u/kuritsakip

Last year was the first time that I was able to seriously explain to friends whether or not inc is a cult. please note that these are my and my husband's personal experiences going through indoctrination and being baptised and being in the church for 30 years. PIMO now. one of my daughters did not get baptised. the other one agreed just so my mom doesn't get sadder.

my contention is that

All organized religion started off as a cult right? even the catholic church. so what's the line where the cult becomes a religion? Is it passage of time? number of members? which makes it difficult to define this way

I believe that we were really a religion. In the old days, lessons really concentrated on how one becomes a good Christian. What do you do, according to biblical teaching, so you become or stay a good person, to live a good life, to worship God, etc.

Husband and I were talking that during the time of Ka Erano, lessons about abuloy (monetary donations) was usually 4x-6x a year. Maybe two weeks before holy supper and thanksgiving. It became soooo often after evm took over. geez

Pagtitiwalag (excommunication) was just removal. There wasn’t any shunning. That just started with evm when he kicked his mother out for calling out against corruption in the church.

We were encouraged to ASK QUESTIONS!!! Swear, when we were being indoctrinated, we were encouraged to ask questions. If we wanted to contradict something, we could. And we could really pick apart each lesson and they (ministers) will answer you.

I remember asking about the obedience thing. The answer was always to obey God. Do not obey a building; do not obey people; obey God. My minister said, don’t follow us, we’re just bible readers, you still follow God.

There have been a lot of principles and teachings that have never sat well with me. But I never felt ostracized. The ministers welcomed you to keep asking, to keep questioning. You can go to any minister’s house and they will explain using the bible and if you still don’t like it, there was no judgement. They will pray for clarity and for understanding, but I have never felt judged or labeled as wrong. All I ever experienced from the older ministers was understanding. I have always wanted to be that kind of Christian, strong in my beliefs, but also open and loving to others who did not believe like me.

Since evm took over, my interpretation is that the church devolved into a cult. From being a religion that really pushed forward being a loving Christian, it became an intolerant church led by a despot. If you google the definition ng cult – fits the current inc perfectly.

Random car convo with my kids (tail end of GenZ). their assessment of our parenting is that they were raised to be GenX kids. 🤣🤣🤣🤣 I guess the independence part at least.

They were latchkey kids at 10 and 8, to the horror of our carpool-mate [i drove carpool 2x a week bc two kids. My neighbor, who's a teacher in the school plus her two kids, drives 3x a week]. They have to make rice daily (taught them to cook as early as 6 years old. we have a lot of fun cooking together). 2x a week, they have to cook dinner for everyone bec the husband and i come home late. Hubs and I would leave them some weekends to go on an out-of-town weekend date. Usually, they'd spend the day at our friend's house or go to grandmas and sleep there.

Taught them to take public transport as soon as each of them turned 12. They had to be home before dark. BUT also if they're going out until night time, we will pick them up (i guess this isn't typical of us back then. lol))

My husband and I could not stand kiddie music, so before spotify, their lullabye playlist on the ipod were 60s-90s - from beatles and the carpenters to nsync, britney, spice girls to U2, Pearl Jam and Sting. so now, they appreciate all these, can sing along too, plus their own Kpop.

The downside, according to them, most of their friends are kinda overprotected by their millennial parents. which means, while my kids can go whereever they want without adult supervision, their friends could not.

At 18 and 16 right now, they can live on their own.... we've taught them to cook, do the laundry, shop for goceries.... longest is 13 days last 2025 when my husband and i had to be away quite a while for my mother-in-law's medical emergency. they had so many things to do for school they decided to stay in our own home instead of moving to grandma's for that period. they cooked their meals, including their school lunches, and ordered online groceries.

we live in a tiny apartment with barely any cupboard space. we could only purchase little bits of everything like 3 cans of soda instead of a case, or just half a kilo of sugar so it would fit our small jar instead of storing 2kg bags. our grocery list is just a piece of paper on the fridge door. anytime anyone uses up something, they list it down.

i was away for a week & came home to a list that had:

• brown sugar
• A1 sauce
• toothbrush
• Canada Dry
• Canada Wet
• Canada Damp