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Author Topic: How False Shepherds View Their People  (Read 5866 times)
Janet Easson Martin
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« on: July 25, 2018, 04:18:25 pm »

How FALSE Shepherds View Their People

A Look At GCC SHEPHERDS BIG and SMALL


It is clear from the chilling response of numerous GCC leaders to multiple allegations of extremely inappropriate behavior of a sexual nature by one of their own as to how they view their people. They cared much about the reputation of the leaders and little of their people ravaged and abandoned.  No sincere or remorseful apology of sickly perverted "pastor" abuse was given to the victims by the leaders involved (to my knowledge).  Good Shepherds do not feed on or attack their sheep for their own benefit, but wolves do.  And those who cover it do not stay in authority in healthy churches and organizations.  

Don't be fooled by GCC's National Board.  They are abdicating biblical mandates to remove these leaders. Those who brag on seeing and knowing the sins of others surely saw or heard about these issues because their people's spiritual status is increased by reporting and rebuking others, and they were set up to OVERSEE the churches under it.  What are they overseeing!  Surely not the character as the Word of God commands of Good Shepherds.  They are self-serving watchmen.  The GCC Board has heard complaints and excuses them away; and can read the posts written here for years alleging ungodly actions of churches "under" them and really done nothing.  Why?  Because they also were under the same discipleship and influence of Jim McCotter that the men in question were.  McCotter used to act as overseer of all the GCC (GCx) churches (no matter what they "officially" report).  

These GCC NATIONAL BOARD leaders have also controlled their flocks with twisted teachings and harsh suppression of sincere criticism by slandering those brave enough to voice complaints..  In the same way that Suzanne (and others who were pervertedly "counseled") voiced her victimization and was attacked with slanderous reports when she was absent to defend herself.  They talk about all the work they have to do for damage control instead of taking truly godly action to make things right.  Damage control for them is usually minimizing the serious abuses and painting their organization with another new image.  They are FAR from ignorant!  Two of these highly acclaimed leaders were directly involved in the cover-up and remained National Leaders until the multiple allegations of sexual misconduct went on Local (and national) Television News. They have worked in and among these men for decades.  They are very familiar with them.  They are not as separate as they may describe in their PR stunts.

These women and others abused are people who attend/attended their churches, who trust/trusted their so-called "spiritual" authority, who honor/honored them financially, who often alter/altered their lives to accommodate leaders' whims (to build up the groups' reputation and status).  They are/were too often used for the leaders' profit.  These types of leaders are not serving under a divine call.  They are false, God's Word tells us.

The other evening I watched a movie about a people harassed, shamed, guilted, divided and shunned into obedience.  As was no surprise, this sect also followed a code of dress strange to most of us.  They were required many things in the name of God.  Perhaps, little did the people know that God The Father is nothing like their prideful, insensitive, harmful leader.  To their understanding, following their "codes" or what the leader declared their codes was equal to following God.  They were a very isolated people, including from their family members who left the sect.  This has been the MO of GCC/GCx churches for decades though the language is more subtle.

When we see such examples shown in strange clothing and hair and sometimes strange accents, it is easier to identify their abherant teaching and thinking.  But, when strange and abherant teaching is dressed in more acceptable clothes, hair, and dialect and peppered with "showing devotion toward God", we might just be blindsided.  We likely haven't been exposed to much healthy Christianity.  Perhaps we are even relieved we don't have to figure out a God we can't see to find out what he is like and what expects from us.  There is someone who says he knows him much better than us and he'll teach what God is like and wants from us.  Because we don't know the Bible well enough yet, we don't realize how out of context the applications are for the "truths" he instructs us in.  We don't see yet how these lessons imprison and subjugate us than free and empower us.  We even start to believe we deserve the haughty scornful tone in which we are addressed.

If this weren't a reality it would make good fiction because you desperately want the scammed people to leave and be free.  You are rooting for them to open their eyes and claim their OWN God given futures, not the ones the sect has planned for them, mostly to bolster the groups' existence and importance; not really to empower and care for the lives of the actual people they are "guiding".  Their view of the people is that they are there to serve them, to exult and protect them, to honor their edicts, and to blindly follow their plans to build up their status and reputation, and they too claim it is in honor of God.

