re: Bethany Church Abuse on NBC News

I agree somewhat. Some are crying out for their money back, 15 years later... but that signed up for a program and got said program. Idk why they think they’d get money.

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I agree somewhat. Some are crying out for their money back, 15 years later... but that signed up for a program and got said program. Idk why they think they’d get money.

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Yeah, this was 100% voluntary and every person paid $5,000 participate in the program. Now a few come back nearly 2 decades later to "report" the occurrences to some random Muhammed & Corky hacks?

I'm not saying shite didn't happen or that the leaders/pastors didn't take things over the top. But when you pay to experience a boot-camp like program where you have to exert strenuous exercise and humiliation in the summer heat you get what you paid for.

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.

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calls into question the judgment of the overall church leadership.

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The issue with many non denominational churches like this- is they are owned by one family- the pastor's family, So the pastor, his kids etc are the church leadership.

They normally do not have a written membership list that a denominational church would have . The church in effect belongs only to the family legally. thus they make all the decisions.

Rule number one when joining a new church- See how membership works, who the pastors, elders, church leaders are and then ask about church governance. Even the catholic church can answer these questions-

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Joel is nuttier than squirrel shite

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Can confirm this. The whole family is. Joel’s personalized plates on his Beamer said “NOLACK” meaning God provided everything he needed including cosigning for the Beamer I guess. He told me God wanted him to have a jet plane. I’m sure he had Amy II lined up before the first one was in the ground.

A lot of speculation and rumors there.

One truth remains as always though: Jonathan Stockstill is a tremendous douche bag. I remember going to church there one Sunday morning and they played fricking Elf and somehow tried to relate that to the Bible. Those people are fricking screwy.

I knew a girl that went there back in 2003-2004. Just hearing about that place always seemed like something was off.

The ears on Joel..... you could pick up XM/Satellite radio with those suckers.

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Actually this is when Healing Place surfaced. Dino the first pastor was Jimmy's youth Pastor and Pastor Jim R who was with Swaggart left to got with Dino

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It's fascinating to me how many people are drawn to these megachurches. Time after time, example after example, they are exposed as self-dealing money making frauds and/or cesspools of emotional and/or sexual abuse and assault, yet the faithful continue to flock and be fleeced.

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Megachurches are money makers that prey on hearts and emotions. I remember when I was a kid my grandparent's sending money to PTL (Jim & Tammy Baker) they literally tithed 10% to PTL every week of their lives + another 10% to our local church.

For whatever reason it never crossed their minds to plan and save for retirement or their old age senior living arrangements. All ended up falling on their kids to pay for their care when they became elderly.

When PTL crashed and Jim Baker ended up in prison my grandmother blew it off and quoted scripture of Christians being persecuted for thousands of years. In her mind the Baker's were falsely accused and they were persecuted. WTH kind of brainwashing is that?

USMCTIGER1970: