One way you know your church isn't a cult is when they encourage service, self-reflection, searching for answers to questions, and being open about information. All these cults restrict information and learning.

@ardet7383

Жыл бұрын

Any church that tries to limit access to info must be carefully guarded against. Compare their teachings to the bible and to what you've seen in life. Excellent point

@xShadowChrisx

Жыл бұрын

So a church isn't a cult if they don't at all follow christian doctrine lol. Searching for answers to questions is literally sin to Yahweh, it's the whole point why it goes "Humans are sinful". Hence the entire point of the bible being written in the first place

@SotraEngine4

Жыл бұрын

I'm part of a quite conservative church (conservative by my country's standard, but prob not by USA's standards). But everyone is free to wear whatever they want in church and they have no say on the freetime. Also, several people looks in the bible to verify what people say (a good thing to do), even if the bible vers is often shown on the screen There is no tongue talking or exorcism or anything like that, although we think gifts exists. We do more think gifts are more like being a good listener, being good at praying, being a good preacher and stuff like that. I'm quite sure we would welcome any gay people who wanted to come, although I have a feeling many members would quietly think it was a tradegy someone had to suffer through being gay

@SquidneyGames

Жыл бұрын

@@xShadowChrisx Hmmm, interesting

@lain7758

Жыл бұрын

Liberation theology is also a cult

I feel so bad for the girl who was forced to marry the man who abused her and gave her trauma…..I hope she got out of that situation and is now living well

I dated a girl who was in a christian sect. I can tell you alot of stories but think about this Al-quaida without guns. I heard a 7 year old kid saying:'' I cannot wait to die, so I will meet Jesus'' (I ran away and threw up) But it gets worse. My girlfriend was raped by her uncle when she was 11. Did the family go to the police? No, they went to a priest. The Priest said it was okay, and that she was young had not been attacked so much.'' When my than girlfriend told me that because i woke up at night on she cried. I asked her:'' What has happend'' She then told me this. I cried next to her and held her around me and I said:'' I will always support and defend you.'' The next time I saw the uncle i said:'' Lets go talk.'' I took him outside and I said:'' We have nothing to talk about, I know what you have done. If I ever see you do anything or look in a sick way to the other children in the family, i am gonna kick your ass so hard that you gonna live through a machine and I hope the judge would give me lifetime if you die.'' He than ran away. My mother-inlaw came(she was a bitch) and she tried to talk down to me. I said that if my girlfriend and I are gonne have children in this world. He will not come, I dont want to see him, if you invite him to your home, then inform me before we arrive, because i do not want to see him. The girlfriend and i broke up a few years later because of her mother. I wish i had kicked his face in when i had the chance.

@whirlpool7794

Жыл бұрын

Fuck. Your fucking awesome. Talk this gold🥇

@dminasweater4868

Жыл бұрын

Christians are huge on the punishment of sin until it's a Christian committing a crime against a child then it's a wayward son who just needs to be taught and the victim just needs to be shut up. Fucking disgusting cult

@jeerapattharbaaz5796

Жыл бұрын

Mother ?? Can you elaborate ?

@user-guigui01

Жыл бұрын

When I told my now future husband that my cousin groomed me when I was 4 years old, and that affected how I feel about my body, he was worried about me and was gentle while hugging me. It was our first date, when we were still going to a church. He left the church because pastor told him to stop talking and dating a girl of the church, but they weren't dating. I left because pastor said twice about queer people being cured. I'm queer. I don't think praying for someone to become straight is cure. It's disrespectful. For curious: the stories. 1° - He talked about a guy in his mid 30's. Guy is gay, his grandma was praying for 20 years for him to be cured by God (God is probably disappointed with her). There was a woman that stayed at his grandma house. He was there too, and decided to sleep at the living room's sofa, so she could sleep in the room. She woke up, got up, and went to the living room to drink water. Pastor said she was with "sensual pijama" (shorts, t-shirt, kinda transparent tissue -yes, he detailed her clothes and said sensual-), and while she was walking, dude "ate her" with his eyes. Dude was surprised for that. I was disgusted to hear that. I don't think God did that. I believe God is respectful and wouldn't use the woman to made him realize he's straight. Also, I think dude is just bi. Pastor said grandma cried happy tears. Ew. 2° - There was a gay couple. Both dudes went to church, Pastor was saying he doesn't judge, and they welcomed them. (God doesn't judge, but he was uncomfortable while talking about welcoming them). Church Church members prayed for three years. Pastor said that the boy was converted, healed, and broke up with his boyfriend. "Turned straight". *Sad sigh*.

@thatanswergirl-lucy8033

Жыл бұрын

So you as a coward did nothing and didn't call the police..... great

That last statement you made was one of the reasons why I loved my priest so much growing up. I'm a Roman Catholic and the priest that was there for most of my life said pretty much the same thing. I remember him saying that it was okay to question the bible because God gave us the ability to think for ourselves. He also said that you can still be a catholic even if you question some things, you can come out of it believing even more for it if you still go to church or come back to it even after questioning things. Basically, I was lucky to grow up in a church that believed in thinking about things and not unquestioning brainwashing. There were rules, but they consisted of following the word of Jesus which is a lot more inclusive than some might think.

@timeofend09

Жыл бұрын

Same here, but with a different religion. My mother and religion teacher were so patient with me when I asked them questions. I'm glad you had someone open like that in your life

@Kat-tr2ig

Жыл бұрын

I grew up Roman Catholic. The church and my dad had the same thinking (mom did not). Even though now I'm no longer Catholic, I still greatly respect the way they taught us and how open minded they were.

@xintrik

Жыл бұрын

As a kid my family was in a small church that prided themselves on examining their beliefs and being strictly adherent to the truth of the bible no matter how much that separated us from the rest of the world. I was fully invested. At 14 I had some questions for my pastor about where apostle Paul's authority came from and why his words were held as absolute truth. Real questions from a kid who never had internet access and didn't have any influences outside of the church. He was absolutely livid I would dare to even ask that question and was furious at my parents for not sheltering me enough even though these questions just came from my reading of the Bible. He was mad that I wasn't raised well enough to know these thoughts were from the devil. That's when I knew I was in a cult.

@kaengurus.sind.genossen

Жыл бұрын

Grew up in a similar situation, eventually became an atheist but still think that carpenter taught some cool stuff. School friend of mine, on the other hand, was born into an ultraconservative demicult with all the fun stuff like pray the gay away and as of now, I don't think he'll be leaving. They got him.

@gravyz2cute4u

Жыл бұрын

I had a similar experience with a lovely priest, although I didn't attend church often after primary school. Priest was a great singer and I liked to listen to his interesting talks about how to apply the bible's teachings in modern situations. He always used to end with a message that had us questioning why we attended, what we learned and how we could always take a moment and reflect on our actions so that we could help ourselves and others. Nothing was ever forced upon you or demanded of you either, even in Sunday school. The teachings were all about how we could become better people and showing compassion to others.

Oh Jesus. I feel so sorry for all of these people. Most of these are absolutely insane!

As a person who was born in a Christian household, I feel terrible for the fellow Christian's and how they feel about those who made up random things of the bible. This is probably what made Christianity look bad towards people, and just made them having trauma because of these liars. I just feel terrible.

@indiecrosssans3472

Жыл бұрын

A good example of "making things up" is that you can't be friends with people apart of the LGBTQ+ community. That isn't true at all! If your a christian, then you'd know that you can still be friends with them. Read Matthew 5:44.

@EnigmaEng1ne

Жыл бұрын

Agree'd! As a Catholic I can tell you that people make up so much stuff, and then blame it on the bible, its honestly horrible!

@The_Joshuan_Empire

Жыл бұрын

Same! These, what I like to call them "Churches of Abuse" put a bad name to our beliefs! The creators and believers of those Churches of Abuse will be judged for their sins at the gate between Heaven and Hell, and the Abused will be there waiting, I respect all types of religion but if you do things such as Rape, Attempted Murder, Physical/Verbal Abuse, same thing as before but with minors, etc, it's wrong and shouldn't be respected.

@Bingbingbong

Жыл бұрын

Sorry mate

@SirLuckySlime

Жыл бұрын

It's actually depressing that for being born into the wrong circumstances can lead your to hell in Christianity. They were born in a cult, now they have trauma from it, now it's scary to believe in anything. It's so unfair that it's put on them.

JESUS THESE ARE INSANE

@obentoubako

Жыл бұрын

You didnt even watch it yet...

@soggy_cereal.

Жыл бұрын

@@obentoubako yh but all of them are crazy he probs just watched only some yet

@TheBlankOneIsMe

Жыл бұрын

Yep, call Jesus.

@elijahhayter3026

Жыл бұрын

I think he already knows about them.

@alpha_9997

Жыл бұрын

@@wolfiey some people arent religous

My extremely catholic school had a guy come in that said some very racist things, homophobic things, and sexist things. I don’t remember the exact things he said because my sister was there and I wasn’t. The speaker’s wife also was brought in and she said pretty much the exact same things he did. His name was Robert augustonelli or something like that. The worst part was the teachers and staff didn’t stop him after he started saying those things and basically defended him. The reason was because he was willing to give a hell of a lot of money to the school. Due to the backlash however from the other parents and my parents they told him they couldn’t take the money. Edit: grammar mistakes

@philleotardo7016

Жыл бұрын

I thought you were talking about me until you said his name

@SandsUndertable

Жыл бұрын

Luckily My Catholic School Wasnt EXTREME They Encouraged To Search For Answers Their Religion Brought Up And They Accepted Muslim Students Though I Genuinely Feel Bad For The Ones That Had Exteme Catholic Schools

@TheHookahSmokingCaterpillar

Жыл бұрын

I thought you meant he was a priest until you mentioned his wife!

