Bij Rick Ross, (z'n instituut onderzoekt sekte's en andere controversiële bewegingen), las ik een mijns inziens zeer herkenbaar verslag.

Een paar fragmenten uit het relaas van Dave en Theresa Leonardi die bij een sekte belandden, die aardig wat overeenkomsten vertoont met  de ervaringen van ex-Berea leden.

"The prophet singled me out in the service. [He] called me up front, said that I was stubborn, that I needed to turn my life over to the Lord, and I needed to get back with my wife. And I, for some reason, believed that there was a slaying in the Spirit. You know how they slay you and you go out. He pushed on my forehead, so it was like he was pushing me back."

"Dave's offer of a ten-thousand-dollar loan wasn't enough. "The next Sunday he [the pastor] went into the service, and made a big sermon about someone wanting to loan him money instead of giving him money. It's like a subtle pressure." 

"Dave felt humiliated. He said it was a typical church ploy to make you feel at fault even if you weren't. Church members often were made to feel that whatever they did wasn't good enough. " 

"When Dave began refusing to obey church rule, church authorities began planting seeds of doubt about him in Theresa Leonardi's mind. They told Theresa things like "Boy, he must be really abusive at home. I bet he hits you. I bet he yells."

"She was told to treat me like cancer, and to run every time she saw me. This is the type of brainwashing they would do. So I just went about my life, and I was very happy to be out. Once you're out and you aren't under that control, it's like getting out of prison. You're free. You can do what you want. I mean I was doing things. I was going to the lake. I was doing things I never did before. "

"The Leonardis were also subjected to a subtle form of intimidation. People wouldn't wave or talk to them and would turn away when they saw them. Their home was even vandalized on more than one occasion. "I can't prove who did the egging or the knife slashing or that kind of stuff, but we [had] never had any problems up to that point," Leonardi remembers."

Lees hoe een sektarisch kerkgenootschap opereert, de manipulatietechnieken die ze toepassen en de schade die ze aanrichten.  Het is een tamelijk lang stuk en het is in het Engels, maar het is goed geschreven, dus dat zal de geïnteresseerde lezer niet weerhouden: het Victory kerkschandaal.