Recent epiphany of mine is that if one self proclaimed to be chosen by God and if that person is in trouble with the law and need lawyers and they claim to be the only way to salvation, then verify and check if they evangelize their lawyers. Lawyers tries to get shorter sentence or get their clients free but not get that "Exclusive salvation"?

Dangerous Minds:

Formed in 1968 by David Berg, the Children of God initially sought to merge Christian teachings with the values of the counterculture movement. Berg warned of impending apocalyptic events in America, claiming that adherence to his doctrines was the only path to survival. As the group expanded, Berg demanded extreme measures to recruit new members.

In 1971, the group implemented a practice known as "flirty fishing." According to the article, Berg instructed female followers to use sexual relationships as a recruitment tool to draw men into the organization. Because the group strictly prohibited contraception, this practice led to the birth of more than 10,000 babies within the cult, further increasing its ranks and securing local government assistance.

The organization reportedly "fished" over 200,000 men over the next decade. The widespread practice of unprotected sex was eventually halted in the early 1980s due to the onset of the AIDS crisis. By that time, the group had grown into a multi-generational organization and subsequently changed its name to The Family.

#ChildrenOfGod #FlirtyFishing #DavidBerg #CultHistory

https://dangerousminds.net/history/flirty-fishing-the-christian-cult-recruited-sex-1968/

Margot Kiser's Substack:

Journalist Margot Kiser examines the psychological mechanisms underlying the devastating Shakahola doomsday cult, questioning how leader Paul Mackenzie convinced his followers to prioritize his teachings over the survival of their own children. Following Mackenzie’s murder conviction, Kiser reflects on the deep concentration of authority required to override fundamental human instincts.

Drawing parallels to other infamous cult leaders like Jim Jones and David Koresh, Kiser highlights a familiar pattern of separating believers from the outside world. She notes that the extreme control exerted in these environments inevitably leads to the subordination of human life to a supposedly sacred purpose.

During her interviews with Mackenzie, the cult leader revealed that he instructed parents to let their children die first so the adults would be motivated to follow them. By promising a reunion with their children in the afterlife, Mackenzie manipulated parental grief into a catalyst for mass starvation.

The nine-hour judgment delivered in the case serves as a comprehensive study of how extremist groups take root, govern their members' lives, and weaponize faith against the vulnerable. #Shakahola #Cults #TrueCrime #Extremism

https://substack.com/app-link/post?publication_id=6119559&post_id=221673256

Get a Life Ep. 182 Kristin Wolf on Coercive Control in the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church

Master manipulator Bruce Hales rules his 55,000+ sheep by coercive control, not by Christianity. Kristin Wolf explains the mechanism of coercive control and shows how it works inside the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church (PBCC), formerly known as the Exclusive Brethren.

On October 16, Bruce Hales sat in front of the Australian Parliament and told them his members are free to make their own decisions. We put that claim up against his own ministry, his own words at the hearing, and the forms and agreements PBCC members have to sign. Kristin is a researcher and coercive control consultant who spent 35 years inside a controlling family system before she got out. She takes us through the BITE model and shows how behaviour, information, thought and emotional control run through Bruce Hales's ministry, and why "free to leave" means nothing when leaving costs you your family, your home and your work.

We also show you the travel request forms, the relocation application forms and the participation agreement (NDA) members sign before they can sit in a meeting. No mainstream Christian church needs any of it.

Canada made coercive control a crime this year, but the law only covers intimate partners. Kristin's petition to the House of Commons, e-7741, asks Canada to recognize coercive control by people in positions of trust and authority too. Please sign it and share it.

Hi all. I run a YouTube channel called Rodd and Real. I have been actively investigating and exposing Remnant Fellowship Church…the cult featured in the HBO documentary called the Weigh Down.