I always wondered how people ended up in cults, and a lot of this sort of content has really opened up my eyes.

@toffiet3347

Жыл бұрын

There are steps they take to manipulate their victims. Thwy essentially take on the role of an abusive partner. They'll make you feel worthless, make you financially dependent and make you need them.

@blueblaze5160

Жыл бұрын

People will believe just about anything you tell them if they're desperate enough. Not necessarily in financial terms, either. It could be emotionally desperate, too.

@titan133760

Жыл бұрын

@@blueblaze5160 I always tell people that it's often not the dumb or ignorant who get into cults. It's the vulnerable who get in to them, whether it be emotionally, psychologically, financially, etc. You can be smart yet still fall into cults if you're desperate for human connection, money, and/or safety

@beetsq1968

Жыл бұрын

I was 16 when I joined a cult. The first thing to know is that we don’t know it’s a cult! The label is on years down the line when you realize what it really is. So for a non believer, going to a meeting for the first time, you go in and think “hey these people are really nice!” They love bomb you, and you become more likely to accept their teachings cuz you start to think of them as your friends or family.

Me myself have never been in a situation like this, but a close friend of mine has. her family was jahovas witness and extremely strict. She wasn’t allowed to watch screens, could only read books that were jahovas witness etc. I’m honestly so surprised she was even allowed to go to actual school, she was my best friend. I came out as non-binary to her and she seemed a little scared but was pretty ok with it overall. The next day she came to school covered in bruises and told me we couldn’t be friends because i was “denying jahovas’ s plans for me” by being non-binary. She went against that and stayed friends with me, which I will be ever thankful for. But somehow her family found out, and she came to school very late, covered in bruises and said “I’m moving, I’m so sorry. I love you.” and ran away. It’s been 3 years and I miss her so much.

@the_runnerup658

Жыл бұрын

I'm deeply sorry for that, but why didn't you call the cops?

@dezzcashews8424

Жыл бұрын

Might’ve been a long time ago @The_RunnerUp

@3RaccooonsInATrenchcoat

Жыл бұрын

@@the_runnerup658 I was young

@squirrel670

Жыл бұрын

@@the_runnerup658 they were a kid in school. How many people prepare their children to deal with cult abuse?

@jam_man145

Жыл бұрын

I'm wondering why the school officials didn't't do anything

I immediately recognized the first one after the first sentence. I was also born into it. The “no blood” thing was always scary to me, especially when I was around 8 and my dad was in the hospital (he wasn’t religious, and he made it through but unfortunately passed last year). Not only are they completely insane and are near perfect clone of each other , but they “suggest” you commit a part-time job’s worth of weekly hours to the infamous “door knocking.” I only got out because my siblings did before me and my dad was never in it either, so I consider myself incredibly lucky. If you are/know someone in this cult, the most important thing you can do is outside research. Don’t limit yourself to their material, you’ll only get dragged deeper in. Don’t waste your life’s potential on being a door to door salesperson for free, don’t fall for their “delayed gratification” argument, it will never come. And lastly, they may always seem to have an answer, but if you look even a little bit past the surface, it all falls apart, so question everything.

@YourMom-rl7ro

Жыл бұрын

Hi there I'm a 13 YO. Jehovah's witness. I've seen people talk about this and wanted to say something for a while now but I finally wanted to say something about this. The reason we don't accept blood transfusions is because it is unclean in the eyes of god aka "Jehovah" if you have more question ill be happy to do a AMA in the comments.

@micahturpin8042

Жыл бұрын

@@YourMom-rl7ro There is nothing in Scripture that implies that blood transfusions are unclean in the sight of God. So what exactly is the basis for your belief?

@scratch6402

Жыл бұрын

@@YourMom-rl7ro Hi there! I know how tough it can be to have someone challenge what you believe, especially at your age (I know from experience), so I don’t want to start a big comment war. What I do want to say is that, whenever you do get asked a question, like I said before, do your own research, look at places other than the Witness material. After I left, I looked back at some of the material I was shown at your age (namely the Caleb and Sophia shorts) and I was shocked at what I noticed now. TL;DR, take a look at other material AND Witness material (from an outside perspective.) I hope the best for you no matter your personal choices.

@davidromero9045

Жыл бұрын

@@YourMom-rl7ro so from what I remember, god views "eating" blood (interpreted by the Governing Body to also mean "consuming" it) as unclean because the Israelites needed to pour out an animal's blood on the ground out of respect for its life. Essentially the blood of the (dead) animal was a symbol of its life, which was taken so that they could eat food. In modern times, people who donate blood so as to give others who need it do not die in the process. They still have their life, so nothing was given up. Only the symbol of it is gone. An analogy that helped me question this is god's view of marriage. When a married couple put on the rings, they are wearing symbols of their marriage. In god's eyes, does the marriage end simply because one of the married people loses their ring? Of course not! Marriage is more important in god's eyes than any symbol. Evidently, god cares about people's lives more than he care's about marriage. So why would god care more about the symbol of life than life itself, when also cares about the marriage more than the symbol of marriage? This is why I don't believe that god would want anyone to lose their life just to protect the SYMBOL of life.

@scratch6402

Жыл бұрын

@@wolfiey I’ll try to answer as best I can. 1: Most, if not all, cults have names, just one thing that can help disguise it as a religion. 2: IIRC the definition of a cult states that members follow a single, non-divine “entity” (person or body of persons). You could twist this to say any religion is a cult, but it is much more apparent in some. 3: I’m sure this really depends on the specific cult. For example, the Witnesses have the “Governing Body,” a group of eight men who are “anointed by god.” This group can only consist of men, (no women for archaic reasons.) Sorry for formatting, I’m on mobile lol.

The more I hear stories like this, the more I feel like the best thing I can do to keep my own children in the church is teach them _embrace_ their skepticism - try to answer their questions as best I can, but never discourage them from asking questions to begin with. Really seems like the harder you try to control your kids, the more they end up pushing back.

@themisfitowl2595

Жыл бұрын

Why do you need to control your children? Shouldn't they be free to be individual people and find their own path in life?

@Lily_of_the_Forest

Жыл бұрын

@@themisfitowl2595 “control” is not the best word. It’s more like “teach & protect” your children. Teach them healthy and wise behaviors that they all continue into adulthood as well as sensible discipline. That discipline will prevent them from mouthing-off as a young adult to the wrong person and getting killed, etc.

@Thalaranthey

Жыл бұрын

Honestly its how i was raised in Roman church, asking questions was even enouraged, beacuse "God loved US so much he gave US ability to think"

@declanfleming7400

Жыл бұрын

How about not being religious

All of these stories make me grateful for the positive exposure to Christianity (and religion in general) that I had as a kid. My parents were both raised at least loosely Christian, and they let me and my sister figure out our own path in terms of faith and beliefs; as it happens, I ended up converting to Catholicism in college. My upbringing is a big part of why I still regularly attend church today, and why I study and ask questions about different things related to my beliefs as well as those of others.

@rizkiramadhan9266

Жыл бұрын

On behalf of all Muslims, I apologize for any and all hardships you faced as a minority, if any

Not an Oh Crap moment and wasn't raised in a cult, but Irish Catholic, so same thing. My sister and I would always have to go to Mass over the weekend (my parents didn't go, my mother was not particularly religious and my father was lapsed). It was our choice if we went Saturday night or Sunday morning. June 18th 1994, I was 9 years old and the World Cup is on. Its a Saturday evening. Ireland (yay) is playing Mexico in their first match of their group. We're in Mass. The priest is about to begin his sermon...at least, we think he is. He just flat out says "I know a lot of ye want to watch the match and so do I. So lets skip the sermon and just go to the Holy Communion." We got out of Mass 15 minutes earlier. But I remember thinking to myself "If the priest doesn't even want to be here, why should I have to keep going?" So we get home, and naturally our parents are like "Did you skip Mass?" and we explained everything and they were "Oh". It was at this point I said to my parents that I wasn't going to Mass anymore and they were about to object when I pointed out that my mother never went to Mass anyway, dad stopped going years ago, so why would we have to go? They actually couldn't respond. Only argument I ever won against my parents.

@Groza_Dallocort

Жыл бұрын

A modern priest that can adapt

@madthing5738

Жыл бұрын

@@Groza_Dallocort You'd think so, but the following year, he walked into one of the classrooms in school and started going off on a rant that the kids were damned and going to hell and a whole lot of Book of Revelations nonsense. Real fire and brimstone levels of bullshit. He was quietly moved to another parish in another diocese. Instead of, you know, treating his obvious mental breakdown.

@Groza_Dallocort

Жыл бұрын

@@madthing5738 Well that is bad

@EnigmaEng1ne

Жыл бұрын

One priest wasn't good, but theres a bad apple in every batch, also, please don't call Catholicism a cult, as a guy whose half Irish AND Catholic I can tell you that that priest was just whacked out, thats not most of them.

