of the remaining members of Trinity to read the book with that kind of openness and honesty. Not that I expect them to leave, but
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteNathanATrinity Foundation has for the most part been a transparent and open group. That is very far from the truth. Trinity has been sneaky and manipulative in the way they have responded to Wendy and me. If it will clear the air, I will acknowldedge that Mark made a mistake when he said that Jackie Alnor had retracted her piece. She had not done that, although it would have been the right
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"