Why We Left Christian Fellowship Ministries (continued)

by Alan & Dionne McIntyre

Alan - October 14, 2001 - The love of money is....- The root of all evil? Nah, I wasn't gonna say that. I could go into some long dissertation on what money actually is, and explain why I don't think the love of money is a problem (yes, I'm a capitalist, maybe even an objectivist in some aspects), but I'll modify that statement to say this: The love of other people's money is the root of all evil. And that appears to be Christian Fellowship's main problem at the moment. As with many other things on this site, this is, of course, just my opinion.

From my conversations with other ex-CFC'ers, and from observing people's posts on the message boards, it seems that CFC's leadership is investing heavily in their Quixstar involvement. Now why on earth would that be? Could it be that Quixstar is a legitimate ministering opportunity? I doubt it. Here's my suspicion: Pete, Ed, Dan and Inc. think that the end of CFC, Inc. is not far off. I think they're in the process of building their golden parachutes, and they're doing that by enslaving those that remain in CFC in the Quixstar 'downline' yoke. They plan to suck every last drop of life out of CFC before they head off to greener pastures.

It's just so funny that the very people that convinced hundreds of us over the years not to visit our families, not to "waste" our money by taking that plane trip to see a sick relative or friend, are now cavorting all over the country, flying first class, no doubt, and missing lots of church services to boot. It's just so sad that I have to laugh at it.

I've quoted part of this before, but I'll quote it again just because I like it, and because I think it still fits CFC well:

"...the test should be so simple: just listen to any prophet and if you hear him speak of sacrifice — run. Run faster than from a plague. It stands to reason that where there's sacrifice, there's someone being served. The man who speaks to you of sacrifice, speaks of slaves and masters. And intends to be the master. But if you ever hear a man telling you that you must be happy, that it's your natural right, that your first duty is to yourself — that will be the man who's not after your soul. That will be the man who has nothing to gain from you. But let him come and you'll scream your empty heads off, howling that he's a selfish monster. So the racket is safe for many, many centuries." -- Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead (appropriately enough, on page 666 of my copy) [Emphasis added]

Fortunately, CFC's racket isn't safe any more. They pushed too hard, perhaps. They made it too obvious that they're the benefactors of your sacrifice (yep - the fancy houses, plush SUV's, and motorcycles gave it away). So maybe they've decided to just go all the way and make all the money they can before the house falls down. They love your money, and they intend to take it for themselves.

Dionne - February 1, 2002 - Happy New Year to everyone. A little late, but hey, never too late for a warm greeting from out in the middle of water.

I hope this year is finding everyone happy, healthy, and wiser than ever before. I hear that there are changes going on in CFCMI. Changes for the better as far as I'm concerned. People are leaving. I'm praying that the congregation is getting wise to the Quixstar scam that Ed and Pete have going on. They are realizing that time is running out and they are well on their way to making a nest egg for themselves at the cost of people that simply love God.

Loving God doesn't have to make one gullible or stupid. Or even blind. God has blessed us with wisdom, the ability to make decisions and power of forgiveness. But just because one is forgiving, doesn't mean that one has to forget. From that, we learn experience.

As I marinate out here in the water, I have some time to think about things. I just wanted to let everyone know that this "fight," "crusade," or whatever you want to call it isn't over. This isn't an information thing. Alan and I committed to this a looooong time ago; again, I will state we had no clue it would blow up like it has. I won't stop until they go away, or at least, leave the military folk alone. Whatever it takes. I'm looking forward to changes in the site. Our McIntyre home page is finally going back up after all this time...... More information will be disseminated for all to read. My goal this year is to concentrate on the military aspect of this cult and its influences on young military people. I noticed at my wedding that the members didn't really "talk" to my co-workers, outside of the usual pleasant greeting. I did come to realize, in hindsight, that everyone of my co-workers were senior members at Great Lakes. Not much you can do with those types, but a fresh young mind, straight out of boot camp....well we all know the story.

Well, God bless you all. 88 days out to sea and no port in sight. Ugh. I love you and miss you. Stay tuned, prayed up, informed. And remember, trouble doesn't last forever.

Alan - March 3, 2002 - Busy, busy, busy.... Hi folks; it's been a while since I wrote anything here, so I figured I should at least say something. I've been rather busy with some changes at work, and with some personal projects. It's nice to actually be able to do things I'm interested in - maybe one day that will get old, but somehow I doubt it.