@calumbutter6124

Жыл бұрын

Catholic church is the most successful cult.

I am Muslim and the story in which the biology teacher didn't teach evolution is just crazy. Evolution obviously exists. And if she said "oh God has control over everything so evolution doesn't exist" isn't god all powerful couldn't he just express his power through evolution?

@amenson1997

Жыл бұрын

There is not a single instance in history where something has come from nothing. You did not evolve from pond scum, you are beautifully and fearfully made in God's image!

@tronsrop

Жыл бұрын

Yeah same god shows his power through everything around us or "verses". he made evolution and he controls it completely to show us the extent of his infinite power ( I'm Muslim aswell and I completely believe in evolution).but still, if God wants something to happen but it violates the laws of nature which he put, the "thing" will happen without any scientific explanation but it only happens with people god REALLY loves

@Vailque

Жыл бұрын

@@amenson1997There are instances in history were things have come from nothing, e.g: bacteria was left in a bottle of alcohol in the woods for years, it was later opened for only slugs to come out, the bottle was sealed shut before hand so nothing could enter it. I personally believe in evolution due to this. Yes, I accept your view of evolution and that you believe your God created everyone. But I recommend not calling people who believe in evolution ‘scum’, it’s a good thing to respect others views. (Apologies in advance if I took your comment the wrong way and you didn’t mean it that way. I’m not all that good with people and understanding of their wording thanks to Autism.)

@MithrilRoshi

Жыл бұрын

​@@amenson1997 A butterfly.. Have you ever seen a butterfly change 100% from a caterpillar? Like, that is super evolution 101 or in this case changing into something completely different Or the most famous finches on the Galapagos Islands have all developed different beaks. Originally, the finches had large beaks for cracking large nuts. A group of finches came from another island who were larger and drove those away and ate their nuts. Over time, the finches developed beaks to eat smaller nuts that the other finches did not eat. Not that any of this will convince you since my former family are hard wired into their cults too but still gotta give it a try.

@amenson1997

Жыл бұрын

@@MithrilRoshi so, you're trying to tell me a butterfly suddenly has different dna than before its metamorphosis? And like I said before, the finches represent micro evolution. You will never in a million years see a finch evolve into another animal. You talk about being brainwashed into a cult when you fail to understand how you've been brainwashed into believing things that have no basis in science or truth whatsoever. No evidence. Learn the difference between science and scientism.

My issue was being told live forever on a paradise earth. I don't think they can imagine what "forever means" that sounds terrible. That's when I started questioning everything. Got kicked out and that was the best thing to ever happen to me.

@anthonystaton3740

Жыл бұрын

Always question everything should be its own religion lol.

@tonyfoxxbuilds1920

Жыл бұрын

@Anthony Staton why?

@anthonystaton3740

Жыл бұрын

@@tonyfoxxbuilds1920 Exactly

I'm ashamed, as Christian, that there are so many cults out there who claim to be one of us but are definitely not, the only calm I can find knowing all this is that I believe everyone will be judged and God will judge them accordingly regardless of their claims in life. I hope the Lord will take care of the victims and keep them safe because no one deserves to be manipulated like that.

@thatanswergirl-lucy8033

Жыл бұрын

Lmao stupid a**

@strangelee4400

Жыл бұрын

You're in a cult. It's just a larger more mainstream one.

@friddevonfrankenstein

Жыл бұрын

​@@strangelee4400 Exactly, just like any other religion. I stand 100% with the great George Carlin on the topic of religion, may he rest in peace. I mean, I get the whole community and social support structure and stuff but why can't we just be good people and support each other without some bullshit fairy tale about a vengeful imaginary sky daddy? Religious people often seem to think that religion is required to have objective moral values, spoiler alert, it isn't ;) That unfortunately often implies that "Atheists can't be good people because they lack God" and that simply isn't true.

@MerWhoPotLuck9

Жыл бұрын

I also take this post compilation with skepticism - not that these things don't happen, but for so many of them I know people in those religions who think those things described here are weird, wrong, and inappropriate. Extremists in any religion can create the false impression of the whole thing being a cult, when really it's just someone making up their own rules beyond what's actually taught and people under their care not knowing that they're going off from the actual teachings. I feel like this is a pretty toxic thread and comment section because people are not being respectful of any kind of religious beliefs here. As other commenters have tried to clarify, a cult isolates and cuts off all outside sources of information and sets up social barriers against interacting with people of other beliefs. Just because you thought a church's beliefs were weird and you disagreed with them, doesn't make it a cult. It just means it's a different set of beliefs than yours. You don't have to justify not believing in a church by claiming it's a cult. To the person who though paying tithing (the 10% of income to the church) was a sign of a cult -- that's a pretty universal thing among all religions, not a sign that your church was extreme. In that same line, a parent can make a religion into a cult, even if the church itself doesn't support things like the parent isolating their child from "worldly" kids. I had a cousin who did this who I guess wanted her kids to be "extra holy" or something. It led to some major issues before my parents and other family members recognized it and started intervening. Anyway, hope anyone who reads this knows that most religions and religious people are just trying to do their best and to be respectful of people with different beliefs than you own.

As a Christian myself, this makes my blood boil. We, and I can’t stress this enough, do not support these cults. In fact, I believe these people are the people that the Bible warned us about. In the Bible it states something along the lines of beware of false prophets. So yeah, long story short these people are warned about in the Bible.

@winspiff

Жыл бұрын

I think it is quite difficult to understand how people are able to separate their religion in their own mind from cults. Is it only because their version of religion isn’t mistreating people as badly? Because there’s fewer things that feel “wrong” about the rules, values, or how things are interpreted? Because they want to believe in something because it makes them feel a certain way, regardless of their doubts?

@strangelee4400

Жыл бұрын

I'm afraid you're in a cult Night Hawk 😢. Sorry to have to tell you like this.

@goldmeditation1949

Жыл бұрын

Lappppplpw ppaliiiiwiw

@goldmeditation1949

Жыл бұрын

Wow😅p 😂pl😅😂wio😮noioo 8:27 w 8:27 8:27 ollooopowooo😅😅😅😅😅jikantas wyou looooo aww w😅pw

@goldmeditation1949

Жыл бұрын

Hookoooooooo😅oo

the fact that these have/do exist is crazy. i can’t believe people had to go through this

Not a cult, or an "oh crap" moment. This one just haunts me. At the age of 10 I was put to sit down on the couch on a sunday morning before church and was basically told the difference between Heaven and Hell. Not gonna lie, that was the scariest talk in my entire life. What parent (obviously my own at this) tells their kid that they will live in a paradise or burn in torture for eternity at such a young age!? No way in heck was I ready for that kind of talk! I literally broke down crying later that day and a couple years later when they talked to me about it the 2nd time because they made it sound like I could die at any moment. I'm 22 now, but I still fear the concept. My family are good people, we go to a good church, but because of my fears that they have given me at such a young age, it has affected my childhood too far that I will always struggle with the belief into the concept whether I want it or I need it, or if I won't have it and if I don't want it at all.

@Void_TheDemon

Жыл бұрын

I'm sorry that happened to you, I hope at some point you might be able to at least almost fully get over your fear, and even if you don't I wish you the best!

@amenson1997

Жыл бұрын

As long as you truly repent for your sins, turn from them and follow Christ you have nothing to worry about. You shouldn't be afraid to be close to your Father

@janerecluse4344

Жыл бұрын

Foma - Harmless untruths. All religions are foma. "Live by the foma that make you brave and kind and healthy and happy." - Kurt Vonnegut, Cat's Cradle I recommend the book. Its fictional religion Bokononism has some legitimately good advice about human spiritually.

@BlueSparxLPs

Жыл бұрын

@@amenson1997 You're part of the problem dude. What you're saying is *literally* a key control tactic used by cults.

@amenson1997

Жыл бұрын

@@BlueSparxLPs that's not what I'm saying, that's what your heavenly Father said. If you have a problem with it take it up with Him. I despise organized religion. Christianity is not a religion, it's a relationship with God. All religions have one thing in common, they're man made.

I don't remember which Roman philosopher said it, but I love this quote. "Live a good life. If the gods do not exist, you will have lived a good life. If they do exist and are just, they will recognize you as their own. If they do exist and are not just, they are not worth following."

My family broke off from their protestant church. As in, broke off, tried all the local churches, then decided no one was right except us. Us being my *dad.* My eye-opening experience was when my dad tried to describe hell for the second time. First time was fire, brimstone, lake of fire, etc. Second time? "The Lord showed me what hell truly is, to ensure you all don't go there!" The typical fare for priests wanting to make their own rules. But what was hell? *Nothingness.* Seriously. Full sensory deprivation. Alone with your thoughts for eternity. No pain. No changes. Just you and your thoughts as your body rots in the earth. Not only did I see that as bs (I noticed he'd recently seen how one guy went mad with full sensory deprivation before he came up with this), but I also realized it was probably the worst way to scare me into obedience. Why? I loved being alone. In silence. Not even noticing my own bodily functions. Seriously, parents thought time out alone in my room facing a wall was a punishment, but I loved it because it was quiet and I was alone with my thoughts. Kid me *loved* the idea of nothingness, just my thoughts. Seriously, they forgot I was locked away in time out for 3 hours once. The only reason it ended was because I realized I was hungry, and I was actually aching (never happened during time out before, and the time was supposed to be the usual 15 minute fare). Figured something was wrong and peeked out to ask if my time was up (didn't mind a time reset if needed, more time for me, but still), and boom. They realized they forgot me. And while they hate the story (claim it's guilt, I say it's because sign of child abuse), I love it. Because I sat there for hours staring at a wall, thinking of all these funny little things, doing my own little thing in my head. And the only thing that stopped me happened to be cues from my own body. *Cues that wouldn't exist in dad's version of hell.* So yeah. That was my wake-up call. Dad making up a new version of hell.

