Testimonial Part II, The Rest of the Story
Hello, Connie V, Heidi D, Carl D, Rick P and the others who listen and laugh in what appears to be a testimonial service. (Are there as man as thirty people in the congregation?) Except that every testimonial service I ever attended was prayerful and impromptu. Judging by the common threads that run neatly through these four testimonies, preferred questions and subtexts were given out so that you were prepared. Exactly. That is exactly as expected for a church service in which Fred Drummond is typically in full control. From my notes, these are the common threads:
Of importance, each of your testimonies is spoken to an audience of one, none other than Fred Drummond. From the repetitive verbiage to the attempts at humor, Fred Drummond is at the center. His eyes and ears are on each of you. You must please him. And each one of you speak to him, often and directly.
Also, according to each of your testimonies, Fred Drummond is the apex and the foundation of the church. Without Fred Drummond and his church that has revived itself multiple times between 1973 Galilean Baptist Church of Springfield and 2021 The Church of the New Creation of Weston, there was no safety, no true salvation, no service of lasting value, no meaningful life. Your obligation to throw in Bible verses and partial verses of partial passages from partial descriptions of how to live seems disingenuous in comparison to your “everything I want to be is wrapped in Dr. Drummond’s approval” monologues.
Are not you tired of defending the indefensible? Of believing that your worth is less than his? What has Fred Drummond and his family ever done for you other than promise that you will be “safer” with him, promise that you will realize a prosperity like his someday, promise that his message is straight from God?
Own Your Value: Do Not Give Yourself Away
The only people who will ever ask you to give yourself to them are thieves, rapists, predators, and criminal shysters. All others who respect and love you are averse to owning you. We would never suggest that you belong to me, that you have no safety or salvation or relationship with God without me at the helm. We want you to own your life, live its fulness, capture its many essences, creatively and with confident curiosity seek its many truths. We want you to follow many paths and bring both friends and strangers along on many rides. Slavery and servitude to another human being as equally flawed as we are worse than futile; it is a shameful waste of the person You Are.
Pack Your Bags and Leave in Haste
The only people who will ever demand that you stay with them for your own protection are thieves, rapists, predators, and criminal shysters. They are narcissists. They are often psychopathic narcissists. But you do not need a professional diagnosis of your Dear Leader’s mental state. You need only to acknowledge that he or she demands a loyalty and unquestioning reverence that is truly beyond normal. “But God has called him!” “But he has a special dispensation!” Both claims of which you have been told to believe, and evidence to the contrary from which you have willingly turned away remains as true today as it was yesterday. This is the person who will rob you and molest you. Perhaps has already and repeatedly done so.
Do you have family and close friends in other places who will share their homes with you without question or rebuke? Of course, you do! They will provide temporary shelter and support until you feel stable enough to settle your own affairs.
Hasten your escape. The trauma is mitigated by a severe, final break from the perpetrator. Unlike ending a smoking or drug habit, you cannot ease your way out of the toxic relationship with Dear Leader. These who go to great things to control you, own you, and shield you from outside influences are dangerous people. They might dismiss you but, their farewells are vengeful. If you lacked personal attention from them before, just wait until they realize you are leaving.
Set Your Mind and Feet Toward Freedom and Peace
Do you know that feeling you have when you are visiting with children or friends in another city or country? When you are far away from the church and Dear Leader? That is freedom and peace. It is a Knowing that life and spirit and soul are real and profound when you are out from under his thumb. It is Experience and Knowledge that You own; you did not have to borrow them from the church. The gifts that you would gladly offer to friends and strangers are hidden now under weighty baggage and burdens. Free those gifts so that you can use them and bless the lives of others with them.
Redeem Your Life by Setting It Free from The Cult
I left Church of Our Savior in Concordville, Pennsylvania in 1982. The dearest friends I had at the time turned their backs to me. We packed a (too small) UHaul truck, and with four of us in the front cab, after leaving behind many belongings than I could not pack in the truck, after heartbreaking vindictive actions from church leaders and Fred Drummond himself, we drove across country to start anew. The nightmares still make me cry in my sleep.
I am sixty-seven years old. One of the best decisions of my life was also one of the most traumatic. However, I have learned and lived freedom and peace that no religious absolutist, cultist, or person owned by another will ever experience.
You can, too.