Fwd: Suicides in the Fellowship
naboth675
Potkonyak" <potkonyak@...> wrote:
Here are extracts from various posts, by various people, regarding
suicides
of the former or current members of the Potters House & The Door
SUICIDES IN BUNBURY (WESTERN AUSTRALIA) POTTERS HOUSE
During my time in CFM, 3 members of the congregation committed
suicide. I
carried guilt for many years over one of them. Not because I helped
pulled
the trigger, but because I one day saw him in the
street and had an overwhelming compulsion to go and chat with him
and talk
about how good life was. I resisted the urge, as I was in a hurry to
go
home. Half an hour later he blew his head off.
There was a guy called Michael. His family was 7th Day Adventist. He
had
schizophrenia and he was hard to talk to. That is to say that there
was a
general feeling of unease toward him. That was a result of
the superstitious beliefs we had regarding people with mental
illness --
that they were supposed to have a demon wrapped around their head or
some
bullshit like that. When you believe crap like that, then the
extension of that when the "demon-affected" person doesn't respond
is that
it must be their fault for not throwing off the demon. And there was
a bit
of that. Bloody sick bastards that we were. Michael blew his head
off in
1987. We blamed the SDA doctrine of eternal security.
There was another guy whose name eascapes me. He would often visit
the
single guys' house where I was living with Barry Parsons, Grant
Ivers,
Scott McLean, Matt O'Donoghue Jr, Paul MacMullan and Brett Mason.
This guy
also suffered from some form of mental illness. He had a heroin
addiction
which he couldn't beat, though he tried hard. Towards the end of his
life
he was walking [sic "talking"] about killing himself. We were all
powerless
to help him. He was eventually found floating face down in the
harbour some
time in 1988. We in the single guys' house were all pretty upset
about it.
There was a young guy who had been brought into the church by Ashe
Holbrook. Through Ashe's diligence the young guy settled into the
church
and managed to get his entire family in, so I heard. I was on the
fringe at
that time and didn't have much involvement. The young guy had
personality
problems and ended up killing himself. I can't remember how. His
entire
family left after that.
I can't ever recall the pastor (Rob Walsh) expressing any concern
over
these people. Maybe he was concerned, but he didn't show it. When I
was in
the PH I thought that was normal. Only after I got out did I discover
churches where the pastor actually demonstrated that he gave a damn
about
people. Most pastors outside of the PH that I've met do actually
care about
people. Walsh didn't, at least not back when he was my pastor. He was
always more interested in the church program and in making sure that
everyone would become a mirror image of himself.
You would think that pastors have a duty of care towards the people
in
their flock. The preaching during my time in CFM when Rob Walsh was
the
pastor was always about how none of us were ever good enough, how we
were
all to blame for the lack of revival, how it was our sin that
stopped God's
hand. You'd think that the first suicide would have been a wake up
call.
Maybe the 2nd? What about the 3rd?
COMMENT ON THE ABOVE
I will just mention a few things. First of all there is the idea
that if
you listen to the doctor then you will believe that you are sick
rather
than you are healed. Mitch [Wayman Mitchell, the founder of the
Potters
House] embraced healing doctrines in the late 80s and taught those as
absolute dogma. He said it was the will of God to heal all the
people in
our churches immediately. In 1992 I asked Mitch, in private meeting
I had
with him, about Harold Warner [a paraplegic pastor] and why he never
got
healed. Mitch stated that it was because of the things that the
health
care officials told Harold and how they prepared him to cope with his
condition. They stressed that it was a permanent condition and
thereby
planted the seeds of unbelief in Harold's mind. For this reason
Harold did
not have the necessary faith to be healed.
OTHER SUICIDE REPORTS IN THE POTTERS HOUSE
-----------
Keep your child very far from the church and your husband's
parents. There
are many on this site who already know what happened to my husband
and
brother in law, 2 1/2 years ago. But to make a long story very, very
short,
my husband and brother in law both died as a result of the pain our
pastor
caused these two precious men. I left after my husband's death and
I will
never look back. Run and run fast.
This is exactly how it went for me and my late husband. We were told
to
separate for 6 months, he went to the Men's home, where he was
treated SO
bad by the "leader, and then we got married. We did love God and I
thank
God for the life that we had together. We really did love the
people too.
It is still so hard to believe that the pastor killed my husband and
brother in law and he still walks a free man. If you are new to
this site
and you are a member of the Potter's House, get out. Don't allow
your
family to be the next victim.
----------------
I really believe that there are a lot of suicides connected with the
fellowship. This is something that is mostly not noticed, but over
the
years I have started to think that many who were involved in that
group
were driven to kill themselves by the abuses they suffered in it and
after
getting out.
When I was still in the Tucson church there was a Jewish man who
came for a
while. He really struggled with all the "standards" and trying to
be good
enough for God. He stayed at the men's home for a while. At one
point he
went out into the desert and hung himself and left a suicide note
stating
that he was praising God for this and it was the only way he could
stop
offending God. The note disappeared, perhaps the police sending it
off to
his relatives, and he was not talked about any more. It was as
though he
had never existed.
I already mentioned another man in the church who, shortly after I
got sent
out, killed himself. He was told not to seek professional
counselling. In
the religious minds of those who are caught up in Wayman's World,
they
can't see a professional counsellor helping anyone in their church.
In
fact, they consider them harmful because they are not "spiritually
equipped" like the "pastor." In reality, the fellowship leadership
has no
doubt murdered some people by steering them away from getting help.
Again,
as I have already stated before, any counsellor worth his or her
salt would
see through the fellowship and recognize it as a destructive cult.
Can't
have that, even if it means someone gets hurt or killed. But of
course,
they never had anyone's best interests in mind, other than their own.
I am wondering how many other suicides are connected with the
fellowship
experience? I suppose that is like wondering how many divorces they
have
caused, how many educations they have aborted, how many kids they
have
distorted, how many families they have bankrupted, and how many
people they
have damaged psychologically for life, especially children.
When I think back on the horrific assault that I endured when I left
that
religious world, I can easily see people being pushed to the place
where
they decided to check out of this life. I wonder how many took
that route?
SUICIDE OF DEBBIE CHRISTENSEN
[DEBBIE MALONE (formerly CHRISTENSEN) will be known by some ex
members of
Christian Fellowship Ministries. She was a member of Paul Campo's
church.
She committed suicide years after she experienced rape in
her "church" and
the rejection by her "spiritual leader", Paul Campo.]
This took place in El Paso. The Church there was called La Peurta,
i.e.,
The Door [which is a part of the Christian Fellowship Ministries
(CFM),
founded by Wayman Mitchell, as is the Potters House].
What Campo told me was that he questioned the guy who Debbie said
raped
her. According to Campo this guy's response was, "She was into
it." That
was enough for Campo to dismiss it and hush up the whole thing from
the
outside world. It sounded like a typical date rape situation. The
point I
tried to make to Campo was that it was a legal issue. Once she told
him
that she was raped, he was obligated to call the police to take a
report.
This is when he became angry with me, asserting that she was lying.
That
would have been up to a jury to decided. The problem is that the
fellowship
is its own society. They consider themselves above the laws of the
land.
As pastor, Campo felt he had the right to make all the calls as to
what
should be done, ignoring the fact that he was legally obligated to
call the
police to take a report. Again, he repeatedly said that he could
not let
the media get a hold of this information.
--- End forwarded message ---