I Can't Hear God Anymore: Life in a Dallas Cult is the true story of Wendy Duncan's experience in a Bible-based cult in Dallas, Texas.

The cultic group, the Trinity Foundation, portrays itself as the watchdog of the televangelists and investigator of ministry fraud. Trinity Foundation and its charismatic leader, Ole Anthony, rose to fame in the early 1990's when it assisted Dianne Sawyer’s PrimeTime Live program in exposing Robert Tilton and two other Dallas televangelists as religious charlatans. Ole Anthony has been involved in investigations of numerous religious figures, working with programs such as NBC Dateline and 60 Minutes. Anthony’s group has been lauded in US News & World Report, The LA Times Magazine, and The New Yorker. He has been a near-ubiquitous commentator on all things religious for both local and national media outlets, but little has known about the inside workings of his own group. Read more...

by Fred G. London

It is imperative that we have right spiritual thinking in order to see a true spiritual expression of the Kingdom of God through His Church. "Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit of God, that we might know the things freely given to us by God, which things (we ought to) speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words" (1 Cor. 2:12-13). Read more...

Just a friendly reminder that we have a discussion forum where you can join and discuss any issues relating to spiritual abuse, legalism, authoritarianism, leadership abuse, etc. It's a place where you can ask a question, seek advice, discuss any of the articles or stories on our website, make announcements, and more.

You can also post any technical problems in the forums regarding this website, such as broken links, missing pages, spelling and grammatical errors, etc. Your input in this area is greatly appreciated. Enter forums

by Van Robison

What if you had no New Testament teachings other than those actual teachings of Jesus Christ, as recorded in the four Gospels? The simplicity that is in Jesus Christ seems to be lost in a maze of confusion. The confusion is the result of multiple voices, when in fact there is only one voice that is the Great and Good Shepherd. We can glean what Jesus came to teach us from the four Gospels, and His first instruction was, "Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matthew 4:17). Read more...

by Van Robison

When Jesus Christ asked some local fishermen to follow Him (Matthew 4:18-19), there had to be good reasons that He did so. There are a number of reasons that we could suggest:

• They were teachable.
• They were not formally educated.
• They believed Jesus and His teachings.
• They had no credentials such as "pastor", "senior pastor", "reverend" or some other self-flattering title.
• They were not full of the vanity of the "educated" religious leaders.

Read more...

Should the Church Teach Tithing? A Theologian's Conclusions about a Taboo Doctrine by Russell Earl Kelly

Book description (from Amazon):

This 288 page book began as a Ph.D. dissertation. It is an easy to read reference commentary which also contains many Greek and Hebrew word studies, and an extensive bibliography. Every tithing text is covered, plus every possible extension of it in the New Testament. The author demonstrates how the Church must replace this last taboo remnant of the Old Covenant Law and enter fully into must better New Covenant provisions for accomplishing God's work. No stone is left uncovered. A thorough historical survey of the first 300 years of church history and verse by verse studies of key chapters adds compelling evidence. Read more...

This was posted a while ago, but there is still time to contribute. Let's all help out Barb!

Request Letter No. 1: Request for Help for Potential Participants

Hi Everyone,

My name is Barb Orlowski. I am on the Doctor of Ministry program at A.C.T.S. Seminaries in Langley, B.C., Canada. In order to conduct the research necessary to complete my dissertation, I could use your help. I am conducting a survey among Christians who have experienced emotional and spiritual distress under authoritarian and controlling church leaders and have recovered from this experience. Read more...

by Kristen DeVoe

In order to speak, one must have a voice. Now this might seem obvious to most people but to people who have been abused in a cult, it's not always the case. The voice has been overtaken by another stronger voice, the voice of the leader. Through mind control, the cult leader imposes his will and views on the follower so the follower loses her own will and views. When mind control is accompanied by physical or sexual abuse, the task of speaking up becomes even more complicated and difficult. Read more...

by Van Robison

Have you ever noticed in life, that those who have the money are the controllers of all the people? Oddly, even in the world of churches, it is the preachers who have the money, and it is the preachers who control the people. We all know that the government, who plays the role of "God" in the lives of all the citizens, is also the source that takes your money and regulates your life from the cradle to the grave. In the church world, the preachers convince the church goers to be taxed through tithing, and by that means many preachers become very wealthy, and they also rule much of what people believe. Read more...

From Black Money Matters:

Senator Grassley's most recent actions have compelled me to make a confession as a mega church member. He is exposing what an increasing amount of us have known for years. These "CEO-Pastor-Reverend-Doctor's" have been fleecing the flock for years. For them, money does matter, in fact it is the only thing that matters.

Some may ask why this piece was not coined "Confessions of a Former Mega Church Member". My response is simple, I choose to remain there in order to continue my efforts to expose them and reveal the truth to others, whether they can handle the truth or not. Read more...

by Van Robison

Although God is not the author of confusion, the world we live in is a perpetual tug-of-war for the minds and hearts of human beings. It is not only true in the spiritual realm, but also in every area of life. Just one example in a world of millions of issues would be the scare that spinach is tainted. As a result, some are calling for more "control", which is generally man's answer to every seeming problem on earth. On the flip side, there is the belief that food production should revert back to local farming, home gardens, organic growing and so forth as opposed to mass production and commercialization. Read more...