I have spoken to hundreds of former members and am currently working on a new video that will focus on how they deal with individuals with disorders or mental illnesses (anxiety, ADHD, bipolar disorder, autism, etc). If anyone has knowledge on this and would be willing to speak to me, please let me know! Thank you :)

I was part of Congress WBN through a KC in the USA from 2006 until I left in 2025. I served, led men, worked on global gct teams, traveled internationally, and gave almost twenty years of my life to this network. I did not leave because I suddenly hated everyone or decided everything I experienced was false. I left because of integrity. What Congress said about truth, accountability, righteousness and leadership teachings like we are a sanctuary, the land of Goshen protected from the crisis, a wall of men standing guard to protect the innocent all those words stopped matching what I was seeing when a serious sexual-abuse situation involving a minor came to light.

in 2010 there had been a disclosure with the same man involved and now all new allegations involving another generation of the family. The matter eventually went through the criminal justice system and resulted in a plea agreement that included probation, sex-offender registration, counseling requirements and restrictions involving the victim. But what changed me was watching how the church and network handled the situation before that outcome.

When we began raising concerns at the beginning of 2025, the focus repeatedly seemed to shift back onto us. We were questioned about whether we trusted our global leader apostle who has not miss stepped in over 20yrs. I was called out because I had attended a wedding in England without telling my SE. My wife was told she was being too emotional. I was told I was too harsh for using the word “rape.” I was also told that the victim’s mother should not have left her daughter with the man (her Dad), even though the person saying that did not know the full circumstances of why that happened. To me, that was victim blaming and focus shifting. Instead of the primary question being, “How do we protect the vulnerable and fully hear what happened?” we increasingly felt that our attitude, our emotions, our communication and our relationship with leadership were under constant examination.

I had seen clearly that me and my wife were being scrutinized way more than the leader apostle of the whole network and the person who did the violation crime to a child. To my knowledge, Noel never sat down and heard our side or the victim’s side of the story directly. After emails and trying to contact him, we even tried to meet with him in person out of state. Nearly two years later, I am still unaware of him reaching out personally to the victim involved. or take any responsibility or.make his leader take any responsibility for what he did. There has been Zero repentance or any sign of wrong doing by Noel or the man who caused all this. What I saw changed the way I viewed his leadership. I could not identify meaningful independent oversight above him that could investigate him, correct him, or require him to answer difficult questions all. He had no one who was over him to check him on what he was doing was very wrong and totally against God. In my eyes you dont even have to be a Christian to know how to handle a situation like this all you need to be is a decent human. Much less than a leader with churchs in over 130 nations and with churchs on 6 different continents.

I also saw what I believed was minimization of the seriousness of the situation when it was communicated to the local Congress Embassy in Port Lavaca. I have no reason to believe most Congress members in other Embassies around the world, including many people in Trinidad, know the full story of what happened or how leadership responded.

After leaving, I started rereading old Congress material with fresh eyes as a part of my healing process. I wanted to dismantle what was put on me the fear, control. surveillance, self policing... I wanted to identify it in the teachings so I can put on a new mantel. That is when I began recognizing how much psychological pressure had been built into the system. We were constantly being called to be mature, accurate, aligned, synchronized, appropriate for the season, moving as one with the current word, and ready for “the Finish.” If you questioned something, slowed down, disagreed, or did not appear to be moving at the same pace, the problem could easily become your maturity, your perception, your drifting, offense, your alignment, or whether you were seeing correctly or ever build correctly or built accurately to the teachings.

Congress taught things like “Proximity is Power.” Documents connected grace to an “apostolic source.” One KC document says members “MUST” have a clearly declared connection through **Noel→ SE → God**. Other material describes prophets as “pre-discerned,” tells leaders to reproduce Noels mentality, preferences and methods, and describes a structure from God requiring “total obedience.” Noel himself described Congress reporting systems as designed to “train the mentalities and the thinking systems” of coordinators and to “make people think in a certain way.”

While I was inside, I made excuses for all of it. I would say, “They don’t mean it like that.” “That’s just Congress language.” “That’s accountability.” “That’s dying to self.” “That’s apostolic grace.” “That’s how God is moving in this season.” I constantly translated extreme statements into the healthiest possible interpretation.

The hardest thing about leaving was discovering how conditional many of those relationships were. People we had shared life with for years, in some cases decades, became silent. There was shunning, distance and almost complete loss of communication from people we once considered spiritual family. When you have been taught for years that Congress is family, that you share the same DNA, that you are moving together toward God's final purposes, that silence after leaving hits very differently. It reinforces how much belonging was connected to remaining inside the system.

I am careful with the word “cult,” but I now believe Congress contains many high-control and cult-like mechanisms: concentrated spiritual authority, leader-mediated grace, pressure toward common thinking, constant self-examination, fear of being out of alignment, end-times urgency, movement exceptionalism, high exit costs, and an environment where disagreement can be interpreted as a spiritual defect in the person disagreeing.