I was a part of a small non-denominational Christian club in college. We were careful to follow the Bible and to support the so-called "common faith" which are a set of beliefs that are pretty central to the majority of denominations. We weren't quite as out there and flamboyant as some of the other Christian clubs, and we got called a cult a lot over decades, surprisingly most commonly by members of other Christian clubs who had never been any of our meetings and didn't know anything about us (I wasn't there for decades, just heard about it). The accusations always made no sense--doctrinal accusations that had nothing to do with us, someone once told me that we sang too loud???, and plenty of empty rumors. One time a girl came to two of our meetings and then vanished. I ran into her on campus a few weeks later and said she was welcome to attend anytime, but she said that she heard that we were cult. When I asked what made us a cult, she didn't know. She just heard we were a cult. So I just offered that if she heard about it again, I like to know why they would say something like that (not in any kind of angry or confrontational way, just genuine curiosity). We actually became pretty good friends after that. She never did have any explanation as to why it was supposedly a cult (I never asked at least), and though she willingly came to a few more meetings after that, she's still suspicious to this day. It was not a big club. Everything was totally transparent. I was the president of the club. What the heck

My now ex husband joined the JW cult three years into our marriage. He was already abusive, violent and controlling, but once he became a member of that organization things became even worse, as he would use scripture to justify his abuse. Not satisfied with just torturing me, he then set out to make our then toddler son's life as horrible and miserable as possible, including terrorizing him with messages of how Jehovah will anniliate him, me and everyone he loves because we are "unclean" and "worldly". Shortly after that I got a restraining order against him, and got divorced. He continued to stalk, threaten and defame me for the following five years, until he remarried a JW girl (much younger than him of course) and now he's making her life a living hell.

My family has their own cult within just our family. My moment was when my father got a promotion in our church and would preach one thing to the masses but within the family we were supposed to live a “higher law” of sorts. Everything was about people’s perception of us in our church. It finally hit a breaking point when they used my religion to break me off from the person I wanted to marry, I got extremely depressed, had to start going to therapy, and they started to email the therapist demanding she mold my mind to fit in with their beliefs. I still have nightmares about how they treated me to this day.

Story 14 realy fits into me: I grew up in a muslim country. My family aren't muslim, but people around us are and i can not tell people (students) in school that im not muslim cuz there was another non muslim kid and he got beaten up and gets shamed for it.

So glad to have grown up in a pretty sane Lutheran church. Good times got to travel a lot with them.

@zeanamush

Жыл бұрын

@Vesper Avina Mine was mostly apart of youth choir. We did an end of school year trip with some singing. It was just a lot of fun and pretty secular. It was a great way to make friends that didn't go to my high school but lived in my city.

my grandma was a die hard christian and when i was a kid she would tell me that "all other religions are fake! all of them! God is the true man upstairs!" stuff like that, + some really really really cultish sounding stuff, and hella homophobic shit. im not religious, and lets just say, that woman gave me some religious trauma. When she found out I was gay, oh man. she was livid.

@niggasgang8784

Жыл бұрын

Did you ever fully recover?

@scharlaaa

Жыл бұрын

@@niggasgang8784 yea, it's still there though. can’t fully recover, but it's better

@The_Joshuan_Empire

Жыл бұрын

@@scharlaaa I'm sad for you as a Christian, they might've been to a very very very strict church that do not allow any of that, I hope you recover.

@amenson1997

Жыл бұрын

@@The_Joshuan_Empire the Bible specifically condemns homosexuals. I don't know what you've been reading, but to call yourself a true Christian and think that it's okay is a contradiction.

@adamriley3030

Жыл бұрын

@@amenson1997 so you are evil

"gotta love a kid who calls out a scam artist religious figure." reminds me of a story that James Randi told, where he figured out that the "pastor" was using the "one ahead" trick to pretend to "see" letters before opening them. that works by reading letter #1 and PRETENDING it's letter #2, then opening letter#2 and pretending it's letter #3, etc... but NO ONE IN THE CHURCH LISTENED TO HIM, and he spent a day in jail for "disrupting" the "service"... after that he became obsessed with exposing "psychic" frauds.

@PsiJuicu

Жыл бұрын

Randi was fcking legend

My parents are Jehovah’s Witness and never forced us to be apart of it. I’ve actually never met anyone who was actually forced lol. These stories wild 😂

I was yelled at by a Christian priest for questioning his religion at a very young age. I don't even remember what I said, but he must have been having a bad day and was annoyed with what I asked. Imagining how innocent a child's questions must have been. I *THANK GOD* for that shocking awakening because ever since that moment I've never trusted any religion. It's so freeing being an atheist. You don't need a religion to have good morals. Oh, and spoiler alert, the meaning of life is to live it. So just live it.

I was raised Christian in the southern US, Georgia to be specific. I had truly believed in the teachings when I was an early teen but came to no longer believe over the rest of my teen years. There wasn't one specific moment that set it up or set it off, but one moment in particular I do remember having an impact on my belief/disbelief. I was 17 and away from my parents for the first time when I attended a pagan Sunday gathering. During the group meditation the energy in the area felt exactly the same as the heavy "prayer meetings" and "worship sessions" in any church. I knew then Christians didn't have a monopoly experiencing the divine or spiritual.

@anthonystaton3740

Жыл бұрын

Man, I hope everyone reads this realization you have. That feeling can be had in any religion, or even in no religion.

I am from a church that gets called a cult a lot. It sucks because most of the cultish things are either cultural, not doctrinal or only practiced by niche splinter groups.

@kylajensen1957

Жыл бұрын

As am I. Am a Latter Day Saint. I hate hearing how many people who call themselves members behave this insanely.

@BlueSparxLPs

Жыл бұрын

@@kylajensen1957 Mormonism/LDS is one of the few major organized religions that is definitively a cult by all definitions and determination models (BITE model is a good one to look at for a quicker comprehensive look). It's definitely not limited to a small part of the organization.

@susanharris3092

Жыл бұрын

You are entitled to your opinion of course, but I think there is a cult comprised of people who think the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a cult.😂. Seriously though, I have a problem with people who preach tolerance, but don’t allow that to extend to religious freedom.

@BlueSparxLPs

Жыл бұрын

@@susanharris3092 Tolerance has limits. It doesn't mean you just accept everything that you don't agree with for the sake of respect. Religions typically have core missions and/or rules that are actively harmful to its members, and in many cases outsiders who refuse to conform to them (this includes Mormonism even if your church wants you to "doubt your doubts" at the first sign of pushback, which, by the way, is a control method for stopping you from applying logic to your beliefs).

I had seen cracks but decided to look away but the moment the dam burst was when I was kicked out of my house in the middle of the night for pointing out that our family doesn't love like "worldly" families do, it's just fear and obedience in layers beginning with god and with me and my sibling at the bottom (not in those words but that was the gist). Then something clicked and I looked back on my life like an outsider and realized just how messed up our beliefs where, how they where all about fear and control I mean we even called ourselves sheep. I was born into it but my parents chose this and thankfully was forced out. It took me years to deconstruct and nearly didn't survive. I will never again go near any "religion" they all have potential for becoming a cult it just takes one charismatic a****e to twist any group out of shape and the docile sheep will follow

@anthonystaton3740

Жыл бұрын

Wise words! Right here! Everybody should chew on this for a while.

Raised as a JW myself. Didn't escape till I was 29, and lost almost everyone I ever knew. They're really good at isolating you which makes it that much harder to leave if you can finally see past the brainwashing. I had a whole lot of those "oh crap" moments...

First guy is Jehovah's Witness, must be. That's exactly what I went through until I was able to leave. For me, my moment was at a JW Convention. A family was being interviewed on stage and told the story of how their very young daughter died after not receiving a blood transfusion. The entire place erupted in applause, it was surreal. My father was disfellowshipped when they found out my mother was pregnant with me, because they weren't married, which meant he could still go to meetings/service, but NOBODY would talk to or even look at him. Friends of 20+ years, family, his own kids who were baptized, would walk past him as if he didn't exist. This went on from the year I was born to the year I turned 16. 16 years my father lost everyone because of having me. On top of that, I'm a pansexual man. My dad was so brainwashed he would ask for a different waiter if they were the least bit flamboyant. I have NEVER been able to come out to my family. The guilt of my father's shunning, disgust with the blood transfusion story, and disgust with their homophobia made me leave the day I turned 18. Sad. My father was an incredibly intelligent man. Never did understand how he was brought into such an obvious cult. I wasn't even allowed to speak at my father's funeral because I'd left the faith. I miss you dad. I wish I could have convinced you away from those people.

