Changed, Thank you very much for reposting these very timely and timeless reflections from TLWF survivors. And hey, y'all can put your stuff on my calendar anytime! <3
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

The podcast is also in video form on YouTube. Great stuff!
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Changedagain wrote: turns out that this quote is not from the Sermon on the Mount. Boy, did I get duped: "Blessed are those who have no sympathy, for they shall rise up the chain of command." That just about sums up the Walk mentality. And here I always thought that it should have been: "Blessed are those who give a damn, for they shall not be damned." Meanwhil
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Changedagain, you have a great talent for reposting and weaving salient points together. I appreciate very much that you do this here. Posted by: typer Date: November 07, 2019 08:51AM It is so weird. I still get afraid and flinch when I think of certain things. I'm actually a little scared right now to share this, for fear John S**er will come to my house and kill me. Please don'
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Posted by: FCSLC () Date: July 04, 2023 09:38AM The exhilarating sense of individual independence and agency was never taught to the congregants of TLWF. Unlike natural people who “love and appreciate” their universal right to do as they please, TLWF congregants were basically denied and even warned against that life-giving teaching. Happy Independence Day to all. ************** Good
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Changed, I still have to laugh when I think of the My Fair Lady songs he had some of us perform at the pre-4th of July squawk nights in Shiloh. "Just you wait, male nature. Just you wait". And the "No Popes" t-shirts we painted and were planning for South Gate people to wear at Shiloh. Something was definitely afoot. That was the first School of Prophets summer camp...1990. I
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Changed wrote: "I know in a few instances that they used this new doctrinal twist to target a few key men in the fellowship that were perhaps a threat to them. Dan S., pastor of SG at the time, may have been one of them." Definitely Dan S. He must have royally pissed Marilyn off. Why else would they oust him from the law office and try to send him to pastor the church in Phoenix?
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Changed, I've thought about that male nature baloney quite a bit. Since women had been targeted for years and years, I think that maybe it was done to upset the apple cart and throw everyone off balance. I clearly remember John Robert Stevens talking very negatively about the "woman spirit", the spirit of Eve, the Jezebel spirit, you name it. I knew that women were crap since my ea
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Changedagain wrote: "What is something you said to another person that was spoken in love, yet was not received that way, due to their insecurity?" "Keep your spirit in your sneakers." Actually, Marilyn said that, and I thought that it was pretty uncalled for. Right up there with, "I'm pretty anti woman."
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Changedagain wrote: Fortunately, part of me remained intact, which enabled me later to write on this forum, along with nephs, Jezebels, bitter blowouts, subnouncers, f8cking musicians and at least a few who are led only by the 'beach spirit.' These are my people too, Changed. I think that at some point, a little part of me deep inside knew what cowardly, evil people the leaders
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Meanwhile, by many accounts, Marilyn was already lying in another's bed. I think she would refer to this as the "pure atmosphere." ;) No doubt, Changedagain. One repetitive theme that I noticed throughout my 41 years in The Walk/The Living Word Fellowship was the shifting of those who were on the inside or outside of leadership positions. The biggest predictor of who was tr
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