These movies are sometimes God's way of speaking to us, even a vision of what we are/have been in.  The leaders seem to think and act as if the people are powerless to follow the guiding of the Holy Spirit, to make their own decisions about crucial life plans, and to stay away from sin.  The False leaders are gravely blind and deaf to God's people's divine beauty, their innate value, their heavenly gifts, their spiritual power, their majestic authority, their wisdom, and especially their tenderness of heart.  They are often viewed as "dumb sheep" as some GCC leaders have taught rather than as the capable sheep that God has made them.  These are not divinely led Shepherds.  They are False, and are pretending to carry God's authority.

I think this most recent example of how a group of local GCC leaders and National Board leaders have been scarily silent, intimidating victims, and preaching compassion toward the perpetrator rather than the victims reveals how far off they are from the actual Bible they claim to follow, and how little they truly follow the model of Jesus in CARING FOR AND PROTECTING HIS SHEEP!


« Last Edit: July 29, 2018, 07:00:08 pm by Janet Easson Martin » Logged

For grace is given not because we have done good works, but in order that we may be able to do them.        - Saint Augustine
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« Reply #1 on: July 25, 2018, 09:23:28 pm »

What movie did you feel like God was speaking to you?
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OneOfMany
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« Reply #2 on: July 26, 2018, 04:16:02 am »

What movie did you feel like God was speaking to you?

The movie mentioned never said that Good spoke to them through it.

You are new, ask questions, expose someone by name on the forum, and now you start to use verbage to create conflict. Sigh. This has become a pattern with new people who are here to troll the forum. If you are a troll I am calling you out now. If you are having communication difficulties then step back, read the rules of the forum, and tell us why you are here? If you have questions all you need to do is read what is already posted on the forum.
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Janet Easson Martin
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« Reply #3 on: July 26, 2018, 06:21:21 am »

These movies are sometimes God's way of speaking to us, even a vision of what we are/have been in.  

This a link to a post written some time ago, but is still applies today to the GCC/GCx organization.  The excerpt from it below is an example of an analogy from a movie that is helpful in understanding the impact of very manipulative and controlling leadership.

{Trouble with the link so I will copy the whole as an additional post.}

"There is an appropriate but horrifying film depiction of what captive manipulation and abusive doctrine by leaders over a group of people produces. The devastation shown may seem farfetched, but it is probably a realistic analogy to the cruel outcome of such methods.  It paints the effects of oppressing, humiliating, and terrorizing followers into submission.  It is not a movie that children should watch.  I would even advise others not to watch it alone but with a trusted friend or group.  Its content is very heavy.  It would be very useful to discuss it in a group afterward to process all that’s going on.  You can get it from NETFLIX.  It is entitled “The Village”."
« Last Edit: July 26, 2018, 06:51:21 am by Janet Easson Martin » Logged

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Janet Easson Martin
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« Reply #4 on: July 26, 2018, 06:34:34 am »

This is in response to many of the spiritually wounded bloggers posting here on this site and to those who try to silence them.


Let the People Speak!

Often, it seems God applies the balm of his word to a wound or difficulty, precisely at the point where the trouble is occurring in our lives.  This may include claiming by faith an application of scripture other than the specific original intention, though it is in line with scripture as a whole.  For instance in Isaiah 43:19b it says “I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.”  Although it seems God is telling the Israelites he will rescue them from Babylon by a way they have not known, where it appears hopeless & impossible, we can apply it to our own deserts and wastelands.

Today as I read Isaiah 41:1 I felt God was addressing those “Christian" groups, and specifically GCx, who are independent and isolated as “islands” and in constant defense of their harmful ways.

“Be silent before me, you islands!

Let the nations renew their strength!
Let them come forward and speak…”


I felt perhaps these are the church groups who have isolated themselves from the rest of the body of Christ, even though they profess that they do not.  Most of us are familiar with “christian” groups like this.  No one who would disturb their traditions is allowed in; and no one who wants to be accepted by them is allowed out.  We have an island near us that has been so isolated (by water) that some of the people still speak a dialect that remains from Elizabethan English.  There are some groups with similar characteristics that pride themselves on their “godliness” and separatism.  Their methods of godliness are actually condemned by the Word of God, but they are unfortunately blind to this. Most practice some form of shunning to those who leave their group. This is man’s way of keeping their group in existence.  And, of course, they offer a “better” way to bid people to join with them.  They go so far as to publicly pronounce judgments on others who are not as "conforming to the Bible" as they are.  

