Following the arrest of six "Word of Life" church members, a former member talked with Time Warner Cable News about his experiences in the church. He spoke with reporter Melissa Krull about what he calls his "bizarre" time there. He asked for his identity to be protected due to safety concerns.
The allegations made earlier this week came as a bit of a shock to a former member of the Word of Life Church, who says it started out as a “good” place.
He says he attended the church for 13 years and was a student there when it became a school.
Church members taught dozens of students using a home-schooling curriculum and tuition was based on tithes. Any grade below a 90 was considered failing.
According to the former member, who wished to remain anonymous, things changed during the mid-1990s when the pastor allegedly became controlling.
“After awhile you were put on church arrest if you didn’t repent,” the former member said. “His repenting, I don’t know what that was. Church arrest was you could show up to church, you could use the school, but your kid couldn’t interact with anybody. You couldn’t interact with anybody. You came to church, you worshipped, and then you left.”
He told us he was not aware of any physical abuse while he attended Word of Life.
“Not cult-like activities, just cult as in like mental control,” he said. “As like, to the point where people, for instance, wouldn’t answer their phone until they called him back to ask if they could call that person, to the point where we weren’t allowed to see our family.”
He says he was eventually kicked out of the school for being considered “rebellious,” but had family members who still attended the church, one staying in the congregation until just last year.
Another former member also reached out to Time Warner Cable News with a comment saying, "The church has ruined a lot of families' lives and it's about time for the church to be dismantled."
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