Aussie Pentecostal Group busted as 'Abusive Cult.'

by fulltimestudent 4 Replies latest jw friends

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  fulltimestudent

  The Australian ABC ( a government owned Media group) has published the results of a four year investigation into a NSW-based registered charity and religious group Christian Assemblies International (CAI).

  The Four Corners program revealed that self-styled religious guru Pastor Scott Williams was using his warped brand of evangelical Pentecostalism to run a clandestine homosexual sex ring while allegedly misusing vast amounts of member donations for personal use.

  Courageous former members broke their silence and told of their torment living inside the group, which they said is not a Christian church but a horrendous cult run by one man.

  They detailed shocking acts of abuse ranging from spiritual abuse, financial abuse, verbal and physical abuse, and the sexual abuse of adult men.

  They said bizarre sexual rituals were carried out in secret by Williams, who described himself as "The Anointed One" with the Lord's authorisation to sidestep biblical commands against homosexuality and sexually train his male members into submission and obedience.

  Reference: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-07-28/former-members-break-silence-over-christian-cult-of-horrors/5627794

  (A short video extract from the ABC program can be found on the RH side/top of the above page. A former member explains how difficult it is to leave a cult once you're hooked - something we are all too familiar with)

  

  The claimed HQ of the group in Cofffs Harbour, northern NSW.
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  fulltimestudent

  I ask again, as I have many time before:

  "Where was the Yahweh/Jesus combo God, when all these wicked things were being done IN THEIR NAME?"
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  fulltimestudent

  The message of this cult was so similar to other self-styled 'prophets' that we are familiar with:

  his message was that the world was going to come to an end very soon and that we didn't have much time and we needed to convert as many people as possible before the return of Jesus," he said.

  His beautiful saying was always, 'I'm gonna convert the German nation, this time to do a better deed instead of what Hitler did, a bad deed'.

  Former member Gunther Frantz

  " his message was very much predominating around that Russia would invade Germany, a third world war would break out, and he brought up all sorts of scriptures from the Old Testament to prove his prophetic statements."

  Gunther Frantz, Williams's first convert in Germany, says he was 12 when he began to be indoctrinated. He says Williams brainwashed him into doing almost anything.

  "He had such power over people," Mr Frantz said.

  "His beautiful saying was always, 'I'm gonna convert the German nation, this time to do a better deed instead of what Hitler did - a bad deed'."

  Williams's core beliefs included a strict literal adherence to the Bible and a highly conservative lifestyle.

  Upon baptism, members would often speak in tongues. As part of their membership, they were expected to donate 10 per cent of their gross income to the CAI in addition to many different offerings every year. "

  From the ABC web-page cited in the first post.
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  fulltimestudent

  Note, the similarity with our former ever-loving brothers and sisters, this cult also used its membership to do improvements to properties that had been purchased.

  Williams, now 70, is living with his wife Ree in a luxury apartment in the beachfront Pacific Towers complex in Coffs Harbour. It is one of many properties Williams purchased using money donated by church members who believed much of it was being used for charitable purposes.

  Today, the CAI boasts an impressive multi-million-dollar property portfolio including Pitversie House and Douglas House, a hotel in Abernethy, Scotland.

  All were renovated to luxurious standards by church members, who have told Four Corners they worked hundreds of hours updating the properties while Williams monitored their work and punished them for any mistakes or minor misdemeanours.

  Katja Forkin was recruited into the Assembly as a teenager living in Germany. She says women and men were expected to work on the properties night and day, and if they did not they would be severely punished or excommunicated.

  She says life in the Assembly got worse once Williams began to purchase more and more properties.

  "It started to change once the Assembly owned properties in Scotland, because basically all we did from then is just work on the properties, renovating, looking after Scott and Ree more or less, and everything evolved around their lives," she said.

  "So the little spare time that we had sort of dwindled away more and more to the point that we started to have less and less connections to the outside."

  As members disconnected from the outside world, following Williams around the world and moving away from family and friends, they say their leader's language and demeanour began to change.

  Former members told Four Corners they were regularly denigrated and humiliated, losing their self-identity, confidence and sense of self.

  Klaus Tishcer says it happened gradually.

  "As the years went on and he was sort of more sure that things were going his way or going the Lord's way, then he was more confident to express that we were a waste of space, useless heathen and would burn in hell and "the devil would rip our balls off" in a man's case, or in females other words were used," he said.
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  NAVYTOWN

  That group is definitely a clone of the Watchtower. Their doctrines seem to be almost identical. Beware of ANYONE who says 'The End is Near'. Also run from any group that says 'Work for us, for FREE, and you will be saved'. Hard to believe the Witnesses fall for it hook, line & sinker.