People Who Escaped Cults Are Sharing The Most Frightening Things They Experienced

7.

“I was accidentally in a religious cult. I would see how the pastor would treat non-members and members who didn’t comply with what he wanted. I would think, ‘I hope he doesn’t start acting this way towards me.‘ He would berate people, gossip, expect us to stay at his house until late hours, forbid us to hang out with non-members, and he even asked me to move in when I already had my own place. I noticed it was a cult when I told them I was hanging out with an old friend, and they proceeded to ask why, because they were my friends. I came to a service the following Sunday, and the pastor saw me and said, ‘I had a message I was going to preach, but I’m going to preach a different message today.’ The whole service was pretty much him talking shit about me and making rude jokes…”

“I knew his sermon was about me when he kept referencing the ‘person’ hanging out with other people and saying it was sinful. I never felt so embarrassed in my life; everyone was laughing at me. I sat there the entire service, embarrassed. Once I left, several members attempted to contact me, a few of them trying to ‘go to the movies’ with me at midnight when they knew damn well the closest movie theatre was an hour away. After I stopped going to that church, a few of the members completely stopped talking to me, despite us being ‘friends.’ I still can’t believe that happened to me.”

—u/Tito_Santana