| When I was a teenager and
suffering so much from having bronchial asthma, my parents talked to our
minister and he decided the best thing to do for me was to put me on a
special
diet: no whole wheat, no milk, etc. I could have rye bread and grape juice
was okay. I drank that for a whole week once. For a school project one
time we students were to make out what we ate for a week. I was sick
that week, so about all I had on my sheet when I went back to school and
turned the paper in was grape juice.
At one point in our life, we
got pretty hard up and a neighbor had some cornmeal for his cows, and
gave us some. Mom made cereal out of it, but I could not have milk on
mine. It wasn't bad enough that we had to be so different from everyone
at school, but also everyone at home and those at services too. In
those days whiskey or wine or beer was always "good for what ailed
you." I can
remember spending hours lying down in the car, or sitting up part of
that time, while the rest of the family was inside the building
attending a holy day service. I was too sick to attend and they couldn't
leave me back at the motel. I did get to see
all the big, colored balloons, though.
When I was quite young, my
parents started pointing out how different I was in comparison to
everyone else in the family (I have one crooked toe). I used to sit
around with them and try to straighten it out. That is dumb. They should
have kept quiet about it, or not made such a big deal out of it. They
refer to me as "the enigma of the family." I guess I'm a real
enigma now since I've left the WCG.
Another incident that I will probably never forget--even though I can
forgive my mother for--is the time all four of us kids were just playing
in the trailer house and having good kid fun. She decided to clean the
house and we all needed to get out of her way. So we started to get our
coats on and go outside and play there. But not me! She got mad at me
for getting my coat on. I was supposed to stay in the house by myself. I
in turn got mad, too. So she took me and put me into my brother's and my
tiny little bedroom. No toys; I just had to stay there for a long
time.
After awhile one learns how
different they are. I wasn't allowed to have friends over or go to
friends' houses to eat or spend the night. My sisters could. My brother
even got to go on a whole week school outing once. When I did go see a
friend and the parent there talked me into staying for lunch, who should
show up, but my sister. And come to think of it, even today I sense my
mother using my sisters to spy on me and try to sheriff me. That is what
parents in the cult1 are trained to be--sheriffs.
They had to keep me away from other people and circumstances for
the most part in order to protect themselves. Since doctors were
outlawed, there was one cult family in another city where I could go and
stay sometimes. To this day that girl's parents--her dad anyway--makes
me feel real unwanted. They were always in a much higher money bracket
than our family was and I think there was some kind of tension there
between my dad and her dad. At her house, they gave you big glasses of
wine at night. She had asthma, too.
I didn't participate much even
in church activities (we didn't go to very many
of them anyway while we lived in Nevada), but after Phil and I got
married and we had moved into town, we still didn't go. I have never
been a very active
person. We used to hike some and Phil and I enjoyed that, but growing
up, if we
went on a family hike and I got tired, too bad. I had to finish the
walk the same as everyone else. I wonder if they enjoyed watching me
suffer. Mom even brags now as to how much pain she can handle and what a
baby my dad was when he was ill. We were like sadomasochists.
Sometimes one has to focus on
this stuff to help other people realize that the so-called "good old days"
were nothing but a lot of pain and suffering. I'm sure there is a lot of
sickness in these groups and those who suffer just keep quiet thinking they
are suffering for Christ. Not so! You are suffering for the leaders, so
that they can hide from the abuses they are perpetrating on you. Those
who are sick and suffering need to know that it is good to speak out! Expose
the abusers! A lot of totally unnecessary suffering is going on inside. The leaders benefit, because they get your money, not the
doctors. And in some cases even natural remedies are unaffordable. In
the end, you lose, unless you recognize Herbert Armstrong's lies and get out of
there and start taking care of yourself and your family.
I hope someone else will see
that they are only suffering for the image of the leader and not for Christ.
There is way too much emphasis on the way our bodies looked in that cult. Jesus
died for more than a body. He wants us to have life with Him and our
life consists not in the things we possess, as in our kidneys, etc. I
don't
believe Jesus is consumed in His thinking about how we look physically.
But
in the cult, there is a whole lot of that kind of thinking going
on.
By Mona - Child Survivor of WCG
(details changed to protect the survivor)
May 15, 2001
Note from ESN: Many exiters still
suffer health problems today, due to WCG's false doctrine on
doctors. (Read: How Did
Worldwide Church of God Instruct Ministers to Deal With Health and
Medical Problems? to see how they tried to avoid prosecution in case
someone died.)
Footnote by ESN:
1 The word "cult" is used in the context of
a deceitful, abusive, mind-manipulating and abusive organization. (See:
Identifying Marks of an Exploitive, Abusive Group.)
Articles
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