Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 2, No. 2, 2003, Page 88
The Bible did not say that the ICC was the Kingdom of God. Again, from the beginning…
Finally, Ally gave me ―advice‖ that the best thing for me to do might be to get away for a
while, get a fresh perspective, then look at it again. I had seen people start studies and
disagree and leave. We always said they just needed to get ―beat up‖ by the ―world‖ a little
more and they would come back. I felt that was what she wanted me to do. In retrospect, I
can see that they were getting me out of Atlanta so the teens would stop asking and calling
me asking me what was wrong. How could their favorite up-and-coming leader doubt the
doctrine? Was there something to that? So I packed up my things and went to my parents‘
house in Pinehurst, North Carolina. I only planned on staying 6-8 weeks, enough to get my
head together and work through some things.
After a couple weeks at home, Lydia, my best friend from college called to say that she was
coming to Pinehurst that weekend so her husband could golf. She would love to come and
see me. Great! That Friday night my parents went out to dinner. They did not come
home. It got to be 10, 11, 12 o‘clock. My parents don‘t stay out late. I then turned into my
mother and began to call the emergency rooms. They weren‘t there. I was very upset!
Finally, they pulled into the driveway around 2 AM. They came in and very casually said
that they had run into some friends and had been talking. They didn‘t even acknowledge
my anxiety. They were acting very strange, and just went to bed. I got up the next
morning and was putting on makeup in the bathroom when Lydia arrived. She came into
the doorway and I asked her where Britt, her husband, was. She said he wasn‘t coming. I
looked at her and asked her why she had come down then. Then my mother was in the
doorway. She said, ―Kathy, we are all here for you this weekend. We found somebody who
has some information about your church that we don‘t think you have heard. We would like
for you to listen to that information and participate in some discussion about it.‖ I
immediately turned to Lydia and said, ―You lied to me!‖ The previous night‘s behavior of
my parents was suddenly explained. I was furious! Why did you all lie? Why didn‘t you just
ask me, rather than setting it all up behind my back? I would have listened, don‘t you trust
me? After I ranted and raved for a bit, I said yes I‘d listen, and no, I wasn‘t going to
contact anyone from the church. Why would I, I hadn‘t since I‘d been home! And off they
went to get Jeff, while my brother arrived.
Jeff Davis came to my parent‘s house from Massachusetts. He had had some friends
involved in the ICC back when they started in Boston. He had kept up with the church and
learned as much as he could. He talked about the studies, and looked at the translations in
Greek, and compared that to the message the ICC was pushing. We looked at the hierarchy
of the ICC, the pyramid structure, the discipling. We looked at the Kingdom study and
included other scriptures about God‘s Kingdom. How it is within someone and cannot be
seen or heard it just exists. That piece of information stuck. As the day wore on, I began
to talk and participate. He had some interesting information. When we finished I realized
that I could never go back. I was not going to give in to the crowd that easily though, so I
told everyone that I would need to take some time to examine all of the literature, the
church‘s and Jeff‘s. That is what I did for the next two weeks. I spoke very little to my
parents. I was furious that they had lied to me. Why should I trust them now? I trusted
the church and now it was not holding up. Whom should I trust? Obviously, not myself. I
couldn‘t make a sound decision. I couldn‘t even tell you what I wanted to eat without
getting ―advice‖ from my discipler.
The two months that followed my intervention were the worst in my life. I now had no job,
my friends from the church who loved me unconditionally had left me hanging, God had
betrayed me, people had taken my faith and trust and used it to control me, I was living
with my parents at 26 years old and couldn‘t tell you what I wanted to do with my life,
where I wanted to go, and what I would do next. I began making decisions, and not
necessarily good ones. I went from being controlled to being out of control. I did things
The Bible did not say that the ICC was the Kingdom of God. Again, from the beginning…
Finally, Ally gave me ―advice‖ that the best thing for me to do might be to get away for a
while, get a fresh perspective, then look at it again. I had seen people start studies and
disagree and leave. We always said they just needed to get ―beat up‖ by the ―world‖ a little
more and they would come back. I felt that was what she wanted me to do. In retrospect, I
can see that they were getting me out of Atlanta so the teens would stop asking and calling
me asking me what was wrong. How could their favorite up-and-coming leader doubt the
doctrine? Was there something to that? So I packed up my things and went to my parents‘
house in Pinehurst, North Carolina. I only planned on staying 6-8 weeks, enough to get my
head together and work through some things.
After a couple weeks at home, Lydia, my best friend from college called to say that she was
coming to Pinehurst that weekend so her husband could golf. She would love to come and
see me. Great! That Friday night my parents went out to dinner. They did not come
home. It got to be 10, 11, 12 o‘clock. My parents don‘t stay out late. I then turned into my
mother and began to call the emergency rooms. They weren‘t there. I was very upset!
Finally, they pulled into the driveway around 2 AM. They came in and very casually said
that they had run into some friends and had been talking. They didn‘t even acknowledge
my anxiety. They were acting very strange, and just went to bed. I got up the next
morning and was putting on makeup in the bathroom when Lydia arrived. She came into
the doorway and I asked her where Britt, her husband, was. She said he wasn‘t coming. I
looked at her and asked her why she had come down then. Then my mother was in the
doorway. She said, ―Kathy, we are all here for you this weekend. We found somebody who
has some information about your church that we don‘t think you have heard. We would like
for you to listen to that information and participate in some discussion about it.‖ I
immediately turned to Lydia and said, ―You lied to me!‖ The previous night‘s behavior of
my parents was suddenly explained. I was furious! Why did you all lie? Why didn‘t you just
ask me, rather than setting it all up behind my back? I would have listened, don‘t you trust
me? After I ranted and raved for a bit, I said yes I‘d listen, and no, I wasn‘t going to
contact anyone from the church. Why would I, I hadn‘t since I‘d been home! And off they
went to get Jeff, while my brother arrived.
Jeff Davis came to my parent‘s house from Massachusetts. He had had some friends
involved in the ICC back when they started in Boston. He had kept up with the church and
learned as much as he could. He talked about the studies, and looked at the translations in
Greek, and compared that to the message the ICC was pushing. We looked at the hierarchy
of the ICC, the pyramid structure, the discipling. We looked at the Kingdom study and
included other scriptures about God‘s Kingdom. How it is within someone and cannot be
seen or heard it just exists. That piece of information stuck. As the day wore on, I began
to talk and participate. He had some interesting information. When we finished I realized
that I could never go back. I was not going to give in to the crowd that easily though, so I
told everyone that I would need to take some time to examine all of the literature, the
church‘s and Jeff‘s. That is what I did for the next two weeks. I spoke very little to my
parents. I was furious that they had lied to me. Why should I trust them now? I trusted
the church and now it was not holding up. Whom should I trust? Obviously, not myself. I
couldn‘t make a sound decision. I couldn‘t even tell you what I wanted to eat without
getting ―advice‖ from my discipler.
The two months that followed my intervention were the worst in my life. I now had no job,
my friends from the church who loved me unconditionally had left me hanging, God had
betrayed me, people had taken my faith and trust and used it to control me, I was living
with my parents at 26 years old and couldn‘t tell you what I wanted to do with my life,
where I wanted to go, and what I would do next. I began making decisions, and not
necessarily good ones. I went from being controlled to being out of control. I did things
