| I would also like
to share with you my story about leaving
Worldwide Church of God. I was born into WCG and
went to church with my parents and tried to honor my parents' wishes and
the church's rules. I never could get past my revulsion for the place of
safety rubbish and the churches tyrannical treatment of members. I grew
up having nightmares of Christ--we always called him "Christ"
not Jesus--wielding a sword to destroy all the children at school. I was
told this was just lack of faith, etc on my part. I was a child, what
did I know?
When I was in high school it
got particularly difficult. Somehow it occurred to me that maybe if I
got baptized I would understand. So I got baptized. What a mistake. Of
course that didn't make anything WCG said make any more sense than it
had before. After that my parents would throw my baptism in my face any
time I did anything they didn't like. Ugh.
When I was in college I met a wonderful man and we fell deeply in love.
He, of course, was not in WCG and had no intention of joining. My parents
went into the most hideous tantrums about it. At one point they informed
me that they would prefer that I married a man who beat me every night
but was in the church. Sadly, this was actually the trend among husbands
in our local church area. I and my fiancé went and talked to the local
pastor about our intention to get married. I'll comment here that
throughout everything that happened my policy was to be honest,
forthright and kind with everyone involved. The pastor told us that
"interdenominational marriage" was frowned on and hemmed and hawed a lot.
After that, every Saturday he would rant about dating outside the church
while staring directly at me. It got so bad that I actually had old men
coming up to me and asking if I had listened to the sermon. Not very
subtle! I actually endured this treatment for over a year. Oddly enough,
an elder in the local church told me the policy about
interdenominational marriage had been changed. He was so confident of
this that he offered to officiate at our wedding. To his credit he was
always nice to me and my husband and supported our marriage. He told me
later that he was not allowed to help us with our wedding.
My husband and I got married and started our new life together. About 4
months after our wedding I got a form letter from headquarters telling
me that if I had repented I could return to church. I was shocked! No
one had ever bothered to inform me that I had been expelled. No one told
me that I wasn't supposed to attend church, though I felt extremely
unwelcome. Repent? What on earth could they mean? How do you repent for
getting married to the man you love? I wrote a letter to headquarters to
ask what was going on? Some minister called my home to chew me out and
inform me that I was clearly unrepentant. At that point I told him
exactly what he could do with the whole stinking cult.
What followed were a couple of really hard years. I had to inform my
family that I was quitting the "church." In return I got more guilt trip
letters and phone calls. After all that had happened, I was very bitter.
I spent several years unlearning all the junk I'd grown up with. For a
long time I felt like if WCG was right about God, I would rather die in
the lake of fire than be with that kind up god. It took time but I have
cut, torn and thrown out of my soul the ugly hate-filled god of WCG and
have found a loving Jesus in Christianity.
Most of my family are still in WCG and
splinter groups. At times it is a
struggle because I know that their "churches" matter more to them than
anything else.
I left WCG about a decade ago. It has been the best decade of my life. I
would like to thank you at ESN for your interesting web site. I
wish all of you the best of luck.
By Rita - Child Survivor of WCG
August 25, 2001
Articles
For Those Who Were Emotionally and Spiritually Abused
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