Being in this Cult is one of the Worst things that Happened in my Life!

[Trapped]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I was in the local church in Anaheim, California from the age of 12 to 17 when Witness Lee was located there. Being in this cult is one of the worst things that happened in my life! My whole family was involved in it. My family still got together every Friday night just to socialize. I was told by an elder they were praying for my family to break apart. When my father lay dying in the hospital, they refused to come and give us comfort or prayer. When I finally worked up the courage to leave, I was told by an elder I was like the dogs of hell barking at the gates of heaven. Years later I was told by the Rapaport family they always celebrated Christmas and watched television at their grandparents house. What an insult! I no longer go to church anywhere. I can't take the judgment of everything I was taught at such an impressionable age. But, I refuse to let the Local Church ruin my life!

As a fellow church kid, I both sympathize and am also speechless at what you've described. Prayer for any family to break apart is not prayer, it's a curse. God is not for the destruction of families. God calls divorce "a violent act" in the Bible, and I believe that would be the same applied to a family breakup too.

The Bible says "woe to those" through whom stumbling comes, and that elder has some woe coming to him from the God who grieves at the pain you've endured and at the stumbling you've encountered through what he said.

You said you were in Anaheim. Since the seven feasts are often made up of the same attendees no matter where they are (save ITERO's of course), I have spoken to enough church kids from that area over the years to be able to say fairly confidently myself that many of them grew up under what can only be described as "waves of condemnation" washing over them, over and over and over, crushing their developing souls right at the most impressionable age. Nothing they did was good enough for God to be happy with them. Nothing they avoided made them acceptable. They couldn't do or join in or participate in so many healthy and human things without feeling bad or wrong or condemned for doing so, because the God who loved them while they were sinners was misrepresented to them to the point that He became a God who was out to get them and punish them for the slightest error or enjoyment in human life that wasn't Him and Him alone. That's not God.

I'm glad you are of the mindset that the local church wouldn't ruin your life. We are here to listen if you ever want to say anything more.