Remembering Broken Families

Faith Hopegood
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Remembering Broken Families

Post by Faith Hopegood »

I just wanted to do a quick post to acknowledge all the people who are suffering and come from families that have been broken by Brisbane Christian Fellowship and other Christian Fellowship franchises. There would have to be hundreds if not thousands of people in Australia (and overseas) who have been very badly hurt by the direct actions of Christian Fellowship elders and leaders having a destroying influence over their family.

If you are a father, a mother, a grandmother, a grandfather, a brother, sister, son or daughter who is not able to be with your immediate family this Christmas and holiday season, I remember you and stand with you.

There are fathers who have never seen their grandchildren, there are grandparents who have never seen their grandchildren because of the deliberate caustic ongoing actions and support of the Christian Fellowship cult hierarchy. This ongoing shunning is being actively encouraged and used as a blackmail tool by people within the Christian Fellowship community whereby family members who are due respect as parents or grandparents are being denied respect and are being told "you will never see your children or grandchildren because you do not attend BCF".

It is this fact of dreadful shunning alone should surely show people that BCF is a cult. To the people within the Christian Fellowship who read this, don't try and rationalise it away or back it up with obscure shoe horned scriptures, or listen to rubbish stories spread by CF leaders. The CF leaders are cunning and are known to spread false rumours and lies to back up their shunning. Remember, the only thing that the CF elders are interested in is control, nothing else, they do not follow the "Great Commission" in the bible and they twist scriptures from their real meaning to suit their purposes. Remember Vic Hall is not a wonderful modern apostle with a "special revelation", he is an untrained uneducated fool who is leading people astray with gnostic teachings.

Remember Christ is love and wants families and married people to be together, not split apart. Christ is about family reconciliation, not family separation.

We need to keep remembering and supporting these people and exposing the wicked twisted hypocrisy of the culture and teachings of BCF and affiliates.

To those people who are hurting this Christmas season because they are separated from family, I remember you.
Gillie
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Re: Remembering Broken Families

Post by Gillie »

Thank you Faith for your empathy and the insights you have shared with us.

I am one who has not seen my family in over 17 years.

It is impossible to share in a few words on a forum, what it is like to live with this agony. I can also tell the readers here, that Christmas is an ordeal to survive, not a season for excitement and family love.

I was sent a link to this post from someone who was touched by what Faith wrote, otherwise I would not have read it.

I most sincerely thank you for caring enough to express these reflections.
Gillie
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Re: Remembering Broken Families

Post by Gillie »

Shunning
SOCIAL CONTROL MECHANISM


Shunning, social control mechanism used most commonly in small tight-knit social groups to punish those who violate the most serious group rules. It is related to exile and banishment, although shunning is based on social rather than physical isolation or separation. In social groups where a person’s social identity and well-being are closely tied to regular interaction with other group members, shunning can be a very emotionally painful and effective punishment for those who violate group rules.

Shunning is used for only the most serious offenses, and the punishment is usually applied only after a formal judicial procedure. The Old Order Amish, for example, use many lesser punishments, including gossip, lectures by church officials, and public confession for everyday offenses. Shunning is the most-severe punishment and is reserved for the most-serious offenses, such as marrying a non-Amish person, adultery, excessive contact with the outside world, and drunkenness. Shunning is instituted only through a unanimous vote by the church community.

Although societies that practice shunning may apply the punishment for life, it is typically limited to a set period, which is often ended by another formal hearing or by evidence that the person has returned to acting in a socially responsible manner. Shunning may be applied to the individual rule breaker’s family as well, which puts pressure on family members to act to correct the behaviour of the offender.

There is little empirical research on the effectiveness of shunning, but it is believed to be effective because it deters repeat behaviour by the offender, deters similar behaviour by others, and marks for the community those behaviours that are considered unacceptable.

David Levinson
The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Reference:

https://www.britannica.com/topic/shunning

ANOTHER ARTICLE TO CONSIDER:
Shunning – The Ultimate Rejection
What Does It Mean When We Shun Others - or Are Shunned?


Psychology Today

https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog ... -rejection
Faith Hopegood
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Re: Remembering Broken Families

Post by Faith Hopegood »

Thank you Gillie, for your post.

Regarding the Encyclopedia Brittanica definition of shunning, I note that "groups use shunning only for the most serious of offences".

Let us examine what these "most serious of offences" are in BCF, based upon my personal experiences, that will get you permanently shunned by everyone in BCF. To a normal person, a serious offence might be adultery, theft, or other degenerate behaviour, however, to the learned elders and leaders of BCF, examples of the "serious offences" are:

1. disagreeing with what Elders are advising or preaching or pointing out that the bible teaches something different to Vic's view of life;

2. telling family members (who are in the CF) that you don't wish to attend the CF for a while because you want to clear your head;

3. trying to tell your immediate family that you have been verbally and psychologically abused by a BCF elder;

4. visiting your daughter at Christmas time (who is not in BCF), when your husband has told you not to associate with the daughter while your husband goes hiking in the Himalayas with his future wife (after husband comes home and divorces you) - move on people nothing suspicious here! ;

5. telling multiple MCF leaders that an MCF elder (grand Poobah of MCF) has been sexually taking advantage of you and other young girls in the MCF Bible School dormitory.

6. seeing BCF leaders openly lie to the SCCF congregation about former elder Graham Harry because you were actually in the leaders meetings where it all went down and now you see Vic Hall and his minions telling the congregation sheeple a completely different story.