One memory that keeps coming back to me is of being in a worship service in CLW, North Hills, colloquially known as "The Valley" church. This was the term meant to disinguish this location from the other two Southern California churches founded by John Robert Stevens, Grace Chapel South Gate and Church of His Holy Presence Anaheim. It was one of those Sunday night services after a long
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Posted by: puddington Date: November 27, 2019 08:25AM Reep, I’m thinking about John on his deathbed. I imagine, in a moment of clarity, he looked around the room and saw only his groupies. People he had created by feeding them fairy tales. And other people that wanted his power. It must have dawned on him that these people didn’t REALLY love him. They just wanted something from him. Or they w
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Great information, Changedagain and Larry Bobo. I've just recently noticed renewed efforts by The Living Word to whitewash the online presence of info about JRS. Therefore, I recommend that when posting about his abuse and cult leader status, we write out his name. John Robert Stevens was a cult leader along with the worst of the worst.
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Changedagain wrote: "The kicker came sometime after the painting project was completed, and I had yet to be paid (along with another worker, also a church member). At the end of a weeknight service Gary, from the pulpit, thanked my employer for "donating" his painting services to John. WTF? I talked to the employer after the service and he claimed no arrangement had been made to
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Sometimes I wonder if the info about cults should be taught in school. There are just too many evil people in this world. I'm just now coming to grips with what a horrible, disgusting person JRS was. Some days it still gets to me. Fifteen years after leaving. In the seventies, I was married to his nephew. I had an arranged marriage in 1971 and an arranged divorce in 1978. I was groomed and t
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Reveal wrote in part: "4.Command submission of every decision in people's lives to include dating, marriage, having children, where to live, what job to take, to go to University or not, etc. and if people decide not to submit these things, to at a minimum withdraw affection and ostracize them from their church family, or disparage their character, make a pariah out of them, gossip a
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Hi Onion, Nice to hear from you. Yes, so much water under the bridge. So many layers of damage. May we all find some closure and peace.
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Hmmm...along the same lines... What could TLWF do better? Gary should definitely bring more sermons with the theme "It's a new day". You can never get enough of that BS. (GAG) Signed, Susie Submissive (also GAG)
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Changed wrote: Question: Name something you have received by serving Christ in the Flesh Answer: PTSD Ding! Ding! Ding! You win. I think that we all got a hefty dose of that! Once I was filling out one of those 360° evaluations. Lol. At the very end it asked what TLWF could do better. I wrote about not understanding the Christmas truck. Why did we have to do that, it didn'tmake
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Posted by: Richard M. Date: February 21, 2019 But one thing I was sure about was the insidious scheme of creating what was known as the woman group of "intercessors," some five or six?, ostensibly protecting Stevens from "demons." For me, a joke of monumental proportion. While it might be embarrassing to some from revelations of the past, and with the truth confronted in t
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

And one more thing, to Ms. "Monitor" and Mr. Davison, I don't recall ever teaching either of you to treat some people better than others. You didn't learn that from me. Respect leaders, yes. But squash people who deserve to be heard by those leaders? Absolutely not.
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Wow! You really do find and repost great observations, Changed. I like Reveal's takeaway from the time my husband received the anonymous letter. It was from someone claiming that it's their "job" to monitor this forum and report activity back to Gary and Kevin. And it was asking him to shut me up and keep me from posting here. Reveal said "If they spent even a fraction of
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

It was during the nineties at a conference that I got busted by the sound booth guys for unauthorized musical accompaniment with a shakere. It was a gourd instrument with a net of beads covering the outside. I had purchased it from a man calling himself Shakere Joe in Echo Park. Great fun!
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Changed wrote: "The decision to leave was rooted in sanity--but the toxic culture we all were immersed in made it seem otherwise. It's refreshing to think our own thoughts, rather than the thoughts of those who seek to exploit our lives, and get a 'bad spirit' when they can no longer do so. The line is drawn. :)" Oh, yeah! I like that. This time, we draw the line o
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

JRS had many, many vices and was not a safe person to be around. But, try as I might, I just cannot picture him in a golf cart with guards running along beside. In a van being driven by a bodyguard, drink in hand and surrounded by adoring servants, yes. Golf cart, no. Lol.
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Lilith wrote: Yeah, we should explain ourselves. The heads of the cult required very, very, very special treatment. It was annoying in the extreme especially when they were always banging on about the ground being level at the foot of the cross. Not from where we were sitting! Changedagain wrote: True Can't stand the sight of golf carts to this day! Let alone golf carts with secu
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Oh, Changed and Lilith. You guys made me LOL! : } For anyone reading this that doesn't understand the train of thought here, our friends are being facetious about the lifestyle of the TLWF cult leaders. Please see the newest the Living Word Cult video for context:
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Posted by: katnmouse91265 () Date: April 23, 2023 12:53PM I just watched the film by Macie Chadwick about her abuse in Grand Junction Colorado and I started shaking because I was there for awhile. I hope if she is here she will pm me because I often wondered why people were shipped shipped to GJ when they messed up in Shiloh. I need to know if my dad at any time was involved in any of this. H
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Katnmouse91265, I'm so glad that you mentioned the new YouTube video by @thewalkdoc. I hope that everyone will watch. Powerful.
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families