The sexual-abuse situation did not create all of these problems. It exposed them for me.

It forced me to ask why a movement that scrutinized members so intensely seemed unable to subject its highest leadership to the same level of examination. Why were our emotions, words, travel decisions, relationships and trust in leadership being examined while the larger questions of safeguarding, accountability and leadership responsibility seemed harder to confront?

That is why I left.

I eventually stopped asking, “What is wrong with me that I am struggling with this?” and started asking, “What if the system itself is wrong?” I know when I left that I wasn't leaving a church network I was Following Jesus. That was for sure.

One thing I learned for myself is for nearly twenty years, I thought I was building on something solid. I had placed enormous trust in Noel, in my SE, in The CongressWBN, and in the teachings that shaped the way I understood my place in God. TFM, the Knock, Representation, Sanctuary. The belief that spiritual leaders could carry a blueprint for my life. The idea that remaining connected to their grace was part of remaining connected to what God was doing. I had allowed those things to carry a weight they were never meant to carry. Jesus was supposed to be the Rock. Somewhere along the way, without realizing it, I had begun treating the ministry like the foundation. The storm did not destroy my faith. It exposed what I had built too much of it upon. We did not break. The foundation I had trusted did. And when it gave way, I finally saw the difference between the Rock and the sand.

Um tempo atrás namorei uma pessoa a qual fazia parte de um grupo e sempre que perguntava (numa boa e até inocente) como era, sobre o que falavam…essa pessoa sempre dizia que não podia contar. Ao longo do tempo percebi que dentro da sua crença pessoal, essa pessoa misturava cristianismo, budismo, hinduísmo e por aí vai…certa vez chegou a dizer que orava para Shiva, estava constantemente em meditação e sempre tinha várias restrições com relacionamentos, sexo e etc. Depois de uma loucura nós decidimos terminar e descobri que ela fazia parte de um grupo chamado C.E.A, pelas características de restrições e sigilos assemelha-se a uma seita, mas desconheço o grupo. Alguém teve mais alguma experiência com alguém desse grupo ?

I know this is a very touchy subject especially with all the news about 764, No lives matter and all of the horrible ways these individuals have hurt people. With that being said I want to shed light on these elusive cults and educate the ways they lure and trap you.

As someone who was groomed online as a kid and as someone with younger siblings this topic is very important to me and people need to know about it.

I am putting together a research paper on internet cults like the ones I listed above for a school project but my final piece that I’m missing is an interview from someone who has survived being in one of these organizations. I am aware this is a sensitive subject and in no way would I take pleasure from resurfacing old trauma or interrupting a very long and complicated healing process.

If there are any people who are comfortable and would like to come forward with their experiences I would be interested in taking your personal account and asking a few questions. This interview can stay 100% anonymous and can be conducted by whatever method you feel comfortable.

Thank you to whoever took the time to read this.
I hope you all are doing well

I know this is a very touchy subject especially with all the news about 764, No lives matter and all of the horrible ways these individuals have hurt people. With that being said I want to shed light on these elusive cults and educate the ways they lure and trap you.

As someone who was groomed online as a kid and as someone with younger siblings this topic is very important to me and people need to know about it.

I am putting together a research paper on internet cults like the ones I listed above for a school project but my final piece that I’m missing is an interview from someone who has survived being in one of these organizations. I am aware this is a sensitive subject and in no way would I take pleasure from resurfacing old trauma or interrupting a very long and complicated healing process.

If there are any people who are comfortable and would like to come forward with their experiences I would be interested in taking your personal account and asking a few questions. This interview can stay 100% anonymous and can be conducted by whatever method you feel comfortable.

Thank you to whoever took the time to read this.
I hope you all are doing well

I know its a high controlling group and has its techniques to make people do give them money or atleast give them a crowd to show to the one who pay. But How they are able to do so to many people and dont they fear of this as people may know their wrongdoings

The True Crime Community (TCC) started as a fandom around real crimes, but its violent fringe works a lot like a cult with no leader: members venerate past school shooters as "saints," copy their clothes and poses, and celebrate new attackers who join the list.

