Gwen Shamblin Lara 14: What Happens When Tammy Faye & A Zombie Have a Love Child?

[thoughtful]

4 hours ago, formergothardite said:

Wasn’t wandering around the desert eating manna for 40 years a punishment?

I was taught that it was to let the generation that knew nothing but slavery die out and a generation capable of being independent and free (or at least take their orders from God rather than Egyptians) mature.

In Exodus, the people start out complaining about there being no food (hence, manna). They also complain when there's no water (God has Moses hit a rock), and build the golden calf when Moses is on the mountain for too long.

I don't think there's a specific statement, after that, about the new generation being less whiny, but God busies everyone with learning the commandments and some other ideas for being free people, and building the Ark and learning the rituals around it.

 

[AmazonGrace]

Hm but then they had a generation that knew nothing but wandering in the desert and getting food from the heavens. Can't really see how it was going to improve their odds of survival.

God could have just, you know, liberated them earlier.

[thoughtful]

17 minutes ago, AmazonGrace said:

Hm but then they had a generation that knew nothing but wandering in the desert and getting food from the heavens. Can't really see how it was going to improve their odds of survival.

God could have just, you know, liberated them earlier.

Well, nothing described as miraculous in the Bible, or any other religious text, is logical.

As I said, the interpretation I was taught was that changing to a non-slave mindset was the point to the long wandering. When and where they learned practical survival skills is never described.

 

[formergothardite]

21 minutes ago, AmazonGrace said:

Hm but then they had a generation that knew nothing but wandering in the desert and getting food from the heavens. Can't really see how it was going to improve their odds of survival.

God could have just, you know, liberated them earlier.

Liberating them before a bunch of babies were killed would have made a lot more sense. Also Pharaoh was totally going to let them go but God was all “Nah I want more plagues and some first born sons dying. “ and promptly removed Pharaoh’s free will and forced him to continue playing this cruel game. 
God could have found a spot for them to live and not asked them annihilate an indigenous group of people and steal their land. The punishment was because some of the people didn’t want to go start a war with the people already living in the promised land. 

I suppose if one doesn’t take it literally some it is possible to construe some positive life lessons from the story. But it is about people being punished for not committing genocide and weird it is taught to children. Even weirder that Gwen read it and thought people are supposed to hang out in the desert. 

[cindyluvs24]

"True hunger is a wonderful experience,..."

No Gwen. I suspect starving people would disagree.

[LifelongRFSurvivor]

Hey all! I’ve been reading through this thread for the past week or so! Most of the RF related blogs get taken down by them so I was surprised to find this up and running in my periodic internet scouring!

I grew up in RF from a young age starting in 2002 and I was asked to leave in 2014. It’s really awesome to see other survivors and skeptics out here! Sorry if I de-railed the conversation at all, I’ve been waiting 7 days to make an account!

 

[AmazonGrace]

Today's devotional is brought to you by a guest lecturer, Dr. Gwen Shamblin Seuss.
 

Spoiler

 

Eat to Live, Not Live to Eat

January 04, 2021

by Gwen Shamblin Lara

0 Comment

Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things.
Philippians 3:19

O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
Psalm 63:1

Do not be Philippians 3:19 above — run after Psalm 63:1! Here are some more tips to help break your focus on the food. Do not eat in your car. Do not eat in your room. Do not keep a food drawer at work loaded with unnecessary snacks. Do not eat in front of the TV. You do not need to eat your way through the day! At parties or get-togethers, don’t hang out by the food table, snacking your way through several hours. The more you turn your focus toward God and the people around you instead of the food table, your interest in the food will die and you will feel SO much better, closer to God and others. Just eat TO LIVE — do not live to eat! Do not turn to food until your stomach is really growling, then enjoy a small portion. Do not extend this time throughout the day; do not worship the food. Let’s do this for God this year – show Him that He is FIRST in our lives, because after all, our bodies belong to Him!

 

Do not eat in your car

do not eat in your room.

Do not eat at the bar

Do not drink your perfume.

Do not eat while you work.

Do not eat while you watch TV

Do not eat as a perk

Do not eat in a teepee.

Do not eat through the day

Do not eat through the hours

Do not eat from a tray

Do not eat any flours

Do not eat from a food table

Do not eat at parties

Do not eat if you're able

Do not eat all your smarties,

 

 

 

[quiversR4hunting]

1 hour ago, LifelongRFSurvivor said:

Hey all! I’ve been reading through this thread for the past week or so! Most of the RF related blogs get taken down by them so I was surprised to find this up and running in my periodic internet scouring!

