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Warning to anyone considering joining a group led secretly by Dave McKay

 

 

 

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The Rise and Fall of the Jesus Christians.

 

There comes a time when silence is consent. In November of 2010 I was abruptly excommunicated from The Jesus Christians by its founder, Dave McKay for a small disagreement. After almost 30 years of service in that community and 3 years of public silence and contemplation on the matter, I have decided to speak publicly about my personal experiences in the Jesus Christians.  No human organisation is perfect and neither is Dave McKay. Neither am I for that matter. However, I am committed to writing a truthful and honest account of my experiences living in a Christian community of which Dave was, for the most part the founder and leader.  I am neither attempting to demonise Dave as  anti cult or angry ex members have done, nor am I going to minimise Dave's faults. Seeing as Dave intentionally exalted himself as leader of the community he must accept much of the blame for its failures as an example of Gods love to a broken world.  Dave is a brilliant man in some ways and deeply flawed in others.  And this I have come realise is part of his personality. I have learned by my own research that I believe Dave is born with innate sociopathic tendencies. That does not mean he is a criminal or serial killer. Most sociopaths, the clever ones, never go so far as to wind up in jail. However, Dave fits the psychological profile. 

I have tried my best as a Christian brother who genuinely loves Dave to show him privately his faults. Dave has made it impossible to do so from within the organisation. Dave himself has cleverly subverted the rules so they operate in his favor, and he has forbidden that members should communicate with me. Dave has refused any avenue of addressing the problem. The only option available to me is to go public with my concerns. I do not have any illusions that this will change the toxic culture increasing within the movement. The movement is on the decline because Dave himself is on the decline and because of his personality he will take the movement down with him.  All I can do by this letter is to warn others who may consider joining what you are in for if you get involved with Dave or any proxy community acting in secret with him as the leader over it. It is your own free choice. You will learn many good things, many good ideals and truths, but you will have been warned of the hidden dangers to your spiritual and emotional well being. 

 

  So clever is Dave that it has taken an average person like myself 30 years to understand who he is and what motivates him. Sociopaths have to hide who they really are in order to survive in normal society. They lack Empathy for others in the way normal people would understand it. It means they are able to make cold blooded rational decisions without remorse for their actions. And this skill is useful as a survival trait. But rational does not always mean ethical or moral. They are able to rationalise almost anything, and justify it to themselves and those around them with clever arguments as being something good or necessary despite the questions one may have about the methods being used such as dishonesty or secrecy. 

The reader should understand that sociopaths make up 4% of the general population but occupy 25% of positions of power within government ,military, business and yes, religious institutions.  Only the extreme ones end up committing serious crimes. They make effective CEOS of corporations. It is not surprising to learn that the business model of a modern corporation is designed to function with the same mindset. Corporations are not democratic, they are top down heirarchies which exist solely to increase the power and profit of the corporation in a competitive world of capitalism,  Sociopaths are well suited to this environment and the corporation will reward the clever ones for their skills. But they are NOT good with people because they lack the essential compassion that the majority of us are born with. They fascinate the rest of us with their brilliance and appall us when they overstep the boundaries and do harm to society and others around them. 

Some sociopaths become church leaders. They can often be seen leading authoritarian pentecostal movements where the charismatic leader who is good with words is seen as gifted by God. They often spectacularly fall from grace as well.

But these religious leaders rarely live full time with their followers.  That is why small full time Christian communities as social experiments carry with them the potential to do good but also harm when things go wrong with them. Unfortunately a sociopathic leader of a small Christian Community is extremely difficult to keep the reins on. 

Whatever rules a community might bring to bear on a member with such tendencies they will try to break them in order to enhance their power. If they hurt people with that power they have a hundred ways to rationalise and justify that abuse. They are clever enough to bamboozle and argue their way out of most things, or turn the arguement back on those who would restrain them.  Anyone hindering their power is seen as competition .  For this reason a Community with democratic ideals will end up being subverted from within by the very person who once professed it.  

You see there really are no secular laws which can prevent people from emtionally abusing or bullying others. There are no laws which can stop people from deceiving or lying if those people are clever enough. There is no tangible evidence of emotional scars that the people surrounding  a sociopath can prove. One can rarely win an arguement with a sociopath. They are genetically programmed to win at all costs. In the end all you can do is get away from them before they harm you any further. In a full time Christian community there is no where to retreat from an authoritarian sociopath. He thrives best where he is allowed total control. Any freedom you think you have is really only by his permission. And sadly their desire for control is never satisfied. They are unable to rest until they have made you in their own image. But the average person can never be like them. You will never be able to please them and you will be forever feeling guilty you didnt try hard enough. You will be made to feel inferior in order to keep your place under the hierarchy.  In the end you will stay subordinate or you will be expelled, or you will leave.  And whatever you do you will feel like a failure. 

