A man has revealed how his childhood was ruined by sexual assault, physical abuse and poverty when his parents joined a 'cult'.
Trevor Glass, 45, is a CEO from the Gold Coast who was brought up in the worldwide Protestant Christian movement Word of Faith.
Born in South Africa, his parents joined the church when Mr Glass's great uncle listened to radio broadcasts by Herbert Armstrong, the leader, which lead the family to believe they had found 'the truth'.
The decision to join the church resulted in a life that Mr Glass has spent decades recovering from.
'I was personally molested along with at least 54 other kids in the church by a man that would visit homes of church members that had young boys,' he told FEMAIL.
'He would abuse the boys but we were all too afraid to speak up because we were taught to respect our elders and that people within the church were God's chosen few.'
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As a result of our beliefs, we were extremely isolated. We didn't fit in at school or other social circles and we were taught that people in the "outside world" could not be trusted,' he said.
'We largely reduced our contact with outside support networks such as family and friends. We were teased and bullied because we were different.
'Parents were taught by the church to "spare the rod and spoil the child", which meant that we were physically punished when we made mistakes.'
He said members were constantly fed 'the truth' that involved instilling the overwhelming fear that an apocalypse was imminent.
'I remember being absolutely terrified when they told us about the torture, rape and abuse that occurred during other wars and they warned that this world was going to see a war that eclipsed those,' he said.
They were told to watch the news and look for any sign of the end times and any hint of war, famine and natural disasters were held up as living evidence that the war to end all wars was close.
Read the entire article here, though be forewarned that the author who wrote this obviously needs to get her facts together. Armstrongism, no matter how bad it was, was not part of the Word of Faith movement. Though, we did borderline on it as we claimed that people would be blessed as they tithed. The more they tithed, the more they would be blessed.
Poor, hungry and sexually abused: Australian CEO who grew up in a 'CULT' reveals the most frightening part of his bizarre childhood - and how he's still haunted by it today
There have been so many false allegations of sexual assault that many people don't take allegations of sexual assault seriously. This is a shame because in about 5% of the cases the assaults really did happen.
ReplyDeleteYes, there are very large differences between the "Word of Faith" movement and Armstrongism. Word of Faith doctrine often includes a "Name it, Claim it" doctrine where you literally command things to happen and "speak them into existence", thereby making it so by "faith". It is a whole different animal than Armstrongism's toxic fear control autocratic system.
ReplyDeleteThe author said:
" As a result of our beliefs, we were extremely isolated. We didn't fit in at school or other social circles and we were taught that people in the "outside world" could not be trusted,' he said.
'We largely reduced our contact with outside support networks such as family and friends. We were teased and bullied because we were different.
'Parents were taught by the church to "spare the rod and spoil the child", which meant that we were physically punished when we made mistakes.'
He said members were constantly fed 'the truth' that involved instilling the overwhelming fear that an apocalypse was imminent. "
100% truth. Although the impact varied from person to person - this is the experience of GROWING UP in Armstrongism. I've often said the impact of one born into the Church was far worse than one who entered it by choice.
When you read his comments it is 100% pure Armstrongism. How the reporter went on to tie it into WofF I have no idea.
ReplyDelete4.51 PM
ReplyDeletePlease supply a link or source for your 5% claim. The author did say that there were 54 other victims.
he can't give you information on his claim of 5%. he has no idea what he is talking about.
ReplyDeleteYou got it, 5:56. The people who think we make shit up about Armstrongism think they can come here and say anything they want.
DeleteTrained behavioral psychologists operate on the premise that the children who claim abuse are telling the truth. Investigations then take place to confirm or deny.
Probably what happened over there in Africa was that the number rose to 54 because the adults didn’t believe the children. That happens in environments where narcissistically religious adults are valued or revered above children. Besides, as we all know, Armstrongism was already a seething cauldron of non-sexual child abuse.
The funny thing is, all this time nck has been stating that all the child abuse in the WCG USA congregations was just a reflection of American trends of the era. He actually asked for opinions from third world countries, and I wonder what he’ll have to say now that we have one that is seemingly even worse than the deplorable American examples!
