Shameless Victimism, The Faust’s & The Anti-Gay Grace Church Seattle
by pinkagendist
(Picture has been removed at the request of Katy Faust)
What you see above is a map. A map of what Grace Church Seattle calls home communities. On their website they describe these groups as “mini-churches: the leader is like a shepherd who leads the group to be dedicated to living the Gospel in community – also known as Incarnational Community (a group in which Jesus Christ incarnates Himself). We ask that these groups be based on location, be open to newcomers, and prayerfully seek ways to intentionally serve and reach out to the neighborhood in which they live.”
If you examine the GCS website, you’ll find a wealth of interesting material. The indoctrination curriculum (they call them questions) for their home groups is particularly interesting. For the week of March 30th, one of the questions included was “Can Christians be Demonically Possessed?”
The more you look through their website and juxtapose that on Mrs. Faust’s now exposed scam, and Mr. Faust’s reaction to those events, the more one thing becomes clear: their methodology.
- Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged or even punished.
- The leadership dictates, sometimes in great detail, how members should think, act, and feel.
- The group is elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself, its leader(s) and members (they are ‘saved’ whilst everyone else is ‘lost’).
- The group has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, which may cause conflict with the wider society.
- The group teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify whatever means it deems necessary. This may result in members’ participating in behaviors or activities they would have considered reprehensible or unethical before joining the group (for example, lying, deceiving etc.)
- The leadership induces feelings of shame and/or guilt in order to influence and/or control members. Often, this is done through peer pressure and subtle forms of persuasion.
- The group is preoccupied with bringing in new members.
- The group is preoccupied with making money.
- Members are expected to devote inordinate amounts of time to the group and group-related activities.
- Members are encouraged or required to live and/or socialize only with other group members.
- The most loyal members (the “true believers”) feel there can be no life outside the context of the group. They believe there is no other way to be, and often fear reprisals to themselves or others if they leave (or even consider leaving) the group.
The list above is taken from Characteristics Associated with Cultic Groups – Revised Edition by Janja Lalich, Ph.D. & Michael D. Langone, Ph.D. They’re the most widely recognizable methods of psychological manipulation used by cults/sects. Most of these tactics are codified by GCS’s Membership Covenant, others can be gleaned from the delusive practices of leaders and members of the group.
Also worth highlighting is their total disconnect from reality. Despite having very rigid rules and regulations, they exempt themselves from those rules while asking that they be applied to others. The Faust’s endeavours are particularly fascinating in this regard. Mrs. Faust was creating and enforcing a hostile environment for LGBT children, teens and adults, but doing it from anonymity- and Mr. Faust now claims that exposing her is cyber-bullying and intimidation.
Note the contradictions in his writing, used to justify Mrs. Faust’s behaviour while attacking others:
“Now there are people out there who refuse to show a real picture or use a real name and they like to hide behind a computer screen and say things that a normal person would never say in a face-to-face conversation. But for some reason when they get behind their mask and write in a pseudo-screen name they become emboldened to say what they are really thinking and feeling with emphasis!!!! Robert Putnam calls this developing a Cyber Super-Ego. I call it another form of bullying.
One reason people develop a screen name might be out of fear. And this fear is real. There are people out there savvy enough at using the internet to destroy, intimidate, or strike fear into people (and sometimes they do real harm). These people don’t like what certain people are saying and once they realize they have been out reasoned in a discussion they resort to name calling or worse, and sometimes try underhanded tactics such as getting information about people to unmask them posing a potential threat to their family, livelihood, reputation, etc”
He begins by implying anonymity is wrong when he falsely attributes it to other people. Followers know I’m anything but anonymous, having certainly been bored to death by my stories regarding my family history, Mike’s life as an actor in the RSC and beyond. Endless bad mirror pictures and pictures of our house from every angle imaginable. Many of you probably even know our dog’s names and where we go out to eat! But that fact doesn’t bridge Mr. Faust’s disconnect from his cult world to reality.
