| «In 1982 our mission was visited by a group of
people who called themselves the "International Finance
Police (IFP)". At
that time, the mother church was convinced that other churches
and missions across the planet were withholding tithes (our
mission had to pay approximately 10% of the weekly gross income
to the mother church). For a couple of weeks we were forced to
work seven days a week, anywhere from 14 - 18 hours a day in
preparing our files to document everyone who had ever paid any
money to us. They demanded thousands of dollars from us: I don't
know how much we paid them. I know they demanded $15,000 a day
for every day they were at our Mission. As a staff member I was
making from $40 - 80 dollars a week. My husband was
supplementing his income with a part time job so we could buy
food and rent an apartment. I remember being really upset
because my supervisor, Jeff Cora, would not let me go home and
spend some time with my year-old infant. She spent her days and
nights at a church-run day care center. The last thing that happened at the Church was a big meeting
the IFP held at the Sacramento Organization. They invited
everyone who had ever been associated with the Church. They
posted staff members as guards at all the building's exits to
prevent people from leaving. The upshot was everyone who was not
on staff had to either pay thousands of dollars to the Church in
Clearwater,
Florida for counselling or be expelled from the
Church. Since I was familiar with the building I was able to
sneak out; two weeks later I left the Church.» |