@Spheregrid2

Жыл бұрын

I'm sorry for your loss. I also grew up as a JW but I moved away from it starting at age 16. I'm also pansexual as I finally admitted to my self after my last GF, she was the first person I told. I turn 27 soon and I'm only now finally really moving away from everything and living my life, can't keep sitting around for something to happen and let my life go to waste. I hope you're doing well in life and are able to enjoy your self!

@charlottestreet3301

Жыл бұрын

JW is a cult isn't it because I've read most of the comments and people are saying it isn't a cult but it is a cult doesn't always have to envol money

when a teacher said "if you kill yourself you will go to hell." planning on leaving after High school

@Shadow_Microwaive

Жыл бұрын

@Veruca Schwartz it was a catholic teacher, and aperently some boy told the girls about what he said, and they wanted to skip his class, and the day, he returned (idk how long he was gone for) I told the people who were in the girls religion class that hewas not here, because he wasn't her for me, when I saw he was at school for my last period, I felt bad

Having grown up in a highly accepting pseudo Christian household, these stories are hard to listen to in their own way. It's really sad to see someone be tortured and abused by what should be a wonderful and accepting ideology. Cults are sickening in that they turn what could be wonderful into something selfish and gross.

I’m Christian and it’s sad that religious groups change scripture to gain from it and most people that leave the cult never go back to God not knowing what it’s REALLY like to be a Christian

@tristantheoofer2

Жыл бұрын

yep and the lgbtq-phobic ones are breaking the love thy neighbor commandment just by doing that. also the whole dont take gods name in vain thing i guess makes sense but my grandparents are all like "dont swear" and shit even tho im 100% sure thats not even what that means

@QuantumWaltz

Жыл бұрын

@@tristantheoofer2 The way my mom explained it to me as a kid was that taking the Lord's name in vain was basically calling on him without sincerity - using the various names of God to swear. She found it safer to use non-blasphemous language when she felt the need to get colorful, so Earthly swears referring to _very_ Earthly things. That said, she made it clear it was a Commandment of Mother for me to watch my tongue until I was old enough to know when it was safe and respectful of others to _use_ vulgar language.

@strangelee4400

Жыл бұрын

​@@tristantheoofer2 The LGBT phobic ones are biblical literalists. You know...the ones that think the bible is the word of God.

Don't know of this counts but about 15 years ago I almost got roped into the cult if free enterprise. aka Amway. Thankfully I got out before any real damage to my hip pocket or mental health could be done. But just being at one of their functions just made me very uncomfortable

Man, watching this made me realize how lucky I was to escape so early on. In case you're wondering: my oh shit moment was this: It was shortly after my seventh birthday, and my aunt had given me those Smithsonian science books. I am forever indebted to pages 2 and 3 of the Smithsonian book "Life on Earth". These were the pages that explained how life began and evolution. As I was reading it, I thought, "Damn, this makes way more sense than some dude in the clouds creating everything!" After that, the rest of the Catholic faith came crumbling down with it. It's been 6.5 years. Nobody except a couple of my friends knows. A little side note: one of my friends who I told explained to me what might happen if I told my parents. After all, I was still 7. But thanks to him, I'm not on the streets, and my parents still love me (I think). I won't mention his name for privacy reasons, but I am very grateful for that life-saving piece of advice. If you're reading this, thanks man :)

I wasn't born in a cult, but I started questioning Christianity in general when I was only 5 years old. And it was primarily because of the Adam and Eve story! Specifically, the part where they said that Eve was made from a rib taken from Adam and that's why men have one less rib than women. I remember thinking that this had to mean that one biological sex had an even number of ribs and the other an odd number. But everything I saw depicted both sexes having the an even number of ribs regardless! Simply put, the math didn't check out. Looking up the number of ribs in men and the number of ribs in women, I then discovered that both sexes have 24 ribs. My thought process from there was "If they got that wrong, then what else did they get wrong?"

@Void_TheDemon

Жыл бұрын

Yeah the Adam and Eve story is pretty questionable-

@Badartist888

Жыл бұрын

Yup. There is a reason the cults love to attack science in any form. They got to get people to the point where they don't believe basic things about the Earth just so they can control the peoples pockets. Oh and get away with also the peop rapes that happen.

@jonquilgemstone

Жыл бұрын

So...whereas most Christians interpret that story as an allegory, you're interpreting it the way the minoroty does: as literal fact...

@LadybugsOpin

Жыл бұрын

@@jonquilgemstone That's how it was presented to me when I was a little kid and I didn't know better at the time. I was literally 5 years old, dude! The idea of an allegory wasn't something I was familiar with yet.

@LadybugsOpin

Жыл бұрын

@Just Treasure They kept saying that men and women have a different number of ribs in the modern day. That doesn't check out.

10yrs old... Started questioning the bible's content, existance of god and devil, and why we giving our money to the rich pastors while we are poor. Well, after a whole lot of prayers, speaking in tounges, lots & lots of beatings, and visits from the pastors. I successfully reclaimed my childhood Sundays, but it took me a year to get them to release my brother as well lol. I praise those who believe in what they do. I needed to find my own belief system, and happy I stood my ground when I did. The churches we went to weren't cults, but it felt like it.

*This all hit hard* So wow... I stumbled onto this video in passing & so much of it hit home for me. I didn't have an "oh shit" moment. Mine was progressive. The older I got the less things made sense to me. Things that just didn't hold water but I couldn't let go because of that "what if hell is real?" fear. When I finally accepted that it was all just made up bs to control weak minded people, it was the greatest moment of my life. This oppressive weight was gone. Today I call it "the day I broke the chains of christianity". I'm free & it's wonderful.

The way you know it's a good church based on the Bible is when the pastor doesn't sugar coat anything, and even preaches about things that might hurt some people because they're doing that wrong thing, they are open to questions about the faith and questioning about the faith, etc

My mother and her brothers grew up in a cult-like environment (calling them a cult is apparently grounds for a defamation lawsuit) Each of the siblings left for their own reasons.for my mother, it was missionary work that had morning room inspections as brutal as navy seal training, attacking people by deeming two women lesbians because they talked at night to work through their grief together (one had a parent die of cancer, and the other person had her father commit unexist), and a struggle of the elders, and the founder of the organization, as the founder had started to realize the dark direction things were going and tried to steer it away, but passed away, while the elders took for the worst) and my mother eventually left. The middle brother I don’t remember why he left, and the oldest brother wanted to become an elder. The only issue is that, after the scandals with pedos in the Catholic Church, California put a sort of insurance tax in place on religious organizations that would go to helping the victims. This organization wanted the dodge it, and what really broke it, was that they ACTIVELY HARBOURED one of the pedophiles who slipped out the back door in the scandals, and they let him work with little children… Their parents still held fast to the faith, and the sad part is that it had some good ideas at the core. “Do your own work, determine the accuracy of the Bible yourself. You don’t need authority to control your perception of scripture…” but then, “questioning will lead you astray, never take philosophy, only do as we, the authority, say, etc.” There is much more to the story, but this post is long enough.

I have a funny story. To try and make it short as possible: My best friend was REALLY into this mormon chick so he became mormon for a time so he could date her, otherwise he wouldt've been able to. After the chicks family moved to Utah near the "mormon mecca" as i refer to it, they invited him to go down so he could visit. He asked if i wanted to come so i offered to drive since i had a car that could make the trip. After we got there we slept and when we woke up the family wanted to take us on a tour of the mormon mecca place to go visit the Tabernacle and see all the art and watch the "Life of Joseph Smith movie" or whatever it was called. The art and the buildings were undeniably damn amazing! I thought the all marble temple buildings and things was a bit pompous but very nice, and alot of the art was very damn awsome to view. When it came to watching the movie i literally laughed at a scene where the smith dude and his two disciples or whatever got captured, and the captors were beating up one of them, then Smith stands up, STILL BOUND and a prisoner, and just shouts "YOU LEAVE THAT MAN ALONE!" and the fucking captors did just that! I legit laughed audibly and every head within a 30 ft radius stared at me and i could see ALL of them have been crying. I tried to stay quiet after that for sake of my friend. Then when we went to the Tabernacle, the dropping of the pen demonstration was pretty cool, and it did have some legit wicked acoustic qualities. But the bullshit they talked about this certain coloumn being "predicted to have the exact size for an elevator" even though it was built way before elevators made me laugh yet again. After the Tabernacle tour I had a couple questions upon seeing something peculiar entering the Tabernacle. I turn to the guide (she had to have been maybe 17 at most) and i asked her "if yaller mormon, why is there a Jew star above the doors?" she kind of paused and replies "jew star?" "yeah, Star of David thats a Jewish symbol?" She says "uhm.... let me get an elder." Elder arrives and i ask her the same question. At this point the bro and that family were a bit away while i asked these questions. Elder replies "they mightve just created this before they knew of Jewish people and liked the design." And i says "but its still a Star of David, yaller mormon. Wouldnt that be blasphemous?" she replies "maybe you should go." Said thanks and fucked off. Funniest shit ever lol. Also Utah was the first and last strip club i went to, it was so sad it totally killed the experience for me, I was freshly 18 and never been to one before and never again dammit!