He then changes direction and implies that anonymity is only bad if done by other people. His wife is obviously not one of those behind the mask, emboldened by anonymity! Her anonymity is based in benign fear.
Isn’t that a clever trick? These people are experts in distortion. He projects his wife’s behaviour onto people who weren’t doing what she was doing, calls the behaviour wrong, and then finds a way to say “but if she did it, it’s totally justified!”. The rules that apply to others don’t apply to those within their sect.
This is an example of the Faust’s and Grace Church Seattle’s warped world view and how they use it to benefit themselves and further their agenda- in the next few days I’m going to continue analyzing their practices and the material they make available on the internet for a more in-depth look.
Further Reading:
- “Can you hear the piteous weeping? The wronged tears? Those poor bigots are under attack. Those who are prejudiced against gay people are having their constitutional right to say so trampled. It’s a terrible injustice: you can’t believe that gay people are lesser without some pesky homosexual objecting and “bullying” you into believing that equality under the law is a venerable aim.” :In Gay Rights Fights, Bullies Love to Play the Victim by Tim Teeman
- “And while I am not easily shocked, I have been quite horrified to read how obsessive and deluded some of these people are. If they had their own way, they would impose religious law in any Christian country (and the rest of the world if they could beat Islam, for example) and civil rights would go out of the window” :Lies, damned lies, and ‘The Bible’ by Rough Seas in the Med
- “I am angry and offended, even outraged, at the rampant abuse of people, especially children, to deny them their own humanity. Ordinary people are the “flock,” the “fallen,” the “unworthy,” the “sinful.” The reason they are so labeled? Because they are guilty of Original Sin and if they do not repent they will burn in the barbeque pits of Hell for all time. (Yes, I am talking about you Christians.)” :Why I Am an “Angry Atheist” by Steve Ruis
They’re an odd bunch, indeed. Cults are, though, always a little weird.
This one seems highly effective in that their set-up covers every aspect of life. The indoctrination factor is finely tuned. In their own words they have programs for children “from birth to high school”: http://www.gracechurchseattle.org/#/sunday-mornings-grace
They have to meet regularly outside the church, they’re expected to proselytize in their neighbourhoods…
Good finds! I laughed about the accusation that you and Ark are hiding behind internet identities, when you both frequently publicise your names and even where you live. They can answer to my weeping mother if they go all eye for eye and uncover my identity.
“I understand the importance of submission to church leadership and will be diligent to preserve unity and peace; I will adhere to Grace Church’s primary theological issues, and I will not be divisive over secondary issues”
Em, wow! That is seriously disturbing. No discussion allowed. They’re building a modern version of the Catholic Church and Faust is the new Pope?
It goes to show they’re living in some sort of parallel universe.
Next I’m going to explore the case that Mrs. Faust kindly shared with us concerning the married youth pastor/volunteer and the 15 year old girl. It turns out the sexual harassment case I asked her about involves a church of the same name, not theirs.
In any event, I think it illustrates how when parameters are arbitrary, rather than based in reason, people can easily get ‘confused’.
Yeah, I am really anonymous – especially to illiterate folk who are unable to click on my about page or my book.
It would take a degree in Sherlock Holmes Super Sleuth
to join the dots.
Sheesh!
Damn! (Well, I’m clearly damned to hell forever anyway) but you have just reminded me with your comment to Violet that I forget to put a nice religious childhood abuse story link to my post. I suppose they are two a penny though so what’s the added value – apart from acknowledging the victims, so maybe I will go back and add it.
I swore I wouldn’t write about religion, but reading around other blogs/websites as well as Ms Extremely Bigoted and Unpleasant, I thought I would do a one-off post seeing as it is certainly topical at the moment.
As I didn’t want to write on Ms EB and U’s blog again, it seemed easier to write on mine that these people are a load of charlatans. We all dissent in different ways.
I read Tim’s post, I’ll read Steve’s next. The question is will any of us change opinion? Still worth the effort. I’ll go back and add the rape and abuse stories to mine.
