Cultish Religious Groups on College Campuses Including GCx Formed Groups

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[Janet Easson Martin]

These alarming articles could have been written about GCx Formed Groups. They and Bible-based groups like them are souring the gospel. They are bringing shame to the name of Jesus. So much so that they may make it difficult for healthy Christian groups to reach out and share the truly good news of grace in Christ with college students on campus. Dependently abiding in Jesus does not produce this sour fruit. The excerpts and links to full articles are below (all emphasis mine):



The callers were parents of UIC students with a distressing situation in common: they said their children had been recruited by religious cults on campus and were at various stages of indoctrination. They wanted to know what legal action the university was planning to take, and when. …  two of the cases reported to his office deal specifically with University Bible Fellowship, an organization based in the campus neighborhood. The third student became involved with a Chicago fundamentalist church. … University Bible Fellowship is known by UIC students for its passive/aggressive recruiting techniques in and around Circle Center.

…cult specialist Ronald Enroth, author of six books on North American cults, reports that "UBF is part of a new wave of authoritarian mind control groups quickly replacing traditional youth groups like the Hare Krishnas and the Moonies."

Marty Butz of Chicago's Cult Awareness Hotline verified reports that University Bible Fellowship's leadership has required arranged marriages, forced alienation from families and excessive tithing from its members.

"UBF has no formal affiliation with UIC," says Ginsburg. "But by calling themselves University Bible Fellowship and recruiting at Circle Center with their invitations to Bible study, they create the impression that they are affiliated with the university." Located in a building just one block from the east side of campus, University Bible Fellowship has long been one of the most active cults at UIC.

In 1985, University Bible Fellowship lost its organizational status at UIC when its campus adviser resigned, saying the group had misrepresented itself.

-Daniel Buckman, University of Illinois News/December 1, 1993
UIC worries about cult recruitment; three cases this fall
https://culteducation.com/group/1207-university-bible-fellowship/21101-uic-worries-about-cult-recruitment-three-cases-this-fall.html



Campus police should be informed about the nature of cults and their techniques for recruiting students, so they may assist in preventing and intervening to protect students from the harm caused by cults. …

Cults, which are sometimes masked as respectable religious groups, recruit heavily on college campuses. They harm students by disrupting their education, careers, friendships, and family ties. … The International Cult Education Program (ICEP) educates college staff and students about cults and psychological manipulation. It provides speakers and educational materials to inform persons about the dangers and techniques of cults. The ICEP also assists in handling specific cult problems through the use of mental health professionals skilled in counseling cult members, potential recruits, and the families and friends of cult members. Campus police can be instrumental in working with the college administration to use the ICEP in campus educational programs and interventions designed to undermine the influence of cults on campus.

-Cults Still Recruit on Campuses, Journal Campus Law Enforcement, Journal Volume: 19 Issue: 4 Dated: (July-August 1989) Pages: 36, Editor(s) P J Berry, Date Published 1989
National Institute of Justice/ AddressBox 6000, Dept F, Rockville, MD 20849, United States

[Janet Easson Martin]

I have read the rules for the U of FL student organizations. They require that the officers in the organization be full time students. I could find nothing about the qualifications of the people attending the meetings (didn't look that hard though). What the rules state is that those leading the group must be full time, in person (not correspondence classes) students. Period.

What that tells me is that GCL is allowed to meet on the campus for their stated purpose, so long as the organization is governed (plans, money decisions) by full time students selected according to the rules set forth in the bylaws (which are required by the U of FL for all student organizations) of said organization. If outside people are making decisions for the student group and not the officers of the student group, then they are misrepresenting the group. This is not a student group, this is a church misrepresenting themselves as a student group. It's called lying.

-Linda

[Janet Easson Martin]

Having myself worked with university staff on student organizational matters…

GC, as a denomination, may preach the gospel of Christ, but it fails to live the gospel of Christ.  The leaders are not self-sacrificing toward the flock, they are not humble servants of the flock, and they teach Christian men how to twist the Word of God and to lie without feeling guilty.  These are harmful behaviors.  This is not an ordinary church, for it is extraordinarily ingorant of how to do the Word, how to love, and of what servant leadership is all about. …

Pretending that we are a group of students who happened to discover each other while on campus and now desire a campus room for some Sunday morning fellowship, when in truth we are already an entire church from the off-campus community whose pastors have ordered us to acquire a campus room and not to divulge that there is this church tie, that sir, that is deception and not wisdom.

