Why I Wrote This Page

This is the church turned upside down, where pain is right and truth is wrong.

The International Churches of Christ are not your average, everyday church at all. Instead, I found them to be the nightmare I woke up to. Even though I had been raised in a devout Christian family, they tried to convince me I was not and had never been a "true" Christian - because I was not successful at winning converts. They preach what is in essence a saved by works theology, and the principle work in question is converting others.

The short of my story was that I was involved with the ICC and was at first attracted by the level of committment they displayed. It wasn't long, however, before I saw how much of this committment was because the leaders constantly berated members who did not obey them, and told people who did not accept their demands that they were in sin and in danger of going to Hell. The last straw came when the evangelist (their equivalent of a pastor) told the congregation he had the authority to tell members to move across town, and if they didn't pack all their belongings and move within two weeks, they were in sin! I decided to leave the very next morning.

Since then, I have examined their teachings and reevaluated my experiences with them. The times they tried to use the Bible to "prove" I had never been a Christian proved to be a lot less Biblical than I thought. Their claim that I wasn't a Christian because I had not successfully converted another to follow Christ had brought me to tears, but now I saw how they had twisted the Bible to convince me of this, and it was a false teaching. Instead of being the most committed church I'd seen, I saw them as the most abusive, controlling church I'd ever seen.

Eventually, I decided that I needed to do something to warn others of the dangers posed by this church. That is why I have put up this website, written leaflets against the ICC, and examined the Scriptures to see how they twist the Bible.

Here is the complete story of my involvement with the Greater Cleveland Church of Christ. Also, you can read about my life after leaving the ICC, and I've recently added a page of poetry I've written about the ICC.

After leaving, I wrote this letter to the members of the Greater Cleveland Church of Christ. I'm presenting it here so that former ICC members, current ICC members, and any other interested party can see some of the complaints I had about the ICC. I didn't list them all, as I wouldn't expect them to listen at all if I did.

I have also posted a transcription of the notes I took while in the ICC on this site for anyone who is interested in studying the ICC's teachings.