Perspectives

The articles on this page provide perspectives that are relevant but not specific to the Assemblies of George and Betty Geftakys. The first section is about abusive churches and high-demand groups. Please note: When the word "cult" is used in articles on this website, it refers to the practice and conduct of groups, not their beliefs.

    Identifying Abusive Churches and Cults
    Unethical Influence and Thought Reform
    Clergy Sexual Abuse and Domestic Violence
    Psychopathology
    Other Perspectives
    Alphabetical Index of Perspectives articles

Identifying Abusive Churches, Cults and High-Demand Groups

Dr. Janja Lalich, an expert on aberrant groups who worked with Dr. Margaret Thaler Singer, wrote an insightful definition of groups like the Assembly. As repugnant as it is, there is much in this description that resonates with the Assembly experience.

Spiritual Abuse is an excellent concise article by David Henke on the Watchman Fellowship website. It describes five common characteristics of spiritually abusive groups, and gives a Biblical response. It briefly details several serious effects of spiritual abuse, and how to approach recovery.

Does the Assembly fall into the category of a "spiritually abusive" group? The excellent article, The Bible and Spiritual Abuse, by Ron Henzel, begins with a discussion of the problem with the word "abuse." He says, "It is safe to say that we live in a culture which frequently (and ironically) abuses the word 'abuse.' One of the most common ways this has been done has been by incorrectly locating the meaning of the word "abuse" in the perception of mistreatment, rather than mistreatment itself." He defines spiritual abuse as "the abuse of power in the context of Christian fellowship." He covers topics such the counter-cult movement, biblical evidence for spiritual abuse, the biblical criteria, authoritarianism, elitism, intimidation, manipulation, an accusatory mentality and excessive discipline, long-term effects on victims, and the question of whether spiritually abusive groups are "cults". The discussion is couched in an extensive use of Scripture.

Ondi Timoner's new film "Join Us" is premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival in June, 2007. The film follows 21 cult members in real time as they leave their South Carolina Bible-based cult and get help at Wellspring. Watch the trailer on the film's website. Dave Sable sent a link to John Fischer's comments about a recent Los Angeles Times article on cults published June 25, 2007.

The article, Stress Making Churches, by Dr. Ronald Enroth, first appeared in the magazine Christian Counseling Today, August 1996. Dr. Enroth graciously sent us a copy of this article, along with a memo letting us know that the article contains material from interviews with people who had left the Assembly. An excerpt from the book Brain Longevity by Dr. D. S. Khalsa shows the destructive effects of chronic stress on the brain and the body.

The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse, written by David Johnson and Jeff Vanvonderen, is probably the best and most widely recommended book on the subject. To give you a glimpse of what they have to say, here is a good summary on the website, Recovering from Spiritual Abuse. Here is an interview with Jeff Vanvonderen by STEPS magazine on the subject of spiritual abuse.

An excellent article by Jan Groenveld on Identifying a Cult includes sections on how cults work, cult abuses of rights and freedoms, and results of the cult experience.

Mike Fehlauer, a survivor of an abusive church, has an interesting observation about healthy churches: "I believe a healthy church is off track about 80 percent of the time." Making the necessary corrections is what keeps a church healthy. The article is a brief excerpt from Mike's book, Exposing Spiritual Abuse: How to rediscover God's love when the church has let you down. The book has a chapter on "Toxic Love," about the excessive devotion of people looking for a father-figure, and two good chapters on positive and negative characteristics to look for in a pastor. Mike has also written an article called, "The Five Warning Signs of an Unhealthy Church."

Is Your Church Free from Cultic Tendencies? is a checklist of 37 questions to ask about a church, written up by the Spiritual Counterfeits Project.

Michael Spencer has a blog post with the intriguing title, " You Know You/They Are Wrong When..." about attempts to control discussion, questions, and independent thought.

When to Leave...Think It Over identifies warning signs of a blind leader leading the blind. Chuck Swindoll wrote this while he was pastor of the Evangelical Free Church of Fullerton, which lost a number of college students to the Assembly.

