THE HOUSE OF PRAYER EXPOSE (HOPCC): PART 3
Please Note: Our intention at FACT is never to libel or damage anyone’s reputation. The purpose of our work is to educate the public and also for HOPCC leadership to understand the severity of the allegations against them. Moreover, please know that all statements made in this expose are according to our opinion at FACT, based upon signed affidavits, complaints and evidence we received from alleged victims of HOPCC, family members of those involved, etc. and through our analysis of this information according to the B.I.T.E. model (developed by cult expert Steven Hassan).
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RECRUITMENT, INDOCTRINATION, AND PRACTICES
Insiders from HOPCC have alleged that the recruitment process as mostly targeting young military service men / women who are away from home for the first time. It seems that allegedly the church will send military affiliated church members to visit local bases to recruit young looking military personnel.
Quotes from long-time ex-member John Rodriguez describing the process:
“The system set up for HOPCC to recruit cult members is set up as follows: targeting young military service men and women who are away from home for the first time. If members are already military they will send specific military members to go on the base to target young looking service men. If they don't have converted service men available, they will send in a civilian who can get on the base, and blend in as if he, or she is a soldier in civilian clothes (close haircut, clean shaven ext.) often they will go to the reception center were solders are brand new to the unit, and often don't have a car. They will act as if they are just another young person who found something to do and not disclose the fact that they are part of a bigger calculated effort. They will through lines like ‘hay man, me and a couple of guys are headed to a church service, why don't you hop in the car with us?’ This is just an example, but each recruiter, known as a ‘soul winner’ has their own style, but it's all based on the same deceptive blend in methods. The Pastor will almost never go because it's to risky for a clergyman to stick out like a sore thumb and be escorted off the base.”
“Once these soldiers come to a service, instead of taking them back right after, they coerce them to stay for fellow ship, and have refreshments with them. Usually this will take place at what they call a serviceman's home. That is a place that they try to get these young soldiers to move into, promising a greater spiritual environment in a home away from home were dinner is served every day when they get off work. Sounds good on the surface, but this is "serviceman's Home" is the dangerous part for the unsuspecting service man. If they agree to move in, their life will soon fall under TOTAL control of the cult. They will not be allowed to miss any services or church related activities, and it will be mandated that they are their for dinner everyday if not on duty. Quickly they are turned in to slaves to turn out production for the cult. They get off work, go to dinner, and Immediately afterwards they are pared up two by two to go back on the base they had just left from work, and now will be soul winning for hours trying to recruit others. A tremendous amount of pressure is put on them as scriptures are twisted making them feel like this is the only church that is right with god, and if you don't produce fruit for it " recruit others" Christ himself would cast you off the vine and throw you in Hell.”
“The way they are indoctrinated once they are in this home is that for 1. They now are required to go to every activity, which includes multiple church services, and bible studies. These alone will serve to slowly indoctrinate the normal church attendee that does not live in the home. But on top of this, every Monday and Friday, they are to attend Q n A (question and answer) . This is the highest and most dangerous point of indoctrination for these kids. It is set up to be an open forum where the solders pick the topics by asking questions, and all of there questions are answered. Again on the surface it sounds reasonable, but because a cult can't have independent thinkers, or any who might challenge the direction of the cult, it is set up so that the pastor has total control of the questions being asked. they do this by stipulating that no one is allowed to ask questions out loud, but they are to wright their questions down on a note card, and pass them to the pastor. As the pastor begins ‘Teaching’ quickly people began to pass in cards with questions that are then generated. pretty soon the pastor has a stack of cards with questions of which most will never be addressed. He rather skims through them to make sure the ones being asked are ones that will further the indoctrination process, or if it is challenging a cult teaching, he will only answer the ones he knows he can put down quickly. There is no debate allowed, if you have a follow up question, it is to go on a card, and passed to the front. by the end of the session, he may have answered a few, yet most remain in the stack and the solders will be told that " If I didn't GET to your question come next time" next time the pile gets bigger soon those unanswered questions get forgotten.”
“Recruiting these young service men is the back bone of the church. Soon these young brainwashed service men will move up in rank in the will give legitimacy the church as not being a cult. Many rumors circulate the military bases about these churches, and high ranking officials that were brain washed from young help keep the public image safe.”
“For non-service men, people who are older or have families are told to go to public places like Walmart or local gas station, and try to mingle with the people and invite them to church. They are taught how to coerce people into giving them their phone numbers by being nice. Once they do, they will be on a list of people they continually call and harass until they realize the person is not coming, or they can get them to come and will slowly try to indoctrinate them by nicely getting them to come out to as many activities as they would.”