I grew up in RF from a young age starting in 2002 and I was asked to leave in 2014. It’s really awesome to see other survivors and skeptics out here! Sorry if I de-railed the conversation at all, I’ve been waiting 7 days to make an account!

Welcome! Many threads ago several RFs came here and tried to set us straight - HA! I don't know all the ins and outs but I think they can't touch forums like they intimidate blog owners. But that is just a guess as a non-mod but active FJer.

 @AmazonGrace  Well her title was good "Eat to Live, Not Live to Eat" then she continued <sigh>. Dr. Suess is a good comparison.  Eat to live, not live to eat is my philosophy with food but I do feed my cravings (in moderation) and I eat in regular intervals and I am very active and of normal weight. But what does my doctor know 

[Coconut Flan]

3 hours ago, quiversR4hunting said:

Welcome! Many threads ago several RFs came here and tried to set us straight - HA! I don't know all the ins and outs but I think they can't touch forums like they intimidate blog owners. But that is just a guess as a non-mod but active FJer.

A few have tried to threaten us, but basically there is nothing they can do except email vague threats.  

Edited January 4, 2021 by Coconut Flan

[hoipolloi]

4 minutes ago, Coconut Flan said:

A few have tried to threaten us, but basically there is nothing they can except email vague threats.  

They & Gwen could also stop behaving like abusive monsters but that seems to be too difficult. Easier to go after their critics.

[RFsurvivor]

On 1/2/2021 at 5:18 PM, quiversR4hunting said:

Wow.  The point of the desert wandering was to escape enslavement in Egypt and eventually make it to the promised land not to live there forever. 

I know, I know, I'm just a Catholic I can't possibly know more about scripture than a dietitian/self proclaimed god. ?

The annual conference she holds in the summer is called Desert Oasis because it is like an oasis of hope in the Desert on the way to the promised land! ?

5 hours ago, LifelongRFSurvivor said:

Hey all! I’ve been reading through this thread for the past week or so! Most of the RF related blogs get taken down by them so I was surprised to find this up and running in my periodic internet scouring!

I grew up in RF from a young age starting in 2002 and I was asked to leave in 2014. It’s really awesome to see other survivors and skeptics out here! Sorry if I de-railed the conversation at all, I’ve been waiting 7 days to make an account!

 

Hello @LifelongRFSurvivor! I am also an ex RF member. I am glad you have found yourself free from their grasp

[Red Hair, Black Dress]

@LifelongRFSurvivor Welcome!  So glad you escaped into this great big non-RF world. We at EJ are glad to have you.

If you'd like to  share your story with us (and the mods agree and you feel comfortable doing so) we'd all love to hear it.  Well, maybe that's just me who would.

You were asked to leave --Wow -- Is that unusual or normal or ???? 12 years is a long time to be under Gwod's "authority".  2002 was "In the beginning there was the word and the word was Gwod...." so you saw a lot while you were there.  Was it difficult/ sad/ heart-wrenching to leave or a relief?

 

[quiversR4hunting]

@Red Hair, Black Dress i'm with you

@LifelongRFSurvivor I'm glad you are out and hope you are healing!

[PrincessDi]

Hi everyone!

I'm a former RF member and longtime lurker. I've been watching this thread for over a year now but haven't got up the courage to post anything, mostly due to fear of retaliation if the leaders could put my identity together. I know for a fact they scour this board for former members, especially those with family still in, so I've been afraid to post anything.  

I know a lot of the former members on here got out a few years ago. I actually got out of RF this year so I've got a bit more up to date tea. My family was involved in RF from the beginning (like... the very beginning) and I spent two decades in the church. I literally had no memories of life Outside but I sure got a lot of memories of cult shit that I am desperately trying to untangle. Yay for me.

 Here's a fun little tidbit. Covid has and is spreading like wildfire through the church. The church still meets multiple times a week and no one wears masks. If you wear a mask you are seen as "not trusting God." Several people have been hospitalized but it is all kept on the DL. Being tested for Covid was discouraged as late as June. There is also a thriving antivax cohort in the church.

