We who exited the Worldwide Church of God were in an oppressive, abusive, non-loving, controlling organization. Recovery is a process and it takes some time and work to get through it. Some will want to accuse us of sharing in a pity party but we don’t want to allow them to approve the sins against us in that way. We have been sorely sinned against. Whereas we have been willing and have repented of our sins, it is up to the WCG leadership to repent of their sins and I don’t see any sign they have done so. They have committed serious wrongs against us and they yet retain bad attitudes about it in their self-righteousness. We are the ones who have risen above that level even though we have been beaten down. At least we have taken another direction and are redirecting our lives and God will certainly bless us in our efforts in doing so.
During the time the WCG support groups (“healing groups”) were forming, I never had any idea it was supposed to be about recovering from the abuses of WCG. That was kept under wraps. The support group I attended certainly didn’t deal with anything like that. It was more like reasoning “why” the changes in doctrines. We had no inkling that the groups were to be formed to help us recover from abuses by the WCG. I don’t think the WCG wanted to deal with the abuse issues. In fact, I know they didn’t want to deal with those issues of abuse. In my area I’m not aware of anyone who would feel they were “helped” by any of this.1 It was too much like the rapist helping the victim. It just didn’t wash. I soon came to realize that I needed to leave WCG. I needed to completely get away from it before I could resume a normal life.
I do not blame God for my ever being in WCG. It was a mistake I made in good faith. The good faith was on our part and God had nothing to do with putting us there. He allows us to make decisions and sometimes we don’t make the better ones but we can recover from them. No, God did not lead us into error. I cannot personally blame Him for my being there and the damage it did to my family. I have personally suffered a great deal from it and so have others, but I know I am stronger today through it all.
WCG wants to continue to hold their members in bondage through mind control. My pastor came out after getting my letter of resignation to try to talk me out of it and he rather indignantly remarked, “Well, it seems you have made up your mind.” I clearly responded that, indeed, I had firmly made up my mind and I was not available for returning to WCG.
There is therapeutic value in writing. Many professional counselors have their clients write out their experiences. It is good in working through the recovery process.
Many have sent writings to the Exit & Support Network™. The truth must be told by as many as will come out and tell it. We owe it to others who might be helped by it. If we save several souls from going into that direction, or encourage several entrapped souls to come out of it, I would say our efforts are blessed. Yes, I hate to tell what might seem negative to some but we know it to be absolute truth and it must be told.
We are survivors and we strengthen each other.
By Will
“For there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known.
Therefore whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets
shall be proclaimed upon the housetops.” ~Luke 12:2-3
Also read: I Tried to Speak Out About the WCG Duplicity and Paternalism (2006 letter to ESN which covers more of what happened during the WCG changes)
Footnote by ESN:
1 Those who attended these “healing” groups have relayed to ESN how the ministers were getting tired of members’ “unforgiving attitudes,” and “demanded instant forgiveness”; and how members “weren’t allowed to feel anything else,” but were told to “move on and put the past behind them.” To do anything less was to be labeled with a “forgiveness problem.”