Axroot's Critique of
NCCG Overview
[His in black, mine in green]
[An overview is usually a short general
description of something much larger, and it owes to stick to the facts, as a
rule, omitting the author’s opinion. After the mud hit the fan in the Fast
Facts page, I was expecting at least an objective overview.
Please notice how “seems” and “may” are
used repeatedly in this article. Almost everything the author states “SEEMS” or “MAY” be so. Facts and proof are nowhere to be found, surprisingly
enough. The emphasis in bold is
mine. The most part of the information, especially the description of the
“patterns” that the author supposedly observed is quite inaccurate. It becomes
obvious that the research into NCCG was not quite as thorough as one would
expect.]
NCCG's religious beliefs, at all
times, reflect the current convictions of it's
functional leader, Christoper C. Warren. Warren was apparently involved in the
Mormon Church before starting NCCG, possibly in a leadership or other similar
role. Some of the first members of this group may have been drawn from a Mormon
environment.
NCCG has a small compound about 18.5 miles from Arvika, Sweden. The compound
was purchased in piecemeal, with the first sections being purchased in 1997. As
of this writing, the residents on the property are varied in age, from small
children to elderly, and children are home schooled within the compound. One or
more of the residents on this property appear not to be NCCG members. The
address published by NCCG is a post office box, Box 120, S-671 23 ARVIKA,
Sweden. More information about the compound may be available, see the "exit counselors" link for details.
At the time of this writing, the
compound is discussed on NCCG's website at http://www.nccg.org/Kadesh.html . A diagram of the compound, taken directly from
this site and rotated to an approximately correct compass orientation, is shown
below:
<Kadesh Image>
If it becomes necessary to remove the above image from this report, it will be
replaced with images and/or diagrams that have no potential copyright issues
but that this web site author had originally determined may be unnecessarily
privacy invasive.
[Privacy invasive? That sounds a bit like this: “If you make me take this image down, you
won’t like what I’ll publish in its place, so keep your wits about you”. A threat?]
The more deeply involved members of this group, including Warren himself,
practice polygamy (one man multiple wives), although the extra marriages are
not legally official within NCCG members' governmental localities. Warren has
young children by two women currently living at the compound. At the time of
this writing, Warren is planning marriages to more women this year (2006), and
expects to have "married" 5 in total by the end of the year.
[So how many wives does C.C. Warren have? According to
the author, two. So the more deeply involved members are just 2 women?
Really, that’s such a large and dangerous number! Also, it would be quite
revealing to let us know how he found out C.C. “cult leader” Warren’s secret
and devious plans of marrying 5 women by the end of 2006, assuming this is the
truth. Seriously, how can someone obtain such a piece of information? It is
definitely nowhere to be found in any of the NCCG websites. It is obviously not
something C.C. Warren would discuss but with someone he trusts, assuming he is
polygamous himself (which, if he is, would in all probability force him to be
really careful with whom he shares that kind of knowledge).
Warren is the primary author of a book that resembles a Bible, both in physical
appearance (due to the way Warren chose to have it printed) and in the writing
style employed in the book. The book's content is very much a bible
"knock-off", for lack of a better description, in its physical
appearance and content arrangement. Its content was primarily created by Warren
with contributions to an unknown degree by other group members who were active
at the time of its writing. Numerous visions and revelations received by Warren
have been included in this book, and the book is frequently cited by Warren as
containing prophecies about world events which came true shortly after they
were written. It is also the source of extra rules and guidelines for NCCG.
Parts of this book are, at the time of this writing, visible on NCCG's website
at http://www.nccg.org/olive.html .
[Some more examples of bad
“journalism”. The author mentions a book, he mentions every opinion he has about it, but not its
title! I really expected to find an honest overview here and all I find is
nccg_concern’s opinions over and over. If he cares to give a clear idea of what
NCCG does, it is irrelevant what HE thinks and what impression it gives to HIM.
Facts are needed. Indeed, the Fast Facts page should be called something like
“Fast and spicy overview of my opinions”. But then who cares about
nccg_concern’s opinions? People visit the nccg_concern website because they are
concerned about NCCG, am I wrong? They want to know about NCCG, not about the
person’s with the nickname nccg_concern feelings. What the Olive Branch (which
is the book in question) resembles in this author’s eyes, what it reminds him,
whether it looks like a Bible or not (and so many books do look like a Bible,
obviously the author should visit a local library someday), is far beyond the
objective of this writing, assuming the objective is informing the public about
NCCG, regardless one’s concern.]
