My rebuilt truth was informed and robust but in conflict with the foundational ideas of my social and religious circle. However, I slowly learned to trust myself. And ultimately, I did choose truth and life. Physical death became preferable to the spiritual, emotional and social death I knew I would experience should I depart.Īfter a while, I could no longer lie to myself. The thought of walking out, of leaving behind all that I had based my life on, left me paralyzed with fear. After significant study and an intentional decision to read beyond my tightly bounded theological world, I saw some unsolvable problems with the theology. I spent most of my early and middle adulthood in a very conservative religious environment.
ELEVATE LIFE CHURCH HOW TO
I don’t know how to protect people adequately from the master con. However, it does seem that when people don’t learn to think critically about things, they are more likely to buy into the subtle lies that cons so exquisitely and effortlessly spin.īut how do we make people think? And, should we be able to help them think, what about the extreme discomfort of leaving a belief/friendship situation behind? It hurts to leave behind beliefs
None can easily face the fact that we have been conned, that we have followed the leader to the cliff and then fallen off–while said leader surreptitiously made off with the money, trust, etc. You have an absolute right to see exactly how those donations are spent and particularly to see how much and in what ways those funds go to support the pastor and staff.īut to get back to the mental/spiritual/emotional energy to question our beliefs: all of us carry resistance to facing uncomfortable facts about ourselves.Īs I was writing, I happened to look at an article in the Wall Street Journal: “When you need to face facts in your life.” The article is behind a firewall, but all you need to know is in this quote by a psychologist contributing to the article: “We want to think of ourselves as healthy and smart, people who make good decisions, so we resist information that challenges these beliefs.” However, just a word of warning: Your donations fund the church. Please note: this is second-hand knowledge–I have not personally tried to access any information. I noted this during my visit and my research afterward: So, if he is this successful as a motivational speaker and coach, why does he need to establish a church? Does he want access to all those non-taxable dollars? And who or what audits the church funds, particularly when it appears to run as a family business?Īccording to my contacts, it is exceedingly difficult if not impossible for members of Elevate Life to access any financial statements. They are out–and they ache for those who are likely still being sucked dry by the teachings and what appear to be unaccountable financial dealings at their previous church. Until it is too late–or in the case of my contacts, almost too late.
Once we have spent time in a particular belief system, especially in a “church” environment that demands massive contributions, unquestioned loyalty, absorbs all spare time and which forms the entire social network for people, most don’t have enough mental energy to figure out that something is terribly wrong. We can’t survive mentally or spiritually by saying we believe what we know to be untrue. It seems silly to describe our mental gymnastics this way, but I think that is the human condition. We want to believe that what we believe is true. They indicated that they experience extreme shunning from those still on the inside of this cult-like place.Įach did note, however, that upon reading my original article, they asked, “How did she see so clearly after one visit (i.e., that the church was evil) what took us so long to figure out?” We want to believe our beliefs
I divulge no other information about them. Recently, I had an opportunity to be in conversation with a couple of people who had significant experience with Craft and Elevate Life.
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