I think my parents started in the WCG just before I was born. I left when I went to college, 18 years old, told my dad I don't believe in God, came back during the summer, attended "church" with the family. I believe atheism was a defense against a God I didn't want to believe in. But I met God at 22 and I was born again.

I haven't attended a Worldwide Church of God service for a long time but can't utterly denounce everything I learned there, especially in the transitional years between 1992-1997. I am sure there are sincere Christians in the organization and some of them have left and others stick to it.

I am sure some of what I was taught led to extremism in my use of my faith after I was born again. It also closed me to any Gospel that a human could deliver to me, unless he could demonstrate the gospel with power. It also lead to extreme guilt if I was not perfect by my own conscience's standards. "Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves."

I have been a Christian seven years and am now 29. I have learned to understand grace quite a bit but I need to learn more. My relationship with God was colored by legalism intensely at the first, I was pretty much suicidal after any failure, which lead to hospitalization several times the first few years of being a Christian, but it has been much improved through grace teaching. Suicide is logical and extreme guilt is logical if you don't understand your sins are forgiven, and that certainly wasn't a strong point with WCG. The curse of the law is something, that if you don't understand Jesus, you've got a big problem. The law says you're dead meat.

I've dabbled with Messianic congregations (a lot of ex-WCG people in those), and things like that, but I don't think WCG or messianic places are good places to get spiritual food.

WCG caused some problems and there were certainly healthier places to grow up, but there were worse places too. I used to work in a child/adolescent treatment center, and many of those kids have gone through much more serious stuff than some of us have.

I have a loving mom and dad, in spite of some of the negative influence of the WCG. If I had bad parents and a bad church, I probably wouldn't be alive, except that God would work a miracle and keep me around.

God bless you all.

By Gordon - Child survivor of WCG
June 28, 2004

An End to Guilt (Excellent message that focuses on the unconditional love of God and gives a clear understanding of grace)

Articles For Those Who Were Emotionally and Spiritually Abused

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