REVEAL group established to battle International Church of Christ

REVEAL is an organization of former members of the International Church of Christ and its predecessor religious movements, the "Boston Movement", or Boston Church of Christ, and the "Crossroads Movement", or Crossroads Church of Christ. We also work with family members and friends of ICC members, although (at least at present) we are all former members ourselves.

First, we want to tell you who we are.

The REVEAL site exists to provide information and contacts for people who need information about the ICC which they will not get from the ICC. We want our experience as former members to help others avoid the same things we went through.

Introduction

Our purpose is to bring the ICC into the light of day -- to provide accurate, detailed and complete information about its beliefs and practices. By providing this information, we hope to give people the tools they need to assess the ICC and their involvement in it.

The REVEAL website and other resources exist to provide information and contacts for:

· Former members who need to understand better how the ICC may have affected them.

· Current members who see problems in the ICC and are considering leaving the ICC.

· Family members who want to help a loved one in the ICC.

· Friends of ICC members who want to understand the ICC and help friends in it.

· Others who have encountered the ICC in some significant way and need to understand it better.

To do this, REVEAL maintains a website containing all kinds of information about the ICC. The site contains first hand accounts of life in the ICC by former members, theological analyses of ICC beliefs, psychological analyses of ICC practices, information on thought reform and how abusive churches implement thought reform, and other useful material. It also contains lists of former members and others who are willing to talk about their experiences with others, bookstores and other businesses which stock helpful printed material, exit counselors and therapists which work with current and former members, clergy with experience working with former members, and retreats and rehabilitation centers which work with people who have been in the ICC or other abusive groups. In addition, REVEAL maintains an extensive set of links to other web-based information about the ICC and cults.

A Short History

REVEAL began as a local support group in the San Francisco Bay area. In spring of 1996 a former member, Michelle Campbell, began holding monthly support group meetings at her home. With the help and encouragement of a local minister, Art Barrett, and a therapist active in the "cult awareness" field, Janja Lalich, attendance at the meetings grew. A number of other former members soon joined, most from the San Francisco Church of Christ, but some from other areas and earlier periods in the life of the ICC.

After a few months Michelle and other former members grew aware of the need for a central organization to provide reliable information about the ICC and to help local groups and former members get in contact with one another. One former member, Catherine Hampton, started working on a WWW site in her spare time.

Michelle and others in the group started getting phone calls from former ICC members, family and friends of ICC members, the press, and others interested in the group. The number of calls grew, and after a few months the need for the WWW site became clear. At some stage in the summer of 1996 (which neither Michelle nor Catherine can pinpoint), a decision was made to set up a WWW site for all groups of former ICC members, and to form an umbrella organization for these groups.

After considering several names, the support group settled on REVEAL, which stands for research, examine, verify, educate, assist, and liberate. We felt that this expressed our purpose and goals well. Most of us had been through this process ourselves -- we learned about the ICC, learned about mind control, learned about ourselves and what happened to us, and found in the end that this freed us from the past and gave us the tools we needed to move ahead with our lives. We wanted to help others facing the same task.

At this point, REVEAL effectively split into two parts:

1. A private support group for former members

2. A public group of former member activists

Membership in the support groups is private and informal -- those who attend are considered members, and they choose who (if anyone) to tell about their involvement with REVEAL.

The public group of former ICC activists started with Michelle and Catherine. In the fall of 2000, Catherine resigned from her position as the Assistant Director and Webmaster of REVEAL in order to concentrate on other personal obligations and her graduate studies at Stanford. In the spring of 2001 REVEAL received official recognition from the IRS as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. The board of directors set policy for the website and REVEAL's public work.

REVEAL works closely with other former members, activists and groups, including Dave Anderson of RightCyberUp in New York City; Graham Cluley of TOLC (Triumphing over London Cults) in London, United Kingdom and Reginald Green of Campus News on Cults in Los Angeles, CA; as well as other individuals and groups.

What Does REVEAL Do?

REVEAL is primarily an educational organization. We provide information on:

· The ICC itself -- history, doctrines, and practices

· Thought Reform/Mind Control -- what it is and how it works

· Exit Counseling -- what it is, how it works and who to contact

· Recovery -- counseling, rehabilitation, support groups, etc.

We do this via a couple of avenues. The first is our site, which contains an immense amount of information on the International Churches of Christ, and the most complete index on the internet-based ICC resources.

This website was the first major undertaking of REVEAL. It is intended to provide a central source of information about the ICC, and a place for local support groups and individuals to contact each other. The REVEAL website has these resources:

1. The Crisis Line, which contains a brief summary of information about the ICC and cults, and resources for current members, former members, or family and friends of ICC members who are involved in a crisis because of their association with the ICC.

2. About REVEAL, which you are reading now.

3. About the ICC, which contains a summary of what we know about the International Churches of Christ, including their beliefs, practices, history, structure, and abuses.

4. A Newswire, with news bits and links to newspaper and magazine articles about the ICC, announcements of ICC activities, announcements of former member activities or events of interest to former members, and other time-sensitive information.

5. An extensive on-line Library, which holds first-hand accounts of life in the ICC by former members and others who have interacted with the ICC in a significant way, analyses of ICC practices from historical, psychological and theological perspectives, information on thought reform/mind control, information on recovering from involvement in the ICC and other controlling and abusive organzations, and other material of interest.

6. A People and Places section, which contains information about former members, support groups, exit counselors, therapists, bookstores, and mail order houses from around the world, and which links to or hosts WWW pages for these groups.

7. Links to Other Sites, which contains an index of links to WWW-based information by the ICC itself, ICC supporters, ICC opponent groups, former ICC members, and other WWW pages of interest to those concerned about the ICC.

Original Text:

1. http://www.reveal.org/

2. Stories from the ICC: Henry Kriete

http://www.reveal.org/library/stories/people/hkriete.htm

3. “Cult” recruitment on Boston University campus?

https://cultnews.com/2017/01/cult-recruitment-on-boston-university-campus/