scarred columns near Alte
Nationalgalerie
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June 8, 2002
I recently had the pleasure and honor of being asked to participate in a Berlin conference on former members of Christian cultic groups. I will report some impressions here.
The May 31-June 2 conference at Berlin's Free University was the first known conference hosted jointly by various ex-member organizations in Germany. This included ex-member organizations specific to the International Churches of Christ (ICC), the Mormons, and the New Apostolic Church (NAK), among others. Not coincidentally, all of these groups claimed to be the one true church while people were in them, and said they were increasing the spirituality of their members while making the world a better place.
Why collaborate to organize a conference? The German ex-member groups gave several reasons, including that increased numbers added credibility to their claims of having been wronged -- while giving them more political power (and potentially more legal power if needed). They also said that the varied voices of multiple ex-member groups helped to show theirs to be a wider societal problem and not an isolated one.
While in Berlin I was touched to see something else first-hand: the consequences of two flawed systems (National Socialism and Soviet-era communism). At times it made me think about the ICC system and its consequences, as I will mention later.
Germany is a repentant nation, and Berlin has left some of its scars for the world to see. It is suppressing to eat dinner in a restaurant whose outer wall is pocked with WW2 bullet marks a half-century old. Or to see once-beautiful architecture scarred by war.
scarred columns near Alte Nationalgalerie
The Story of Berlin museum takes you to its basement for a frank reflection of the Hitler era. At one point, you must pass through an a revolving door in the shape of a swastika -- making all museum-goers feel at least briefly like participants in National Socialism.
swastika revolving door in Story of Berlin museum
I had a Munich former ICC member describe to me the experience of hearing ICC founder Kip McKean speak in person. He was amazed. The message was ninety minutes long, and by the time McKean was done, the people were more aroused than when he started. The ex-member said he had only seen something like this once before -- the intensity of the message, the response of the crowd, the charisma of a man shouting and stirring the audience. He said that as a German, it reminded him of seeing tapes of Adolph Hitler speaking. (Note: he was not equating McKean with Hitler, but noting one similarity.)
I also went to the Checkpoint Charlie Museum and was amazed at the courage and ingenuity of those who tried to escape East Berlin to the West. Can you imagine hundreds -- thousands of people risking their lives merely to get their freedom back? Or that East Germany built a wall (to keep people from escaping!) and yet called it the "anti-fascist protection barrier" -- when really they were trying to "protect" their own citizens from the option to leave? (Note: McKean has alluded that the ICC helped bring down the Berlin Wall). Or that the East Germany tried in vain to block the television signals of West Berlin -- pointing TV antennae away from the city -- so that people would not hear the truth coming from Western media? The parallels to ICC propaganda and information control are obvious.
posing with sections of the Wall (Story of
Berlin)
Can those of you who are ex-members imagine the joy that was felt when the Berlin Wall came down -- suddenly, without notice, people were reunited? Germans now simply call these monumental events die Wende -- "the change." Can you imagine die Wende happening in the ICC?
Ex-members at the Berlin conference said their own experiences were uncannily similar to those in other groups. I was personally struck by local reports about the New Apostolic Church (NAK) and its moves to discredit negative media stories about the group -- and how it reminded me of ICC tactics.
In fact, one of the panelists at the conference, the engaging Manfred Neumann, said that when he first read Siegfried Dannwolf's book about the NAK movement, he was astounded that his story did not come from an American-based group (NAK is based in Germany but has roots from England). Then for the first time he realized that cults were a global phenomenon, not just an American export.
One immediate difference between Germany and English speaking nations is terminology for destructive groups. In German, the term Sekte is used in place of "cult." This is for various reasons, including that the word Kult is more widely and favorably used in German pop culture, as you can see from the name of this clothing store on Germany's premiere shopping street:
clothing
store on the Königsallee (Düsseldorf)
I noticed that the German ex-member organizations seemed to be more secular than the ones I had been exposed to in the States, which were more likely to take a spiritual emphasis (this is not to pass judgment on either approach).
It was encouraging to learn that the Hamburg city government has a person on staff to field inquiries about destructive groups. This kind of support is unavailable in the American public sector.
Some people pointed out that the geographic size of Germany makes it easier for events like the Berlin conference to draw a nationwide audience than a national conference in the States.
On Friday evening, participants shared news about various groups, including the ICC. Helmut Schmidt of EBI Berlin and webmaster of the critics website icoc.de, spoke about the morale of the Berlin church (known locally as Internationale Gemeinde Christi - Berlin), saying that many members seemed confused about the departure of former Lead Evangelist and ICC Geographic Sector Leader Dean Farmer. Farmer reportedly left the Berlin church without saying good-bye. Schmidt said that ICC Kingdom Teacher Gordon Ferguson came to Berlin to speak to the congregation but did not give an explanation for the evangelist's leaving.
Schmidt also said that June 2, 2002 marked the ICC's first Sunday service in Stuttgart, Germany. That same day a story about the ICC appeared in a Stuttgart newspaper.
Friday evening I spoke about ICC membership and "fallaway" statistics in German-speaking Europe as well as the United States. The audience, including many former ICC members, was curious to learn about similarities and differences. Like ex-ICC members in the United States, German ex-members were curious about the ongoing sabbatical of ICC founder Kip McKean and what it means for the organization.
Leaving the conference, I felt I had gained many new friends, and valuable perspective.
If the problems faced by ex-member groups around the world are borderless, then we can seek common solutions. We should forge partnerships whenever useful, across groups and across borders. And continue to learn from each other.
sincerely,
Dave Anderson
dave@rightcyberup.org
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Copyright © 2002 Dave Anderson.
