Mike's Rescue From A Cult -- RSQUBF discussion forum

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Date Posted: 05:37:33 05/29/04 Sat
Author: Chris
Subject:

Mike's Rescue From A Cult

Here is again a "must hear" for all current and ex UBF members. It's the story of Mike (no, not our Mike) from a cult (no, not UBF). I pray it will help current members to see the overall problem and ex members to better understand the mechanisms of cults and ways to help people break free.

Please click on one of the icons (real player or win media player) close to the "listen" symbol to listen to the following commented interview with Dr. Mike, an ex cult member:

Mike's Rescue From A Cult.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

One of the mazing things that we already spoke about was that Mike was a well-educated, intelligent guy, a physician. Yet he wasn't able to see throught the deception, while his wife, who was less educated, could see and feel it. She started a desperate rescue attempt, risking everything to safe her marriage. Luckily, the story had a good end.

Mike says that he was "blinded by emotions," that he wasn't able to accept the truth even when I was confronted with the it (by his wife).

This is very applicable to UBF. Cults aren't about knowledge. They have an "emotional component, companionship-kind of component" as it is called in the interview. When the interviewer asked, "Did you feel you were getting closer to God?", Mike answered: "I felt I was getting closer in relationships, but I felt the relationships were necessary to know who God was, to experience God." If you look closely, you will see that UBF is all about relations - manipulative relations with your "shepherds" and "leaders."

The story has some similarities with Nick's story in UFB, with the exception that in his case it is the woman who is trapped in, not the man, and that there isn't a happy ending so far.

The comments before and after the interviews are particularly valuable:

"As you could hear, in Dr. Mike's story, his life started to fall apart. A good chutch builds up families, and helps reconciliation in families to happen, whereas in Dr. Mike's church they were wrongly encouraging him to split from his wife. Cults often do this. They go against the revealed word of God. They go against what Scripture teaches. In Eph 5 it teaches that husbands are instructed to love their wifes, in 1Peter 3 husbands are instructed to be considered and respectful of their wifes, and yet Dr. Mike is only being taught that wifes should submit, which is also taught in Scripture, but it is very dangerous to teach just selective parts of the Bible and not the entire word of God. That's the tactics cult use."

Mike explained why he did not get out even when he started to recognize this:

"I was living in fear. ... There was a ... tragic event ... when a man who left the church died. ... I don't know the situation and circumstances. The events were unfolded through gossip and word of mouth. [The cult leader] was using that to manipulate, that if you are to leave the church, you will die."

We all have seen this happen in UBF, too (see the horror tales by Ee Chang Woo).

One comment was: "A cult leader's greatest weapons are fear and guilt. ... I hate to call them a church, because they weren't. That's just how they called themselves."

You will also get an impression how a deprogramming session works. Mike was kidnapped by his own wife. And there was a happy end.

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