also:
What evidence is there that Jews for Jesus is an abusive organization?
Evidence that Jews for Jesus is an abusive organization comes from the following policies and patterns that have been documented during the history of this group.
- Pain training (the practice of physically striking employees to "prepare" them for possible violence against them during street evangelism).
- Creating a direct connection between workaholism and spirituality .
- Financial penalties ("fines") for tardiness and other "infractions."
- Rigid restrictions on personal life. For example, permission is needed before a missionary can date or get married .
- Repeated patterns of extremely inappropriate discussions between the former executive director and individual missionaries regarding sex, marriage, and other highly personal matters.
- Repeated patterns of raging and intense ange r (including the throwing of physical objects and physical assaults) on the part of the former executive director.
- Shunning of former members. This includes various levels of "cutting off" communication with these former members, which have ranged from a complete prohibition against communicating with the person to less extreme forms of cut-off. Often rumors were spread about former members to damage their reputation.
While many of these practices were associated primarily with the former executive director and founder of the organization, several facts would suggest that the JFJ has not renounced its abusive behavior toward its employees: First, the founder of JFJ, while no longer the executive director of the organization, continues to sit on the Board of Directors (he has a "lifetime" seat on the board) and influence decision making and policy formation. Second, the organization has never renounced its abusive behavior of the past. Third, evidence of continuing inappropriate behavior toward its employees is still evident in JFJ.
What happens to former Jews for Jesus staff?
Former staff members of Jews for Jesus have had a wide range of experiences after leaving the organization. Some have returned to mainstream Judaism. Others have renounced any religious affiliation. Most have remained believers in Jesus and have chosen either to pursue "secular" employment or to remain in Christian ministry with a different organization. Very few of the "leavers" have written publicly about their experiences. Several stories of those who have written about Jews for Jesus have been collected on the Ex-Jews for Jesus website.
from freedomofmind.com:
Read Steve Hassan's response to the above Boston Globe article which misquoted him giving J4J a clean bill of health. According to Hassan: "Sara [the Globe writer] created the false impression that, as a cult expert, I give Jews for Jesus a "clean bill of health." I certainly do not. I told her that I did have evidence that Jews for Jesus was a destructive cult and told her about the book, Hawking God by Ellen Kamentsky. I told her that Ellen lived in the Boston area, and encouraged her to speak with her. I told Neufeld that I found Kamentsky's account highly credible when she described her time in the group as a destructive cult. I also went on to say that I have yet to meet others like Ellen who could confirm that her experiences were representative of being involved with Jews for Jesus, rather than an isolated case- and therefore I was reluctant to categorize them definitively as a destructive cult. I did say that I thought Jews for Jesus was very deceptive, and that they made it sound like it was primarily Jews in the organization, when "they were mostly Baptists". I also told her, that as a Jew that theologically, it is impossible to be a Jew and Christian simultaneously, citing as just one example the Christian doctrine of original sin- which contradicts the Jewish belief that a baby is born without sin. There are many other fundamental conflicts."