Another fun fact: children are expected to tithe to the church. We teach the kids from literally kindergarten up that they must tithe ten percent of all income to the church or they will be cursed by God for "withholding their first fruits." So from the earliest age, if I got $100 in birthday money from my grandparents, I was expected to tithe $10. If I babysat when I was 12 and was paid $50, I was expected to tithe $5 immediately. When I got my first job, my parents eagerly set up monthly direct deposit to the church so I would never miss a payment. As a Junior Counselor, I was instructed to teach the young 5 and 6 year olds I watched (for free) how to tithe their quarters (so we could instill the proper conditioning.)

For several years at Summer Day Camp, during Quiet Time while the other children did Bible study and tried not to fall asleep (because falling asleep during Quiet Time was considered disrespectful if you were over the age of seven), children who were deemed "fat" would be taken aside and forced to watch Weigh Down classes because they were "struggling." More over, these fat children were often not allowed to participate in snack time depending on who was leading their tribe.

When I was eight years old, my youth group was drilled on a "Rebuttal When Someone Accuses You of Being in a Cult." All children were expected to have defenses of the church ready in case an Outsider thought you were being child abused. We often did skits practicing how to convince nonmember family and classmates that we were not in a cult. It did not seem weird to me at the time, in fact I was quite good at these skits.

At a youth event, Gwen once had every unmarried person over the age of 19 stand up and berated them for over 2 hours, specifically rebuking girls who refused to go out with "godly" men who were interested in them. Gwen said such girls were spoiled brats who did not deserve the love of a godly man and that it wasn't up to a girl to just say no to a guy because "she wasn't feeling it" or "she wasn't attracted to him." It was up to a girl's parents to determine who she would be with and if they wanted her to date a guy she wasn't interested then she needed to just trust in God and obey her parents. Gwen then waxed on about how superior arranged marriages were. Several girls admitted to having panic attacks afterwards. I suspect several marriages that would not otherwise have happened also came as a result of that particular message.

Every middle-aged mom in Remnant has an unquenchable thirst for Joe Lara. They sit around together and talk rapturously about how handsome, sexy, and talented he is and how he is the perfect complement to Gwen and the standard all men should go by. They will do this in front of their husbands. It is very awkward. It is now part of church doctrine that you must feverishly ship Gwen and Joe.

In one 2015 or 2016 sermon entitled "The Good Old Days," Gwen stated that women's suffrage was a mistake because a godly woman would just vote as her husband does. She viewed First Wave Feminism as the beginning of our civilization's downfall.

We continuously read Gwen's books such as God Fearing Families and the Love Book more than we ever read the Bible. Nearly every family is part of some sort of book club Bible study (except the Bible is almost never read, only Gwen's books). 

 

 

[LifelongRFSurvivor]

I was having a little trouble figuring out where to start but I can verify pretty much everything said above me ^

As an earlier member, I got to witness firsthand a lot of the evolution of Gwen and her decent into madness. While I cannot say too much for fear of being identified, i can say from age 7-17 I lived in unspeakable fear. I was told that god could decide to end the world at any time and that I had to be pure and ready so that I didn’t burn in hell. This lead to severe insomnia and the fear that if I went to sleep, I wouldn’t wake up. Growing up I was constantly compared to the youth of the leaders and “deacons”. My mom was perpetually embarrassed that she her children weren’t “perfect”. Of course I grew up seeing the elitism and hypocrisy in the church leaders kids because most of them were bullies desperate to be the biggest snitch to earn praises from leaders. One thing that has not been touched on very much is that the youth of RF get barely any sexual education. Which results in a lot of very confused kids getting into trouble and in some cases, having the fbi involved in leaks of nude photos and harassment between children. Plenty of the youth would sneak underneath the chairs in the basement movie theatre to have sex during summer camp and the debauchery that goes on with absolutely no education on how to stay safe is sickening. 
 

I’m sorry if this is jumbled up, I have a lot to say but I think I will have to get it out in small bursts.. one of many reasons why I have not written a book about my life yet. 

Also I forgot to mention: I was not allowed to be vaccinated for HPV because it was “the gay vaccine” and also I was told that if I ever had homosexual sex that i would get HIV as a curse from god...

so after sleeping with a church leaders son I believed I had HIV until I was 18 and got tested in college and was informed that is not how it works...

