Leaving one cult and joining another. From Armstrongism into NXIVM

NXIVM sex cult leader Keith Raniere guilty of trafficking, child porn offenses

 

A reader posted a link to the following article in one of the comments on another thread. It is a story from Rolling Stone Magazine about why people leave one cult and how they can be easily be attracted to another cult.

Teah Banks was born into an evangelical Christian sect called the Radio Church of God. Founded in the 1930s by an advertising sales representative turned minister, the insular group promoted an ultra-fundamentalist reading of the Old Testament, eschewing divorce, premarital sex and even wearing makeup. “It was a super closed religion,” Banks, now 42, remembers. “We had pictures of the leader in our home. We worshipped him like he was a god.”

Although Banks started having questions about the group, she attended services until her 20s, when she was expelled from the organization. In 2004, she and her then-boyfriend, a filmmaker named Mark Vicente (best known for the documentary What the Bleep Do We Know?), were approached by two women who wanted Vicente to make films for their organization, NXIVM, which taught a curriculum called the Executive Success Program, or ESP. The two women (one of whom was NXIVM co-founder Nancy Salzman) raved about their leader, a mathematician, scientist, judo champion and concert-level pianist who had patented a unique method of hacking the human brain. The man’s name, the women said, was Keith Raniere.

Banks and Vicente’s interest was piqued, and they agreed to join the women for lunch; when Salzman successfully used ESP methods to “cure” Banks of her lifelong lactose intolerance, she was even more intrigued. “I’m just like, wow, this is amazing. This woman is amazing,” she says. “And I said, ‘Nancy, I want to be one of your people.'” Blown away by the women and by ESP in general, Banks encouraged Vicente to take a NXIVM intensive; eventually, he bought an apartment in New York to be closer to group headquarters in Albany. She was involved with the group until 2005, when the two broke up, though she continued taking courses remotely for years afterward. Vicente, who eventually became a member of the NXIVM executive board, was involved with the group until 2017.

At the time she joined NXIVM, Banks had just left one large organization with an enigmatic leader at the helm. Vicente, too, had also just extricated himself from a similarly insular fringe spiritual organization: the Ramtha School of Enlightenment, a group led by a New Age figure named JZ Knight, who claimed to be channeling a 35,000-year-old warrior deity named Ramtha. But even though they were both disillusioned with spiritual organizations, NXIVM struck them as different. “The first day you’re there, they’re like, ‘We’re not a cult. Cult is a bad word. It is used loosely,'” Banks said. “‘[We’re] a success school. We’re helping you raise your ethics.'”

At this point, everyone knows the rest of the story: in March 2018, Raniere and five of his NXIVM cohorts, including Salzman, were arrested on such charges as sex trafficking, racketeering and conspiracy to commit forced labor. Raniere is currently standing trial in Brooklyn, where his former supporters (including Vicente) have testified that he, among other things, imprisoned a woman for nearly two years, convinced his followers that he controlled technology and the weather, and ran DOS, a secret all-female organization of “slaves” who were branded with his initials and told to have sex with him.

The general view in the media — and among former followers like Banks and Vicente, who declined to comment, presumably due to his involvement in the case against Raniere — is that NXIVM operated not as a self-improvement “school,” but as a cult run by Raniere, who used threats and coercion to keep his followers in line. The revelations came as a shock to Banks, now a makeup artist and YouTuber based in Oregon, who had fallen out with the community after her 2006 breakup with Vicente but had kept in touch with many members and taken classes for years afterwards. She even recorded an ASMR video about her time in NXIVM, speaking at length about her feelings of guilt over her involvement. “I truly thought that this group had answers, and isn’t that why we join any group? [Because] they have answers there that we don’t have inside ourselves,” she says in the video. How People Leave One Cult — and End Up in Another: As the NXIVM case shows, “cult-hopping” is more common than you think

Here is the video mentioned above. She apparently is a practitioner of ASMR (Autonomous sensory meridian response) which I find creepy as hell and also irritating to listen to due to the "'s's" and "sh's" that hit her microphone when she speaks. That alone destroyed the "calming" effect" she is supposedly getting across. I could only listen to a few minutes but others find her story to be fascinating.

