CultNEWS101 Articles: 12/26/2025

[Patrick Ryan]

Children,  Assemblies of God, Australia, Legal,  His Way Spirit Led Assemblies

ICSA Today: Impact on children born into or raised in a cultic group

"This article examines the psychological, emotional, and developmental impact on children who are born into or raised within cultic or high-demand groups. Drawing on clinical literature, survivor accounts, and developmental theory, it argues that cults function as totalizing social systems that profoundly distort normal family structures, identity formation, and emotional growth. Unlike adult converts, children have no precult reference point, making them uniquely vulnerable to control, abuse, and developmental harm. The article also explores the complex challenges second-generation members face when leaving and recovering from these environments."

NBC: Australia's Assemblies of God church imposed rules to prevent child sex abuse. Why won't the U.S.?

The Assemblies of God, the largest Pentecostal denomination in the world, does not require its churches in the U.S. to adopt strict child safety rules.

" ... The General Council of the Assemblies of God, the U.S. denomination’s national governing body, responded to NBC News’ reporting by stressing its commitment to child protection, including “stringent standards” and voluntary training that it recommends to all churches, along with background checks it requires for all credentialed pastors. The denomination’s leaders argued that local church autonomy means instituting national standards is “impossible.”

When asked about Australia’s approach, the General Council said the Assemblies of God’s national church organizations around the world operate independently and sometimes adopt different rules and governing structures.

Sex abuse cases have also surfaced in Assemblies of God churches in England, Nicaragua, Argentina and other countries; the church has nearly 90 million members worldwide. Nowhere, however, has the issue prompted as big of a national outcry — and an urgent call for action — as it did in Australia.

The Assemblies of God took root in Australia nearly a century ago, and denomination leaders there also considered the autonomy of each church to be sacrosanct.

Then came the backlash.

Australian Christian Churches — the country’s largest Assemblies of God’s organization with more than 1,100 churches and 400,000 parishioners — was subject to an unprecedented national investigation into child sex abuse, prompted by mounting reports and allegations of cover-ups.

Australia’s Royal Commission, a government-appointed panel with broad investigative authority, led the inquiry, driven by the mishandling of child sex abuse in the Catholic Church. Its sweeping investigation, which was unveiled in 2012, expanded to cover other religious and secular institutions, including the Assemblies of God.

The commission took evidence from 1,200 witnesses from 2013 to 2017, and aimed to determine the nature and cause of abuse and who should be held accountable. And while it could not dictate policy changes, it could force leaders into the national spotlight to explain what went wrong — and how they planned to fix it."

MSN: Leaders of 'cult-like' California group charged with murder of 4-year-old boy

"The leaders of a mysterious "cult-like" California religious group allegedly tied to the death of a 4-year-old boy and a man who disappeared from a coffee shop have been charged with murder.

The arrests of leading members of what authorities are calling a "religious high-control group" named His Way Spirit Led Assemblies are connected to the alleged murder of Emilio Ghanem, 40, who went missing in 2023, and the alleged murder of 4-year-old Timothy "Timo" Thomas.

The group's leader, Shelley "Kat" Martin, 62, who was referred to as a "prophetess" within the group, and another member, Rudy Moreno, 43, were arrested for their alleged involvement in Ghanem's homicide, the San Bernardino District Attorney's Office announced this week. Martin, her husband Darryl "Muzic" Martin, and Timo Thomas' father, Andre Thomas, were arrested on suspicion of involvement in the boy's death in 2010.

"What you have here are two separate, very winding roads of cases that are now beginning to lead to justice," said San Bernardino County District Attorney Jason Anderson.

Operating out of Southern California's Inland Empire for at least 15 years, His Way Spirit Led Assemblies was described as "cult-like" and preparing for "end times," by a former member who spoke with KTLA-TV earlier this year. Ghanem, a former member of the group, vanished on May 25, 2023, after last being seen at a Starbucks in the city of Redlands in San Bernardino County, about 60 miles east of Los Angeles."

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