Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 5, No. 6, 2006, Page 68
Duncan has done her homework. She has done a difficult thing: made the process by which
she was seduced into membership into a highly authoritarian group with bizarre personal
reinterpretations of scripture seem both understandable and reasonable. She addresses her
particular vulnerabilities which blinded her to warning signs that all was not well in this
group. She spells out the promise that fired her imagination. After a couple of divorces,
causing her to be treated as an outsider in her own Christian denomination, she welcomed
input from other and supposedly wiser people in choosing her next partner. She also
balances the positives of group life (no more loneliness, a ready made social system, a
sense of community) with the negatives. What is different about this book is the apparent
―evangelical mainstreamness‖ of the Trinity Foundation.
Duncan was no naive, idealistic teenager. She was adult, in her forties, with a Master‘s
degree from a seminary and a stable job. She knew about cults. She checked out the group
she was considering in several ways before joining. But in spite of her precautions, she still
fell in and stayed in seven years.
She writes in a clear, straightforward manner. She organizes her material logically,
including the theological distortions of her group leader, Ole Anthony. Superficially, the
language and doctrine of her leader would be recognizable to any evangelical, although
idiosyncratic. But the idiosyncrasies can be rationalized by the intelligence and originality of
its leader. But also as in most cults, there was a discrepancy between the doctrine and the
behaviors of the group. She has organized her material into chapters about her process of
gradually being drawn into the group, the leader, his theology—including both orthodoxy
and distortions, the ways the leader used scripture to systematically break down members‘
egos, and her exiting the group. She describes the multiple metastases within her system
of the pernicious doctrinal distortions, some of which took years to erase. Her recovery,
interestingly, was done with a minimum of professional help. She details how she did that.
To someone unfamiliar with mainstream Christianity, the great detail that she uses to
describe the theological distortions and scripture twisting that are part of the working credos
of the Trinity Foundation may seem drawn out and overdone but for me, it‘s the kind of
detail I have felt some of the testimonials of other pseudo Christian group former members
have glossed over or left out.
I would recommend this book without reservation to anyone who is interested in
understanding why the Christian church has always relied on scripture and why the church
through the ages has rested on orthodoxy. Families, former high authority group members,
pastors, students, could all benefit.
Lois V. Svoboda, M.D., L.M.F.T.
Duncan has done her homework. She has done a difficult thing: made the process by which
she was seduced into membership into a highly authoritarian group with bizarre personal
reinterpretations of scripture seem both understandable and reasonable. She addresses her
particular vulnerabilities which blinded her to warning signs that all was not well in this
group. She spells out the promise that fired her imagination. After a couple of divorces,
causing her to be treated as an outsider in her own Christian denomination, she welcomed
input from other and supposedly wiser people in choosing her next partner. She also
balances the positives of group life (no more loneliness, a ready made social system, a
sense of community) with the negatives. What is different about this book is the apparent
―evangelical mainstreamness‖ of the Trinity Foundation.
Duncan was no naive, idealistic teenager. She was adult, in her forties, with a Master‘s
degree from a seminary and a stable job. She knew about cults. She checked out the group
she was considering in several ways before joining. But in spite of her precautions, she still
fell in and stayed in seven years.
She writes in a clear, straightforward manner. She organizes her material logically,
including the theological distortions of her group leader, Ole Anthony. Superficially, the
language and doctrine of her leader would be recognizable to any evangelical, although
idiosyncratic. But the idiosyncrasies can be rationalized by the intelligence and originality of
its leader. But also as in most cults, there was a discrepancy between the doctrine and the
behaviors of the group. She has organized her material into chapters about her process of
gradually being drawn into the group, the leader, his theology—including both orthodoxy
and distortions, the ways the leader used scripture to systematically break down members‘
egos, and her exiting the group. She describes the multiple metastases within her system
of the pernicious doctrinal distortions, some of which took years to erase. Her recovery,
interestingly, was done with a minimum of professional help. She details how she did that.
To someone unfamiliar with mainstream Christianity, the great detail that she uses to
describe the theological distortions and scripture twisting that are part of the working credos
of the Trinity Foundation may seem drawn out and overdone but for me, it‘s the kind of
detail I have felt some of the testimonials of other pseudo Christian group former members
have glossed over or left out.
I would recommend this book without reservation to anyone who is interested in
understanding why the Christian church has always relied on scripture and why the church
through the ages has rested on orthodoxy. Families, former high authority group members,
pastors, students, could all benefit.
Lois V. Svoboda, M.D., L.M.F.T.
