Incognitus All I can share with you is my experience before 2003, I first joined in 1989. I was in a relationship. I had to break up with him. They made me break up with him because he was not part of the" kingdom" Then as soon as I got baptized I had to start dating. You can only date members of the ICOC. You can't date alone it had to be with someone else or groups. No offense to anyone but I only dated white boys, and that is because they asked me, but I think they were forced to. Dating was going out to dinner, coffee, a show, or a BBQ at someone's house. Always with a Chaperon, it was nice but not real. You never really saw a person for who they were. You were also expected to marry after so many dates. Anyway, I slept with my boyfriend whom I had broke up with, and they were angry with me and thought I should be repentive but i wasn't at all. I tied to feel bad, but I didn't at all. I didn't care and so I left. Fast-forward to 1999. I rejoined, rebaptized. I was already married to same boyfriend, but I was older and had an attitude about being made to do everything. I didn't work permanently at the time, and so my tithes were sparse, and i was spoken to about that. I went to service on Sunday, Bible talk on Tuesday, Midweek on Wednesday, and we had service on Friday a couple of times of month and every function the church had we participated in. I hated it. If you didn't participate you got a phone call or visit. Well, I started watching everything closely and asking the hard questions. I can go on and on. They were a cult. You didn't have free choice, you said you did because scripture was quoted a lot. So they made you feel guilty about everything. Oh and nothing was secret, you had to confess all your sins to your disciple partner, discuss everything with them, before you make any decisions, because the bible say seek advice. I have heard that it has changed and its more relaxed then it was. However, I learned that I could not find the truth there at all. It felt organizational instead of from the heart. Anyway in 2003 a higher-level evangelist told the entire truth. All of it and the Church collapse and rebuilt itself, but I left
here is more info. All I can say is I am forever grateful I got out of it and would never ever had anything to do with it again.
http://www.atruechurch.info/churchofchrist.html
http://www.reveal.org/
http://www.religionnewsblog.com/18477/international-churches-of-christ
Here is the letter, Before I joined the church I looked them up on the internet such as it was in 1999. and some of the things in this letter I asked about and they denied it. LIED. So of course when this letter came out in March 2003. I left, I stayed about 2 weeks and then left.
http://www.reveal.org/library/stories/people/hkriete.htm
http://www.spiritualpornography.com/wp-content/uploads/H2G_Still_b.pdf
http://www.icocinvestigation.com/2010/10/wooten-termination-in-2002/
If you have family member, perhaps they can research this church and get out of it. My family tried to get me out of it but I thought they were nuts and didn't understand. But the more I read up on it the easier it became to leave.