Prepare to get very angry: http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-26820786
I can’t. I’ve just spotted a full point that should be a comma and that takes priority.
All cult/group leaders chose a common “enemy” to rally the group against.
It helps reinforce the “Us v Them” mentality and gives cult members something to focus on—vanquishing the enemy—instead of their challenging the dubious philosophies of the group/cult.
Examples: Nazis v the Jews, Islam v infidels, Christians v gays, and to a certain extent, Scientologist v Suppressive People.
Because of this indoctrinated “group think,” it is virtually impossible to persuade cult members to back off. They believe they are on a special mission to stop “fill in blank with enemy”.
And if gays didn’t exist, the fundamentalist Christians would assign some other group as their enemy, possibly single women who have the audacity to engage in sex.
Mr Faust thinks you may have misrepresented them. He explains more on the cyber-bully post comments and gives a link to an old post about the wrong scandal you unearthed.
I see what he’s trying to do, but at this point I just don’t buy it. Mrs. Faust is a liar, that’s an established fact. From that point on, everything is fruit of the poisonous tree.
What did she lie about? She may have had reason to hide her identity. But I agree it’s better people know exactly who they are, and the agenda they bring with them.
It wasn’t just one person. I’m talking about a group of nearly 100% of ‘supporters’ on her blog are posting messages from practically the same geolocations.
Keep in mind that at first they denied any connection. If Hewho actually exists as an independent entity, he dissimulated his alleged relations until Mrs. Faust had been exposed.
There’s still been no explanation regarding the IP overlaps, which I imagine is related to these home community meetings.
Plus, I have no idea of Hewho’s name. Never said any such thing. All I have are two IP’s he posts from which coincide with other posters. I have no evidence he’s an independent agent or even a real person.
I did uncover Mrs. Faust’s name, if you want to know how, I’ll give you details privately 😉
Yes, I think they’ve been a bit confused and paranoid about the whole thing. To be honest, it’s understandable for someone who chose to blog anonymously, and I do feel a bit uncomfortable with it. But I think that given the IP address clashes you found, your suspicions were well-founded. I’ve often thought it was a big scam of a blog, given the inconsistencies in the ‘love’ tone and the number of commenters without blogs. Besides their situation with their frightening church is vital background knowledge for anyone wanting to know how seriously to take them.
It was me who mentioned Hewho’s name in a comment to John. He’s the blog editor’s husband (Frau M?) and gives his named email address with his comments. I’m not sure they’ve lied about anything. Just hidden things we would consider pertinent.
Just wanted to add… the scam wasn’t limited to the guy with the same IP. After the fact, a number of people have mentioned knowing the Faust’s and being part of their church. Disclosure of such issues are thoroughly relevant to the discussion.
For example, if I’m researching an artifact that belongs to me, I submit my findings to a peer before presenting them as fact because I’m an interested party.
What the Faust Posse was doing was creating a false sense of an organic movement and systematically pushing that misleading impression.
They fed the bigotry, asked the bigotry be perpetuated and then hid their participation in the whole debacle.
Off topic, but you know the fast food chain called Chick Fil A? Gives millions to anti-gay groups. The CEO speaks out against gay marriage. It brags about having “good” Christian values.
Anyway, my neighbor, who prides himself on being an evangelical rushed to eat there to show his support when one opened here.
He got Salmonella from their chicken salad sandwich, which was made in China (??!) and shipped here. Spent months in the hospital, almost died, had to have heart surgery. He’s still gravely ill, and will die as a result of what that good Christian valued sandwich did to him.
Wonder what he thinks about this company’s Christian values of selling food made so cheaply it can prove fatal to eat.
I think I read something about American chickens being shipped to china for processing and then shipped back. Maybe that was it? I’m not a fan of globalisation.
Truly scarey people. I did briefly check out the Fausts’ blogs and am horrified by what I read. You are completely right in exposing them for the cult they are. Isn’t there a cult watchgroup they can be reported to?
