Several years ago I met a woman who
had been imprisoned within a cult. She
recalls how she and her husband believed that they had been saved by this
pastor who persuaded them to give everything they had to the church. They slept in a communal house. They would work at jobs but turn most of
their income over to the pastor. They
would spend their free time preaching on the beaches. She started to get sick and she couldn’t
understand why. She started to have
nightmares. Finally, a friend from work
convinced her to see a doctor. It was
the doctor who started to figure out that she was imprisoned by this predatory
truth. She told her to leave the
church. But to leave the church would mean
she would have to leave her husband.
Finally, she found the strength to do that. And yet, she was afraid and lonely and hungry
for community. She wandered into my
previous church. She sat in the
back. She left right after the service.
I would come up to her and ask how she was but she didn’t want to tell me. She told me later she was afraid of me. Not me but pastors who controlled people. Finally, she told me this story. We met several times as she worked through
the false truth and the only real truth which is that what she believes
shouldn’t be coerced, shouldn’t be punishing.
True faith is freeing I told her, we are free to ask questions, to
explore, to doubt and to find a community like this one that accepts her as she
was.
With Grace and Grit, John
