How I escaped my 'cult' in lockdown
*A summary of an article published on The Telegraph on July 1, 2020*
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/escaped-cult-lockdown/
Edit - Main-points
- The author Jasmine (names has been changed, ) was recruited by two young recruiters outside Salford University Library last March to attend a bible study meeting.
- The recruiters asked lots of big questions e.g. If you could have coffee with God, what would you ask? They are part of world peace organisation and offered friendship.
- later Jasmine attended their meetings, sermons and study groups for several hours each day. Knowing LMH as founder of SCJ in 1984 and he is part of the end time movement, SCJ are on mission to recruit more people from UK universities.
- there were 40 people in her group and divided into 5 smaller groups. Jasmine became assistant leader and taught bible after being trained.
- Gradually Jasmine spent 90% of time in SCJ activities - meetings, evangelism, twice weekly sermons. Eventually her uni work suffered, and she only slept 4 hours a night. feeling exhausted, and no time and energy to think properly and rationally - one way to keep recruits loyal to SCJ.
- Her previous idea about faith and God replaced with SCJ belief - they are helping world peace and only ones to survive end of the world.
- everything changed in Feb when pandemic broke out. Jasmine felt very uncomfortable with things she was asked to do - policing new recruits and reporting them to cell leaders if they broken the rules - not turning up to bible study/meetings, not siting properly in praying position, not saying Amen, not doing SCJ homework etc. SCJ rules are very rigid, as ways to control people, even rules about what to wear during sermons. They condition us to ignore our instinct to ask questions.
- One evening in Feb, after BBC News exposed SCJ, Jasmine was shocked to see SCJ putting people's health at risk. At the same time, her tutor concerned about her missing tutorials and was falling behind her work.
- As death reported each day, SCJ believes God is close to picking 144000 devotee who would survive and live forever. Jasmine was terrified and feared that she may not be the chosen one,
- Later bible studies were cancelled and group communication moved to Telegram App. They watched pre-recorded sermons by LMH, but they are repeated and less impactful. Doubts overwhelmed Jasmine. She had more time during lockdown and started to scrutinise about LMH and the group. She finally realised she was part of a cult. But she had no one outside SCJ to rely on or to help because no one knew she was part of SCJ.
- She sought help from her tutor and broke down in tears. She got connected to uni wellbeing team with family survival trust to help cult victims. Jasmine cut her ties with the cult, changed phone numbers and social media and went home to Surrey.
- Later she learnt that 2 leaders turned up at her uni, demanding to see her, but her flatmates turned them away. Because she forgot to block cult leaders from uni email, they emailed jasmine a lot which frighten her since they are so persuasive. She was paranoid of being followed. Her trust is absolutely broken after knowing everything they taught was all untrue.
- Jasmine felt free and spent time at home to recover, even though she lost part of her identity which bound up with the cult. She knew another woman in the group left too and she bet more have left since.
- SCJ have been recruiting at universities in Birmingham, London and Manchester, telling people they are on a mission to save the world.
-You can be the smartest person on campus, but the recruiters can still get to you by making you feel special.