Nicely done (even if some would define your research for the truth as “bullying”). I’m always impressed how you take the high road every time, never getting drawn into their anger and frustration. You are totally un-rile-able! (Not sure if that’s a word, but it should be.)
Pink, I told you directly who I was long before your fantastic detective work revealed anything. And I have pretended nothing. At this point I feel I may have to say I have converted to Christianity so you will accuse me to the contrary and in doing so, finally be right.
This is however a fabulous conspericy theory, maybe you can work it into your Holy Grail novel. I do agree with you on the latest Grail, so hey! Common ground again.
Really? Can you point out exactly when that was? What I remember is that when I said you were acting in conjunction with Mrs. Faust you denied it. You made no disclosures of personal, political or business connections. Even more interestingly, neither did she.
In the same vein, none of her ‘random’ supporters admitted to being part of her church, now I see comments complimenting her ministry from the same people. A conspiracy theory is a hypothesis. We’re past that point.
As for how you describe your religious perspective, that’s somewhat irrelevant. Your comments are dripping with patriarchal, traditionalist and religious theories that aren’t backed up by facts or reality. That may be caused by religion or politics.
You have no interest in the evidence. So while you may say you don’t technically believe in god, you’ve adopted the same defective and arbitrary patterns of thought and ideology.
That was proven by comment after comment you’ve made and continue to make.
Your theories on adoption are completely debunked by the fact that many gay men and lesbians can and do physically reproduce.
According to your own theory, you’d have to admit that’s perfectly fine and in doing so contradict yourself.
Further you don’t acknowledge that adoption/reproduction aren’t black and white issues- which is irresponsible to say the least. You hold on to a single prejudice, that a couple must be male/female, and in doing so you ignore a tremendous range of other important factors regarding parents. Where they live, how they live, how much time they have to dedicate to a child, what sort of life and future they can offer a child. Singling that one factor out to the detriment of everything else is bigotry in action. After all, you and your associates aren’t campaigning to prohibit singles from reproducing or adopting.
You can of course, as you’ve done every single time before, alter your initial statement- but making a new one won’t change the fact your initial statement was wrong.
Can I point out when that was? Why yes. see the transcript below, unedited with all the typos and spelling errors, both yours and mine.
As to my dripping religiousness, good for you trying to think! Really is your world view so narrow?
The rest of your statements above are gilipollez, and clearly elucidate that you have paid little attention or cant read so good.
So for the record:
Citizen Pink: I guess you forgot wordpress includes your IP with comments, which means I know your comments are a sham.
HeWHo: You have my IP address and this makes my comments a sham? Oh please DO TELL what you think you know! Produce this smoking gun! I can’t wait, answer now please!
Now be carful not to make a fool of yourself. As I know there is nothing in knowing my IP address that has any relevance to the truth and validity of my comments, you may be in danger of doing so. I have truthfully and honestly represented myself and my positions. You have been duly warned as I am a good sport.
Now please, produce the smoking gun!
Citizen Pink: Sham altogether. Fake comments designed to create controversy and traffic on a blog. The smoking gun came from your last answer.
HeWho: Are you drinking? You are the one adding traffic and controversy to this blog. Or was I also in a disingenuous way adding traffic to Violetwisp’s blog when our debate began there? Am I a sham traffic generator for both sides? Or maybe I’m a blog traffic generator for hire and both VW and Askme are paying me vast sums of money, that must be it.
You aren’t really going to walk away with a false accusation of me being a sham. I thought you didn’t throw your toys down and walk away, it isn’t your style right?
Citizen Pink: Don’t waste my time with faux-controversy. This isn’t a genuine debate.
HeWho: And there you have it, the sound of toys hitting the sand again. A debate does not stop being a debate when you are loosing. Hold on tight to whatever you think you know from ferreting out my IP address as it gives you the illusion of a legitimate reason to run away.
