Was my childhood church a cult? Everyone I speak about it to says yes
I grew up in the United States in North Carolina. The church I grew up in is national and does a lot of work around the world. A main place is Kenya where they helped build a church/school. I grew up and attended for most of my life and still occasionally go when my mom asks me to ride with her since she's nervous driving alone. What first made me suspicious was another girl who grew up in the church mentioning she found articles where the church was referred to as a cult. I found one that went into detail. It included names of people I had personally knew. I brought this up to my mom and she said she was aware of the accusations back when she joined in the 90's. I left it alone for a while after that.
Fast forward a few years, I'm in college and have distanced myself from the church. I'm speaking to my partner at the time and they keep saying how it sounds like a cult. Over the past few days I've brought up my concerns more and more with my mom, and she ignores and dismisses it. She says that all those things were proven false, that people admitted to lying and making up stuff because of fear. I told her if a lot of people are saying it at multiple locations, then there may be some truth to it.
What really makes me uncomfortable and see it as a cult is my moms mindset. She has no independence or self value, instead everything is tied to God. She doesn't take credit for anything she accomplishes, if anything good happens to her it's because of God. She told me today that she was looking at herself in the mirror and seeing different things that bothered her. She had multiple surgeries last year so she had scars that makes her self conscious. She said she prayed for God to make her see herself as beautiful and now she feels beautiful. This rubbed me the wrong way. I asked her why she can't feel beautiful to herself and why she needs to rely on God to feel that way. Her response is that all things good come from God and that she feels beautiful because God allowed her to. She says other similar things to my questions like why she can't accept that she plays a role in her own accomplishments. She has a good job and always says she doesn't know what to do or how she does anything there and that it's all because God allows her too. Keep in mind she's been there for 5+ years and has gone through multiple trainings and has received praise from various higher ups and coworkers. She takes no credit for it. I encouraged her to speak to her therapist about her reliance on God for so many things and she laughed it off.
A few things have happened over the years that made me suspicious of the church. A couple are
They don't refer to themselves as Christians, but disciples
They don't speak on encourage any research of the Bible and changes/edits that have been made. My mother a follower since the 90's didn't even know the Bible had edits and changes made and denied it and still does even after I googled it and gave her a example of a translation that may have been incorrect
A speaker they had made the claim that the Bible had no edits or changes and was the exact same as when it had been written, no one questioned it
There are others, but these are a few that set me off over the years. I've somewhat accepted my mom won't change, but it makes me upset. Her words to me when I told her my concerns and lack of interest in becoming a discipline was that "every knee will bow one day." Am I overthinking or are these genuine concerns?