[PrincessDi]

2 hours ago, LifelongRFSurvivor said:

I was having a little trouble figuring out where to start but I can verify pretty much everything said above me ^

As an earlier member, I got to witness firsthand a lot of the evolution of Gwen and her decent into madness. While I cannot say too much for fear of being identified, i can say from age 7-17 I lived in unspeakable fear. I was told that god could decide to end the world at any time and that I had to be pure and ready so that I didn’t burn in hell. This lead to severe insomnia and the fear that if I went to sleep, I wouldn’t wake up. Growing up I was constantly compared to the youth of the leaders and “deacons”. My mom was perpetually embarrassed that she her children weren’t “perfect”. Of course I grew up seeing the elitism and hypocrisy in the church leaders kids because most of them were bullies desperate to be the biggest snitch to earn praises from leaders. One thing that has not been touched on very much is that the youth of RF get barely any sexual education. Which results in a lot of very confused kids getting into trouble and in some cases, having the fbi involved in leaks of nude photos and harassment between children. Plenty of the youth would sneak underneath the chairs in the basement movie theatre to have sex during summer camp and the debauchery that goes on with absolutely no education on how to stay safe is sickening. 
 

I’m sorry if this is jumbled up, I have a lot to say but I think I will have to get it out in small bursts.. one of many reasons why I have not written a book about my life yet. 

Also I forgot to mention: I was not allowed to be vaccinated for HPV because it was “the gay vaccine” and also I was told that if I ever had homosexual sex that i would get HIV as a curse from god...

so after sleeping with a church leaders son I believed I had HIV until I was 18 and got tested in college and was informed that is not how it works...

It's so hard to hear about other's experiences. I'm so sorry that happened to you. I can second the part about getting no sex ed. I think for me, my experience was much more sheltered. I never knew about any debauchery or bad behavior, even though I have no doubt it was going on. I had the notion that I was the only one in the entire church who wasn't perfect, the only one who had doubts. It is very easy to feel like you are completely alone. 

On the snitching part... Everyone I was around was obsessively against "gossiping," but it was really (*only*) about leaders. Surveillance is constant and any questionable behavior can be reported immediately. In RF, talking bad about a leader is literally considered one of the MOST EVIL THINGS IMAGINABLE. Like, it is called "Satanic" and is compared to murder.

Gwen once had this whole sermon about how calling a saint's character into question and hurting their reputation was more evil than killing them. I am not exaggerating. She used that quote from the Bible where you call your brother "Raca" and said Jesus meant it was calling someone a nonbeliever. To even bring minor complaints about leaders, like them not texting you back for weeks, was a sinful action. You were only allowed to speak in the most glowing terms about leaders and there was a constant paranoia that even innocuous remarks could get back to them through snitches. So I had this whole deeply ingrained notion that even listening to people gossip was, like, participating in murder. I have no doubt this was used to cover up a lot of bad behavior among the elites.

It's strange. For me, it was almost like covering my ears and going "lalalala." I just didn't hear anything that other's were doing... perhaps because I didn't trust anyone enough to put down the act for even a second.

[Ozlsn]

I am honestly not sure what out of the previous three posts makes me the saddest. I hope you are healing, and that you have in person support too.

Edited January 5, 2021 by Ozlsn
Read sentence after rearranging order to make sure it makes sense!

[mango_fandango]

Not surprised that COVID-19 is spreading like wildfire. Gwen and Elizabeth are probably at risk of having heart/circulation issues, which will make things worse. 

[quiversR4hunting]

6 hours ago, mango_fandango said:

Not surprised that COVID-19 is spreading like wildfire. Gwen and Elizabeth are probably at risk of having heart/circulation issues, which will make things worse. 

Oh yeah, anorexia wrecks the body. I had to go out to webmd and refresh my knowledge. The heart is weakened a lot by anorexia. Heart and bones are the first to be wrecked but the heart is what kills anorexics. And the article states the entire body is affected. Info from webmd on the heart: 

Quote

But the most life-threatening damage is usually the havoc wreaked on the heart. As the body loses muscle mass, it loses heart muscle at a preferential rate -- so the heart gets smaller and weaker. "It gets worse at increasing your circulation in response to exercise, and your pulse and your blood pressure get lower," says Mickley. "The cardiac tolls are acute and significant, and set in quickly." Heart damage, which ultimately killed singer Karen Carpenter, is the most common reason for hospitalization in most people with anorexia.

So if covid is running rampant, these people are really going to suffer. 

The entire article:

Spoiler

Quote

Anorexia nervosa takes an enormous toll on the body. But that's not all. It has the highest death rate of any mental illness. Between 5% and 20% of people who develop the disease eventually die from it. The longer you have it, the more likely you will die from it. Even for those who survive, the disorder can damage almost every body system.

