SPIEGEL ONLINE: Former members of his church have spoken of psychological cruelty, forced work, financial irregularities and calls to beat ones own children.
Jones: My mother, Lisa Jones, died in 1996 of a heart attack. Shortly thereafter, my father remarried and I left the church at age 17. In 2005, he offered me a job as a bookkeeper in a company belonging to the church, which sold donated furniture on eBay. I gained a new insight, and realized that my father preached things and did things that I didn't find to be in accordance with the Bible at all. He demanded that people completely obey him and his second wife, Sylvia. Both are extremely obsessed with power. I saw genuine religious delusion. A typical indication of a sect. Both of them wanted to control everything.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Did you confront your father at the time?
Jones: Yes. I didn't agree with those things which I saw as exploitation and psychological abuse. I repeatedly brought those things up. In the end, he called me into his office and said he received a message from God for me: God would take my children and then kill me. I stood up and left. Then I contacted members of the church and tried to open their eyes. And I was successful.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: It is true, then, that the church in Cologne ousted your father itself?
Jones: Yes.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Did he leave Cologne willingly?
Jones: It was a mixture. We confronted him and demanded that he correct his errors. But he didn't give in. When we brought up the church finances, he disappeared the next day.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Are you still involved with the church that he left behind?
Jones: No.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,716858,00.htmlEarlier thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=433&topic_id=438304
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