In The Midst Of It All by Tiffany L. Warren
Do you know anybody who’s involved with a cult? Have you ever joined a cult?
Zenovia has always been a loner. She has a schizophrenic mother, and she must watch her mom closely, hoping she doesn’t have one of her “spells” while in the company of others. She can’t have friends because explaining her mom’s condition to others just proves too difficult – plus, they would simply not understand. Things change for Zenovia when her and her mom receive some visitors from a church called The Brethren. Zenovia’s life makes a huge change when her and her mom are befriended by this unconventional, friendly congregation.
This book took me back in time, a long time back. So many things that the Brethren practiced, their weird beliefs, reminded me of my childhood, back when I was raised in the Jehovah’s Witness religion. The things that Zenovia and her mother faced, even the cavalier attitude of the Brethren regarding mental illness, was very realistic. This book is quite truthful in the way that a cult twists scripture and instead of having salvation by grace, they believe that salvation is granted by the heads of their church, which is totally wrong.
If you want to know what it’s like, being in a cult, then this is an excellent book to read. I highly recommend this novel.
So, have you ever been in a cult? Do you know anybody who has been involved in a cult? If so, what happened? Were they able to leave that toxic religion?
I’m putting this title on my to-be-read list. There was one church, where while I was a member, I did not feel that it could have been considered as a cult. However, during my membership, many well meaning friends, relatives and co-workers persistently advised otherwise. While I could not see, or did not want to see, the truth at the time, I finally did agree that some things did not add up. After a bit of research independently, I decided that it would be best for me to leave that church. Looking back, I do feel now that the church is a borderline cult and am glad I was able to easily leave.
My husband and I attended a church that we feel may have been border-lined cult. One of my co-workers advised that she thought it was a cult when she saw the new membership application. I still have that application, never threw it away. I might scan and post on my blog to see if other churches do this when admitting new members. We’d never seen questions like those when joining a church before!