#stevenkelly

[mirinmuscles]

Steven Kelley

[vikandermanips]

Steven Kelly & Alexis Ren manip requested by anon Please like or reblog if using :)

[mirinmuscles]

Steven Kelly

[mirinmuscles]

Steven Kelly

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[mirinmuscles]

Steven Kelly

[mirinmuscles]

Steven Kelley

[ex-cogtfi]

Have you ever been shunned by the people you loved the most because of your personal decision? This account by a second-generation survivor of the COG-TFI cult describes the immense determination and strength it takes for those born and raised in a cult to leave, as it often means the loss of family, friends, and any support system they may have known. Children in COG-TFI were raised to be God's Endtime soldiers and taught that furthering the cult's mission was their life's sole purpose. Thus, leaving was seen as the ultimate betrayal, and shunning by family members was institutionalized through explicit edicts from COG-TFI leaders Karen Zerby and Steven Kelly. With little education and no financial provisions or connections, the outside world was frightening and the transition often deeply difficult and painful. Still, this survivor bravely chose to break free.

[ex-cogtfi]

(Underlining is consistent with the original publication.)

In this 1995 publication, COG-TFI co-founder and current leader Karen Zerby discusses co-leader Steven Kelly’s severe heart problems, including multiple heart attacks, and whether to seek medical advice. Zerby promotes the idea that cult members should seek God for guidance on medical matters rather than consulting a medical professional, floating the notion that God “can tell us much better than a doctor can, from whom it’s possible we’ll get a misdiagnosis anyway”. Zerby further declares that a medical diagnosis is merely a label that causes fear and thus God may not even want people knowing their diagnoses.

Zerby utilized Steven Kelly’s severe heart problems to reinforce the cult’s harmful doctrine of faith healing and of requiring clearance from God to even get a doctor’s diagnosis. For cult members, the fact of the cult’s co-leader deciding against medical care despite potentially life-threatening heart problems underscored the cult’s stance against seeking medical attention, making members even less likely to break ranks and seek medical care.