I will tell you that there was A LOT of sexual abuse in the armstrong cult and the abusers were protected. I know from experience. I was one of those abused, and after writing about the abuse and taking it to the minister, nothing was done and my writings were destroyed without my permission. Fear of my life kept me from going to the proper authorities, fear of not being believed, and at that point in time, it was always the victim's fault.
ReplyDeleteI believe you FFS. It was not until i had a family myself did i realize how there are, and still are to this day, sexual predators within the Church. They act swiftly, in clear view of others and brazenly get away with it.
DeleteI blame the church marriage doctrine of members only marrying within the church which has led to many men unmarried.
Not all unmarried men in the church are sexual predators but they do exist.
It is a lesson in futility complaining to the ministry.
You will be labelled a liar, mentally ill, deranged anything except acknowledging the truth.
I'm left asking more questions about the article itself, than what Trevor Glass claims.
ReplyDeleteFor one thing, Daily Mail is not necessarily a reliable news source. Their TV show can be pretty tabloid.
Glass is CEO of what company? Curious that the article doesn't name it. A quick online search didn't bring up any matches for his name and that title.
Blame the website editors for mixing pictures of other religious groups into his story. Say what you want about the Crouches, but (as far as I know) they never had COG ministers on TBN.
And how on earth did this get put in the "Fe-Mail" section?
In the seventies at the height of "cult/movement" days I remember reading articles like this where they couldn't even spell the name of the church. That does not help proving its credibility and reinforces a feeling of "being under attack."
ReplyDeleteWhy cant a ceo understand that he is not solving anything by branding a product wrong and is actually reinforcing distrust in "those outside".
What an ass to have allowed the many mistakes in the article especially when it really happened wihout mentioning the perpetrators.
Nck
9:33
ReplyDeleteSouth Africa was not a third world country. It was very modern and well imbedded into the Anti Communist Anglo Saxon post WWII empire. As a matter of fact it was supplied by Israel with nuclear weapons as the Reagan administration tolerated Apartheid in secret unbeknownst to the general public.
Hence my questions regarding the GII fly path from Pretoria and Tel Aviv back and forth.
And yes some of the South African directors I knew very well back in the seventies. Best people ever. Hence my question regarding the perpetrators.
nck
FFS
ReplyDeleteWhat you stated is common in abusive cults. I recently read a book on religious cults, and it gave the example of a leading member who was having incest with his daughter. The pastor ignored it, pointing out that the church is struggling, and his help is needed. So the priority in these types of churches is:
1 Protect the guilty leaders.
2 Protect the Pharisaic church culture. Complaints of injustice or faulty theology are met with accusations of being a trouble maker, creating division, etc.
3 Protecting the reputation of the church. The public image of the church is put before justice for the victims.
It's a warped moral code. It's like the Pharisees attacking Christ for healing on the Sabbath. Peoples lives didn't matter.
In viewing the postings here I get the impression that anyone who was or is a member of an Armstrong Church of God is either an abuser, an abused, or an accuser rather than true Christian believer. This creates a serious problem for human beings. We see a world filled with people who are selfish unrighteous people who are killing the righteous people and the only way we can experience a better world is for the righteous people to kill off the unrighteous people. Of course this makes it difficult to determine who is righteous and who is unrighteous. When I see the things posted here I cannot shares the positive years I spent as a true believer in the Christian faith because no one will believe it to be true. I thank God daily for the written word that offers hope for those who reflects the belief in the resurrected person who is defined as Jesus the Christ. AB
ReplyDeleteIf you watch the Glass Documentary "Suffer the Children", which properly criticizes prosperity preachers ripping people off, you get to see one the biggest crooks and heretic Joe Tkach Jr. pontificate on phony preachers. He and his old man were complete liars and rip off artists, stealing millions from WWCG. Joe Jr. and his old man were biblical light weights who were motivated to get even with HWA.
ReplyDeleteI've been falsely accused several times. People just do it for money, attention, sympathy, and revenge.
ReplyDeleteSeveral times, 6:12??? Do you fit the profile or something? Or hang out in wrong places with wrong people?
Delete