That one about the car broken down and instead of going to help them, the family prayed for someone else to help. "We are helping them, we are praying that someone else does the work for us so we don't have to." That's the vibe I get from a lot of religious folk.

The first guy thoroughly describing the experience of being a Jehovah's Witness in such a heavy handed way without just saying it has me dead 😂

As someone who was forced into Christianity by her father and his family as a kid, I can absolutely say that Christianity is a massive cult. I don't talk to my father after the church tormented me as a child. My mother and I are super close now and honestly I have to thank that cult for giving me a reason to drop my father and his "perfect" family

@Jalapos

Жыл бұрын

The church tormented you? That isn’t christianity then you people are so annoying you have a bad experience so you decide all of it is horrible stop spreading false information

I go to an amazing Christian Protestant church, and I one of the other girls' mom was cheated on or something else like that and her husband ended up being told that he was no longer welcome there and the couple divorced. I was young and didn't understand, but then i got older and understood what had really happened. The church was so supportive when the other girl's mom became a single mom and now she has a boyfriend who is interested in the church and has come to service. I love my church.

I've been caught in a multi-level marketing scheme that felt an awful lot like a cult at times. I got out when I made no money after three months despite working my @$$ off.

Some part of me wonders for some religions, is it the whole religion as a whole that is a cult, or is it that one church/family in particular that hold the standards so over the top- that it becomes like a cult in that instance? I just wonder, because I'm in a religion that might be considered to be a "Cult" but... To all the churches I've ever been and in my family and extended family- I've only ever experienced the love and faith of it and none of the things that make it seem cultish to some people, or what I've heard from a few select members of the same religion. I do believe there are really just cults out here and bad ones too, but sometimes as I said- I wonder how much of it is actually a cult and how much of it just might be that particular church/family that's under the religion?

@wisdoom9153

Жыл бұрын

imo, i think it's only part of said religion; take Islam in Indonesia for example, in majority, they are divided into 2 faction with very little difference. but look a bit deeper and you'll find 3rd faction that feels...'elite-ish' and comes out belittling other moslem. Then at miniscule level, there are some that deviates so far that it contradict the original view (usually removes some regular duty, but some went as far as brainwashing...this is sadly where the seed of terrorism born).

@lukedupree104

Жыл бұрын

Good Question! You can do some research on this if you want, but to answer your questions, there are distinct attributes of a cult that must exist in the case of a cult that don’t typically exist with most organized religions. A charismatic leader who claims special abilities, restriction of access to people or information outside the sphere of influence of the cult, etc.

@lukedupree104

Жыл бұрын

So for instance, within Islam and Christianity, there will be sects (typically relatively small or regional) that follow the specific teachings of leader who may warp or twist the teaching in some way, making it a cult. Some churches will fall into this category of a cult within Christianity, for instance, but Christianity itself is not a cult.

For me, it wasn’t as hectic or hate-filled as some of these stories, but it was a definite “a-ha!” moment for me. I and my siblings were brought up Mormon, though even then my parents really didn’t care much about the religion itself and generally just did their own thing whether it went against the “word of wisdom” or not. In my youth, it was okay, I was a child and frankly barely paid attention to any lessons (ADHD for the win!). But by the time I was a teenager, we moved states and attended at least three different wards in the ten years we’ve lived here, very on-and-off, and it was that constant transitioning that really put things into perspective on how the people, namely the women, behave in this particular religion: it often felt like they weren’t ever really “themselves,” just these brainwashed and neglected dolls with false smiles, who were only ever raised in situations where they had no say in their own lives. Compared to me, was was almost always unapologetically herself, and instead of these women opening up and letting me in to be their friend, they just brushed me off. I felt alone constantly no matter who I was with, and it was a very sudden realization one Young Women’s night that I had to go cry in the bathroom because of how isolated I felt. Also their views of LGBT called a lot into question for me personally later on. As for my siblings, my sister did her own research on unwashed Mormon history and she left, and when Covid hit, we all stopped going altogether and we haven’t been back since

@aubrey6538

Жыл бұрын

I also quit going to church when Covid hit. I officially resigned from the Mormon cult in August. Good for you and your family getting out.

@meladaptiveTragedies

Жыл бұрын

Personally, I find that sometimes it's the people and not the religion/cult, as was in my case, the church does have sources that basically say "you know someone who is LGBT, accept them even if you don't like it", My sister recently came back from her mission, and she did actually seem happy, or she at least thought she was. Some of the history is messed up, but at least it's not as censored as the bible is in most cases, also I would like to see some unwashed links

I was at a ministry near Lexington Kentucky called "Pure Life Ministries" Someone at work was talking about a bunch of mystery "crazy" sounding religious things. My co-worker, another guy from the ministry, asked me, "You didn't believe what he said, right?" I figured there might be a statement he said that we could try disproving so I responded "What did he say that was wrong?" He looked at me like I lost it. After that, my counselor banned me from talking with anyone from work and made me listen to some preaching about being careful of other teachings while my friends got to talk with anyone they wanted. That wasn't the start of how wicked this ministry actually was. My counselor whispered in my ear, like Satan, and said "unless a miracle happens you cannot graduate" then proceeded to tell another guy how he graduated because he shared a 'naughty secret' with him one day. He assumed that I didn't tell him everything the first day I met him. I'm glad that they focibly make you call them your 'brother' there because that guy is both an idiot and not my brother. I hope to one day show up to their conference with thousands of people and tell the truth before all of them of how fake they are and tell those students to run away. I'm real, but every last counselor and staff at Pure Life Ministries is fake. They even would make you work at the Ark, which acknowledges in their museum that survival of the fittest is valid, but then in their preaching say that evolution is proven false because survival of the fittest doesn't exist. Pure Life Ministries think they worship God but they worship Ba'al and they assume that students with good attitudes have bad attitudes. The place is cursed and should be shut down by the government. Years later, I found out that even the day they worship is luciferian and don't even realize it.

The story about the dude that left his second wife due to her not being his "true wife" hit real close to home. I left a bad marriage after years of struggling to fix things and feeling like I was worthless. Everyone in my church was super supportive except for my oldest mentors, whom I have known since I was a kid and looked up to and loved like second parents. The wife in particular, bashed me into the ground saying that if I remarried, I'd be going to hell. I really didn't want to leave my church because everyone else was so supportive and I really needed that, but I couldn't deal with the judgment and hypocrisy so I left. It still blows my mind that there are people out there that will break apart families and beat down hurting people in the name of "god" and think that they are in the right.

@gravyz2cute4u

Жыл бұрын

I hope you got the support you needed once you left! Yeah that story they mentioned didn't make sense to me either. Guy was already divorced and remarried, but then they convince him to divorce again? If they didn't want him to divorce the first time then why cause it the second time? Why break up a happy family? I wonder what happened to them and what hoops his mind had to jump through to justify this decision?

Seeing subaru on the thumbnail startled me.

@somerandombarusu9458

Жыл бұрын

God, I love pride if

My family, mainly my mom's side are Christians who some of course make random shit up about the Bible so you can imagine how verbally abusive my grandmother was to me when I started identifying as a girl and started transitioning. But my immediate family accepted me so I'm grateful for that.

Thank you everybody who has spoken up in this post and in the comments. This, along with talking with people and getting deeper into theology and philosophy, has helped me make the decision that I'm a Deist. Best of luck to anybody else that is trying to get out of a cult!

When they started saying we have to wear masks inside our homes and in the outdoors, everywhere, at every point in our daily lives. It got worse when Winter came and people saw their breath coming out of their masks and still kept wearing them anyway. I was terrified at how willing everyone around me was to go along with it

That was something I always appreciate about my church. They were always more than happy to answer question and even had a night every month where we could bring a nonbeliever in so they can answer questions about their faith. They were never rude about people not believing in the bible. I think that’s why I still consider myself a Christian. I believe in THAT way of life.

19:50 "you bear the mark, you are cursed"

I'm not the one in a cult, I actually wasn't raised religious at all since my parents wanted to give me the freedom to discover my beliefs on my own (which have since turned out to be kinda witchy? polytheism, thanking the elements, knowing the universe listens, etc etc) but my best friend for a good 6 years was raised as a Jehovah's Witness. She got really into her bible studies in high school, the same time I discovered that I'm queer. We would talk for hours every single day, playing video games and just being in each others' presences. Shortly after coming out to her as pan, she told her bible studies teacher, claiming that she was worried for me, who told her to tell me that "as long as [I] didn't act on it, [I'd] be fine," and that she should encourage me to start studying the bible too. We started growing more and more distant, and she didn't come to my graduation like we had promised to do for each other (I live in Ohio, she lives in Missouri. She's a year younger than me). The last time we had a conversation before her wedding was asking me how I felt about college, and how it was going for me. I encouraged her to pursue college if that's what she wanted, but she was resisting on the basis that she would have to drop out as soon as she got married so that she could take care of her husband and their eventual children, since the husband always comes first. The conversation was short, and she only contacted me a few years later (summer 2022) so that I could attend her wedding over zoom. She married a kid who converted for her in his Freshman year of high school. I'm pretty sure they couldn't even serve alcohol at their wedding, that's how young he was. My last message to her was "you looked gorgeous, congratulations :)" and I doubt if we'll speak again, maybe until I get married. I hope she can escape it at some point, go back to being the girl I knew, but that will probably take a lot of deprogramming, especially since she got more into the religion on her own.