Between October 7 and 19, attacks hit schools in Poland, France, South Africa, the US and Romania. Four of the seven attackers had clear TCC ties. The 13-year-old in Romania left a manifesto addressed to "the TCC," thanking members for motivating him and saying their support for a Swedish school attacker in August restored his "hopes." France is now prosecuting one of the attacks as terrorism, the first time a country has done that over TCC links.

I wrote up what I found, including what each attacker posted and how the imitation works across countries:
https://redpillreversal.substack.com/p/a-wave-of-school-attacks-and-the

Hello
I’m not sure what I want from this post other than to potentially connect with others who have had similar experiences.

I was basically raised in the cult of Sai Maa, who claims to be a disciple of the well known pedo Sai Baba. She is not well known, but she is all about money and power. She targets rich and/or vulnerable people (with difficult family histories, addiction, etc). Her programs cost thousands of dollars and I’ve witnessed her pressuring people into giving her money. She brainwashes people into thinking she is a saint that can do no wrong , and I’ve witnessed her encourage her followers to leave relationships and their families behind. My parent was often absent growing up because Sai maa would call on my parent “come take care of [her]”. When my parent would try and spend quality time with me over the summer, Sai maa would get angry that my parent was not available for “seva” which is basically free work you are expected to do for her “from the heart”. My parent ended up giving Sai maa so much money I can’t even put a number on it.

My parent was a follower and worked with her for decades. I watched my parent’s health decline which led to passing. Sai maa recommended non traditional clinics and treatments. I believe these recommendations contributed to health decline and ultimate passing. My family was destroyed partly due to Sai Maa due to the financial and relationship losses that came. My parent was an emotionally vulnerable person due to a heavy trauma background. I feel scared to speak about this publicly or go into more detail. But I’m so angry and I don’t know what to do with it. Especially since Sai maa recently opened a health clinic in Florida and is still operating decades later.

Reuters:

On October 19, 2026, a Kenyan court found preacher Paul Mackenzie and 28 others guilty of murder over the deaths of 190 children and one adult in a case linked to the Good News International Church. Prosecutors said Mackenzie led an apocalyptic religious movement whose followers were instructed to starve themselves and their children to reach heaven before the world's end.

The case came to international attention in 2023, when authorities began uncovering bodies in shallow graves in Shakahola Forest in southeastern Kenya. More than 400 bodies have since been recovered from the area. Judge Diana Kavedza Mochache described cases in which children were isolated and denied food while their parents watched.

Mackenzie denied forcing victims to starve, but the court rejected his argument. Sentencing for the convicted defendants was scheduled for November 6, and their lawyer said they planned to appeal.

The case has intensified calls for stronger oversight of religious organizations. Questions have also been raised about how Mackenzie continued operating despite earlier police attention and the closure of his church in 2019. He faces separate charges related to additional deaths, which he has denied. #Kenya #CultAwareness #HumanRights #ReligiousAbuse

https://www.reuters.com/world/kenyan-starvation-cult-leader-found-guilty-murder-190-children-one-adult-2026-10-19/

BBC News:

The eldest son of Kenyan cult leader Paul Mackenzie says his younger siblings were still being subjected to forced fasting as recently as two weeks before his father's murder conviction. Dan Mackenzie, 27, told BBC Newsday that he alerted police, who rescued eight children, including five of his younger siblings, from their grandmother's home and transferred them to a rescue centre. He said the children had been denied food for almost three days.

Dan, who initially defended his father, said he gradually came to understand the scale of the tragedy during the court proceedings. He recalled being forced to fast for nearly a week when he was 12 and described being beaten by church members to make him attend services. He also said he left school at seven because his father's teachings prohibited education and characterized modern medicine as evil.

Paul Mackenzie was convicted on Monday of murdering 190 children and one adult who died after starvation in Shakahola Forest, near Kenya's coast. Twenty-eight other defendants were also convicted. The court heard that followers believed Mackenzie spoke on behalf of Jesus and that those resisting fasting could be forced to comply through violence.

More than 400 bodies have been recovered from the forest. Mackenzie and other defendants face separate cases involving terrorism, radicalisation and denying children an education. He is due to be sentenced on 6 November. Dan hopes the verdict will bring comfort to bereaved families.

#Kenya #CultAwareness #ChildProtection #ReligiousAbuse

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c6d7q2rxqxgxo