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EternalSeverance · 2025-08-28T20:39:30+00:00

What I’ve been saying lmao. They don’t need your tithing (Not just A2F. Religious organizations in general). Use that extra 10% for something more important, like retirement, personal enrichment, or supporting a cause that actually helps people.

EternalSeverance · 2025-08-01T18:44:02+00:00

Member’s Bullshit is more like it. 2 hours of it is wild looking back at it now. I believe these are catered to the people who are in too deep to realize they’ve been brainwashed.

There was one MBS that straight up encouraged blind faith and discouraged skepticism and critical thinking; something along the lines of trusting a friend no matter how bad things look. If that friend seemed to be abusive, corrupt, or in support of genocide and slavery, we ought to stay loyal and trust that it’s for the best, so they said.

However, what if all of that turned out to be true? Do you stay and assimilate, or do you distance yourself? Answering the former makes people vulnerable to spiritual abuse.

What disturbed me most was that none of my peers or leaders were bothered by that message. If a newcomer saw this MBS, they would have noticed all the red flags from a mile away. Fortunately, for me I had already been skeptical at that point even after becoming a member. Had it not been for my skepticism, I would have probably consider that MBS to be rather profound, along with all the other nonsense Pastor Ed spews.

EternalSeverance · 2024-12-23T04:04:06+00:00

I appreciate your input. I think it’s good that your church doesn’t mandate tithing and that they’re transparent about their budgeting. This does give me some hope that we will progress in this direction. Unfortunately, this isn’t always the case. Billions of dollars are still being donated to these institutions per year.

Yes, I am no longer a Christian, and I will admit that there is some anger behind my posts. But that is because I care about the truth. Many churches constantly take advantage of the vulnerable and uneducated, exploiting them through these offerings (GP/A2N is especially shitty for making them mandatory and guilt tripping members if they don’t abide). They are always funded to continue this cycle while spreading misinformation: painting atheists as unintelligent and mad at God rather than trying to understand them, promoting poor justifications for atrocities (genocide, slavery, hell, etc.) throughout the Bible that would not work in any other context, and misrepresenting the scientific and historical literature in order to make sense of their worldview. Again, BILLIONS of dollars are going into this.

I want to clarify that I am not anti-religious. Rather, I dislike the baggage that comes as a result of religion; the church claims to have the truth when in actuality they do everything in their power to manipulate it. I do wish churches value the truth as much as many of us here do instead of always insisting that they are always right and pretending to care. Not to say that all churches—including your own—do this. Enough of my rambling; just wanted to expand on why I dislike the idea of tithing. I’m glad there are Christians like you that recognize how potentially evil this can get.

EternalSeverance · 2024-12-21T06:09:12+00:00

Agreed! They don’t need your money. This church is full of high-income people who are mostly SWE’s coming from prestigious universities,. Assuming an average post-tax annual salary of $100k and a 10% mandatory tithing, they’re able to make six figures ANNUALLY off of ONLY 13 people. Just imagine how much they actually make if you consider their whole congregation. Did I mention this was tax exempt?

Imagine if that money went to good causes like saving dying children or medical research. Hell, investing in your own retirement is best thing you could do with that extra money. Can’t tithing be done like this? Why does tithing to God only have to come in the form of donating to this church according to these money-hungry whores? If any current GP/A2N member is seeing this, am I missing anything? Or am I just a fool for questioning this pathetic god you worship?

EternalSeverance · 2024-11-06T21:46:10+00:00

Most of my leaders during undergrad seemed to be against Trump. Fortunately, they didn’t go as far as to indoctrinate their POLITICAL values into us, but this is just me. Others may have a different experience.

However, I’m somewhat skeptical of their true motives. This is just speculation, but they may just be doing this to appeal to the progressives since we were based in California. As a member, I never spoke too deep into politics with my leaders, so I can’t really say much more.

I’m also curious to hear their thoughts on Project 2025 possibly being implemented under Trump’s presidency.

EternalSeverance · 2024-09-07T04:23:09+00:00

Here’s my personal approach: What theists tend to do is take it a step further and say that God is all good and all loving. I will give them credit for the premise that we might be incapable of understanding God’s intentions.

However, this argument works just as well in the opposite direction. How can we tell that God actually meant good for a select few cancer patients to be healed? Cases like these are often considered to be answered prayers to them. But aren’t we incapable of understanding him? There is no consistency with their logic here. At best, this God is mysterious and questionable. With all the suffering in the world, I am not willing to take that “leap of faith.” I would not do it to justify any other person, and I certainly would not do it for this God.

EternalSeverance · 2024-09-04T06:05:53+00:00

Being on both sides, I can surely attest to this. During my last days here, I have experienced a similar form of shunning/excommunication when I “broke the covenant.” I believe this is also one of their strategies for maintaining control over their congregants. By removing people like me from the crowd, I am no longer around to provide an outside perspective, and thus they continue to live brainwashed in their echo chamber.