Some things which have remained
unchanged for the history of NCCG, to date, are:
- the
inclusion of Warren's personal visions, revelations, and prophecies (often
received in the form of dreams) in NCCG's core beliefs,
- Warren's
position as the functional leader of NCCG,
- Warren's
title of "Presiding Patriarch" within NCCG. He has also been called
"Lev-Tsiyon haEfrayim" for an unknown duration.
- The
display of large, colorful banners with group-specific symbols at group
functions
- Warren's
writing of voluminous material related to NCCG.
Some
things which have changed throughout NCCG's history, often more than
once, are:
- The
people in NCCG's "leadership" other than Warren,
- The
names used for religious deities (IE: Yah'shua and Yeshua and Jesus)
- The
methods and means of evangelizing,
- The
country in which the headquarters is located,
- NCCG's perceived "direction" from God
- NCCG's
actual constituency (members coming and going)
- The
name of NCCG. In addition to having officially changed its name
repeatedly, it has different names in different areas of the written
material on NCCG websites. At the time of this writing, some of the names
are:
- "B'rit Chadashah Assembly of Yahweh",
- "New Covenant Church of God"
- "Guds Nya
Förbunds Kyrka"
- "Mishpachah Gan Lev-Tsiyon" which is clarified in the
source material as meaning "Family of the Garden of the Heart of
Zion" or "The Birth of Josephite Messianic Israel",
depending on where you read it. [Inaccurate information: "Mishpachah Gan
Lev-Tsiyon" does not translate to "The Birth of Josephite
Messianic Israel" in any context.]
- The
different names for NCCG sometimes refer to different perceived
specialties or areas of interest within NCCG. There may also be other names and English language descriptions of
the names.
At the time of this writing, NCCG
combines parts of these beliefs into its core belief system:
- an interpretation of the Bible
- an interpretation of Judaism,
- the
revelations, visions, and prophecies received by Warren
- theophosticism
- acknowledgment
of Satanic Ritual Abuse (SRA) as being real
- demonic
manifestation, and illnesses being caused by demonic influence
[I fail to see any problem with the
above. Most churches and denominations comply with them or most of them.
Again, as I have mentioned
elsewhere, I consider it quite naïve on the author’s part to believe that
SRA is a fairy-tale. There are numerous sources that claim the opposite. His
links that “prove” its non-existence are from one source only. To generalise,
how can someone prove the non-existence of anything?]
NCCG
is presently using the internet as the main tool for its recruitment efforts.
NCCG uses a variety of internet applications to approach new recruits and
typically pretends to be a Christian
group. In reality, the "deep" beliefs are in clear contrast with typical Christianity. These non-christian beliefs are not
brought to the attention of new recruits immediately, but will eventually be
revealed through the recruit's thorough exploration of NCCG's websites or in
the private group chatroom as explained below.
[NCCG pretends
to be a Christian group? There are 3000 articles on Christian beliefs,
interpreting the Bible, giving advice on how to live a Christian life and all
that is pretence? Is that to say,
that in order to attract people to his manipulative spider’s web,
C.C. Warren wrote 3000 articles to successfully pretend he’s Christian? How
this author repeatedly fails to make sense amazes me.
The author says that there are some “deep”
beliefs in clear contrast with “typical” Christianity. Considering the thousand
different denominations, doctrines, interpretations etc, could the author
please inform us what exactly is TYPICAL Christianity?
How does he define it? I’m sure if I asked a theologist what “typical”
Christianity is, he would have a hard time answering. Yet, in the very next
sentence, whatever doesn’t comply with the author’s view of “typical”
Christianity is actually NON-Christian, according to him. Radical, isn’t it? If
you consider yourself as Christian, maybe you should check yourself, according
to this person. Maybe you should check to see if you are the typical sort, otherwise,
you know, you actually just pretend you are Christian… How many Christians, for
instance, believe in evolution? Yet evolution is downright a non-Christian
doctrine. Does this make them non-Christians? Clearly it’s much more
complicated than that and a matter of worldview. So I wouldn’t be so easy to
declare anyone as “non-Christian” or “pretending to be Christian”.]
