re: Bethany Church Abuse on NBC News

My bad for keeping you hanging.
Some it is true. But of course this is super poor journalism. The true stuff:

Yes, there were "boot camps" where they pushed the interns way too hard physically. As a former Marine I even tried to tell them that was not even allowed in the Corps. Like keeping them from getting proper nutrition while "training". These boot camps were stopped.

Yes, they were hard on the girls and dudes for their attire and behavior. If you were a girl and dressed "non girly" they women leaders would confront you and somewhat shame you. And yes they called them "overweight", "chunky", and such. If you were a dude and acted...non-dudish then they called that out. It was embarrassing and wrong to do that publically.

Yes, they worked super long hours and had little rest. Welcome to real ministry. It isn't easy ...real ministry anyway. The intentions were good but the process was wrong.

Fight clubs.....I mean come on. Yes, guys wrestled at times.

Racism, I never saw it but I can't say it never happened. I didn't hear one intern ever complain to me. I was friends with some who attended at that time and still are. They don't claim any racism.

Casting out demons. Yes. That was done and was wrong to do that since it embarrassed people. Even "Christians" would call that wrong.

Supervised dating. Yes. They were very involved in the interns relationships. And yes, even some young adults who were not interns. Sometimes too involved.

Did people get their feelings hurt? Yes.
Did people get embarrassed? yes.
Did they do anything immoral? Borderline.
Did they do anything unethical for a church? Yes. The leaders were way too young to be in charge. And I mean the internship leaders, who by the way have apologized years ago after they realized these things were wrong.
Did any illegal acts happen? Not that I am aware of.
I was not there for every waking moment of the internship. So I cannot say 100% "that didn't happen."
I can tell you though that most of this "outcry" came from someone who started a podcast and has been trying to get people to "come out and tell your story".
I am no longer a member on staff at that church. For no reason in particular.
Is is a cult? By the definition of cult then yes. All churches are. That isn't an insult to churches.
Take my words for what you will. But this article did not justice to anyone really. Take out the foolishness of fight clubs and racism and there should be things brought to light. Churches should never allow anyone to be public ally embarrassed or shamed. That is 100% wrong.