Do any of the above and you will be barred from seeing you children, your grandchildren, your mother and father - FOREVER!

All these things are "most serious of offences" according to the CF hierarchy and will instantly get you shunned for life from BCF (and every other CF) as well as the CF leaders "gossiping" behind your back and spreading false rumours about you to all and sundry. I note that "gossiping" is used as an official tool of the Old Amish to shun people! I just had a vision of Vic Hall with an Amish hat and beard! Brrrrrr frightening stuff.

I would encourage all people who are capable of thinking (ie you breath) to critically analyse the reasons BCF leaders shun people and then use your judgement to work out if BCF practices unhealthy cultish group behaviour? Do these activities align with what the bible teaches?
Don't these types of shunning activities bear similarities to what happens in communist countries? Look how China, North Korea, and the former Soviet Union treated people that disagreed with them. They are desperately trying to prove to everyone that their ideology is the right one and they will stop at nothing to prove it. It is because people who run those regimes are just plain liars in everything they say and do and can't abide criticism of any sort. Does this sound familiar?

Vic Hall is a known liar and gossiper, as is his wife, Lorraine. This has been well documented by first hand experiences and encounters by contributors to the Streetcar Forum. Vic and Lorraine revel in telling little tales to tickle the ears and breaking private confidence. Vic Hall has never done any formal biblical scholarly study yet he claims to be a knowledgable head of a church. How does he know that what he teach is proper doctrine? All the people who lead in the CF church are trained by Vic and his minions and thus they do not know where they are in error because they are like budgies in a cage where they flutter around and look in the mirror and then all tell each other how good they are. Then they look outside the bars of their self made cage and every person they see outside their cage looks like a big bad pussy tat!

Ask any person who has some formal scholarly Biblical training and they instantly recognise the teachings of Vic Hall and the Christian Fellowship are nothing more than those of a Gnostic cult!

Don't be deceived people. Research for yourselves.
robocop
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Re: Remembering Broken Families

Post by robocop »

Thank you Faith, for your thoughts and encouragement. They are as ever relevant today, as when I walked away 16 years ago. The gossip and the lies that have destroyed so many families, have not gone unnoticed, and will be shouted from the rooftops, in the last days.
Bagel
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Re: Remembering Broken Families

Post by Bagel »

Thank you Faith and robocop.

Coincidentally I caught up with a dear friend from the XCF toward the end of last year. They (as it turned out) departed some time after I left. Her family condemned her, but interestingly, she faced up to them and challenged them on their judgment. This didn’t necessarily help at the time, but she was firm and clear and made it understood that the xCF ‘way’ was not going to work.

Interestingly her family (that she had to leave) sort of disintegrated over the following decade(s) and her parents ended up being yet another tragic tale of being badly burned by the xCF machine. Their whole lives and careers and fortunes were invested in that world. And it all came to nought, needless to say they are also now very bitter at the treatment dished out by the ‘leadership’ teams.

And in the end, what’s left of the family is now on much friendlier terms. And trying to pick up the pieces post xCF. While it’s enormously sad to hear another story of a family divided and judgemental, it was uplifting to hear that it’s actually her (my friend’s) strength and dignity that has more or less brought reconciliation.

And curiously, most have maintained their spiritual devotion, yes, it exists!

Bagel
Thanomere84
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Re: Remembering Broken Families

Post by Thanomere84 »

Thanks all who have posted here. The Chinese New Year has passed at the time I am writing this post. Still I write, sundered from the greater part of my family. Still I write, with 3 uncles and their wives, and at least 8 cousins, thinking I am their mortal enemy and worst adversary, just because I was 'rebellious' against the 'messenger of the Lampstand', the Great Panjandrum, His Foul Highness Vic 'the Vicious Hall' Hall. Still I write, countless people who I knew as close friends, confidants and good leaders for decades, now refusing to speak to me or treat me with basic humane decency, all because Vic decreed that I was to be treated as an enemy, all in the name of 'discipline'. Still I write, mired in financial and economical struggles, four years since Vic literally pulled my economical carpet out from under my feet with false promises of being 'taken good care of by the church if I would be on the tithe'.

But still I write, as a devoted Christian. Still I write, with a youth ministry, worship ministry, music ministry, cell group ministry and visiting ministry entrusted to me now. Still I write, with hope that some day God will vindicate me even though my enemies still revel and rejoice while sitting on their high seats of arrogance. Still I write, believing that Jesus loves me. Still I write, because I live, and because no evil xCF leader will ever silence me. :)
robocop
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Re: Remembering Broken Families

Post by robocop »

Hi Than, great to hear your ENCOURAGING WORDS.....
Faith Hopegood
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Re: Remembering Broken Families

Post by Faith Hopegood »

Fear not my beloved Thanomere.

Psalm 23:5-6 ' You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.' (ESV)
Hope4
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Re: Remembering Broken Families

Post by Hope4 »

It seems to me that it’s an opportune time to add to this topic of discussion.

How do divided families reconnect, reconcile and heal … after decades of abuse and division?

It is certainly not easy, because the BCF eldership has decided who will be acknowledged, who will be deemed a non-person and years later, the lies and deceit have worked to kill, harm and destroy family after family.

What a legacy for a church that claims to be ‘Christian’!

However, I am bearing testimony that God can heal and restore everything and everyone, whom Victor Hall and his treachery has destroyed!!!!

“Impossible”, you may say, but isn’t God greater than all the ways and schemes of evil men?
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