This Train

I received this tragic e-mail from a dear brother in the Lord. Please pray for him.

I am a Christian. I am also a battered sheep who is trying to recover his wife and children from an abusive church environment. So far I remain unsuccessful.

One of my brother-in-laws has been shunned by the church group going on 20 years now. His sons have been encouraged to move away from him and cut off all contact until he "repents" for his independent thinking. There is absolutely nothing wrong with my brother-in-law spiritually or morally. He is an upright and genuinely decent fellow, yet he has been demonized all these years by church leaders who want him under group control! Unfortunately, I participated in this until I began to wake up and begin to question also. And when this happened, I was pointed out as one to be avoided until I repented of my independence. My children, raised in this system automatically following leadership's decision and have shunned me as we all once did my brother-in-law and, sadly, my wife's mother.

This is a really tragic situation. Families divided and destroyed because of leadership control. I can have my family back, I am told, but only if I submit to leadership.

This has been a lone and discouraging battle for me! So you can imagine my excitement at discovering your web site.

I live in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and I am seeking moral support and information so that I can help family and friends who are caught up in this abusive, controlling church group.

This e-mail may be a bit hasty and disjointed due to the time of morning and my excitement at finding your site. Please forgive. But there are many here in this area that could use the information you are trying to put out. I want to get it to them. My hope is they will respond to it, because I know the information can set them free from the situation they are all in.

I admit I am puzzled and saddened that Christians can find themselves in such abusive churches. Surely there are warning signs that something is not quite right. My heart goes out to the families torn apart by the spiritual abuse of aberrrant, authoritarian and legalistic "churches".

I know that after I am gone fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Even from among your own group men will arise, teaching perversions of the truth to draw the disciples away after them. Therefore be alert, remembering that night and day for three years I did not stop warning each one of you with tears. (Acts 20:29-31; NET)