I'm French Canadian so please forgive me if the flow isn't perfect, sometimes translating from French to English in my head doesn't 100% make sense. Anyway, I was a c lass clown but I had never been disrespectful to my teachers and was never sent to the principal's office. I was in school one day and back then we had catechism classes a few times a week. The teacher of that class was a Father. I had just turned 13 and I raised my hand one day with a valid question I still stand by today, 34 years later. I said "My brother fell and hit his bladder on the sidewalk on Monday and had to go to the hospital. By Friday, people were stopping me in the hall asking me if my brother was ok because they had heard he had gotten hit by a truck while crossing the street. If something so small as losing his footing and hitting his bladder can have the rumor mill blow it up to him being hit by a truck within one week, how do we know that what is in the bible is still what happened and not something the rumor mill blew up through the centuries?" The teacher got red in the face and started screaming at me that I was going to go to Hell for doubting the word of God and he said "I've never seen someone as stupid as you!" My mouth opened and the words came out before I could stop myself. I said something like "You must not have a mirror at your house because I'm looking at one" He threw me out of his class, cursing me while the other kids were laughing and applauding my answer. When I got to the principal's office, he looked at me really surprised when he learned I was there for being disrespectful but he let me of the hook when he heard the story. From that point on, I went to study hall when I had catechism class and the teacher was told to pass me

I remember my oh crap moment was a Sunday school teacher explaining that people only get to heaven if they accept Jesus Christ as their savior. I was like, "but what about the people who don't know about him. Like lost tribes, or the native Americans before Columbus came to America?" And she was like "oh, they had a chance to accept..." and I was like, "but they literally couldn't have." And she choose to move on and I was like, "okay, clearly this whole thing is unfair or nonsense."

@KBird-flylow

Жыл бұрын

Almost the same exact thing happened for me except she said 'if they had never heard of Christ then they went to heaven automatically as they were ignorant like babies' I asked Then why the FREAK do we send out missionaries?! They are just going around dooming entire civilizations or cultures to burn in hell!

@gretchenstubbs4378

Жыл бұрын

I am so sorry the people are so uneducated on theology. I am a born-again Christian and it took a lot of questions from someone who studied theology to get there. So I asked him this exact question. However I have not read the entirety of the Bible and I do not have the historical context that he has I'm just going to tell you exactly what he said. "If you have never been explained the gospel and you do not even know who Jesus is how are you supposed to accept him as your savior? You cant. So you can't go to hell for that." So if I turn my back on Jesus now I would go to hell because I have been born again. You could also get into whether he'll is literal or metaphorical but that is a conversation for another day. I hope that helps tho :)

For decades, a math puzzle has stumped the smartest mathematicians in the world. x3+y3+z3=k, with k being all the numbers from one to 100, is a Diophantine equation, this is also known as math.

@ericb3157

Жыл бұрын

reminds me of something i read long ago, a shorthand way of calculating "all the numbers from 1 to 100" a smart kid came up with... (1+100)*100/2 5050.

My family had been involved with the Salvation Army since the mid 80's. I'm a gen z. My father got a job as caretaker for one of their camps. This gave him instant boss status at camp. And was he was fired after submitting a few write ups to human resources, who thew them in the bin. Their reasoning was that he didn't fit in with the work culture. The camp was largely staffed by Oklahoma Cherokees and my dad is a Mississippi Choctaw. That in itself could be an interesting court case, but he hasn't pursed justice or revenge. Then we went to live with my grandparents, who were officers (pastors) at a corps (church/in this case homeless shelter and rehab center). One of the workers at the corps got sick and my grandfather paid her a visit. A nosy neighbor called the police and he was arrested. The charge was breaking and entering, but he knocked on the door and was invited inside, a welcomed guest. He was released, but fired for getting arrested despite the charge being dropped by the police. My grandmother was also fired for being married to him. We have that crap in writing, but none of them sued for wrongful termination. TLDR: The whole family left that cult within a year because we were kicked out. No one is pursuing justice.

I've been through several "exorcisms" as a child. No, I was not "possessed", but my relatives and the Church thought that a typical tween being frustrated with life was no different than being possessed by an evil spirit (it's like I wasn't allowed to have normal angst and emotions). I was physically held down against my will and was not allowed to move or leave unless I recited every "prayer" that was forced down my throat. I felt beyond violated and betrayed. 15+ years later and I'm still scarred and traumatized. And yet these are the same people who wonder why so many end up hating religion and are repulsed by it.

My realization came in high-school when my best friend came out to me as transgender. Seeing how terrified he was to tell me, practically in tears at how I would react, honestly shocked me to my core. He is the absolute best person I've ever known and even though we fell out of contact after graduation, I still hope nothing but the best for him. When I remember the look on his face that day, I hate how I ever acted (I never blatantly hated the LGBTQ but I did talk about how strange and unnatural I thought it was, mainly cuz I didn't understand it and my religion at the time. I still don't understand since I'm not in the community, but I make the effort to try and most of my friends are apart of the community now and I wouldn't have it any other way) I'll also never forget the day I mentioned it to my family, and asked why the LGBTQ community was so bad. After all, my friend was so amazingly kind hearted. How could his existence be a sin? My family spent the rest of the day trash talking my friend (who they never even met) about how mentally messed up he was and other things, then made me go to extra church (a common punishment growing up.) I had already stopped believing years before due to other family issues, but this was the moment I realized the religion was actually a cult.

@anthonystaton3740

Жыл бұрын

This is wonderful and I'm glad you realized good people are just good, any religion saying otherwise be damned.

@bironjames9948

Жыл бұрын

Yep most people practice religion and not faith it really makes the Christian faith look bad alot of people are going to hell because they indeed infact misunderstand the Gospel and dont know God for themselves alot of churches and pastors and preachers etc have hurt and are leading people to hell they will have to answer for their folly especially the ones who knows their teaching falsely its really sad

@gracielaird7208

Жыл бұрын

@@bironjames9948 yeah it really is sad... Religion was literally used as a punishment for me as a kid and completely drove me away. It's awful how so many people use faith to manipulate

@gracielaird7208

Жыл бұрын

@@anthonystaton3740 thank you! I definitely try to judge people on who they are and not what they represent themselves as or what faith they follow or anything. I don't care about that stuff at all, just who they are on the inside. I'm glad I was able to recognize my family for being so messed up at such a young age so I didn't turn out like them.

@bironjames9948

Жыл бұрын

@@gracielaird7208 smh fr i hope your doing better now

It's crazy how you don't realize how messed up you really are until people point out certain things I had no idea that the market abuse wasn't real and I've been away from the church for a while I was still completely afraid of it

It's great reading through the comments and seeing lots of stories of people in healthy religions sharing their stories and faith. I've seen similar videos where everyone is dumping on religion as a whole.

I visited a cult that was a part of the religion that I used to be a part of with my parents. It was really disturbing. My mom was very off-put that it was so obvious that I was so doubtful of this cult, and I was so shocked that she didn’t realize that we were being recorded by them even in the restrooms. It was so disturbing to see what was happening so close to where I lived.

As a Christian, I can confirm that none of the above stories portray the actions of people who are actually following Christian doctrine.

@DanaTheInsane

Жыл бұрын

This is called the "No True Scotsman" argument.

@kylajensen1957

Жыл бұрын

As a Christian, these stories make me ill. You shouldn't force people to follow a certain religion, especially not kids who have no means of consenting.

@amenson1997

Жыл бұрын

@@kylajensen1957 Christianity is not a religion. It is a relationship with your Father. We all have free will, some will choose to follow His word and some will not.

@LemonDani

Жыл бұрын

@@amenson1997 its a religion

@amenson1997

Жыл бұрын

@@LemonDani how so?

When I was in college, i went to a church service with a girl. I knew it was a stricter one then i was used to since she always had to wear a dress/skirt. My "umm no" moment was when I recognized them as preaching from the old testiment of the bible...

I wasn't born into a cult but I was enrolled in a Christian School for four years. It was around 2012. I basically saw the bullshit when they were taking delight in students terrified of 2012 (to the point of weeping, hyperventilating because it was already 2011, etc), song backmasking, all the preachy shit. Stopped being involved completely by senior year. Go to class, leave, go home.

Iv always found it strange that the people literally preaching love and acceptance, constantly have to be reminded to be kind and loving to people.

That ashram story made my blood boil. I grew up in an Ashram myself. But I was PUSHED into being a critical thinker. If i questioned my parents and they discussed it with members of the ashram as "kids these days" I would have teachers, doctors, psychologists and philosophers standing up FOR me. I could ask anyone anything, and they'd answer me if they knew enough, or I'd be told that they weren't sure and give me a starting point for research. These cults are demonic. God can stand scrutiny. The devil can't.

Ironic that I'm watching this while sitting in the church basement. I would kill to get out of this

I love how the first one is a former Jehovah’s Witness, lot of people don’t realize how serious they are.