 

 

I first met Dave McKay and his family in 1981.  I was 21. I was idealistic and I wanted to live in a christian community the way the early Christians did in the book of Acts ch 2&4.  Fresh out of Uni I did not have much life experience. However I had recently got a taste of abuse of power by sociopathic religious authoritarians. I had been attending the Geelong Revival Centre, a pentecostal church that taught you must speak in tongues in order to be saved. Although that church is very kind to those on the inside, they have contempt for anyone on the outside. Not only must you speak in tongues, you must also attend the Revival Centre to be saved. This was my first experience with an exclusivist authoritarian regime. Ironically it was Dave McKay who helped me see through the power games going on. 

As soon as I questioned the doctrines of the church, I found myself excommunicated by the pastor. All the church members were told not to communicate with me. I lost all my friends in one stroke and all because I was sincerely trying to understand the gospels and question where the church was not practising it.  Unless you have been shunned by religious people in this way you will have no idea how emotionally devastating it is to lose all your close friends at the dictates of one man. And this coercive practise is designed to keep people in fear to the leadership. 

On top of this, my wife, who I had married one year before in the church, did not have the moral back bone to withstand the peer group pressure being applied nor understand it. She forsook our marriage and moved out.  After some time she delivered an ultimatum that I return to the church or our marriage was over. Determined not to submit to religious  and emotional blackmail, I could not in good conscience return to such a hypocritical church.  I realised that I had joined an authoritarian regime controlled by one man, Noel Hollins the head pastor from Geelong. The whole church and its branches was a hierarchy with Hollins at the top.The other pastors all obeyed this man and down to the congregation below. Hollins is a clever sociopath. But I did not understand it then.

It seemed my destiny was to join with Dave McKay and his family in forming a Christian Community. At that time I remember Dave telling me clearly that if he ever told me to do anything contrary to my own conscience that I should follow my conscience and not him. I trusted him and felt assured that I could always leave if anything wrong should happen. In those early days Dave was much more idealistic. He was an intelligent man and an excellent organiser. He was more a servant of the community in those days. There were many group meetings where group consensus was sought and encouraged. We all felt we had a stake and power shared more evenly just as you would expect of a true Christian community.  We were involved in many positive exciting projects and as the community grew we did amazing social work for the community in India. The 1980's were a very happy time mostly for me.

Dave could have been the CEO of a corporation such was his ability. His major weakness at that time was his impatience. He would get angry and become highly critical of people. His criticisms were mostly accurate, but the manner in which they were delivered caused a lot of grief to those under him.  Anyone who couldnt handle the stress of being under his close scrutiny left. Mindful of the abuse of power, Dave to his credit finally got serious about dealing with his anger.

  It seems the anger was a form of bullying or intimidation in order to get people to do what he wanted them to do and to silence them. Even though the anger subsided, however, it seemed that Dave was figuring out new and more subtle ways to persuade people to conform to what HE wanted more than seeking group consensus as a servant leader.  

As young people matured in the community they needed more freedom to grow and be autonomous. Dave found his control over the community threatened by the natural process of other members maturing.  This dynamic mostly played out between Kevin, his son, and Dave. If Dave came up with an idea, Kevin would come up with an alternative one. 

Meetings started to become ping pong matches between Kev and Dave as to who had the best idea to be implemented.  

Probably the peak year of the Jesus Christians was 1997, when the largest project in India ever undertaken by the community was underway in Chennai in a slum. With over 15 members working there full time it was a marvellous experience. God blessed us and protected us.  But it was also the turning point in the communities history. 

 

In 1998 a major disagreement occurred leading to a meeting in which half the community sided with Kevin and another member named Craig and Dave representing other members absent from Australia. He was supported by Roland and Sue.

With hindsight the disagreement was mainly over the reality that the community was splitting into small autonomous groups, and friction was occurring as to how much "control" each group had over the other separate groups.

Dave was arguing that he ought to have the role of an "apostle", as a central authority with overall control of the small groups. Kevin and his group were advocating far more freedom to not be controlled by those outside their immediate team. 

A compromise was reached in which Dave was agreed to act as an apostle but not with absolute authority but the authority to correct whatever problems that might occur, in the smaller teams. 

However this agreement did not seem to satisfy Dave. I was in India at the time and not present to witness what went on directly. The situation was no doubt very tense. The next morning Dave decided to go back on the agreement and falsely accuse Kevin of intending to steal money from a fund reserved for charity in India.  There was no evidence of any such intention. But the end result was outrage and hurt feelings. Kevins team left in disgust seeing as Dave was not going to withdraw his accusation. With hindsight it appears that Dave decided overnight that Kevin and co were a threat to his leadership and needed to be eliminated. So he orchestrated a show down to purge them. After they left he then told the remaining half of the group that Kev and co were back sliders and to not speak to them except through Dave.  If the reader notices that this shunning tactic was exactly the same as used by the Revival centre pastors you would be right. But I was too confused to see it clearly that Dave was resorting to the same tactics to keep control. 