Complaints received by our organization seem to support these allegations:
“Recruiting these young service men is the backbone of the church. Soon these young brainwashed service men will move up in rank and it will give legitimacy to the church as not being a cult. Many rumors circulate the military bases about these churches, and high ranking officials that were brainwashed from young help keep the public image safe.”
“I have been to this church, and they have other churches, especially in Fort Hood! We saw some of the same people from Fort Hood here, and yes, they come to your house and call constantly! They are very aggressive!”
“I've had a few people in Walmart trying to poach me hard.”
“Me and my husband just wanted to share our experience in the hopes of helping you guys gather the information you need. Shortly after we moved to Ft. Stewart in the winter of 2015 we had went to the local Walmart in Hinesville. As we were leaving my husband was approached by Roscoe, everything about him seemed off, he did not acknowledge my presence the whole time he was talking to my husband trying to incite him and his family to the church off airport road with the blue top. Red flag number one. And with my husband exchanging numbers and being contacted persistently the next two-three weeks he had decided he would finally go try it out since he hadn't found a church to go to out here since moving here.”
“When we lived in Hinesville they stalked us trying to get us to join.”
“They do prey on soldiers. They want members who have a "guaranteed" bi-monthly income. Very strange that money would be such a necessity for worship.”
“I was stopped at a gas station and told my husband was going to die during his deployment, so we needed to give ourselves over.”
Regarding the indoctrination process, an ex-member states the following once the service men and women are recruited:
“They are required to go to every activity, which includes multiple church services, and bible studies…They will not be allowed to miss any services or church related activities, and it will be mandated that they are there for dinner everyday if not on duty…On top of this, every Monday and Friday, they are to attend Q and A (question and answer session). This is the highest and most dangerous point of indoctrination for these kids. It is set up to be an open forum where the solders pick the topics by asking questions, and all of their questions are answered. Again on the surface it sounds reasonable, but because a cult can't have independent thinkers, or any who might challenge the direction of the cult, it is set up so that the pastor has total control of the questions being asked. They do this by stipulating that no one is allowed to ask questions out loud, but they are to right their questions down on a note card, and pass them to the pastor. As the pastor begins “teaching”, quickly people began to pass in cards with questions that are then generated. Pretty soon the pastor has a stack of cards with most questions never being addressed. He rather skims through them to make sure the ones being asked are ones that will further the indoctrination process, or if it is challenging a cult teaching, he will only answer the ones he knows he can put down quickly. There is no debate allowed, if you have a follow up question, it is to go on a card, and passed to the front. By the end of the session, he may have answered a few, yet most remain in the stack and the soldiers will be told that 'If I didn't get to your question come next time’. Next time the pile gets bigger and soon those unanswered questions be forgotten.”
“They get off work, go to dinner, and immediately afterwards they are paired up two by two to go back on the base they had just left from work, and now will be soul winning for hours trying to recruit others. A tremendous amount of pressure is put on them as scriptures are twisted making them feel like this is the only church that is right with god, and if you don't produce fruit for it by recruiting others Christ himself would cast you off the vine and throw you in Hell.”
Another ex-member of the church had this to say regarding the inner workings of the HOPCC, “All faithful members are required to attend bible college. Even if one is not called to preach, all Christians must know bible…Once you are in the bible college, it is hard to leave because they want that money! Here's how it works. HOPCC tells soldiers that God wants them to leave the army and go to bible college. So they do. They live off VA benefits + leftovers from GI bill. Tuition is $2400 a semester. In addition, many of them do not work a regular paid job but work for free which the church calls ‘working for God’. Like maintenance, landscaping, construction, day school. If you are good at anything, you were used! But once soldiers used up their GI bill for bible college, they couldn't go to college and get the education they wanted. To which their reply was, ‘You don't need education, rapture is coming soon! Don't have 401K, rapture is in 5 years. Don't get life insurance because of rapture …”
“Some people will always be Sunday morning visitors. They will never truly see how crazy the church is because Sunday morning they try to make service as normal as possible. but as they slowly work on these visitors to come to more services they will either stop coming altogether knowing the church is too controlling, or become brainwashed.”
According to all of the complaints and allegations we have received, in our opinion, we believe the HOPCC has a systematic way of targeting, recruiting and indoctrinating new members. We also believe the church leadership then utilizes various methods of control on its members, according to the allegations, which are broken down specifically on our website. Please visit the analytical section of our expose website page for more information at:
Tomorrow we will be concluding our House of Prayer expose.
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