Two
verified recruitment paths are as follows: [There are no facts or proof for any of
the steps of this path. Considering how rare these steps are in my observation,
I could easily say that what follows is in the most part speculation or
isolated events. To prove this, I am going to provide numbers for the people
who fall into each category, which have been obtained from website counters and
observation.]
- A
group member enters a christian-based Internet Relay Chat (IRC) chatroom
and injects the link for NCCG's public website, www.nccg.org (Website
Number 1), into the chat. [Many of the members of NCCG Cyber Community and
Deliverance from Demons have written their testimony of how they came
across the main website. Not one of them so far has mentioned seeing the
URL being advertised in a chat room. If someone did this, it is not one of
the members. The most common route to find NCCG has been searching for
theological material through Google. Let’s assume, however that what a
person does to start with is to visit the main NCCG website. The visitors
of this website were about 3,000,000 people last autumn.]
- A
chat participant (recruit) sees the link, visits Website Number 1,
and engages the NCCG member in conversation. An online relationship is
established between the NCCG member and the recruit. [Of the
3,000,000 people who have visted the NCCG main website, only about 400
have become members of the NCCG Cyber Community. That is 0.013%. In that
sense, if this was the pattern, then NCCG is a failure! Very few people do
as this author describes. Most will either read as much as they want of
the main website and just leave or discuss it somewhere else.]
- After
a period of indoctrination due to the recruit's reading of material on
Website Number 1 and talking about the website content with the NCCG
member using internet chat, the recruit applies for membership and access
on Website Number 2, the MSN group "Deliverance from Demons
Reception". Reading material available on this MSN group website
indoctrinates the recruit into believing that he or she has mental,
physical, or behavioral problems that are due to demonic possession. [At any
rate, the Deliverance from Demons Reception does not exist any longer but
has merged with NCCG Cyber Community so I will by-pass this “step”.]
- The
recruit becomes sufficiently indoctrinated in these beliefs, and asks for
permission to enter Website/Chatroom Number 3, the MSN group named
"Deliverance from Demons". This website is defined as a
private, invite-only website and chatroom where a special, weekly internet
chat with Warren and other group leadership is held. The recruit is, at
this point, asking to be allowed in so that his or her "demons"
can be expelled. The recruit is only allowed in if he or she convinces
NCCG leadership that the current level of indoctrination and desire to be
"delivered" is genuine. The recruit also has to fill in a
questionnaire with leading questions about NCCG's beliefs in addition to
personal questions. [The number of members in the Deliverance from
Demons group these days is 76 people. Not all, actually a minority, are
members of the NCCG Cyber Community as well. This is obvious as among
believers and those who just investigate religion, seeking to be delivered
from one’s demons is not a tendency of the majority.]
- This
Website/Chatroom #3 is used to indoctrinate the recruit deeper into
NCCG's beliefs, and one-on-one internet chat "deliverance
sessions" are held between the recruit and group elders.
Additionally, Warren reveals some of NCCG's non-christian, radical beliefs
to people who have reached this level. Warren explains that he explicitly
has not put these beliefs on the NCCG.org web site, and that they are only
revealed through direct communication with members. A full explanation of
and attempted exposure to "The Garden", a suggestible, altered
state of consciousness resembling hypnosis (in laymans terms), is an example
of one of these beliefs. [Now as for the weekly chat sessions, the persons
who are active excluding C.C. Warren and his family, are, in fact, no more
than 5 individuals (usually less). Many people have participated briefly
but never returned. Given all that, I seriously doubt the word
“indoctrination”. If the members of the MSN group were indeed
indoctrinated, or had to be so to participate in these chat sessions, they
obviously wouldn’t leave so easily. People come and go without giving any
kind of excuse and most times, never to return, except for these very few
individuals who participate regularly. Yet, even these people don’t focus
on actual deliverance but rather discuss a variety of topics. According to
the NCCG’s own theology, “expelling demons” only requires faith in Jesus
and nothing more. NCCG has posted a number of articles on what I would
call “do-it-yourself deliverance. It is misleading to imply that NCCG
convinces people they have issues which involve “demonic” influence, but
will conceal from individuals how to overcome them until they get to be in
touch with the leader himself. One-on-one deliverance sessions are VERY
rare, this I can say with certainty from observation. Also, despite the
fact that the beliefs C.C. Warren shares may or may not be non-Christian,
at no point is the individual (“recruit”, as if this is the army) forced
to accept any of it. There have often been examples of people disagreeing
with C.C. Warren quite openly. Certainly, no one is a victim of anyone’s
non-Christian ideas in the real world. That way, atheists should be
deprived of the right to say their opinions at all. An example of a
clearly non-Christian belief being withheld from the NCCG investigators
until the NCCG leader gets to speak to them one-on-one would be appreciated.]