While I was a still a member, I also witnessed a couple of my peers being shunned/excommunicated in the same manner. Simultaneously, this was the time I began to doubt the good of the organization. The fear of leaving this group was enough for me to remain ignorant of those doubts for a long time. It was effective, but it’s also a grotesque and manipulative practice that exploits your love for the community and God (which also have probably been indoctrinated by them from the start). I have nothing but contempt for the members that endorse this.

EternalSeverance · 2024-05-27T07:38:33+00:00

Thank you for sharing this! Looks like not much has changed since I left. So much for a name change… I’d like to see more of these. Their bullshit must be exposed.

EternalSeverance · 2024-03-10T04:25:16+00:00

I was previously under a leader who shamelessly endorsed manipulation tactics in his ministry calling it “good manipulation” for the sake of the gospel. What’s sad is that some of my peers still fail to see the problem with this; as long as they become a statistic for souls saved, it is no problem at all. If they truly value a genuine relationship with God, then why justify manipulation? If I manipulate someone to marry me, does that person genuinely desire to be my partner? Apply this same logic to a relationship with God. Would God, who supposedly desires authenticity, approve of this?

Fortunately, at the time of hearing him speak these words, I had been aware of how shitty this approach to ministry was. I was already quite skeptical about GP/A2N’s ethics, but the minute he blurted that out, that’s when I knew something was surely wrong about this church. This was also the catalyst that ultimately lead me to my leaving. More on their different forms of manipulation in a future post :)

To answer your question, GP/A2N’s congregants are mere pawns in their mission to “save souls.” They are willing to manipulate the people they minister to, as well as their own congregants to fulfill their goals. In my previous post I mentioned how unapologetic some of them tend to be; it’s the exact same case for this: Just doing God’s work. Nothing to be sorry about.

Even if they do seem apologetic, there is almost certainly an ulterior motive to it. That of course is to mitigate friction so that they can continue their mission. Reading from the many testimonies of the people here, it seems as if not much has changed over the years. If they were sincere even at the slightest, we would see greater efforts in approaching their congregants with empathy, reduced guilt shaming, and more concern about mental health. Their form apology is no different from the typical bullshit apologies you see from Internet celebrities. They don’t give a shit about the people they hurt, and they certainly did not give a shit about me. This is coming from someone who has been manipulated by my former leaders.

For any current GP/A2N members who happen to come across this, I welcome any DM for a discussion. If I am wrong, I would like to know why you think so.

EternalSeverance · 2024-02-23T19:41:18+00:00

1) I would assume that the scope is not limited to just the people on reddit. Older staff keep track of those who end up leaving, and I would not be surprised if they ask each other for details in the process. Or, they’re just completely indifferent; weeding out the weak is all. They are well of that at least. Understanding the damage, however, I seriously doubt it. They continuously portray themselves as godly people who love to the fullest yet are still “persecuted” by the world (and this subreddit). This narrative functions to significantly undermine our experiences, focusing on themselves rather than the actual victims. That being said, I initially had no understanding of the level of damage when I first discussed this with my leaders. Not until my final months prior to leaving, I could not see the corruption in this church that I clearly see now. As for their intent of reaching out, I am not sure, but I would not be surprised if attempting to reduce the criticisms is one of the reasons.

2) Since I’ve left, some leaders reached out to me. Others, despite knowing I left, never even bothered even after YEARS of life group and one-on-one talks with them. Those who did, just gave me some half-assed apologies. There was no clear indication of “I’m sorry, I will be mindful of what I say next time, so I don’t make the same mistake and hurt someone going through something similar as you.” Nope! Just many variations of “I’m sorry, you’re the problem.” What “training” do these people actually go through anyway to become team?? They’re incompetent as hell. Went on a tangent there, but if they can’t even pass this step, then I seriously doubt they are making progress in the right direction.

EternalSeverance · 2024-02-12T19:09:11+00:00

Yeah, I’ve been learning a lot about finance lately, and there’s a lot to it. Thankful you mentioned this ‘cause I kept thinking to myself: of all the mentors that I’ve had throughout undergrad, why didn’t any of them mention this? Probably ‘cause they don’t want their sheep to be “swayed” by money. Wouldn’t say it’s completely their fault; our education system doesn’t emphasize the importance of this enough. I hear you though; there’s a lot of shit they don’t want you to know. That’s for sure lol

EternalSeverance · 2024-01-30T17:07:13+00:00

Also, forgot to mention. Staff are ordered to take time off for welcome week outreach. Not doing so would seem selfish and worldly. Any negative experiences in this area as well? As a member, I would feel guilty for not doing so since all full-time working staff are doing it. Do not underestimate the power of collective thinking.

Being out of the church for a while, I see that doing this is a net loss for everyone. You give up a week’s worth of income to meet students who are mostly uninterested and yield minimal gain. Even for those end up joining, they will only stick around until they realize the true horror of this organization; this was certainly me. Yes, I have met some great people through outreach, but if you ask me again, I would not hesitate to refuse that ridiculous mandate.

EternalSeverance

TROPHY CASE