COGWA: Christians Should Be Considered Unbelievers If Looking To Marry Outside COGWA

 

One of the great myths of Armstrongism is that COG "believers" are special and set apart from the rest of Christianity. The rest of Christianity apparently is too stupid to understand God, Christ, and scriptures unlike COG sects located here and there in the United States. In spite of the fact that millions have died over the centuries standing up for their faith (which no COG leader or minister ever has ever done) American COG leaders and ministers claim to be able to determine just who is a good Christian and who is not. Given the track record of rebellious COG leaders that continue to cause denominational divisions and whose ranks are filled with abusive, adulterous, and alcoholic ministers, none of these groups are in a position to tell members who they can or cannot marry.

In an article on whether a COGWA member should marry outside the COGWA belief system there was this:

What, then, is an unbeliever? In brief, an unbeliever is the opposite of the person above. Regardless of his academic knowledge of Bible instruction, he does not believe the truth and does not follow Christ with commitment and action. Again, the Scriptures must be our guide.

John 3:36: “He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

Acts 14:2: “But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brethren” (emphasis added throughout).

Romans 4:20: “He [Abraham] did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God,”

1 Timothy 1:13: “Although I [Paul] was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man; but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.”

Hebrews 3:12: “Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God.”

Unbelief is thus described as a lack of belief or faith in God and His Son Jesus Christ. An unbeliever will not always worship idols or be hostile to God, but may simply not know or believe God and His truth. What about the millions today who “believe” in Christ? There is more to being a believer than just claiming the name of Jesus—one has to understand and follow Jesus, as preached by the apostles. Notice Paul’s words:

2 Corinthians 11:4: “For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted—you may well put up with it!”

Today many preach “another Jesus”—for example, one who came to abolish God’s law by “nailing it to the cross.” Those in God’s Church are begotten through faith in the gospel of Christ, while others are attracted to a gospel about Christ. The point is that a person who does not share that same belief in (understanding and desire to obey) Jesus is not spirituallycompatible with one who is a believer. So a professing “Christian” is not necessarily a believer in biblical terms. Only those who are called by God can become believers (John 6:44). Marrying Within The Faith

LCG: After the COVID infections at the Feast, they now repsond with "neccesary steps"

 

Living Church of God was very lax in their recommendations for members to practice when they traveled to various Feast sites around the country. Masks were seldom worn, it at all, and social distancing was never practiced.  Now that members have become infected, the church has some "suggestions" for its members.

The recommendations that the CDC and local health departments recommend are "weapons of choice" in the eyes of Doug Winnail. While he is certainly correct in having good immune systems by proper diet and exercise and exposure to sunshine he tells members to "take necessary steps" in promoting health and preventing disease. 

In spite of infections, they still will not tell their members to wear masks or even avoid church if they feel sick or are afraid of being infected. With the aging membership of the church, this is vitally important that the money payers remain healthy.

Steps Toward Prevention: 

 

In 2020, the COVID-19 virus emerged to plague the world. The weapons of choice promoted by governments and the media to battle the virus are masks, sanitation, social distancing, and eventually a vaccine. While God promises His people special protection for obedience (Exodus 15:26) and healing (James 5:14–16), our Creator also expects us to do our part. Proverbs 22:3 states that a wise person sees evil and hides himself—he takes steps to avoid problems. God has created us with remarkable immune systems that are capable of fending off disease. Numerous scientific studies have shown that vitamins A, B, C, and D as well as zinc—from food sources or supplements—can strengthen the immune system and provide protection against disease-causing bacteria and viruses. Regular exercise, rest, exposure to sunshine, and learning to manage stress can also strengthen the immune system. The path to health involves making wise personal decisions about what we eat and how we live (see Deuteronomy 30:15–19)—and taking the necessary steps to promote health and prevent disease—so we can actually “prosper in all things and be in health” (3 John 2). We need to understand and apply these important steps.
Have a profitable Sabbath,
Douglas S. Winnail

LCG Exciting News! Church is ramping up for "faster pace" in gaining new members

 

Exciting times are ahead for the boys in Charlotte! This is so exciting that they CANNOT stand still and let other COG's pass them by!!! The boys have added 4 more issues to their Tomorrow's World rag and this is guaranteed to being in the searching masses. Woo hoo!

