Letters re: Richard Hudson's Robert A. Groves series

Dear Readers:

I have received numerous letters like the following from former, but enlightened members of Robert A. Grove's so-called "Christian" fundamentalist cult. This writer's name shall remain anonymous unless, of course, they choose to come forward to verify their authorship. I am posting it here because it prompted a reply from me which follows the letter:

Dear Richard, I log on to Fact Net but have never posted anything. Your story just broke my heart and I want you to know that I will keep you and yours in my prayers continuously. Please be not weary in well doing for in due season ye SHALL reap if ye faint not! I have read the postings in utter disbelief as I did not leave any of my family in the group, so I know very little what goes on in there now. I always tell others when I explain my spiritual journey that I was raised in a Bible based "cult" but it seems to have evolved even further into the depths of hell from when I left. Keep looking to our Lord and Savior! May our Lord comfort you and keep you.

My response:

Thank you for your kind encouragement.

I had no idea, even 10 years ago, that I would be where I am today. I had no idea that I would suffer public humiliation and shunning by friends and family for dignifying a son who was down on his luck and asking for help. I had no idea, until three and one half years ago, when this began, that I would eventually lose the woman I have loved and still love since my youth because of this.

And, now, looking back since 1982 with the advent of Robert A. Grove's ministry into the Fort Worth assembly and the "marking and avoidance" of my father and mother-in-law and one of my brother-in-laws, I can see the inevitability of my present experience and ultimate loss.

I am a man who asks questions and seeks freedom of mind and thought. Robert A. Grove is a man who demands absolute submission and conformity to his thought and his rule. And Robert's captains are men like Thomas E. "Uncle Tom" Collins of Pecan Plantation in Granbury, TX, who admittedly "rides for the brand", which, in his case, is Robert A. Grove's unique "brand" of Christian fundamentalism or grandiose "lie".

To exercise the freedom we have been granted in Christ by our heavenly Father is to incur Robert A. Grove's wrath, his condemnation and threats of "excommunication", with which he subdues whole congregations through his appointed captains. I suppose the thing that astounds me the most is how people have so easily come under his spell and have conformed themselves to his wishes. And for those who have not, how easily he has been able to destroy them and scatter their families.

Robert A. Grove and those who exercise his form of religious oppression do not care about the holy institutions of marriage and family if it means they must give up control over others. They will and have trampled underfoot many who have dared to walk as free men and women under the banner of Christ.

Robert A. Grove and his following and those who promote and enforce his brand of fundamentalism belong to the Church of Satan.

Robert A. Grove has killed and scattered God's flock for the power and glory of his name! And those, like his sons (Jeff Grove and Scott Grove), and mindless, ego-centric "brand riders" like Thomas E. "Uncle Tom" Collins, Jim Mauer, Wayman Zielder, and Robert Harrison, have assisted him in perpetrating this egregious, horrifying evil on the sons and daughters of God for no other reason than for the glory of the titles and power they've been given by Robert A. Grove in return for their allegiance to his wickedness and the glory of his name.

I cannot put it any more bluntly. To deny control to Robert A. Grove and the men who serve under his banner is to invite persecution and a living death. But I would rather suffer this than to loose my soul and deny my Savior and our Heavenly Father.

Thank you for directing my mind to Christ and thank you for offering up prayers in my behalf and for my soon-to-be ex-wife, our children, and our grandchildren. I believe I have completely lost the woman I have loved since my youth. I pray that her soul is saved. I pray that God will spread over her His gracious protection. And, in this life, I pray that God in His gracious mercy will some how put together again what man in his sins has torn to pieces.

Your friend and fellow brother in Christ,

Richard Hudson