What happens exactly? Here's a look at what anorexia does to the human body.

The first victim of anorexia is often the bones. The disease usually develops in adolescence -- right at the time when young people are supposed to be putting down the critical bone mass that will sustain them through adulthood.

"There's a narrow window of time to accrue bone mass to last a lifetime," says Diane Mickley, MD, co-president of the National Eating Disorders Association and the founder and director of the Wilkins Center for Eating Disorders in Greenwich, Conn. "You're supposed to be pouring in bone, and you're losing it instead." Such bone loss can set in as soon as six months after anorexic behavior begins, and is one of the most irreversible complications of the disease.

But the most life-threatening damage is usually the havoc wreaked on the heart. As the body loses muscle mass, it loses heart muscle at a preferential rate -- so the heart gets smaller and weaker. "It gets worse at increasing your circulation in response to exercise, and your pulse and your blood pressure get lower," says Mickley. "The cardiac tolls are acute and significant, and set in quickly." Heart damage, which ultimately killed singer Karen Carpenter, is the most common reason for hospitalization in most people with anorexia.

Although the heart and the bones often take the brunt of the damage, anorexia is a multisystem disease. Virtually no part of the body escapes its effects. About half of all anorexics have low white-blood-cell counts, and about a third are anemic. Both conditions can lower the immune system's resistance to disease, leaving a person vulnerable to infections.

Anorexia Damage Starts Early

Even before a person with anorexia starts to look "too thin," these medical consequences have begun. 

Many young women who begin eating a severely restricted diet stop menstruating well before serious weight loss sets in. Since so many people with anorexia are teenage girls and young women, this can have long-term consequences on their ability to bear children.

"In truly, fully recovered anorexics and bulimics, it looks like the rate, frequency and number of pregnancies is normal," says Mickley. "However, if you look at infertility clinics, and those patients in the clinics who have infrequent or absent periods, the majority of them appear to have occult eating disorders. They may think they're fully recovered, but they haven't gotten their weight up high enough."

Many women with anorexia would rather seek fertility treatment than treatment for their eating disorder, Mickley says. And even among women who have fully recovered from their anorexia and bulimia, there may be a slightly higher rate of miscarriages and caesarean sections. "There also may be up to a 30% higher incidence of postpartum depression as compared to other women," she says.

The Risks of Bulimia

Bulimia, which often goes hand in hand with anorexia, does its own unique health damage. Bulimics who purge by vomiting wreak havoc on their digestive tracts by chronically bathing them in stomach acid, which can lead to digestive disorders like reflux esophagitis.

"It feels like I've been drinking Draino," said one woman who posted to a forum on digestive diseases about the consequences of her lifelong anorexia and bulimia. Some reported cases suggest bulimia may have led to a condition called Barrett's esophagus, which may can lead to esophageal cancer.

Damage from Anorexia May Be Reversible

The good news: Many of these complications can be reversible -- if the person returns to a normal weight. "The real focus has to be on weight restoration if you want to reverse outcomes," says Rebecka Peebles, MD, a specialist in adolescent medicine at the Lucile Packard Children's Hospital in Palo Alto, Calif. "That's the most essential part of treatment. You can't wait around for it to happen. It really is an essential first step in treatment and recovery."

Unfortunately, say experts, too many people believe that anorexia is strictly a psychological disorder, and ignore its medical complications unless the patient becomes visibly, dangerously thin. "A lot of people -- parents, and even some doctors -- think that medical complications of anorexia only happen when you're so thin you're wasting away," says Peebles. "Practitioners need to understand that a good therapist is only part of the treatment for anorexia and other eating disorders, and that these patients need treatment from a medical doctor as well."

Studies have found that many people who need treatment for anorexia aren't getting it. In large part, this may be due to cost. Inpatient treatment can cost more than $30,000 per month, while outpatient treatment can run as much as $100,000 per year.

Melissa Román, a Miami woman who's been in recovery from anorexia for several years, pays $800 per month out of pocket for therapy sessions that insurance won't cover. According to the National Eating Disorders Coalition, health insurance companies pay for an average of 10 to 15 treatment sessions for people with eating disorders, when more long-term care -- as many as 40 sessions -- may be needed for true recovery.

"Access to care is a huge issue," says Mickley. "Eating disorders aren't staged the way cancer is, so we don't have the way to convince insurance companies that a low potassium level can be like a small metastasis. It's only recently that we've begun to understand the genetic and neurochemical basis of anorexia and say that this is a real illness, not a whim of spoiled rich girls. It's been treated like it's voluntary and willful as opposed to what it is: a serious, life-threatening psychiatric and medical illness."