- Members
may undergo "deliverance
sessions" with an NCCG member known as a "deliverance
minister", and can end up in a dependent and controlling relationship
with that person. These members will also tend to experience "The
Garden" altered state of consciousness. Both of these can be done
utilizing either internet chat or telephone/internet voice communications. [There
are occasions when a member develops a friendly relationship between themselves and the deliverance ministers (these are 4
people listed in separate documents the NCCG groups). In every case, these
relationships were built on the basis of “asking and receiving”. That is,
the member was in every case the person who wished for a friendly
relationship to be established and also, the deliverance ministers have
never rejected any such invitation. As for this relationship being
characterised with the loaded term “dependent and controlling”, I would
like to see examples, but most of all, hear this from someone who knows
what he is talking about. I know that a “dependent and controlling”
relationship is established by the will of the person who controls and not
of the one who depends, yet this has never happened. The “Garden” will be
discussed later.]
- Recruits
at this level are encouraged to send Warren monetary gifts. [How does
the author know? Again some evidence, a testimony, anything, would be
required for such a claim. To say that a “cult leader grooms” members to
encourage them to send him money later but without any clues to prove it
is quite over the line, isn’t it? If you have an active imagination (and
enjoy attacking people), I suppose you could come up with claims of
psychological manipulation and the like, but asking for money? Can the
author prove it? If he can’t he shouldn’t even mention it.]
- The
structure of NCCG is eventually revealed to the recruit, and the recruit may be encouraged to visit an
elder group member in person (the visit will be to Warren himself, at the
compound, especially if the recruit is Scandinavian). [This
again is inaccurate information. The families at the NCCG collective
cannot easily support more than a few visitors. And again, to think
rationally, would you invite to your home every person you have met
online? They have small children in their house. Do you think that they
would take such visits lightly and they would avidly encourage people to
them? And then again, would you say that the people a family trusts are
“heavily-indoctrinated” individuals? Isn’t there a chance that the persons
who visit a family are NOT the family’s victims but actually their
friends?] During this visit, the recruit
may participate in rituals
which will make him or her a more official member
of NCCG. The activities performed in person may include:
- baptism;
- a ritual in which the recruit
rejects his biological parents and claims a new mother and father within
NCCG; [“Rituals happening in secret” in the NCCG “compound”? I wouldn’t
know, but how does the author know? What happens in the ritual exactly?
Do they sacrifice animals and drink their blood? Why is it called a
ritual? What if the author is just plain imaginative? Besides all the big
and scary words, could we please have some real information?]
- If visiting the compound near Arvika, Sweden for a temporary
visit:
- Encouraging the recruit to stay at the compound, even though the
visit was originally planned as temporary; [Even if we assume this is
true, C.C. Warren was failed dramatically. In another place in this
website, the author says that maybe ONE person is a visitor currently at
the “compound”. Also, all visits from these 5 individuals were planned
and came to an end.]
- Encouraging the recruit to prepare to relocate to the compound at
a later date; [As mentioned before, the families of that live in the
headquarters are incapable of supporting more than a few visitors at a
time. In other words, even if they wanted to “collect” people there,
they wouldn’t be able to.]
- Historical trends
suggest that influencing the recruit
to move to the compound may
include the recruit being told he or she is a candidate for being
appointed a leadership position; [How does the author know
this? What is his evidence? To cut a long story short, what he is
telling us is that NCCG really wants people to move to their “compound”
and use all sorts of persuasion to achieve that. Why doesn’t the author
say it straight out? Because it doesn’t make sense if you consider how
FEW people have ever been “talked into” moving to C.C. Warren’s house
permanently: just ONE person.
Not to mention that the reasons he/she did that could be practically
anything. One person does not make a historical trend.]
- deeper indoctrination;
- participation in group rituals such
as group meals with special meaning to the group; [The only group rituals ever
mentioned in NCCG are the Biblical festivals (millions of people observe
these) and what they call the Lord’s Supper (what this entails may be
found in detail in the NCCG main website). There is nothing mysterious
about these things.]
- attending group functions where
a group elder or Warren preaches; [Well obviously, the man has
written about 500 sermons, he has to read them to someone.]