"H" contributed this link to an article critiquing and characterizing the Ayn Rand libertarian movement in the 1960's as a cult. This article is relevant to the Assembly because historians, and our society in general, do not think of Ayn Rand as a cult leader, but the writer points out how many cult characteristics were actually present in her movement.

Jack Hutchinson sent a link to a story in Newsweek about an AA group gone wrong. It shows that if an AA meeting can become cultic, it can happen anywhere!! Dave Mauldin has a comment.

How a Religious CULTure Is Created is a brief and insightful article on the Battered Sheep website.

The International Church of Christ (ICC) is analyzed in terms of Lifton's 8 criteria for thought reform, as well as Steve Hassan's "BITE" model, in this excellent article on rightcyberup.org. Many, many similarities with the Assembly.

Unethical Influence and Thought Reform

K. Gordon Neufeld spent ten years in the Unification Church. After leaving, he completed an M. A. in creative writing and wrote about his experience with the Moonies. He has an excellent explanation of mind control that discards the image of "mindless robots" and incorporates instead the very helpful concept of "mental roadblocks".

Dr. Philip Zimbardo, who conducted the famous Stanford prison experiment, says, "A remarkable thing about cult mind control is that it's so ordinary in the tactics and strategies of social influence employed. They are variants of well-known social psychological principles of compliance, conformity, persuasion, dissonance, reactance, framing, emotional manipulation, and others that are used on all of us daily to entice us: to buy, to try, to donate, to vote, to join, to change, to believe, to love, to hate the enemy. Cult mind control is not different in kind from these everyday varieties, but in its greater intensity, persistence, duration, and scope." Tom Maddux writes an insightful and extremely helpful analysis of Zimbardo's experiment in relation to the Assembly leadership and includes an editorial review of Zimbardo's book, The Lucifer Factor. Here are excerpts from an Assembly bulletin board exchange about whether Christians have special protection against such psychological manipulation or not.

Dr. Kelton Rhoades, a professor at USC, addresses questions about cults on his website, Working Psychology. This site is dedicated to the scientific investigation of persuasion and influence.

Carol Giambalvo has a summary of Dr. Robert Cialdini's work on the subject of influence and persuasion. He enumerates six fundamental social and psychological principles that successful marketers use on us every day. At Wellspring this is regarded as key piece in understanding high-demand groups, which rely on the unethical use of persuasion.

Dr. Margaret Singer, the late authority on thought reform, wrote a one-page summary on Conditions for Mind Control. She makes the point that a person does not know the agenda of an authoritarian high-demand group at the beginning, or the full content of the ideology, and states that a person cannot be thought-reformed if they are fully informed. Getting Hooked gives an example of how the Assembly recruited a young couple without informing them of the implications of a "commitment to fellowship" (joining the group).

Dr. Singer wrote a brief article, Thought Reform Exists: Organized, Programmatic Influence. It is published on the F.A.C.T.net website with a chart showing the continuum of influence and persuasion. The continuum ranges from legitimate education to advertising to propaganda to legitimate indoctrination (such as the military) to unethical thought reform. Note how frequently the Assembly falls in the "thought reform" category. Here is another influence continuum created by Dr. Singer. Also see the other links at the bottom of the F.A.C.T.net pages.

Dr. Robert J. Lifton is an American psychiatrist who is known mainly for his research on the thought-reform techniques used under Mao Tse Tung. His analysis includes 8 characteristics of thought reform that are well-summarized in Wikipedia and on Steve Hassan's website, Freedom of Mind.

Tom Maddux recommends this article on mind control, Biderman's Chart of Coercion, on the reFOCUS website.

Chapter one of Dr. Paul Martin's book, Cult Proofing Your Kids, includes the information posted on this website as " Categories of Sects and Groups with Cultic Potential." The Assembly would fall under the T. A. C. O. category (read the article to find out what that is!). The book also has a "cult susceptibility" questionnaire.