But Dave had now convinced us his own son was a threat. Over in India I felt nothing but grief over the situation. The manner in which they were removed seemed highly unethical.  However i sank into depression feeling powerless as i watched the group split in half and Dave increase in authoritarian methods to deal with problems.  As long as people were not criticising Daves leadership things carried on, but the spirit of love was being replaced by fear. People were afraid to speak up lest they receive special attention.  By this time I had given up trying to argue with Dave, the stress of it was too much for me. In 2000 I decided the only course was to quietly withdraw and to become as independent as possible from Dave as I could. Knowing that I was now on anti depressants, Dave could see it would be unwise of him to pressure me emotionally any further. I became an associate member with limited say in the community but still supporting the basic Community ideals.

I bought my own bus from the community and was permitted freedom to make my own decisions with little interference. I tried not to make trouble and be peaceable as my health was fragile. But I was in a position to observe the group dynamics.

In 2008 the community had a reunion in Kenya. During that year Dave had surgery for cancer but was slowly recovering and travelled to Kenya. 

During a meeting he discussed the problem of his ill health and the need to hand over the community to a new generation of leadership. Alf and Joe were proposed as apprentice leaders with Dave acting as an advisor.

Or alternatively people could vote for Dave to stay on as leader.

It was a secret ballot. A very clear majority voted for the apprentices. 

Dave looked very upset. It was as though he expected more people to vote for him to stay on.  The vote had not turned out in the way he would have liked.  Unfortunately Dave is a terrible back seat driver.He seemed incapable of advising people, allowing others to choose to accept or reject the advice.  Over the next couple of years it appears that Dave was increasingly making more of the decisions and his apprentices were simply rubber stamping them.  Any advice he gave to the apprentices was expected to be followed, which meant it was not advice at all, but continuing to control the group while giving the deception that others were the leaders. 

 This was to become more obvious during the 2010 cruise reunion.  

Even before the reunion  Dave started talking up the idea of taking the community "underground" although the details of it were not fully discussed. The cruise was to be the "big farewell" to the relatives and friends. A parting gift before the big demand he had planned. 

Arriving from the UK was the Gianstefani family. Roland and Sue had pioneered the UK base and brought many members into the fold. They had been faithful and successful in their own right.  However their presence seemed to be an opportunity for Dave to belittle them and give them a dressing down, humiliating them publicly in front of others. 

As usual there is always some truth in the criticism, but the criticism turned into a campaign by Dave to have them expelled and exclude them from the cruise.  Attempts were made to divide Roland and Sues marriage and when they resisted being split up that was the end of it. They left and returned to the UK. Not much of a happy reunion for them or for me to witness.  I was disturbed by this but I did not have the courage to challenge it.

One night before the cruise all of us were walking down the street back to the vehicles. It was dark and cold and some of us were on ahead trying to get back quickly. Dave seemed annoyed for some reason by this and and started shouting orders that people should all bunch up and walk together close to him. He seemed to want to assert control or to test out his power to control. Seeing he officially he was NOT the leader but an advisor it was a clear indication that he did not consider himself to be any such thing but entitled to give orders and expect they be followed. 

No one else however, seemed at all concerned by that and conformed. I did not because I was up ahead and did not hear the order. 

I felt depressed by the whole thing but again felt powerless to stop what was happening. My close friends Roland and Sue had been removed from our company and here was Dave throwing his weight around over a very minor thing.

Dave seemed satisfied that he had asserted his power and things settled down for a while. The cruise came and went and Dave of course was in PR mode and could not afford such a display in front of relatives. PR required that he hide his behaviors that would be considered publicly inappropriate.

Two months after the cruise and after most members had left Australia, Dave called for an urgent internet discussion.  The "discussion" did not last long.  Dave outlined his plans for the next stage of the community which was what he had been hinting at months before. It was the plan to disappear from public view and pretend that the community had disbanded. This plan required that all members should cut off association with any contacts or friends outside the group. Communication with relatives was to be a bare minimum, enough to allow them to believe there was nothing wrong or that people were not in trouble.  The supposed reason for this measure was to prepare the community for the "Great Tribulation", a future time in prophecy in which an evil world government will persecute Christians.  Dave was arguing that this would be only a temporary 3 month experiment. 

