Well, for starters, the answer is not, "Straight to Hell!" While many people who leave the ICC have already figured out that they are not going to Hell for leaving the ICC, I've heard to many testimonies from people who left the ICC because they could not take the pressure put on them and believed at the time they were going to Hell. So I'll say it again: You are not going to Hell for leaving the ICC!

There are a lot of misconceptions about leaving that the ICC tries to instill in its members. First is that to leave the ICC is to leave God. This is absolutely not true. I for one can honestly say I feel closer to God now that I have left the ICC than at any time I was involved with them. I'm not going to come up with a lengthy list of good deeds or claim I'm living a sinless life, since the Bible says that it is impossible for me to be sinless and that no matter how many good deeds I do, they will not get me into Heaven. But now, I find myself wanting to read the Bible far more often than when I was in the ICC. I often experience a kind of peace while praying, studying the Bible, and trying to serve God in whatever way I can that I never felt in the ICC. After leaving the ICC and its modern-day Phariseism, I believe I have found what it truly means to be free in Christ.

If you're someone who has just left the ICC, you may be feeling depressed, betrayed, maybe even wondering if God was something a priest made up to make a dishonest living. I went through all of that too when I left. But when I questioned my faith, I found answers. It's taken time, but my faith has healed for the most part, and I feel I have learned many important lessons. So I'm presenting what I have learned in the hopes that it may benefit others who are going through what I went through.

I'd kind of hesitate to define a real set of steps for recovery from the ICC's spiritual abuse. You'd need to take very long strides for a 12-step plan to get you anywhere. Instead, I see the road to recovery as a journey many tiny steps, and I just hope I can provide a few signposts or lanterns to show you the road I have taken.

There are many factors which have helped me recover from the ICC. First, the saying, "Knowledge is power," is very true in this case. The more you understand what has happened to you, the better equipped you will be to deal with it. The ICC's operations have both a psychological and a spiritual side to them, and I have found it helpful to understand both the psychological nature of their control and the cases where they have distorted Scripture.

Second, contact with former members has been a big help to me. It's been very helpful to speak with people who understand what I've been through, to compare notes, to share stories of how we have dealt with leaving. One of the largest lists of contacts is maintained by REVEAL. I'm on that list, and if you don't feel like searching for my email address there, here it is. There are also several support groups out there for former members. I'm not a member of any of those, although I am subscribed to a mailing list of former members.

Thirdly, I've managed to find a very loving and supportive church. I know that attending a church may bring back too many painful memories for some former members. But finding a truly loving church has helped me to reestablish my conviction that Christianity is not always the way the ICC makes it out to be. I will post advice on how to go to church without painful reminders of the ICC in my upcoming section on denominationalism.

There's a lot more to recovering from the ICC than general principles, of course. Most of the articles I'm writing for this section deal with specific problems caused by the ICC, from difficulties reading the Bible to refutations of ICC doctorines. I can't provide the answers to all questions raised by leaving the ICC; some you must find for yourself. But I hope that the answers I have found will provide some assistance to others who are on the same journey as mine.