Megan James was quite literally born into the Xenos movement, when it was morphing from it’s original early 1970’s Fish House Fellowship days into the form of an actual church complete with polity, budgets and a primal need to start replicating its vision through private church educational institution. Her parents were caught up into the social and intellectual draw of the group, and she was one of the very first specimens that were dissected in the religious machinery cobbled together by Xenos to educate it’s young, even calling herself and her childhood peers the “prototypes” of their work. This ominously mechanistic verbiage, sadly, would be all too accurate as we shall see. This is the second of 2 90 minute parts. WARNING: EXPLICIT CONTENT MAY CAUSE TRIGGERING FOR SURVIVORS OF RELIGIOUS AND SEXUAL ABUSE.

Megan James was quite literally born into the Xenos movement, when it was morphing from it’s original early 1970’s Fish House Fellowship days into the form of an actual church complete with polity, budgets and a primal need to start replicating its vision through private church educational institution. Her parents were caught up into the social and intellectual draw of the group, and she was one of the very first specimens that were dissected in the religious machinery cobbled together by Xenos to educate it’s young, even calling herself and her childhood peers the “prototypes” of their work. This ominously mechanistic verbiage, sadly, would be all too accurate as we shall see. This is the first of 2 90 minute parts. WARNING: EXPLICIT CONTENT MAY CAUSE TRIGGERING FOR SURVIVORS OF RELIGIOUS AND SEXUAL ABUSE.

The recent emergence of Michael Shamblin from the shadowy exile he took after quitting his involvement with the Remnant Fellowship cult circles which his late mother Gwen Shamblin Lara created has focused attention on the movement once again. Clearly identifying Remnant as a cult, Michael's confirming epiphany is rocking it to its core, even as it struggles to regain stability and even viability in the face of a seriously uncertain future. On our Spiritwatch stream, we are glad to host Richard and Terasee Morris with Doug and Sherry Vasey, four former members of the Remnant as they are sharing their views on the state of the Remnant movement and its legacy.

Kim Curry just wanted to belong, to love and be loved among a community of supposedly true believers after a turbulent childhood and her coming out as gay with a longing to find a refuge. That didn't keep the place she thought was a haven from becoming a literal hell on earth like no other - the cultic movement called Xenos/Dwell. It fancies itself to be a cutting edge "non traditional" "church" but listen closely as she unpacks the burden she was saddled with by the movement's culture of top-down elitism and group shaming and ask yourself if there's really anything "loving", much less "Christian" about it. . WARNING: EXPLICIT CONTENT MAY CAUSE TRIGGERING FOR SURVIVORS OF RELIGIOUS ABUSE.

Cultic movements are among the masses of religious people who reject Christmas and of them all, none are more vocal about it than the Watchtower Society. Jehovah’s Witnesses throughout the year and especially in December, have for decades preach a hard line rejection of the Yuletime season and the specious reasoning they cling to demands to be closely regarded.Thanks to our Spiritwatch archives, we’re bringing to you a 1996 home BIble study talk delivered by Dr. Robert Bowman, a Christian apologist who at the time was serving as a researcher with the Atlanta Christian Apologetics Project based there in the Peach State. Most all of the objections to Christmas observance set forth by sincere Christians believing it should be shunned are preserved in the reasoning of Jehovah’s Witness disputes about it. We trust it will be a thought provoking bit of discussion on how to answer these objections using sound Biblical review and critical thinking.

The conversations about all things Xenos/Dwell continues. We are joined today by two former members of the Xenos/Dwell movement with decidedly different perspectives on their time there. Joe Nelson and Randy Bliss, who had known each other while active participants provide a unique set of perspectives upon the movement that are most enlightening.

On this Spiritwatch Ministries recorded livestream, four former members of cultic movements offer their perspectives on how they were recruited, what the lures of cult appeals are and how to discern and respond to them Warning: Explicit Discussions of religious abuses in this video may be triggering to cult survivors

An errant pastor in Delaware, Ohio made an unspecified legal threat against Spiritwatch Ministries for our discussion on his stubborn willingness to allow a Xenos cult member to mingle and even teach in his church even when warned of this member's agenda of subverting souls there. This is our response.If he chooses, our next response will be in court. Our First Amendment rights will not be trampled by "preachers" more concerned about the fear of men than the fear of God.

The human race indeed going somewhere .. and woe to the traveler who doesn't pay attention to the journey of change we're all on. Pastor Rafael brings a sharp perspective upon the direction of the times, in contrast with the never changing standard of Scripture.

Underlying the hidden curricula enthusiastically and invisibly programmed throughout the entirety of the Xenos/Dwell cult's existence is it's foundational principle of shaming used to coerce, dominate and manipulate lives. The testimony of former Xenos member Aislynn Long is a textbook case documenting how, from Dennis McCallum's warped presumption on downward to the intimacy of a friend's interactions that the level of disgraceful maligning of those in this cult who are found "wanting" is an article of faith you won't find on their website .. but in the very fabric of the social life this cult. Her willingness to share how the "Ministry" of Xenos/Dwell almost destroyed her. We deeply appreciate her courage to find her voice here. WARNING: EXPLICIT CONTENT MAY CAUSE TRIGGERING. This is one of the most difficult interviews we've had to do because of how sensitive this subject is and we are warning you now: it involves graphic description of sexual abuse and violence committed by injustice. IF you are a cult survivor, this may cause triggering.