Not surprisingly the older more mature people involved in this discussion, Roland,and Sue and myself expressed reservations about this plan. Roland and Sue were first to object and say that they did not wish to participate. Dave simply acted unilaterally and cut them out of the discussion. It seemed that Dave was in the mood to tolerate no disagreement.  Not long after I also expressed my concerns that snubbing friends and associates was a harsh and unkind thing to do to people seeing as this was supposedly only and exercise and not a real emergency.  Without warning I too was immediately cut off!  No further communication or explanation was given.  I did not hear from Dave for many months. I was left completely on my own.  It began to dawn on me that Dave cared not a bit for anyones feelings. He made no apologies and I am sure that the abruptness of the excommunication was to "teach us lesson" that his authority was not to be questioned or else. It served as a punishment to me and a warning to anyone else not to challenge him or else they would be cut off too.  Now I could see that history had come full circle. Just as 30 years the Revival centre pastor had excommunicated me, so I had been excommunicated by Dave.   

When Dave finally started talking to people several months later it was no surprise that he made it clear that no one was allowed to talk to other members of the group, and other members of the group were not allowed to talk to me or anyone else Dave disapproved of. All communication must now go through Dave.  The decision to go underground was not temporary but permanent.  The whole exercise was in my opinion, about Dave's control over the community and how to hide it from the public.

 For many months the Jesus Christians forum had carried the false announcement that the Jesus Christians had disbanded. 

In a chance encounter with Dave on the street about one year later, he approached me with no concern for my welfare or any regret for what he had done to me. He even tried to lie to my face that the Jesus Christians had disbanded and he was no longer in charge. Knowing this to be a complete fiction I told him so to his face. After 30 years of knowing him he was going to deliberately lie to my face.  Knowing he had been caught out in a deliberate lie, he removed the evidence posted on the JC website and replaced it with an article claiming that the group had "graduated" instead. This allowed a fiction to be created that people were still in touch with each other but were autonomous and not controlled by Dave.  Though still a fiction and a deception designed to mislead the public, it was a lie much easier to be embellished as it suited Dave. It also left open a future option for people to reunite in some way if  Dave so chose. 

What became clear to me was that lying and deception were now prominent behaviors encouraged by Dave. And that he was prepared to deceive anyone and mislead them if it suited his plans. At the same time he permitted himself to deceive others he demanded total honesty to himself. The double standards and hypocrisy were increasing. 

By demanding that all communication only go through Dave, Dave had actually increased his power over the community and the information that the community members are permitted to hear. And if they are permitted to hear any news it will be with Dave's own spin on it lest anything undermine his control.   

It is clear that the community I once joined in the beginning as an open democratic entity no longer existed and had been replaced by stealth with a far more militant authoritarian power structure. It is something I can no longer agree with. 

The JC web site was purged of all controversial writings by Dave and the forum no longer a place of open discussion. Membership of the forum was heavily controlled and only favorable comments from enquirers made it to the page. Anything unfavorable was deleted and critics banned.

The name of the game now is not truth but propaganda, not honesty but deception.

But Dave really is no worse than the main stream media, politicians, businessmen and advertisers who we meet every day.  They are all constantly trying to deceive us and persuade us to support their cause. 

The only problem is that he does this in the name of Jesus, and tries to use the same tactics that the ungodly world uses to get people to follow his organisation, with him as its now secret head. Which is why he has to HIDE the fact that he is the head. Because his un Christian behavior has hurt such a number of people over time that there are more and more people willing to expose and oppose him.

Dave will claim that any attempt to challenge his actions amounts to him being persecuted for his faith.   But he is not being criticised for following Jesus but for his own unethical behavior and uncompassionate treatment of other people.  It is because he refuses to see that his own actions are unloving that he must be marked as a person unfit to lead a Christian community. 

I present this testimony as truthful as I can make it without exaggerations.   Dave has not retired from leadership of the now reorganised Jesus Christians. He has instructed followers to hide his influence and keep it a secret. Instructions to the group now come through a proxy leader who makes no reference to Dave directly in group correspondence.   Just like the political and business world, Dave acts like a puppet master from behind the scenes. The separate teams have changed their operating group and personal names so as to give the impression they were never connected with the Jesus Christians or with Dave. Association with Dave will be kept secret from new members and the public.  

  But as Jesus said, whatever is secret will be made known.  Jesus said He is the WAY and the TRUTH. Only the TRUTH can keep us free. A Christian community cannot permit dishonest practises to flourish without serious consequences.  This testimony is a plea for group members to return to the teachings of Jesus, and to forsake the unethical teachings and hypocritical actions of Dave McKay, who previously affirmed many good truths but no longer practises what he preached in the beginning. It is one thing to respect the Captain of a ship, but when you realise the ship is heading for the rocks and the Captain refuses to turn about, the crew can no longer follow the Captain. 

 So Be it.

For other testimonies by ex members citing maltreatment by Dave, go to: 

http://makingitreal.wixsite.com/home/jesus-christians-led-by-dave-mckay

or read some group history on wikipedia:

 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesus_Christians

 

 

 

 

 

 

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