Outwardly sheep, but inwardly ravenous wolves

I came across a rather interesting (and rather long) article from the Dallas Observer last night, about The Trinity Foundation. It's compelling reading if for no other reason than it's the first even remotely negative piece I've read about Trinity, and in this case the negativity isn't all that remote.

Several former members liken it to a cult, describing situations where Trinity members were put, one a time, into a hot seat where they were verbally abused and excorciated until they were broken. They also describe fairly demanding standards of submission to Ole Anthony's leadership, something that reminds me of the Shepherding movement I've heard about before in charismastic and evangelical circles, where believers are allowed to make no significant decisions without approval from a pastor or other anointed leader. And of course, members who leave the fold reportedly are regarded as anathema and are to be shunned.

My own impression, after reading it, is that there's probably some truth to the allegations, but I'm not sure it rises to the level of a cult, if you know what I mean. Trinity may be a toxic community in some ways, and it's quickly that if Ole is as charismatic as I've heard tell, then that probably lends to abuse, a personality cult (as opposed to a theological one) and so on.

On a personal note, as I read the article, I was struck by some parallels between what ex-Trinity members were describing and some of the stuff I remember from the Lafayette Christian Fellowship, back in college. It's no exaggeration that the Leadership Team and the Exec largely did what Mark wanted. I remember at one meeting that he said something about people shouldn't just pick dorms to live in on their own, but they should turn that over to God and figure out the "best place" to advance the kingdom.

That's true, I suppose, but what I remember it meaning, practically speaking, was that there was a meeting where LCF leaders decided where everyone on the leadership team should live. Much of the leadership development and selection was done in secret; i.e., each of the next year's leaders was hand-picked in a meeting run by Mark and usually resulted in Mark's people getting onto the team. I seem to recall one participant even saying something about Mark being annoyed when Jennifer Neeves was picked to be on Exec.

And of course I can tell you plenty of stories about being marginalized and being branded as unteachable because I didn't subscribe to Mark's eschatology, his views on predestination, biblical inspiration, and because I decided I preferred involvement in my church to involvement in the LCF by my senior year. (my best friend refers to this individualism as my gift of martyrdom.)

People who dropped out of the LCF generally weren't socialized with any more, despite the great protestations of friendship and love that had existed before they dropped out. I believe the standing consensus was that such drop-outs weren't really Christians.

But of course, I don't regard to the LCF as a cult. It was deeply, horribly flawed. For some people it was a coral reef that they steered away from or ran aground on and took years to recover from, if they ever did. I remember Block did some sort of research for a religion paper where he found strongly negative reactions to the LCF from many members of the college community, including some avowed Christians.

Some of the flaw existed in Mark, and his need to ensure that everything went the way it needed to; and some of the flaw existed in members like me, who either lacked the willingness to call something wrong or the wisdom to voice that criticism well, or committed the same exact sins as Mark in different ways.

Chances are that if you survey all the churches and parachurch organizations in North America, even if they meet all the tests for orthodoxy of doctrine, they'll still run afoul of other tests that mark cults. Every church I've been in has had vocal critics who, with sound reason, see monumental and un-Christlike failings in those churches. We're all alike in sin.

We all stand guilty, and God will judge.