Ex-Cult Members Are Sharing Their Alarming Wakeup Call Moments, And It's Wiiiiiild

"My mom joined a religious cult when I was about 8 years old. I wasn't buying their shit even as a child and was not going to let them drag me in. I was still around for a couple of years and saw everything that was going on. She's still in it today, over 30 years later. My uncle is there, and two cousins. One cousin got out/was kicked out and has been out for about 15 years."

"Even at 10-12 years old, some things that were huge red flags to me at the time. The pastor is reborn Christ on earth; he's not 'just a man.' He's the law and infallible. No evangelizing - the exact opposite. They wanted to stay small and secret. You were not supposed to tell people about them. This is not normal for any church. You don't talk about what goes on in the church."

"No physical skin-to-skin contact between man and woman. Sex was off limits, even for couples who had come into the church married with kids. They were to stay married but never touch. Women always had to have gloves in their purses and wear them when shaking hands with someone outside the church. This includes children. If you were a mother with a 5-year-old boy, you couldn't touch him in any way."

"My aunt passed away a couple of years after they joined the church. She had some form of mouth cancer or infection that was kept under wraps and was super hush-hush. Only her family saw her, and the church gave the reason that God had inflicted her with a disease of the mouth because she was a gossip and talked about everyone behind their backs. No medical treatment was sought at any point."

A family experienced long-term involvement with a religious cult that lasted over 30 years and involved multiple relatives. The group's leader was presented as the reborn Christ, declared infallible, and the community forbade evangelism while enforcing secrecy. Rigid rules prohibited physical skin-to-skin contact, required women to carry gloves for handshakes, and prevented parents from touching their children. Medical problems were concealed, attributed to divine punishment, and external treatment was not sought. Several deaths were kept secret with only immediate family permitted access. One cousin left or was expelled and remained separated from the group for about 15 years.

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