Pink you’re a thuggish bully and that is why I engaged you in “debate”. No grand conspiracy to build blog traffic. Do I know Askme? Yes, my wife is her editor. So yes, I watch her blog and occasionally blogs that cut and paste her posts on to their blog in order to mock her with their bullish hate filled friends. That is how I ran into you. Again I just don’t like bullies who are horribly wrong in their thinking, but my argument, comments and everything I have said has been absolutely truthful and honest.
You obviously have deep-seated insecurities about yourself or you wouldn’t waste your time coming to this, and other blogs like it, to rant. If you actually were interested in debate and actually convincing people your position was correct, which would be logical as you claim an oppressed person status, you would try good honest discussion and not the angry hate filled ranting in which you do engage.
Now are the toys staying in the sand? Can you play nice? Can you open your mind? Can you let go of your hate? Can you engage in actual honest debate that could provide benefit for all involved?
Citizen Pink: You wanna be the next Anne Coulter- good luck to you. I’m playing no role in helping your dog-whistling.
I don’t need to convince anyone I’m right. Facts are facts and human dignity is human dignity- and finally the law in the developed world is beginning to acknowledge that.
You want to continue fighting against that and promoting mythology, go right ahead. It’s a shame you can’t find a way to make a life or a living without doing it at the expense of other people.
Exposing your charade isn’t being a bully, it’s just exposing your charade.
Hewho: Probably for the best that you no longer take part. I myself also have better things to do, like finish the frame-up on Anwar Ibrahim, so fragile these alliances with muslum extremists, it really needs my full attention. Then there is that little trouble I started in Crimea, extending Russian anti-homosexuality laws will be a delicate exercise, but hey! That’s what they pay me for. Then of course the mothership lands in April, Merlin and I have a whole week of mystical havoc to wreak upon the LGBT community world wide.
All jest aside, I truly wish you all the best and lot’s of luck, methinks you will need the luck.
P.S. I accept your surrender.
Cheers!
Citizen Pink: Delusional people are like this… Creating fantasy worlds to be comfortable in their existence.
I’m not the fabricated internet troll. I’m the established and successful professional- certainly not the one who needs ‘luck’. Now get back to your pathetic life.
HeWho: Say what you wish, but who is delusional and proven for the hateful small minded and emotionally unstable person they are, with only ad-hoc argument while comically accusing others of the same, is clearly shown for all to see in your comments to me and others on this blog.
So please keep going. it only further proves the point. I however have decided, in order to make this somewhat interesting and entertaining for me, that going forward I will only respond to you predominantly using the lyrics of openly homosexual musical artists. Unless of course you command me once again to return to my hole or some such nonsense. I bit overly authoritarian don’t you think?
Citizen Pink: Don’t you have more fake online identities to create? What’s next, a Nigerian 419 Scam?
Hewho: You’re hell bent for leather, but your hate is like the Crimson flare from a raging sun, I can hear you screaming for vengeance, but there’s many who tried to prove that they’re faster, but they didn’t last. If you think I’ll let this go you’re mad, you’ve got another thing coming.
Citizen Pink: Get a real job, scam artist. Do something productive, you disgusting little piece of trash.
Proper people do real work and pay taxes and don’t depend on fomenting hate to make a living.
Hewho: It’s quite peculiar in a funny sort of way
You think it’s very funny everything I say
“Get a load of him, he’s so insane”
But what is it in your conscience that you’re after
That compels you to steal another glimpse of the madman across the water?
Citizen Pink: Yep… your IP is just a strange coincidence. Not only are you a con, but a shameless one.
Hewho: So you think you can stone me and spit in my eye?
Kill joy, Bad guy,
Big talking, Small fry
Talk like a big business tycoon,
But you’re just a hot air balloon,
So no one gives you a damn,
You’re just an overgrown school boy
Reblogged this on The Pink Agendist.
Oh heck, yet another spiteful group of people led by those who would exploit them as a cult. As if the world didn’t have enough.
Sic ’em.
Hugs
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