- Things which at this time do not appear to happen during temporary
compound visits by recruits are:
- making the recruit extremely busy
- sleep deprivation
- enforced cession of
contact with outsiders (phone calls/text messages)
- physical restriction
to the property
[I was amazed by the blunt propaganda this last statement. No other
mention of abuse is there in the nccg_concern webpage except for this one – but
notice that these things do NOT appear to happen. At least not “AT THIS TIME”…
at least not “during temporary compound visits”… Does this subtly imply that in
the future NCCG WILL start keeping their “permanent visitors” under lock and
key? Why does the author mention techniques that in some prisons are used to
torture people (e.g. sleep deprivation) and say, BUT not yet? Why did the author mention 4 things that do NOT
happen? You know, they don’t wear black pointed hats and they don’t breed
leopards either, maybe that should be mentioned too.]
[Just how bewitching are C.C.
Warren’s writings that the “recruit” gets so sucked in that all she wants is to
be delivered from her demons and marry the “cult leader”, you are about to
see.]
- Female
recruit becomes aware of nccg.org and
the groups.msn.com message boards [She just became aware and
she’s a “recruit”? What is a “recruit” according to the author anyway?]
- Recruit
joins the NCCG Cyber Community message board, revealing personal
information during the application process. [All that is needed is a
statement explaining why she wants to join. No personal information
required anywhere.]
- Recruit
begins to engage in chat sessions, both 1 on 1 chat sessions with the
group leader (Christopher C. Warren) and group internet chat sessions with
other NCCG members.
- An online relationship is established through
internet chat with the group leader, and the group leader uses
psychological manipulation to cause the recruit to trust him and view him
as her leader. The recruit becomes progressively more controlled by the
group leader as the relationship progresses. [Yet another raw accusation of
“psychological manipulation” for the sake of ulterior motives. Is the
group leader then such a monster? Seriously, can the same person who did
all the work to build a huge website (nccg_concern himself was impressed)
dedicated to bring people to God be at the same time psychologically
manipulate every supposedly “gullible” young woman? But the most puzzling
thing is why the author of this overview would jump to accuse another
person of being so malicious, without ANY proof whatsoever, and expect you
and I who read this to take his words to heart.
If it is the truth, why is the accusation standing there alone without any
proof or evidence next to it? Why such slander?]
- Recruit
demonstrates changed behavior as indicated in the next section of this
page. The new behaviors may be
introduced in a callous and rigid manner to the recruit's immediate
family, causing a degree of family strife. [This allegation implies that
the author was in a position to monitor the individual’s behaviour BEFORE
she took up the interest in NCCG and her behaviour AFTER and is in
position to compare. This is obviously quite unlikely.]
- At
some time in this process, recruit has begun entering an altered state of consciousness that resembles hypnosis called "The
Garden". [I would like to make a testimony of my own observations of how the
Deliverance from Demon’s chat room functions concerning the “Garden” as
this is mentioned also before. What I can say for sure (because this is a
bit of a mystery to me also) is that the “Garden” is not a state of
hypnosis, nor does it resemble it. Anyone who has experienced it, (or
claimed to do so, I wouldn’t know) where perfectly able to type, discuss
and have clear-as-usual mental and emotional abilities. I can testify
these things because I have been present in such a setting more than once.
However, the “Garden” appeared to be a discussion topic in the Deliverance
from Demons chat room and message board for no more than 2-3 weeks last
autumn. The matter was dropped due to the difficulty so many people had to
“experience” this state. In fact, the people who managed that (or claimed
to have done so) were no more than 2-3 people. Again, poor statistics.
Please note that these people were not even members. Finally, it has NEVER
been so much as implied that the “Garden” is in any way obligatory for
those who wish to be members or join NCCG under any terms.]
- Recruit
accepts the group leader as her "spiritual father" and one of
the group leader's wives as her "spiritual mother" in an online
ritual. If the recruit is still living at home, the recruit's relationship
with her real parents may
become noticeably damaged as this situation
progresses. [Only 3 people call the group leader “spiritual father”, and two of
them are men. It is interesting to parallel the case of the Catholic
priests here whom people call “father” but to my knowledge, none of these
people do through “rituals” (online or offline) to renounce their parents.]
