From Jo Casteel FB page:
I know that once the CULT word starts getting thrown out it’s a VERY hard for the saints to wrap their brain abound that…I personally only viewed cults as being like these very extreme groups while I was in the local churches. I knew many outside of us called us that, but it all pointed to "satan's attack" never to the fact we actually might be one. I never once considered that perhaps if THAT many people said you were cult, that perhaps just perhaps it should be at least critically considered. People don't typically go around throwing that word at people. It's a loaded word with a lot of meaning.
Cults are on a continuum with some being extremely harmful like Jim Jones and Heaven's gate and some being more benign. What matters is "undue influence" the modern day term for having undergone thought reform. The common term that most people know is "brainwashed."
If the saints can read through my letter I actually give many examples of having undergone undue influence. Being led to believe that if you leave you are poisonous, divisive, and an opposer is undue influence.
Being led to believe that speaking up against an elder is going against God's deputy authority is undue influence.
Being led to believe that Witness Lee was the acting God on earth and the minister of the age is undue influence.
Living in fear and trembling about being "negative" is undue influence.
Believing that we are wrecked and ruined for God and that we can't meet anywhere else due to the ground of the oneness is undue influence.
NONE OF THOSE THINGS ARE TRUE. I'm not leprous, I'm not poisonous, I'm not divisive, and I'm not going against deputy authority. Witness Lee was not the minister of the age and the ground of the oneness is a false construct that has led to untold division, exclusion, and sectarianism.
The church in Laodicea thought she had all the riches. How many times have you heard a saint say, "WE HAVE ALL THE RICHES." Please consider this in light of the church in Loadicea. Do you really think that this super tiny group is going to be the ones to bring the Lord back? How proud does that sound?
Here is a link that explains undue influence and gives examples. When I checked the local churches against the BITE model from Steven Hassan I was blown away by how many matched up. Saints, it’s something to seriously consider.
https://freedomofmind.com/wp-content...uvyqTYmrBuBgS0
From the link: "Undue influence seeks nothing less than to disrupt an individual’s authentic identity and reconstruct it in the image of the cult leader."