And that is the difference between Campus Crusade establishing a student organization and GC.  Campus Crusade brings its folks on campus, recruits a team of students, and the students establish a student organization, all the while telling the university, "this organization is sponsored by the national organization known as Campus Crusade."  Honesty.  GC came and pretended its church IS the student organization and tried to hide the name of the real church and the name of the denomination it was connected to.  Deception.

-ANobody

[Janet Easson Martin]

…they try to bring in people during their young years, college years, when people are more open to change and are often more easily manipulated. They hope you stay for life, being controlled by them and giving them as much of your income as possible. They are after control and money and will disguise it as church from God. They damaged both of our lives. Solid Rock in Columbus Ohio at the OSU campus. They are snakes disguised as servants of God. They do some good things but that's how much more dangerous they are cause even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Those who stay are truly brainwashed and generally don't know it.

-Therese,   2023


I am current[ly] in college and here we have a student chapter of the GC*, The Rock. Of course this student chapter, has a church attached to it, which I attended with a friend for about 3 months. … In my brief time with the church, and in the last 1.5 years since I left, I have become more and more aware of the church's dubious actions. …

There are two things that particularly bother me. The first is their recruitment tactic at the university. It starts with innocent activities, capture the flag, movie night, ect. You meet lots of "friendly people". Then all of a sudden you are asked to go to their church, pray with them, and so on. … The second is my friend. I really care about her, and it kills me to see her still involved and sucked in. However I know that no matter how many statistics or arguments I get together, I won't be able to get her to change her mind or leave, it is far deeper than that. …what I have seen is manipulation. I'm not the only one that feels that way, other frequently make fun of the group, calling it a cult.

-Tyrael,   2010

[Janet Easson Martin]

…problem I had was the fact that while most of the congregation are college age, relatively few attend college.  I have to admit, they're getting better about it, but I feel like they're all constantly on the verge of dropping out.  For a while there it was pretty bad, the young men in the group kept dropping out and jumping from job to job.  They seem to be headed in the education route for now, but it's all temporary, which leads into a third frustrating thing.  My friends came from a wide range of backgrounds, and, as far as I could tell, had a wide range of goals in mind.  All of a sudden, they're all feeling the call to church plant.  Which is why all the educational goals are short-lived, because they'll be headed to Lawrence, KS (another nearby college town) or Wichita, KS within the next two years to plant churches there.  There really isn't much room within the church for any dreams or goals other than to spread Great Commission churches.

-ResistingTheResistance,   2010



In the 70's in Solid Rock, things were kept in house as much as possible.  I recall an expose written in the Ohio State University Newspaper, the Lantern, in which a Solid Rock spokesman downright lied.  He stated that "disciples" were not encouraged to drop out of college by members of then, Solid Rock.  I assure you, from personal experience, that is/was a lie.  I lost two years of college time because of these idiots, and my being gullible.

It really doesn't look like the self righteous have changed - the movement has simply taken on an older, more mature, public relations face.

-pvitartas

[Janet Easson Martin]

WCCC [GCx Walnut Creek Community Church] was always preached as being superior to all other churches, so there's no reason to leave unless you have become ensnared by sin in your life. ... I remember being part of Drake's CF [Campus Fellowship]/WCCC when many older members were leaving en masse, and one of the leaders got up during a prayer night and announced that the exits were God's way of purifying our group. The implication was that these people were the dross and we were the silver. Any outside criticism just serves to unify the remaining members. There's a sense of pride in staying when everyone else is coming to their senses and quitting because you feel like you're really committed to suffering for the gospel. The more time that I spend away from the church the more I can see what a dangerous mind-controlling organization it is.

-GB,   2013

[margaret]

I can relate to GB's account, and would like to add to it. 

 "There's a sense of pride in staying when everyone else is coming to their senses and quitting..."

There's also a very real FEAR if one decides to leave, because they have seen how the departed are viewed. They would be inviting shunning as well as being preached against from the 'pulpit'.  The mind games are pervasive and insidious.