- Recruit
accepts the group leader as her future husband in an online ritual, and
begins making plans to move to NCCG's compound to live in a polygamic
relationship with the group leader and his wives. The full nature of these
plans may be concealed from the
recruit's immediate family. [And the big finale! It’s similar to the end of a
fairy-tale, isn’t it? And yet, ironically, that’s exactly what it is.]
[I wish to point something out about the implied demographics here. So far,
we know that only one person is currently a “permanent visitor” of C.C.
Warren’s house. We also are given the information, but the author himself, that C.C. Warren intends to “add” another 3 women
in his supposed polygamous family. Assuming these statements are valid, that
makes a total of 4 people. Assuming that EVERYTHING the author of this website
says is true, these 4 people and only these are in “danger” (real or imagined)
as of now. These 4 people IN TOTAL are the ones he is concerned about, obviously,
because only these people’s situations, using a considerate amount of spicing,
can fit to the patterns above. It makes me wonder… has he written all this for
JUST them? To take it somewhat further, I am
wondering, has he written all this for the families of these people to see,
perhaps? Because he has had the courtesy to make lists of the “signs” that
seriously involved NCCG members show as a fruit of his “historical” research
(with a sample of 4 people, always according to him). That doesn’t sound scientific
and it doesn’t make any sense.]
The new recruit's behavior changes as the indoctrination and chatroom contact
with Warren and NCCG members progresses. Some of the new characteristics are: [Except for the ones who are more or
less lies or have no proof to back them up, you will notice that the rest are
common for millions of people around the world.]
- Changes in dietary habits - - recruit begins
maintaining "kosher" eating habits, possibly in spite of any
social or family friction this may cause. [Millions eat kosher, millions are
vegetraians, millions are on special diets,
despite any social or family friction this may cause.]
- Recruit
rejects typical Christian holidays, possibly in a callous way that
disregards family members' customs and feelings. [Yes, they WOULD reject
“Christian” holidays, but as for doing it in a callous way, that’s just
speculation, the tabloid kind.]
- Recruit refuses to participate in work, travel,
purchasing of items in stores, or out-of-house activity on Saturdays,
possibly in spite of any social or family friction this may cause. [Millions of Jews and
converted into Judaism around the world do the same, in spite of any
social or family friction this may cause.]
- The
recruit is specifically prepared by existing group members and/or
leadership to expect his or her family and friends to reject them due to
their beliefs, while at the same time, an
attitude of rejection toward them is being fostered through
indoctrination. Parents may be
vilified by the group elders as having caused demonic influence to the
recruit. The exact outcome of this within the family will depend on the
individuals involved, but the intent is to get the recruit to isolate
themselves from their biological family and non-group friends. [It’s
ironic how all the groups members I have seen during deliverance sessions
or any kind of activity being so very serious about biblical teachings
(which is why they change dietary habits, observe the Saturday Sabbath and
so on) but (according to this author) they don’t observe the most well
known and important Christian doctrine which is to love and respect one
another. Is he telling us that they are “indoctrinated” to do EXACTLY as
the Bible says (even somewhat difficult things like resting every
Saturday), but NOT when it comes to relationships in their own families
and friends? In fact I have witnessed people being corrected in group chat
sessions for treating their parents in a rude or provocative way. A person
was actually given the advise to hug her mother regularly (she was cold
towards her earlier).]
- The
recruit may send money, either
small or large sums, directly to Warren. [Millions send donations to
charities and churches. Bad sign?]
- The
recruit may receive specific
orders from the group elders regarding large changes in his or her
personal life, such as ceasing contact with a friend or family member,
relocation to a new residence, or terminating a boyfriend/girlfriend
relationship. [Consider: the Catholic Church is against pre-marital
relationships. That basically excludes the option of having a boyfriend. Are
they dangerous too? This is no news. The Bible condemns fornication and
whoever abides with the Bible accepts this as a rule. My suggestion is
that the author should be honest and blame the one on whom the real
“blame” for these rules is to be placed on: God. Is the author an atheist?]
- The
recruit may come to believe
that the group elders, above all others, "know what is best" for
that individual, and feel driven to obey directions from them. [It is
obvious that a person who joins a religious group is willing to place a
leader over his own head. It is also obvious that he/she will follow that
leader because this is what the word leader means: one who is followed.
Now who a group-member consults is his/her own choice.
Most people who are NOT members of religious groups have persons in their
lives who they believe they “know what is best”. Actually many people out
there seem to believe that they “know what is best” for just about
everyone else, including nccg_concern, apparently.]