Magazine subscriptions are rocketing downwards across the publishing spectrum. With more and more people reading things online, magazines are less and less important. Never fear though, since those brilliant boys in Charlotte are always a year or two behind the national trends they WILL make this work! Untold thousands are waiting eagerly for 4 more issues to fill their mailboxes. It is an open door and those eager boys are jumping at the chance. So send in that excess 2nd tithe and that tithe of the tithe you are still holding on to. Important things are ahead and the church needs it!

In addition to the new issues for the magazine, they need MORE employees! After decades of nepotism and hiring of the Meredith clan to fill all kinds of spots, the church now needs more employees to actually do some work. With all those thousands of new members soon joining the church it now needs more employees to handle the influx. The Church of God is so amazing! What an amazing work!

Greetings from Charlotte,
God has greatly blessed His Church this year and has opened doors that were not previously available. We have significant personnel needs and are working to fill some of those positions in the field ministry and in understaffed departments here in Charlotte. And now I am able to make a very exciting announcement. Beginning in 2021, the Tomorrow’s World English-language magazine will increase from six issues (one every other month) to ten issues per year. This is a major step forward! This will give subscribers more regular contact with the Church. We will drop four pages, from 36 down to 32, and make some other alterations, but overall there will be more content each year. While we cannot know at this time, as this is something not easily measured, we believe this will bring people along at a faster pace. Other Tomorrow’s World language magazines will stay on the six-per-year schedule for now, but this will give translators more articles from which to choose. We cannot stand still, and when God provides the means and an open door, we must walk through it. We are also increasing the impact of our social media efforts and television coverage. Please continue to pray for God to open doors, provide the means of going through them, and bless our human efforts to His glory!—Gerald Weston

Dave Pack: Dave Only Has One Thing On His Mind As Employees and Members Struggle with COVID and His "christ" Failed To Appear

 

From an RCG source:

Meanwhile, Dave Pack is pretending that all is well in Dave World. No mentioning of the COVID cases in his 'church'. No mentioning of any heartfelt concern for the RCG members that are sick. No mentioning of ministers (and members) leaving his 'true church'. What does Dave do? What he always does, asking for more money, like in this weeks announcements. Be good slaves and don't forget to send Dave your money boys and girls:

“Third Tithe Reminder: As many are aware, third tithe years begin after the Feast each year. At the bottom of the homepage in Member Services, you can find a link titled “Calculate Third Tithe Years.” This webpage will automatically calculate your third tithe year cycles for you. The cycles are based on your baptism date. Remember that one’s third tithe year occurs every three years in a seven-year cycle.

Those who have questions about third tithe years should contact their local minister.

Tithe of Tithe, Excess Second Tithe, and Holy Day Offerings Reminder: Many will recall that, before the Feast, an announcement was made for brethren to calculate and send in any tithe of tithe and excess second tithe ahead of time, if possible. We thank those who were able to do this. Now that the Feast is over, however, all excess second tithe should be calculated and sent to Headquarters, along with any tithe of tithe that was not already sent, noted as a separate amount. Please notate on your checks or money orders “excess second tithe” or “tithe of tithe,” whichever is applicable.

In addition, those who have missed services on any of the four fall Holy Days and have yet to mail in their offerings should do so as soon as possible. It is vitally important to God’s Work that all Holy Day offerings are accounted for. Please feel free to contact the Business & Accounting Office at bao@rcg.org if you have any questions concerning your offerings.”