These groups seem to not only isolate themselves from the general body of Christ, but in the process isolate themselves from the Head of the Body which is Christ.  I don’t mean they are no longer saved.  I mean they no longer follow Christ’s lead, but their own man-made traditions.  They have actually turned away from their Savior’s directing them, to treasured idols directing them, idols of their own making. But the deceiver has blinded them, and they cannot see this.  

Another characteristic is that those who are part of their group are not allowed to share their true heart, or follow God’s individual desires for them unless they fit into the goals of the group.  They must conform or be looked down upon.  They definitely cannot question the validity of the group’s traditions.  And so like the animal that falls into the pit on the Sabbath, they are left alone to suffer.  After all, the RULES are greater than the men they are supposed to help.  These Rules make up their idol which they serve. The people become weary, burdened and depressed, but are afraid to be labeled “ungodly”, and so they suffer under the weight of the idol in SILENCE!

Who will help them?

These beloved people need a place to SPEAK, to have their voice heard; to have their heart listened to.  The GCx Forum Warning website is one place. Although, even there, the GCx defenders try to HUSH them.

I felt reading today that God was rebuking Gcx to ‘Be Quiet’ and ‘Let the people come forward and SPEAK’.  The verbalizing of abuse is the first step to HEALING: having a voice and relieving the pain, receiving help, and renewing one’s strength.  This may not be the specific original intention of this scripture, but I felt it was APPLICABLE to the bold intimidation by GCx in attempt to “mute” testimony of its abusive false dogma and practices taught as “truth” from scripture.

There is an appropriate but horrifying film depiction of what captive manipulation and abusive doctrine by leaders over a group of people produces. The devastation shown may seem farfetched, but it is probably a realistic analogy to the cruel outcome of such methods.  It paints the effects of oppressing, humiliating, and terrorizing followers into submission.  It is not a movie that children should watch.  I would even advise others not to watch it alone but with a trusted friend or group. Its content is very heavy.  It would be very useful to discuss it in a group afterward to process all that’s going on. You can get it from NETFLIX.  It is entitled “The Village”.
« Last Edit: July 26, 2018, 02:43:26 pm by Janet Easson Martin » Logged

For grace is given not because we have done good works, but in order that we may be able to do them.        - Saint Augustine
Janet Easson Martin
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« Reply #5 on: July 28, 2018, 04:49:07 pm »

This deception and harsh treatment toward those outside their inner power circles is subtly evident in their recent disingenuous Apology Letter (posted July 23, 2018) posted on their church websites. 

If you are interested, I will write my perspective toward this heartless and cowardly document on the "Apology Letter Posted" Topic under the General Discussion Section.

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For grace is given not because we have done good works, but in order that we may be able to do them.        - Saint Augustine
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« Reply #6 on: July 28, 2018, 05:17:56 pm »

This deception and harsh treatment toward those outside their inner power circles is subtly evident in their recent disingenuous Apology Letter (posted July 23, 2018) posted on their church websites. 

If you are interested, I will write my perspective toward this heartless and cowardly document on the "Apology Letter Posted" Topic under the General Discussion Section.



I am interested
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Lost Creature
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« Reply #7 on: December 02, 2018, 01:44:06 pm »


There is an appropriate but horrifying film depiction of what captive manipulation and abusive doctrine by leaders over a group of people produces. The devastation shown may seem farfetched, but it is probably a realistic analogy to the cruel outcome of such methods.  It paints the effects of oppressing, humiliating, and terrorizing followers into submission.  It is not a movie that children should watch.  I would even advise others not to watch it alone but with a trusted friend or group. Its content is very heavy.  It would be very useful to discuss it in a group afterward to process all that’s going on. You can get it from NETFLIX.  It is entitled “The Village”.

Seriously? M. Night Shyamalan's, The Village?

Now, if you had said, "The Master," or "Spotlight," or even "Children of the Corn," I would've agreed.

But, The Village?
Yes, it asks the question about the true cost of living in a bubble culture (which GCX has been accused of).
Yes, it asks the question about leaders who are hiding the truth in order to protect "innocence."
But where is the horrifying manipulation and the abusive doctrine?

The Village isn't a horror film (though, it was advertised as such). It's more of a romantic period piece...with monsters...
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