I remember when I was a kid, my mother told me my pets wouldn’t go to heaven, and her whole reasoning behind it was that nowhere in the Bible does it say animals have souls. Six-year-old me just completely broke down in tears because I couldn’t bear the thought of never seeing my cat again-and also knowing that said cat would die long before I did. And my mother? Didn’t even try to console me. Just said that I shouldn’t get so attached to something that doesn’t have a soul. A few years later I argued back that the Bible also never said that animals don’t have souls. Rather, it states quite plainly that all of creation praises God. She wasn’t happy about that, lol

Not religious and my family knows that. Few days ago mom told me I should get married because that's completes half of my faith. Laughed in her face. I make 9/11 and abortion jokes daily. Doesn't matter what faith I have, I'm going to hell in every religion.

@cottoncloudy818

Жыл бұрын

Wow. So edgy. 🤣

@fahadshahid5185

Жыл бұрын

@@cottoncloudy818 Maybe to white people

@cottoncloudy818

Жыл бұрын

@@fahadshahid5185 Joking about 9/11 and bragging online about doing so is internationally cringy.

@fahadshahid5185

Жыл бұрын

@@cottoncloudy818 Maybe to white people.

Many of these subbranches of Christian thought forget that humans themselves are most of the time, the way the will of god gets enacted. If you see someone in the need of assistance and you only pray when you could've done far more than that, you're not truly following Christian thought.

the seventh-day adventist one really dumped a bucket of ice water on my head just now because... i was raised seventh-day adventist. i'm in my 20s and i don't see the cult-like behavior, but... i'll definitely be looking into it now.

It's so funny meeting members of my former religion because in they're eyes I'm sinning but we're both in a bar so... Also thank you for sharing your experience!

story two is what we the biz call "the charasmatic movement". not all of them go as far as that, but they are known for this stuff.

Why do I have a feeling I knew which group they were talking about in the first story?

@evryatis9231

Жыл бұрын

which?

I also slowly drifted away from church when I was a kid because it didn't make any sense for me that people who would be absolutely perfect, kind and generous and modest could not go to Heaven because they weren't baptised or religious. Also it was weird for me that when I asked about other religions, that was not a possibility for Heaven either. You have to be baptised and a Christian, otherwise you're screwed. And not only the whole branch of Christianity, just that specific one. There were plenty other things but I remembered these from the top of my head especially because they seemed so unfair and nonsensical and now as an adult I see it's just about control and not risking to lose people for other (potentially better) religions. I was also told that I shouldn't *enter* other churches because it is kind of a sin (by a nun nonetheless) and for a great part of my life I felt so weird or completely avoided going inside other churches. Now as an architect and a person who likes to travel, I can see how delusional this was. Also I was learning morals through stories of martyrs that died in the name of Jesus by being burned or tortured until death. Man I can't believe how brainwashed I was for the first 12 years of my life.

5:01 "gotta love a kid who calls out a scam artist religious figure!" That's redundant LMFAO

one of the things about the mark of the beast, is that it already happened. i couldnt explain well myself here, but it made reference to a roman emperor. it has already passed and we need not fear

I was raised Mormon, I told my mum I'm not Mormon when I was 16 and got kicked out the same day. The worst part about it all is the fact that they'd send people to try to get me back into it? - I don't know what they thought would happen but it was abit funny to turn them down, they were so confused

@meladaptiveTragedies

Жыл бұрын

TBH, with the church, it does seem to be the people and not the actual religion/cult, I was almost kicked out for coming out as trans, I even used some church resources, but it really was my parents, I hope your life has been better since you were kicked out and not worse

@PipeAndHammer

Жыл бұрын

@@meladaptiveTragedies it has actually, I found god my own way (no church or anyone else involved) and now spend my life semi Monk style, doing charity and working a small job I love and I've never been happier c: I even met the love of my life and we're expecting our first son! Also just btw no church should ever kick you out for your own decisions like... Our whole job is to love and live on the same style as Buddhist monks (strive for peace with everyone and love with everyone and charity work 24/7 only difference is we are expected to treat everyone the exact same and we can eat meat) So yeah what they did was super not cool and honestly I'm so sorry dude. No one deserves that. You should be welcomed regardless of ANYTHING.

I was born into a Christian household, well so it seemed, one lady convinced my mom that the things we liked were evil, and the church we went to looking back now was undeniably a cult, we haven’t been to a church (cult) in well over 10 years and luckily our family is still together so they didn’t manage to keep any of us in but the cult reminds me of Eden’s Gate in Far Cry 5

Just found your channel on my home page. Love it! Some these stories crack me the f**k up🤣

Story 1 was the same cult that I was born into. Edit: #1 and #10 are the same cult.

Okay but how do you manage to post so much videos in such a short amount of time? These videos are so good its amazing how much effort you put into this channel!🤩👍❤️

@vertoholic

Жыл бұрын

bot

@winglessdraco4865

Жыл бұрын

I don't think he's a bot (the voice is too real) But I swear half of the reddit videos popping up recently I've heard the stories from, with the same wording, and in the same order. once or twice before. So I'm pretty sure most of these videos are anywhere from 100 to 90% repeats. That being said I don't know every reddit video ever made so around half of them seem new to me so I don't care. His voice is 10 times better than a text to speech bot.

The part about praying for someone broken down on the side of the road is way too familiar but we were the ones broken down and a member of our church just happened to see us and even admitted to seeing us and my mother then said one of the most appropriate sentences ever "I wouldn't p** down their throats if it was on fire" and I still use that to this day

I grew up in a very catholic family. We would go to church Thursday-Sunday. The people there were so mean and full of themselves. They thought that they were better than everyone. One day a homeless man decided to take shelter, since it was drizzling, under the roof of the door entrance. When church finished, a group of Catholics women/men (I say this because they’re parent age) went to go and harass the homeless man outside. They told him to get out and that it was disgusting for him to sleep there. I was so angry, I told my parents. They thankfully went home, grabbed some food and blankets and went searching for the man outside at night. Thankfully we found him and gave him everything we grabbed for him. That was the day I realized I didn’t want to be a catholic and I didn’t want to be associated with those people at church. I stopped going, even tho it caused a rip in the family. My sister and father fallowed right after. I know not all Catholics are mean but that was one of the most disgusting things I’ve ever seen from so called “Catholics.” I still love Jesus since it’s been engraved in my mind since birth. I hope other young catholic kids can wake up from aggressive Catholics and learn to “love your neighbor.”

I was born in a Greek Orthodox and Protestant household, but never had been involved in cult generally, same with both my parents and older brother, which we are luckily not crazy religious over simple things that aren't technically bad. My cousins on my mom's side, especially with two of my uncles and aunts, literally are a bit more crazy religious, and they're a bit controlling, as I can remember when they don't like Pokemon (my cousins eventually later got used to the game series one Thanksgiving when I was playing Pokemon White with cuzzie Nathan), even though I'm generally into the series, but however, they like Dragon Ball Z as I can remember spending the nights with my cousins at my grandmother's house next door to mine. They upsetted my older brother one time over an R rated movie he was only minding his own damn business watching and kept telling him certain shows on TV are bad, but for me, I managed to disagree and watched the shows without hesitation. This behavior luckily did start to die down over time, so I am a bit relieved.

I love how half of these are just a version of Christian church

I know I wasn't born into a religious family and I was put into a private school of an evangelical church. One time I was in the Hospital and had a freak out when I thought a man was Jesus. And that he would "Take me away from my mom and grandparents." The nurses and doctor had to sedate me. A few years later my folks learned they at the school convinced the kids and people there. That the Hospital isn't there to make you better, have babies, and stuff. But a place to go die. And meet Jesus and Heaven or Hell. I was only six and the school didn't want me even there. So glad my folks got the message and hello public school!

So I don’t think I have ever been in a cult, but I was raised in a Church of Christ, and maybe somewhat cult-adjacent. My mother was raised in another denomination and she helped my dad learn to question what didn’t make sense sometimes. I have always asked questions, comes from my mom as previously stated, and it makes my grandmother uncomfortable. If I ask something like ‘Where did the water go after the flood?’, ‘Nothing can be created from nothing, how does that work?’, etc. and her answer is always a quote from the bible or ‘because it is’. I am everything my grandmother pretty much dislikes in a person: mentally ill, lesbian, non-binary, argumentative, questioning beliefs, etc.. She ignores all of that unless I bring it up, and she doesn’t care that things she tells about it to me hurt me. She also believes that the Bible cannot be interpreted in any way, it is what it is. But literally any piece of writing is interpreted when reading, any distinction that is in the writing that could go against their beliefs is ignored. I have a friend who’s Catholic and I went to a service with them for a confirmation for their oldest daughter. The service was maybe 30 minutes, and the confirmation 15. I sat there in almost shock; their pastor or priest got through to the congregation in ~30 minutes what I sit through for 3 HOURS (including Sunday School before the service). When I mentioned that it seemed really short, they said that sometimes it was a bit longer, but never much more than an hour. I. Was. Shocked. I told them about the 3 hour services we sit through, and they were flabbergasted, absolutely mind boggled. I can’t barely sit through the sermons that end up being 1hr30 ish, plus singing (another 30), plus opening and closing and prayer (the other 30). I haven’t been there for ~5 years. I’m almost 18 now, and am even more argumentative and question everything I can to help it make sense (mostly because of my ADHD and OCD tbf) and I don’t care anymore. I have embraced being mentally ill and disabled (severe mental illness and partial blindness). I just don’t care anymore, and it’s so freeing.