Restoration

[calv (calv)]

I wonder what peoples thoughts are. There are those out there that are NOT doing well. What is our responcability to them ? Do we need to stand in the gap, try to reach out, affirm them, Or judge and point fingers. I hope we will allow the walking wonded to find a place of hope here.

[steve26 (steve26)]

calv,

I agree that restoration is very important. In fact, I think it is really the reason for everything I post. People need to first realize how far off they really were, and why, before they can be fully restored. I do hope we get people coming here looking for learning and for restoration, not for argument.

This is why I like being on FACTNet. People will not be guided away from confronting those things in their Chapel experience that they may have unknowingly let hurt them. They need to know that at the Chapel they were conditioned to think of the abnormal as normal, and vice versa. They were taught that stability and safety were somehow evil, the sinister twin snares of orthodoxy.

Also, I like the steps to recovery from psychological injuries (ttp://www.factnet.org/How_I_healed_the_psychological_injuries_from_my_ab use_in_a_cult.htm) posted by one of the founders of FACTNet. Below is an edited version of them:<blockquote><font color="0000ff">Step 1: Learn what happened to you by reading the accounts of other similar victims.

Step 1a: If you are a victim of cult abuse, thoroughly learn about the psychological dynamics of how mind control works. This way you will be able to see more certainly and clearly how you were systematically deceived and victimized by a technology in the hands of the unscrupulous cult leaders or their middle management manipulated manipulators.

Step 2: Get therapy from a specialist in the area of abuse that you have suffered. Keep getting enough therapy until you are far more functional and the cult created irrational thought loops and induced phobias are no longer controlling the way you think about or see the world. (Therapy will go far faster and easier if you really don’t skimp on step 1 above.)

Step 3: Get real angry and sue your abuser... [I personally think this is the least valuable one, but it apparently works for some.]

Step 4: If you were in a religious cult and the religious abuse and spiritual betrayal has taken you away form your spiritual journey and spiritual quest it is absolutely critical to re-begin your spiritual journey and your inner more meaningful life again. Deep spiritual betrayal is among the hardest of the betrayals to overcome, but when you do you will heal faster and deeper than on any other step of the process.

Step 5: Educate others on the cult and their abuses. I co-founded FACTNet to do just that. Now there are many ways to help you do this on and off the internet.</font></blockquote>

[calv (calv)]

Good points! It is amazing how many other churches fall in to some kind of abusive behaviors. They all have very similar storys, just differnt facts. People seem to feel safe hidding under the warm covering a pile of deception offers. Its safe and familar ground for them.
Its good to be around people from differnt backgrounds who have experianced similar things to what we did at chapel.

[steve26 (steve26)]

I especially like Step 4 in the above list: realize that cult membership has taken you away from your spiritual journey, and that it is absolutely critical to re-begin it.

Those poor folks over at the "Community Chapel Gathering" site, not even wanting to admit that the Chapel was a cult, much less realizing they need to re-begin their spiritual life on another footing, are still trying to make the unworkable work for them. Some are not going to church anywhere, and almost all the rest are frustrated to one degree or another with the churches they are attending, still believing what the Chapel taught was the best, true way, though it is in many cases diametrically opposed to the teaching of their present church.

[calv (calv)]

Of the five or so churches that i attended, each had splits. Some stayed, some left. My whole life Ive watched these things play out. Its like a big chess game. The games people play and the way they can twist things to fit what ever the agenda may be. Thats the leagacy they leave.
Youre IN or your OUT, them or us, black or white!
Those who watch from the outside can easily see it for what it is...those on the inside can only see as far as the box they live in. They describe the outside yet never dare go there because???? they are afraid!!! of the truth... THe truth is what set you free. Freedom is not living in a box!