Almost Succered into a Cult

[Sonic]

Hi,

I think I almost got suckered into a cult. I could just be scared, but this was really weird. I had joined a message board that claimed to be a non-denominational website for artists. At first, the website seemed to be a social group, and I was invited to become a moderator. After some time, I became leery when the groups leaders were talking about turning the club into a ministry… and were even talking about getting us to raise money. They led me on for a long time about being open and ecumenical… and the whole website was supposed to be about helping bring God to artists. The bad part is I unwittingly helped build the website and helped run the support forum.

I broke away from them tonight.

Is there any advice you can give me about what I should do next? I didn’t even know they were like this? It just sort of come out all of a sudden. I’m Catholic and will remain so. I was asked to join under false pretenses.

 

[Trishie]

I’m glad you escaped!
You can’t hold yourself responsible to anything you did to aid set-up of this Forum as you were unaare of the deceit.
I hope someone will advise you if there’s any way to protect others from being drawn into this cult,
but all I can do is pray for anyone who may be in danger of being drawn in and led astray.

 

[CB_Catholic]

Hi,

I think I almost got suckered into a cult. I could just be scared, but this was really weird. I had joined a message board that claimed to be a non-denominational website for artists. At first, the website seemed to be a social group, and I was invited to become a moderator. After some time, I became leery when the groups leaders were talking about turning the club into a ministry… and were even talking about getting us to raise money. They led me on for a long time about being open and ecumenical… and the whole website was supposed to be about helping bring God to artists. The bad part is I unwittingly helped build the website and helped run the support forum.

I broke away from them tonight.

Is there any advice you can give me about what I should do next? I didn’t even know they were like this? It just sort of come out all of a sudden. I’m Catholic and will remain so. I was asked to join under false pretenses.

Just be sure you set your E-mail to exclude E-mails from your former website, or change your E-mail address, so no one can contact you.

 

[Sonic]

I’m glad you escaped!
You can’t hold yourself responsible to anything you did to aid set-up of this Forum as you were unaare of the deceit.
I hope someone will advise you if there’s any way to protect others from being drawn into this cult,
but all I can do is pray for anyone who may be in danger of being drawn in and led astray.

Thank you, Trishie. Thank you, Carolyn. I do appreciate it.

I’m not sure if it I’m allowed to point them out here. I would if I knew it would benefit, and it might lead to an investigation. I’m not sure if they would attempt to claim slander or something similar.

It’s really the inner circle of people that act like a cult. You stay on the message board for a while, and then you get invited to work on some project. It really looks like a bunch of amateurs working on a hobby. After you’re in the click, the conversations take place offline on the phone. I even caught them recording my conversations.

You’re lead on to believe it’s a club, and slowly they start suggesting the club should be a church. If you’re receptive to that, then you’re brought into the their online church. If you’re not, then they work on you to try and convince you to cooperate. I wouldn’t accept the idea, and eventually they got very pushy with me.

It’s a good thing I created a fantasy identity for myself and didn’t tell them who I really was. I’ve always been very cautious. Luckily, my real identity will never be revealed from the conversations I had with them. I know I fibbed, but in this case… I don’t think God would mind too much. I only stayed on, because I still believed the websites owner still controlled the club aspect. You have all kinds of people on a forum. After I asked the admins why this was happening, the site’s owner revealed she didn’t care what they were doing.

They’re very good at what they are doing, and I have to wonder how long they have been at this. I understand the club was really a club at one time, but after a group of people joined and were made Admins… things began to change.