Non-Believer Former Members of the Worldwide Church of God

Hello,

My name is Mike. I was born in 1977 in Elizabeth NJ. At less than six weeks old, I was removed from my parents care by the State of New Jersey, Division of Youth and Family Services (DYFS) because I was mysteriously injured and they suspected child abuse. I was severely burned on my right leg and nobody had any logical explanation as to the cause of the injury. My father was at work when this happened, and my mother changed her story numerous times. Upon the conclusion of the State investigation, they found deplorable conditions and placed me in foster care.

I lived with a foster family until the age of 5, and then I was returned to my parents care. I was really too young to understand all of this at the time, but I was a fairly intelligent child, and understood it perhaps better than the average 5 year old, eventually realizing that my foster parents weren’t my parents and I had to return to my real parents.

My parents were members of the WCG. I don’t believe they were members at the time of my injury, but became members after the incident. I remember attending the Union, NJ congregation at first. It was quite a significant change in my life to no longer celebrate my birthday, Christmas and Easter. I was told that my foster parents were worldly and were going to go to hell, and that we were God’s people and this was the proper way to live.

Less than a year later, we moved and started attending a congregation in Bethlehem, PA, closer to our new home. It was here where I had spent most of my time as a WCG child and have my most memories. At first, I recall hating going to church every Saturday at this young age. It seemed like the two hour services lasted forever and they were totally boring. However as time went on, I like everyone else who was brainwashed and manipulated by this corrupted cult, started to buy into the teachings somewhat and believed what I was being told.

My father was extremely physically abusive. His excuses for his excessive beatings were always covered with church related answers. It was well known by the congregation that he was excessively abusive. A lot of the members were actually good people and would sometimes comment to him about it. The minister, however, did nothing about it and even seemed to support it.

My parents eventually separated and divorced. My mother stopped attending immediately upon separating. I lived with my father, and we still attended the WCG. He was abusive the whole time, and continued to claim it was acceptable and righteous to beat your children. I once went to school with my ass so sore that it hurt to even sit down. A teacher reported this to their superiors, who in turn investigated the incident. My father’s reply was, “spare the rod and spoil the child, it says it right in the Bible,” (if that makes any sense), and that it was his religious practice and belief to spank his child. He even asked for and received a letter from the minister of the congregation stating spanking your child is appropriate and godly. This was right around the time HWA was replaced by Tkach.

I eventually went back into foster care because of my father’s excessive abuse, and therefore no longer had to attend the WCG. I was glad I could stop attending and welcomed the change and new found freedom I had. My overall impression of the WCG to this very day is of an organization that my father hid behind to get away with his abuse for as long as he possibly could. He was also quite cheap and thrifty, so not celebrating holidays fit perfectly into his budgeting. I didn’t receive gifts during our Feast of Tabernacles, so I totally dreaded this annual celebration of daily sermons. Once a week was more than enough for me as it was.

I didn’t speak to my father very often after my second and final time being removed from his care, but I recall him once telling me during a mandatory visitation that the Tkach regime had become possessed by the devil, and that God’s real people now attend the PCG. I didn’t understand or care what it was all about, and payed no further mind to it. He eventually stopped attending completely. I later in my life figured out that he gave up on the church during all the post HWA dividing and splintering.

Although my WCG experience wasn’t as long as others, it was still an integral part of my childhood for nearly 5 years. I can only imagine what it must of been like to experience an entire childhood of it, and for others even to carry it into their adult lives. I will say that I found most members to be good people, and upon looking back, it saddens me that so many of them were influenced and controlled by this organization.

Over the years, I never thought about or cared anything for the WCG. I totally distanced it and religion in general from my life. I became and still am to this day an atheist, because of my childhood experience with the WCG and it leaving such a bitter scar on me. If this was how church was, I didn’t want anything to do with it or any other religion at all.

I only recently discovered all the events that happened to the WCG after the Tkach era started implementing changes in the doctrine. As I became increasingly curious, I started to read more about the changes implemented and all the splinter groups and dividing that would occur. I was so shocked to learn of this, considering the WCG I had knew of and what a difference it had become. Wow, I would have never imagined! I’m still totally dumbfounded by it all weeks later. Looking at the situation from the perspective or a former insider turned outsider, it is blatantly obvious that Tkach is a corrupt thief who imposed whatever he deemed profitable. It also became obvious that the whole church in general was comprised of evil, money hungry crooks making a lavish living in the name of God.

I also learned that a larger spin off named UCG eventually formed after the Tkach administration deemed it acceptable to observe the Sabbath on Sunday (the sabbath on Sunday…what?!…how could this be? This wasn’t the WCG I knew.) This group comprised of a board of elders, one of whom would eventually be in charge of the whole operation (Pastor General or something like that.) He was the minister of the Bethlehem, PA congregation that I attended as a child. This was also the man who approved of my fathers abuse, and wrote letters defending it. Upon reading this, it burned me up to think that this same man eventually was the leader of a global organization claiming to be God’s true people. What a shame.

I am now 31 years old. I lead a happy life for myself despite the odds against me from my non-traditional upbringing. I became a successful person without any form of god in my life. I am gainfully employed and happy. I am still single and would like to meet a nice woman soon and start a family.

In closing, it was great for me to see stories of others who endured WCG childhood experiences and emotionally healthy for me to share mine. I also wanted to express the shock I strangely felt upon recently learning of all the post HWA changes that occurred to the WCG. Thank you all for listening and I wish all of you the best.

Mike, Linden NJ

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 14th, 2008 at 6:44 pm and is filed under Personal Story. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site. Your comments must be approved by the moderator before they will appear.