 

I am so sorry @PrincessDi & @LifelongRFSurvivor that you both had to go through all of this but I am also glad you both have escaped. I hope your families have gotten out too. Thank you for sharing your stories. 

Edited January 5, 2021 by quiversR4hunting

[LifelongRFSurvivor]

I appreciate the warm welcome!

I managed to get out a few years ago, but my family is still very much involved.. on the tithing that @PrincessDi mentioned this was the same for me. Both of my parents are crazy credit card users but my mom blames my dad for all of the family debt simply because he refuses to tithe.. it certainly has nothing to do with the amount of money and time spent on RF related things and the fact that Brentwood is the richest part of the state... I was occasionally given money for weekly allowance from my father (between $1 and $5 depending) my mom always insisted on taking 10% for the “travel to Tennessee” jar. 

After l left the church I went to state college and my family moved to Tennessee. Having no home to go back to, I ended up being homeless for some of that time, but because i was a student i didnt qualify for any kind of government help like food stamps or housing other than campus during breaks. College was next to impossible for me because I found that I was so socially stunted I could barely interact with my peers, let alone get an education. It was a complete culture shock and only in the past 2 or 3 years have I really come into my own as a person. Had my mon believed in pediatric mental health, i probably would have been medicated for ADHD and I wouldn’t have the cognitive issues that I do now. Between the abuse and lack of guidance i really am very lucky that I’ve managed to be as stable as I am now.,

[AmazonGrace]

Facebook: we got the growl.
 

Quote

 

Day 4

Wait for the growl. Stop when you are full. Those are your boundaries. That is where you may find that your will and His will were not lined up. Line it back up, get it inside the boundaries, and stay in that Zone.

 

 

It looks like today's Daily Regurgitation was posted on January 5th 2020, January 5th 2019, January 5th 2018 and who knows how many other times before.

https://www.freejinger.org/topic/32002-gwen-shamblin-5-she-is-a-shit-writer/?do=findComment&comment=1706512

This is the part of the cycle in which we reiterate that a cracker is as good as a meal. 

If you're ill and lost your appetite you're actually lucky because you don't need to eat. If you're taking medications that need to be taken with food you don't really need to eat. If God is not sending you the Growl at lunchtime you can ignore the Growl that God is sending you any other time. If you're hungry in the morning you don't need to eat.

TL, DR: If it's mealtime and you're not hungry don't eat. If you're hungry and it's not mealtime, don't eat.

I thought Joe was giving me the finger.

 

Edited January 5, 2021 by AmazonGrace

[Alisamer]

I'm still absolutely befuddled as to how Gwen managed to create an entire cult like that. Like, did it go:

Step 1 - tell people in order to lose weight, don't eat

Step 2 - ?

Step 3 - Profit!

 

[LifelongRFSurvivor]

1 minute ago, Alisamer said:

I'm still absolutely befuddled as to how Gwen managed to create an entire cult like that. Like, did it go:

Step 1 - tell people in order to lose weight, don't eat

Step 2 - ?

Step 3 - Profit!

 

Basically she started a fad diet and managed to get popular. With the best selling book, she used all of that money to kick off her church. Like any grassroots organization, a lot of it is word of mouth. But anyone who has ever seen Gwen and Candace Anger on stage at the same time can see the extreme marketing techniques they use to rope in new members. They prey on the weak and needy and offer the a solution. Those in leadership are the 1%, the rest are desperately seeking answers while being taken advantage of. There’s a reason so many members of leadership are in real estate and banking jobs... their money is not “blessings from god” but that is what they promise to new members while telling them that to seek it is sin. 

[quiversR4hunting]

1 hour ago, LifelongRFSurvivor said:

but my mom blames my dad for all of the family debt simply because he refuses to tithe..

yikes! well that is straight out of prosperity gospel! If I tithe I will be rewarded. In contrast, when I was in college I would spend $20 at the bar on some Saturday nights and then go to church on Sunday. I hit me once, if I can afford $20 worth of beer & food then I can surely afford $5/10/15/20 in the offering plate but I never expected reward back from my giving. 

[SunnySide]

To the people who have managed to escape RF. Thank you for sharing your experiences. I hope that you can all begin to heal from having to deal with so much trauma.