The contents of
the "Deliverance from Demons" chatroom has been observed on a
number of occasions. This chatroom appears
to be a milieu control environment. Some
facts about how the chat is conducted are:
- Much
group discussion and activities are led by "Community Moderator"
(usually Christopher Warren) and "Female Moderator" (appears to
be one of Warren's 'wives');
- A
verbal and behavioral protocol appears to be in place where Warren and
female_moderator are treated as parent-like figures. Referral to the pair
by many of the chat participants as "Dad" and "Mom"
can be extensive and repetitive. [As I mentioned before, this was done
exclusively by a tiny number of people. It’s not a pattern, surely not a
protocol.]
- When
strange dreams and other mental phenomena, including those which resemble
psychotic episodes or psychological problems, are reported by the
lower-ranking or new chat participants, they are often explained by
Warren, female_moderator, or other higher-ranking group members as being
caused by demons. [Again, this is inaccurate. Strange dreams may also be caused by
God, according to what NCCG believes, and be interpreted as such. At any
rate, they have their own way to do this and it us ultimately up to the
individual to decide whether the interpretation will be taken to heart or
not. Many psychologists do this too, very often giving contradicting
answers, which is to show that their way of interpreting dreams is not
very accurate and most of it suffers doubt and dispute among scientists of
the same subject.]
- Chat
participants who do not follow what appears to be an expected path of
accepting the determinations provided by Warren and others are ejected
from the chatroom. This does not happen often due to the screening process
applied to applicants for this chatroom; [What is the path of
determinations? It would be useful to have it quoted here by the author,
but to cut a long story short, all which is expected (as written down and
published in the group) is honesty and politeness. Expecting politeness is
of course common sense, but expecting honesty is in most cases a bit of a
luxury.]
- Young
people who have relationships with non-group biological parents have been
seen to be coached to cut the relationships and cultural ties off. This
activity seems prevalent when a
person is being groomed for deeper involvement with NCCG (such as core
membership at NCCG's compound). [In most western countries, people are expected
to leave home when they reach a certain age (about 18 to 20) and they are
expected to “cut the ties” between themselves and mom and dad and live
alone. Regardless the fact that only a tiny bunch of people seem to be
interested in what the author calls “deep involvement” (I just call it
interest), even fewer of them actually live or have existing ties with
their parents. So the activity SEEMS
prevalent? Where are the facts?]
Other groups.msn.com group web sites
and chat rooms exist for people who have been recruited even farther into
NCCG's membership.
NCCG makes extensive use of instant messaging internet chat software.
Things which can happen using this form of communication are:
- "Deliverance
sessions". Psychotic eposides in the person receiving the deliverance
(called a "client") have been noted to occur relative to these
sessions. [The author forgets or maybe does not know: psychotic episodes can
occur relative to anything.]
- "The
Garden" altered state of consciousness/hypnotic state.
- A
dependent and controlling relationship can be created between an NCCG leader and a recruit. This
relationship, if it occurs, appears certain to be used to move the recruit
toward a very deep level of involvement, especially if the recruit is
female. Recruits in this position may
be making life-altering decisions and commitments regarding NCCG. [A
repetition of the previous supposedly “prevalent” pattern and the previous
loaded words and the usual lack of evidence.]
Some points about the nccg websites, and Warren's writing in particular, should
be noted:
- The
website at www.nccg.org is currently one of the main sources for
dissemination of information about NCCG to new recruits.
- The
websites http://groups.msn.com/deliverancefromdemonsreception and
http://groups.msn.com/deliverancefromdemons have written material that
discusses some of the secretive information about NCCG, and Warren is the
administrator of the websites ("Community Moderator" in his
posts). A general MSN group website is http://groups.msn.com/NCCGCyberCommunity . There are additional
groups.msn.com boards for even deeper-involved members.
- Warren is the author of virtually all of the
material on the nccg.org website, and he is an extremely prolific
writer. The phrase "compulsive writer" comes to mind after
noting Warren's writing habits and volume as noted throughout NCCG's
history. [Are journalists compulsive writers too? They sure write more than
C.C. Warren in a week. This is how DSM-IV defines “compulsion”:
- repetitive
behaviors (e.g., hand washing, ordering, checking) or mental acts (e.g.,
praying, counting, repeating words silently) that the person feels driven
to perform in response to an obsession, or according to rules that must
be applied rigidly
- the behaviors
or mental acts are aimed at preventing or reducing distress or preventing
some dreaded event or situation; however, these behaviors or mental acts
either are not connected in a realistic way with what they are designed
to neutralize or prevent or are clearly excessive
Can the nccg_concern author diagnose a person with a compulsion or was
just that a random phrase that “came to mind”? If he can, what is his evidence?