Even though I don't post much, I try to keep an eye on the board to make sure everything's working ok. I see that lots of people have been visiting and posting; it seems like every time I go look at it there's at least a couple of people browsing, sometimes as many as five or six at once. That's a lot of visitors for a site like this. Sunday afternoon seems to be a popular time; maybe everybody rushes home from church to see if anything new has come out while they were away.

Maybe I'll manage to find some time to unpack the webserver logs and find out how many people actually visit the site; I haven't checked in a while. If I'm really motivated, I might post the traffic analysis somewhere. I suspect that not too many people would actually care about such a thing, but it would just be a fun, cool, and quite geeky thing for me to do, and that's enough justification for me.

Once Dionne gets home, and helps the house recover from her being gone so long, I think we might have another get-together, burn some burgers and chicken, and just hang out and talk. It's encouraging to see people move on and have a good life after CFC; it takes a while to come to grips with some of the issues, but I think that the majority of people manage to do quite well eventually. I'm not saying that it's easy leaving and then adjusting to a non-CFC life, but if I can do it, anybody can do it.

Anyway, have a good March.

Dionne - March 14, 2002 - Greetings from the pond- Greetings. Hope everyone is doing well.

I'm going to set the record straight about some things. For Alan and me, this has nothing to do with hate. Anger, frustration, pain, and bewilderment? Absolutely. I'm still wondering how I got caught up in this mess. But in some ways I'm glad I did. I learned about God, I really did. Met good people with good hearts. People who still have good hearts. Most importantly of course, I met my Pooky Snookims...... and I'm blessed with having some wonderful in-laws. This isn't about forgiveness. People will do that in their own time, their own way. I forgave a long time ago. Eventually the pain has to subside, but that doesn't happen until the forgiveness does. I still ask God why? I have some psyche issues, realizing this while I'm underway, that I'm dealing with. That'll take a while to get over. But hey it happens when you're in an abusive, cult environment, whether it be physical or mental, you still get screwed...(no pun intended).

We, personally, do not hate anyone. Whether you have left the church or you're still there. I'll talk to you if you're still attending. The thing is, people who are still in attendence won't speak to us. That has been proven. This cult teaches that people who leave are enemies of the church. I've never heard that doctrine preached anywhere but Christian Fellowship Church International. Whew, what if God took that approach everytime we slipped up, and made mistakes? And I've been to allot of places, churches and have met nationalities that live many different religions. I always thought that church was church and that anyone was welcome at anytime. Oh, but with CFCMI, that's not the case. If you speak against the "ministry," whether it's founder, pastors, family, the way they conduct business, or the double standards, then you're not faithful. I say this from experience and I know many will agree.

I'm just emploring members to think twice and consider where they are. Your soul, your salvation and the health of your family are not worth satisfying Pete, Ed, and Danny. NO MATTER WHAT POSITION OF LEADERSHIP THEY MAY OFFER YOU. Sure, you may feel "lost," who wouldn't after having your 24/7 dominated and accounted for? But the freedom is exhilarating, knowing that YOU have taken back the right to have/live your own life, and to take your own money and tend to your families instead of theirs.

God bless you folks out there. Still floating, and at this time, thirty-something days to go, whew, never thought we'd see the end of this. Stay thoughtful and strong.

Alan - December 14, 2002 - Attendance and updates- Somebody pointed out a while back that attendance here at the site exceeds that of most CFC services. Looking at the analysis results of our server logs, it seems that in November we had 7,436 visits by 1,384 unique computers. I can't make a guess at how many actual people that comes out to be, but it's probably more than set foot in a US-based CFC building in a month.

A visitor to the site isn't the same as a visitor sitting in a pew, but comparing the numbers is informative nonetheless. Still, the number of people that support a cause or organization doesn't have any bearing on whether or not said cause or organization is acting morally and ethically.

I have been meaning to upgrade the message board system and overhaul the site for a while, but my jobs kept getting in the way. I quit one of them about a week ago, so I will probably have time to go learn what I need to learn in order to fix up the site. I will announce any upgrades at least a day or two in advance so that it's not as surprising when the board is down for a little while (hopefully not more than an hour or so).