My story is similar, Deeper life is a cult. naijastoryz:
as shared by olu-adegoke on facebook
A TRUE LIFE STORY OF AN EX-DEEPER LIFE MEMBER
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My mum used to work a 9-5 in a very reputable company on Lagos Island in the 80s, and a "hyper-dedicated" member of Deeper Life Bible Church. My dad was a traveler and a man of very few words. Mum was a hardworking woman and passionate about things of her interest. Her church teaches that anything that would hinder you from making heaven should be cut off, be it father, mother, husband, wife, children, family, whatever; so 90% of mum's time was spent and dedicated to Deeper Life, so she could make heaven and sit at the right-hand side of Jesus in white apparel, on the streets of gold. She must have been made to believe that the more dedicated you are to God and his church, the bigger your mansion in heaven.
She was an early member of this church when it started in UNILAG in the 70s as a campus fellowship, she used to be a top leader of a section of the church, but today she's only a little above an ordinary member after investing all her life into the church.
She goes to church almost every day of the week after work, which left us the children to the hands of house girls. Monday is always bible study, Tuesday leaders meeting, Wednesday counseling, Thursday revival hour, Friday prayer meeting(or something or the other), Saturday workers meeting, and Sunday we were in church all day, we attended the 3 services cause mum had to officiate in the entire service.
At the age of 4-5 as a child, my memory started to take notice and store significant incidents at home. when i was between the age of 5-6 i was constantly being sexually molested by one of our house girls. She takes me to the room after she showers, pulls my head towards her crouch and makes me suck her vagina. This happened regularly but mum was too busy with church activities and trying to make heaven, she didn't notice or suspect anything and for over 2 decades i kept it only to myself (I just told my mum about it recently)
The church decentralized in 1991, that same period we moved to a bigger apartment from the room and parlour we used to live in, we had a big compound, enough to play around so we were not allowed beyond it. The church branch needed a temporary space for worship, mum was approached, she enthusiastically offered our compound and we were restricted to indoors with nothing to play with, no toys, no friends allowed, no board games, no TV (board games and TV were considered sin). I was beaten mercilessly by my parents for going to neighbour's house with my siblings to watch TV, guess what...my mum has TV in her sitting room now and so is almost every Deeper Life member nowadays.
So, what happened to the doctrine they preach about "Jesus the same yesterday, today and forever"? Suddenly the Jesus of yesterday that didn't like TV does now. In a conversation i had with my mum recently; i reminded her how she used to beat the hell out of me for watching TV that she now have, she was mute about it.
Our sitting room became counseling room and office, our walkway was divided and part used as church store. Mum had some sets of Fine-China we never really use and only on new years day, but she'll make a banquet with them every week on our dining table for the church officiating ministers.
Church kept expanding and was able to acquire a land, then moved, but our house remained a hub where members go to, when they had nowhere to stay. At those rare times she's home, especially during her leave, we had church members come to her for either financial aid, counseling, parents bringing their children for counseling but didn't realise her own children needed the counseling more.
I was a curious child, I began to wonder if there are other things to life besides "read your book" "go to church". Depression started creeping in at about when i was 11-12, music came to my rescue, I picked a passionate interest in music and i held on to it strongly because nothing was of interest to me in the church besides the music. I was a semi-misfit, I had peer issues, bully issues like every other kid, but mum was too busy listening to other people's children in the church but not me; one time, another kid tried to bully me in school, i fought back but had mixed feeling of guilt and victory, cause mum always say Jesus said "when they hit you on your right cheek, you turn the left".
I started to ask so many questions when i was about 14, i realised the double standards and hypocrisies in the church. The first thing i noticed was a no-one-dares-talk-about segregation, kids of the rich and top leaders, were always given special preferences and i remember one of those sermons we were told, that God is no respecter of any man and how we are same in the eyes of God. This was too huge for me to process at the time, so it expanded my curiosity.
Mum got a huge loan from a finance company to start a business with dad, which eventually wasn't successful. Now we were in serious debt, we suffered severely during this period. Mum was paying through her nose from her monthly salary, the debt had accumulated so much interest. Church members who used to flock around our house started disappearing one by one. It was hard to even eat, then i asked myself again: why can't the church help mum pay at least some of this debt? Afterall she doesn't get paid for everything she's doing for the church, but things remained this way until we were able to crawl out of it.
The church started gaining so much popularity at a time, mum was also getting deeper in her dedication. Mum's over zealousness and less attention for her family started to take a toll on my dad and the marriage between them, this boomeranged into their separation, and the church management said mum cannot hold the significant position she was in anymore, since she's separated from her husband and demoted to a lower position. Her dedication to church, caused her a broken home and she got punished for it by the same church.
This began to affect her psychologically.
She has been so emotionally detached from her children, she was only dedicated to these brainwashers. I thought maybe she'll realise herself by now, but it got worse. Now she became dedicated to fighting to get her spot back, by trying to impress the church leadership, even by desperate measures which gradually turned her to a full blown hypocrite. Churches create standards humanly unachievable and has turned members into hypocrites.
I watched as they announce and placed members under disciplinary measure, in front of the entire congregation in humiliation and excommunication. Why would anyone subject themselves to such dehumanisation? I literally saw people become mentally deranged from overzealousness, i saw people disown their families, i saw people leave their spouses cause they were told they were in an ungodly relationship. Then i watched as hypocrisy massively became the means of survival. Workers, members, leaders, secretly taking their daughters for abortion. Those who were caught became scape goats.
In Deeper Life, as a leader, no matter how dedicated you are, the standards set for your children is the litmus test for your credibility and your fate to remain a leader, especially the female children. No trousers, no lipstick, no earrings, no make-up, no relaxing of the hair, must be born again etc. my sisters were not having none of that bullshit, they pierced their ears, wore trousers, got their hair did, nails done. This affected mum's position the more, but she bothered more about her relegation in the church rather than pay attention to her children.
I was at this point, already socialising myself and beginning to absorb information about life in general, outside the church. I left home to face the world alone without any orientation of how to survive out there. "Go and read your book" and "Go to church" was the only thing i know.
I built up a conviction to find the truth about life by myself and the pursuit of a personal identity outside the indoctrination and dogma.
I found my path in life quickly enough, but this made me to be seen as a rebel back home. I hoped mum would talk to me and ask about what was happening in my life, but that never happened; I wasn't going to the church anymore, so me being around her would further reduce the possibilities of her achieving that leadership level she so craves. My personal life and success as her son wasn't her goal, Deeper Life was.
Religious fanatism is damaging people's families in this clime, but I have decided to save myself from the chains of these brainwashers.
END
= Narrated to me on September 30, 2017 by an ex-member of the Deeper Life Bible Church who was inspired to share the personal story after reading my post on the Deeper Life Church. I sought and got permission to share the story.
source-https://naijastoryz..com.ng/2017/09/a-true-life-story-of-ex-deeper-life.html#more |
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