Insight
Monday, August 29, 1994 Page 3
Insight
Continued from Page 1
“Our goal is to evangelize the world in one
generation. And it’s definitely happening.”
Cult network
The international group has been keeping the
Cult Awareness Network busy, director Cynthia
Kisser said.
The network is a national, nonprofit organi
zation based in Chicago that worles to increase
public awareness of mind control practices,
Kisser said.
Kisser said the network didn’t label any
church a destructive cult,but it provided thislist
of behaviors to help identify cults:
• Mind control, coercive persuasion without
informed consent.
• Charismatic leadership, claiming divinity
and demanding unquestioning obedience.
• Exclusivity, secretiveness by followers
regarding activities or beliefs.
•Alienation, separation from family, friends
and society.
• Exploitation, financial, physical or psycho
logical.
• Totalitarian world view, affecting depen
dence and promoting goals of the group over the
individual.
“There’s definitely a large body of people
that speak critically of the (international) group,”
Kisser said in a phone interview. “We get more
complaints on this particular group than any
other Bible-based group.”
Casey said he was not bothered by the criti
cism. He said he expected it.
“Our church lives according to the Bible,” he
said. “We do make a stand on what the Bible
says, and sometimes that doesn’t go over with
other people.
“In any group, if you take a stance that you
believe in, you always have opposition.”
Lyons agreed.
“The Bible says ‘blessed are you who are
persecuted,’” he said.
Bible study
Larson said he had gone to only a couple of
services when he was introduced to two church
members who would join him in a personal
Bible study. One would teach, and the other
would lake notes.
“You’re basically put in a passive position to
just receive what they’re saying,” Larson said.
He said the study sessions, which lasted from
one to five hours, covered set topics.
The sessions would last as long as it would
take for him to accept the material, he said.
Larson said the only objective of the first
session was to get people to admit they were not
Christians.
In a later session, the Light and Darkness
study, they must confess every sin they can
remember from their lives, Larson said — in
cluding every sinful thought.
"Our church lives according to
the Bible. We do make a stand
on what the Bible says, and
sometimes that doesn't go over
with other people.”
m
CASEY
Lincoln Christian Church minister
After about seven or eight sessions, the new
members are baptized into the church, he said.
The church believes baptism should take place
when people arc adults, he said. And that means
full submersion, in a lake, a bathtub, a Jacuzzi,
a horse tank — whatever is available.
Daily confession continues once people be
come members, Larson said. He had to confess
daily to an assigned spiritual advisor called a
disciplcr. If members don’t confess, they are
going against the church, Larson said.
Tne role ofdiscipler goes beyond confession
and teaching, Larson said. They also manage
what people do during the day, how many
classes they take, who they see and how they act,
he said.
“First, it’s just the spiritual, Christ-like qual
ities (you must imitate), then on to their person
ality,” Larson said. “You’re at the mercy of this
person. You should submit to your discipler the
same way you would submit to God.”
Larson said the church began to take control
of his life before he knew what was happening.
“Your world is the Lincoln Christian Church,
and anyone outside that world is sinful,” he said.
“I was over and over again told how prideful I
was because of my tendency to be independent
... I would ask questions here and there. You
don’t question it. This is a church of God.”
Dedication to the church went beyond just the
spiritual, Larson said. There were f nancial com
mitments as well, he said.
Members were required to donate 10 percent
of their income to the church each week, he said.
For students, that sometimes meant money from
loan checks. Then, twice a year, members gave
special contributions to start new churches.
Members were asked to give 10 times what they
normally gave, he said, or 100 percent of that
week’s earnings.
Not a cult
Casey said the perception of the church as a
cult was an illusion.
The church does not force ideas on members,
Casey said.
“We encourage thinking,” Casey said. “Not
a collective thought.”
Casey said he encouraged people to examine
the Bible. The idea that members are forced into
a submissive role goes against the structure of
the church, he said.
“Everyone in the church isadiscipleofGod,”
he said. “We don’t believe in clergy and laity.
I’m no better than anyone else on the church—
God’s just chosen me to lead.”
Casey began leading the church a few months
ago, he said. He came to UNL for graduate
school to get his master’s degree in animal
science.
The church tries to imitate first-century
churches, Casey said, which expected strict
adherence to the Bible. Church services are held
twice a week, he said, in space it has rented at
Elliot Elementary School. Services last one to 1
1/2 hours, he said.
Bible study sessions usually last only a half
hour, he said. Sometimes they last longer, but he
said no session ran five hours.
Confession is required, Casey said, but not
daily. The commitment to one’s disciplcr isn’t
that harsh, he said.
The discipler role plays an important role in
the church, he said, dating back to biblical times.
“A discipler role, in Bible terms, is to care for
and help the person grow spiritually,” Casey
said. “We all need to be taught, and there’s
always someone who can teach us something.”
Casey said even he had a disciplcr.
Campus code
The church has tried twice to become a
recognized student organization and has failed
both times, Blake said. Both times, their aca
demic advisers pulled their support in the Final
stages.
Blake said the university could not block a
group from forming an organization on campus.
The church also has refused to sign the
Association of Campus Religious Workers Code
of Ethics, which calls for respecting and recog
nizing the beliefs of others.
Casey said that portion of the code wasn’t
what prevented his church from signing it.
He said the church realized other religious
beliefs existed, but he added that the Bible was
clear that only Christians would be saved.
Casey would not comment on whether any
one outside the church was seen as Christian.
The church refused to sign the code because
the code said students had to come to the church,
he said, and the church should not reach out to
them.
That goes against the church’s practice of
actively sharing its faith, he said.
Following the movement
Other Lincoln churches do not see the Lin
coln Christian Church as harmless worship.
Larry Rouse, a preacher at the East Side
Church of Christ in Lincoln, has been follow
ing the movement since it began.
In that time, he has worked closely with
people who have come out of the church, and .
he has been involved with a support group of
members’ parents for several years. At least 10 ,
to 20 other local churches also have become
involved, he said.
“Other churches are finally realizing
that this just isn’ t another religious move
ment,” Rouse said. “Their worship is
very intensely emotional.
“It’s instant family,” he said. “But
their best friends in the world, with one
command, can be told to turn and have
nothing to do with them. And that’s
very damaging.”
Rouse said that from his experience,
members were isolated within the church
and cut off from friends and family.
“All your close friendships are in there,
and they start pulling the strings (to get
you to conform),” he said. “It’s done in
very subtle ways to the person being
controlled.”
Lyons said those type of sto
ries had put a preconceived
image of the church in
everyone’s minds.
“We go by the
Bible,” Lyons said.
“(The church) takes a
hard-line stance of fol
lowing the Bible very
closely. We follow what
Jesus taught, and that’s very challeng
ing.
Leaving the church
Larson stayed in the church for nine months.
He was about to become the discipler for a high
school student when a conflict arose. Larson / i
wanted to date someone outside the church — !
and it was forbidden. i
Casey said that belief was supported by the
Bible.
“We follow what the Bible says, in that it
says we need to remain pure,” Casey said. “It |
says ‘do not be yoked with unbelievers.’”
For Larson, it was a reason to leave.
“I suddenly woke up and realized how much
control they had taken over my life,” Larson
said. “They make all this seem so innocent, but
really you’re giving up your rights to make 1
your own decisions.
“If it isn’t their way, then there’s something
wrong with you. They’re not open to other
ideas. Anything that deviates from that — ,
you’re in sin.” f