The definition according to Oxford Dictionaries of the word authoritarian (au·thor·i·tar·i·an) involves: favoring or enforcing strict obedience to authority, especially that of the government, at the expense of personal freedom. For Annie, Xenos exhibited a high level of authoritarianism when she was involved from 1977 through 1985, having seen the cult's early Fish House days and has long realized that it's authoritarianism hasn't diminished one bit but gotten so much worse. Her penetrating observations of Xenos' presumption through the 1970's at its' inception that it alone can reveal divine truth to the world are not to be missed .. as she writes: "according to what I have learned about its practices since that time, Xenos continues in the same manner, perpetrating the same errors in judgment in overseeing its operations to this day."

Home is where one can be who they are and find refuge from a world devoted to misunderstanding them. So many hoped, like Amber, to find such a place in life after leaving her fundamentalist church background and meeting the love of her life whose own church seemed to be just that kind of sanctuary. She found out too quickly how it was instead the worst kind of prison .. without bars. The fiance of Colin, one of our past podcast participants shares her five year exile in the Xenos/Dwell cult and provides her own personal perspective on being an inmate there.

The truly diabolical manner in which the Xenos/Dwell cult of Columbus, Ohio creates a toxic religious system, compels its followers to shoulder it's crushing burdens of mind and soul and then lets them smother under it's mass isn't out of the inspiration of God but the deceptive power of exploitation. This episode brings ex-Xenos survivors and a professional therapist to explore how trauma is inflicted by the toxic culture of this group and offers a dialogue of hope for healing. WARNING: Explicit discussions of religious abuse may trigger cult survivors.

We're back after our needful shut down due to ministry projects. We'll give a quick update and offer another testimony of a survivor of the tender "mercies" of the abusive Gladstone Community/Madison Place Community Church, Mollie Murphy, whose journey in, through and out of the shadowlands of that cultic environment is shared with us here.

There are many reasons why the Xenos/Dwell movement should be considered a cultic movement but none so pathetic as how cruelly it abuses those who struggle with personal problems stemming from mental illness. This episode brings ex-Xenos survivors together to discuss how the cult brutalizes and traumatizes those with mental health who come to their toxic environments hoping for grace and acceptance. WARNING: Explicit discussions of religious abuse may trigger cult survivors.

There can be no more levelling an experience than to be placed into situations of sheer terror by those who you trust with your spiritual destiny. And this is the grim and daily reality for thousands of men and women in the Xenos/Dwell cult. Listen to Milla's recounting of her years within this toxic movement and how she, as someone struggling with her own mental health challenges and a piteous desire to do what she was told was the right thing only led her deeper into a slough that almost swallowed her completely. We are thankful for the grace that enabled her to leave and seek wholeness apart from the skullduggery of Xenos/Dwell's gossipy taskmasters who jack people up in the name of Jesus.

With former members Jeremiah and Christy, Reverend Martinez engages them in a discussion that provides an alternative perspective upon the deeply toxic spirituality of the Gladstone Community, a cultic movement now calling itself the Madison Place Community Church in suburban Cincinnati, Ohio. We discuss how the movement has been impacted by the new scrutiny that the internet and our podcasts are putting on it.rss.com/podcasts/spiritwatch/WARNING: Explicit discussion on the religious abuses of this group may be triggering to cult survivors.

Timothy Williams is one of those "certain men" who have "crept in unawares" into the lives of many churchgoing people to draw them into his own clique of sincere yet sincerely deceived people. In short, Williams is a "creeper" and a feral cult leader. The sharing of Karla, a former member of "TW's" audaciously self-titled Sound Doctrine Church of Enumclaw, Washington, will give us a gripping account of how destructive "Sound Doctrine's" deception was and yet how much greater the grace of God went to rescue those devastated by it.

Thanks to Don Francisco's 1991 release "Vision Of The Valley", hear his powerful musical rendition of God's judgment upon false shepherds who abuse His sheep and kill, who with harshness and severity try to bend them to their will. The time is not just coming but is at hand.

Our final part of our "Creepers" series features the discernment of Ernie and June Stickler. This older Christian couple found out after a few years of involvement with a sweet looking band of zealous young Christians in Cincinnati called the Gladstone Community that they were not the misunderstood church they came off as being but a truly malevolent cult that, if it could be worse, were being empowered and supported by clueless Christian churches they parasitically feeding off of.This narration of a 2018 letter of exhortation they sent to the cult before cutting ties with them is one of the finest examples of Christian discernment we've seen of a cult in the circles we've been in .. it's too bad that the senior pastors and ministry leaders that have subsidized them for years have been clueless about these false brethren who have fearlessly dined at their tables for years.A complete copy of this letter can be downloaded from the link on our blog: https://spiritwatchunchained.blogspot.com/2023/02/the-gladstone-report-by-ernie-and-june.html.