Members of the Wellspring staff--Dr. Paul Martin, Larry Pile, Ron Burks, and Stephen Martin-- have written a long article with a formidable name, "Overcoming the Bondage of Revictimization: A Rational/Empirical Defense of Thought Reform." It is a rebuttal to an article by Bob and Gretchen Passantino, "Overcoming the Bondage of Victimization: A Critical Evaluation of Cult Mind Control Theories." The discussion centers on the question, is the mind-control model of cult recruitment and influence compatible with Christian theology? The Passantino's argue that the mind-control model removes moral/spiritual responsibility from the person who has joined a cult. Wellspring argues that mind-control does not remove responsibility, but modifies it by distorting reality. The article will be helpful for those who are angry at themselves for having gotten involved in the Assembly.

Dr. Margaret Singer also wrote a brief article of rebuttal from a secular standpoint to show that thought reform--i.e. "orchestrated exploitative psychological manipulation"--is real, and is recognized within the professional psychiatric field. She says the efforts to defend cults "rest on a 'seeker' theory of how people get into cults, which overlooks the active and deceptive tactics that most cults use to recruit and retain members."

Clergy Sexual Abuse and Domestic Violence

In regard to Kristin's story, some may think it was not a case of "clergy sexual abuse"--after all, the Assembly didn't believe in "clergy". But the issue isn't the terminology; it's the power differential. Bear in mind that "Brother" George was not simply "George", and not even "brother George", but "Brother" capital "B", at his insistence. There is a tendency to dismiss the sexual contact as an "affair" between "consenting adults", which is a complete misconception.

The Hope of Survivors website has a number of articles dealing with clergy sexual abuse. Here is a link to a brief synopsis of other misconceptions and misunderstandings about clergy sexual abuse.

These excerpts from The Domestic Violence Sourcebook by Dawn Bradley Berry, J.D., will help to explain why a victim of domestic violence does not speak up when apparently given the opportunity, but may even cover up or deny the abuse.

A former Assembly wife tells her story of domestic violence (reposted from the Assembly Bulletin Board).

Psychopathology

To say that there was malignant narcissism in the assembly may seem shocking and extreme, but we should at least seriously consider the possibility. Certainly there was a devastating effect on many lives. Dr. Scott Peck proposes that malignant narcissism is evil; here are some excerpts from his book People of the Lie. And here are three short articles on malignant narcissism, which should be read in the following order: Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD), Characteristics of Malignant Narcissism, and Malignant Narcissism: A Stage Production, which proposes a way to look at the Assembly as a whole from the standpoint of malignant narcissism.

Sam Vaknin, himself an admitted narcissist, has a fascinating website dedicated to this topic, called Malignant Self Love. His articles on Cerebral vs. Somatic Narcissists and The Adrenaline Junkie offer a lot of insight into G. Geftakys' sexual predations. The Cult of the Narcissist describes the dynamics of a group under the leadership of a malignant narcissist. Assembly members, particularly Leading Brothers and Workers, should examine ourselves for the contagion of evil.

The Relationship Checklist is a tool for recognizing malignant narcissists with sociopathic characteristics. Sam Vaknin has two articles with additional insights on this topic from the perspective of narcissism: What Is Abuse?, How to Spot an Abuser on Your First Date, and The Abuser's Body Language.

Profile of a Sociopath is a comprehensive list of the behavioral characteristics of sociopaths, on the Exit & Support Network website. It is a good complement to the Assembly-specific article, "Could There Have Been a Sociopath or Two Among Us?" The site has a section devoted to children raised in the Worldwide Church of God, that is very applicable to Assembly kids.

We received an email from a Watchman Nee researcher who found this website. After reading about G. Geftakys, he wrote to us, "Watchman Nee did the same thing."

Other Perspectives

There is an interesting commentary in the online magazine Slate on a scholarly article by economist Lawrence R. Iannaccone, "Why Strict Churches Are Strong". Slate says Iannaccone makes the case that the devout person is willing to pay a high social price for belonging to a strict church because it "buys a better religious product...." There are "quantifiable benefits their piety affords them, not just in the afterlife but in the here and now," such as a great sense of community. He goes on to discuss the point at which the disadvantages of zealotry might outweigh the benefits. Fascinating....This article is perhaps applicable to the reasons why we stayed in the Assembly, as well as why we got involved in the first place.

Brent T. provides an excerpt and a link to a three-part article by Dr. Roger W. Sapp, called "Honoring the Truth-Teller", about the roles of loyalty and truth-telling in organizations, especially the church.

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