And because of the pressure to attend ALL the meetings (and receiving both overt and covert disapproval for NOT doing so), members have limited their friend groups to only church members.  To leave would mean losing all your friends and being alone.  Many of the core members were sucked in to this organization because of deep-seated needs of belonging and acceptance, and the threat of losing this feeling of belonging to a family is very real. So many stay in much longer than they'd like.

[Janet Easson Martin]

Yes, fear was a very real motivator in so many of our thoughts and actions under GCx leadership, Margaret. I also was persuaded in my choices by it there. Had I not had a sibling who left GCx before I did, I may have remained much longer. As a single, my main contact with those outside GCx was my work. God so faithfully brought several different believers in my path at my job. That did assist me in making the break. I hadn’t thought about that until you mentioned the isolation today.

Perhaps if I had been married with children I wouldn’t have had as much input and exposure to those outside GCx.  I, like many, also spent limited time with my family due the ridiculous time commitments and the teaching of discouragement of any “investment” relationships outside GCx. Toward the end, I found a close friend in GCx who was questioning its methods and we church-shopped together as a way out.

I personally presume that since McCotter initiated most of these false and harmful ideas purported as biblical (with twisted scripture) in GCx; it is highly probable that he intentionally used fear and lies to manipulate people both to join and to stay. How NOT Christ-like! Only wolves secure their own following through slandering other believers and spreading false fear about what God requires. Margaret, you described the pervasive fear there well —INSIDIOUS!

Intentionally adding to scripture is a VERY serious matter of which one should truly be AFRAID. Shunning those who innocently leave your church is sinfully judging them and is a form of cruel bullying.

So many stay in much longer than they’d like.
-Margaret

This is sooo sadly the case. So many on here have said so. I stayed 5 years longer than I wanted to be there. Staying in a church system we don’t even really like (when it’s supposed to be voluntary) is painfully sad. It is not a lifelong covenant like marriage as many GCx leaders teach. Nor is there only one church group that is better or superior to others so one must only join and stay at it. The Bible does not support these “doctrines” (beliefs) of GCx.

[Janet Easson Martin]

GCM [GCx alias] targets scared freshman. I know that's how I was initially sucked in. ... I was encouraged to change my major to be able to "share christ with others." ... GCM's practice of moving people into leadership is irresponsible.  I was "promoted" to leadership of a small group 3 months after being "saved." I can't imagine what damage I inflicted to others. This guilt torments me still today. I attended LT and conferences, etc. and conformed to fit the picture they painted, I was still not equipped to be a spiritual leader in the lives of my peers. …

Thankfully, many people I know are working hard, like me, to recover from a cult that stole our twenties from us. Do I have responsibility? Yes. But I also know that I was taken advantage of, brain-washed and bullied into a legalistic system that haunts me still today.

-amyk

[Janet Easson Martin]

I know that Grace (at North Carolina state headed by Berk Wilson and Ed Russ) have joined Reliant, which looks to me like a GCX rebrand. Same language but makes them harder to google when nervous parents have questions. I’m just not sure [these] folks are going away.

-lovebombed,   2020

[Janet Easson Martin]

This post very sadly reveals the cult control of “GCx” church leaders in what seems to be most of their officially or unofficially linked churches/campus groups:


Until I came across this site, I had all but forgotten so much of the crushing control that GCI [GCx alias] had exercised over our lives. … And that is the essence of "lording it over the flock" and legalism. …

"Are you too good to eat the food the community is eating?"  "You have a rebellious heart."  "You are stiff necked."  "I would never call you a fool, but these Proverbs do."  And so it continued... At the last of these camping retreats that we ever attended, one elder gave a teaching that culminated in telling us all to pledge (vow, make an oath) that we would be committed to, and reside with, this assembly for the rest of our lives. …

"What seems to be the problem?  Why can you not commit to be a part of the body of Christ?" 

"I am a member of the body of Christ.  Don't you think that any of us will ever leave for employment, to become missionaries, or to get married?"

"That's my whole point!  The church will send you on your mission.  The church will guide you to proper employment.  The single men will only marry inside the church.  So, no, I cannot think of any reason when I would intentionally leave this assembly."

-EverAStudent