Under what authority? If it was random, which in all
probability was, does nccg_concern have perhaps a habit of writing down his
random thoughts and whatever “comes to mind”? Judging from the material here, it
may well be so.]
- This
website contains a huge volume of Warren's writings, and as a result of
the sheer volume of material provided, the information is difficult to
absorb in a comprehensive, organized way. Further complicating the task,
some of this material is contradictory, even within the same piece of
writing. The phrase "information overload" comes to mind as a
description of what it was like to investigate this written source
material in my research. [How sad that this author can’t absorb it. So many
people claim to have done so – I myself had no problem keeping up. Maybe
he should read a little slower, take small breaks, or keep notes, have
some water… Just friendly advice. The word “immature” comes to mind as a
description of the impression this writer gives to an adult with honest
concerns about NCCG. The fact that he’s unaware of how many books resemble
the Bible in appearance, and his testified difficulty with absorbing large
quantities of information in an organised way says it all. University students,
whatever they may study, but especially those who do research, are
required to read volumes, and no one complains.]
- Some
of Warren's self-contradictory writings are in regard to the more radical
beliefs of NCCG, such as demonically-induced sickness. It may be possible that these
contradictions have been included deliberately, so that when confronted
about the radical beliefs, Warren has the choice of denying or affirming
either position, depending upon the audience. In effect, the extreme
volume of writing plus the contradictions mean that it may not be possible
to state conclusions about NCCG from the perspective of an outsider
without Warren being able, at least superficially, to explain away the
conclusions to group members or others. [The NCCG main webpage has
been out of date for the last year. Beliefs and practices are bound to
have evolved and in retrospect contradict each other. The best way to
handle a seeming "contradiction", obviously, is to make an
effort to understand than condemn the material altogether. Yet consider
that this webpage contains no more than 8 articles (minutes the ones where
the author replies to C.C. Warren’s statements) and there are MANY
contradictions, not only with his own writings but also with common sense
itself. The phrase “hunting ghosts” comes to mind considering that the
writer suggests the possibility that even the contradictions are
deliberate. Maybe C.C. Warren has some super-ingenious mind that carefully
plants contradictions. Or maybe if the author of this website was a tad
more skilled at absorbing information, he would have spotted fewer
“contradictions” and be less puzzled.]
[Clearly, a
disappointing overview. Something rather impressive that I found in the letter that
nccg_concern wrote to Derek Rumpler:
“The whole concept of WORDS is that
they have a meaning in people's minds, and communicate an understanding --
throwing "probably" here and there throughout the text in a way that
allows a false expectation in the minds of the majority of the readers would
not excuse those false understandings due to an alternate linguistic
interpretation.”
The author of this statement is the
author of the website I am criticising – the same person whose writings swarm
with “may” and “seems” and other expressions that indicate probability. What he
says in the above statement is that words are so powerful that even if you add
a “probably” next to them, the statement you make continues to remain valid,
even if “probably” suggests that there is a significant chance that it may be
false. What a wise observation.
Now in this overview, to sum up, we
have a whole series of pretty heavy accusations, loaded words and many hints
that the NCCG leader is a controlling pervert, none of which has been escorted
with proof, but nearly all of which is hand in hand with a “probably, maybe,
seems to”. I wanted to suggest earlier that this is propaganda, but refrained
wondering if this word is perhaps too strong. Now I find that nccg_concern has
seen to characterising this sort of writing as propaganda already.]
P.S. I have brought the Catholic
Church as an example more than once in this article. I would like to make clear
that I have nothing against the Catholic Church. The purposes I mentioned it
were purely to show that some of the practices that are implied to be
“dangerous” or “cultic” in this article are actually common practices taken out
of context and pointed at to create this illusionary effect. Where the Catholic
Church was brought as an example it was to show that millions of people perform
the same practice as mentioned by the author, but these are not frowned upon by
public opinion nor considered as the fruits of malevolent disposition.
All materials not in black typeface are copyright © 2006 Axroot