Could It Be Brainwashing?

Welcome to De-Commissioned, a place for former members of the Great Commission movement (aka GCM, GCC, GCAC, GCI, the Blitz) to discuss problems they've experienced in the association's practices and theology.

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[Janet Easson Martin]

...I started listening to some GCM sermons again, errrr, I mean GCC sermons.  Anyway, I just have to tell you my husband thought it was one pastor because of the cadence and tone, but it turned out to be his clone underling!  The imitation is unbelievable!  And of course, they figured out a way to get in the idea that there is an authority structure that we have to place ourselves under!  Sigh.  Don't they get tired of that sermon?  And only two verses.  And a whole lot of words. I know for a fact that people are aching for deeper learning, deeper conversations.

I guess occasionally I just need to remind myself that it really was brainwashing and group think.  And in looking back at my life and that big 8 year span of GCx, I am so glad that one day I decided to look up information and research it.
-AgathaL’Orange


They found the most likely group to be brainwashed.  The target group for their new pyramid scheme was 18 year old kids who were lonely freshmen in college.  Most of these kids had recently left their homes for the first time.  They were looking for some way to fit in with something at school. If you get 1% of the new students at a college with 20,000 students you now have 200 kids to use to recruit other kids. McCotter and crew made it seem like a good Christian youth group…with some cruel selfish twists…very clever.

Bible passages were interpreted to say that everyone had a responsibility to report members of the church who talked about disagreeing with the “McCotter Doctrine”. ... Everyone was supposed to spy on everyone.  That way anyone who would question the twisted teachings would be met with a penalty.  If a person did not “submit” to the church leaders, they would be excommunicated or shunned.  This penalty helped control the flock.

The methods used by McCotter are still used today. Parts of the Bible that go against GC teachings are Omitted (Great Omisson) from teachings by leaders.  Nobody in the GC is allowed to question what the leaders say or do.

The GC gives power to only those who blindly follow the "doctrine" and suck up to the leaders. ... These guys are like parrots who simply repeat the same things they hear in the GC leadership brainwashing sessions. The whole thing is wrong on so many levels.
-Neverbeengcm,  2012


...what I heard from McCotter was stern, implicating and even threatening teachings that followed the pattern of IDEALIZE - DEVALUE - DISCARD.  I never heard in my more than 10 years there between 1980 and 1991 from anyone inside this organization the truth that our thought patterns were repeatedly and deceptively trained to devalue and discard ANY opinion conflicting with McCotter and the GCx elders under him.
-Janet


This narrative open letter from my husband and I is a depiction of a bona fide concern about the Evergreen Community Church System, or “ECCS” as we call it. Many of us were taken advantage [of] by psychological manipulation, ... [3 GCx Leaders named]. And that we cannot, in good-conscience and in good-faithstand back and allow these wrongdoings to continue and let the same events happen to others in a community of good people we love so much.
-Anonamous X

[Janet Easson Martin]

Forgiving oneself seems like the hardest part. The thing that haunts me the most is how much I blindly led others in and into the GCM cult. I truly thought I was doing what God called me to do at that time, in those moments, but in the years since leaving have I only been able to see that I was regurgitating what they told me because the leadership was SO overpowering, it was hard to distinguish between the cult and God. And thus, the guilt of leading others astray in and into the cult breaks my heart.
-EscapeFromGCM2013



…I started to see the horrible "group think" that was at work. …

During that time I prayed, journaled, and kept to myself. This is where I first heard the "voices" in my head, not quoting scripture, but telling me what the scriptures meant.  These voices were all the teaching, all the conditioning, all the pressure, all the group think.  Only in solitude could I hear what I was thinking... and I didn't like it.

After this it took years of un-learning the GC ways of thinking. Then came the years of learning the real God given freedom in Christ.

 … I realize that I was persuaded against my will by the authoritarian teachings of the leaders in Ames [GCx Church].  I have been very angry about that for years.
-lone gone

[Janet Easson Martin]

Don’t know if this article on the GCx Campus Group at UNO has been cited here. They are connected with Candlewood [GCx] Church. Though it is from 2018, I felt it was from the same old GCx days with its restrictions. Here are a couple of brief excerpts.


“It’s not a physical threat, but I know from personal experience how much [The Rock] can damage someone emotionally and psychologically and the significant impact it can have on a student’s college experience,”

. . . “This was a new rule from last year—that you cannot text a member of the opposite sex for anything other than directions, so no personal stuff or deeper issues,”

-Kaitlin Epperly,   2018, The Gateway (Student Paper) University of Nebraska Omaha



Student raises concerns of campus religious group - The Gateway UNO

https://www.unothegateway.com/student-raises-concerns-campus-religious-group/

[Janet Easson Martin]

Out of curiosity I searched “GCM cult” on YouTube this evening and surprisingly came across this video. Though others may have seen it, somehow I missed this YouTube video about GCx. Guessing it was referenced on this site previously, but some of us might have missed it. Jason Oakes explains the mind control in plain terms and examples from Reliant/GCM/GCC. He has a good handle on the simple tricks played by those using mind control including a response back from GCx leadership to him arguing against his simply laid out evidence. He emphasizes that he considers GCx a cult based on their practices, not their doctrine. In another of his three videos on GCC [GCx] he reads the complaint letter to him from GCx which qualifies the mind control methods they are using. He feels a responsibility to expose cultic/brainwashing patterns used by churches.

What Does Reliant Mission (Great Commission Churches) Believe?

https://youtu.be/Kmt_yqtjk4I