So You Want to Know What's Wrong with Religion? (3 and 4)

Just read this: "Church stoked tithing with unemployment scam, ex-members say".

Just want to point out a few things from the article:

• fraudulent unemployment claims
• regularly punched and choked
• ordered by church leaders to lie to authorities
• forced to work at businesses owned by church leaders
• beatings administered by fellow church members
• The church also might mandate that he be cut off from any contact with his family
• keep tithing regardless of their financial situations

Sure, these are just the type of things you want to hear when discussing a church, any church. The Word of Faith Fellowship Church and it's founder appear to belong in jail.

 Is there some group overseeing this particular church that can take any sort of action?  I'm not familiar with this sort of church, but I am pretty sure a Catholic or Methodist Church does have levels of bureaucracy that can be contacted and possibly take some remedial action.I guess since it seems this isn't an ecclesiastical issue, but a legal one, the real question is what will NC officials do about this insanity?

How about this one: "Ex-Employees Sue TX Doctor, Saying He Forced Them to Attend Bible Study At Work".

Just a few points:

• he made them practice his version of Christianity in the workplace
• fired them when they didn’t follow suit
• held daily mandatory meetings . . .That included attending Bible studies
• dismissed because she was a single mother
• fired after saying no to that request [to attend pre-marital counseling for he and his live-in girlfriend]

I recall working with a contractor who I hope never to work near again. A few of his antics:

• When I declined to join his lunchtime prayer meetings, he was visibly upset and whined a great deal -- to my amusement, which annoyed him even more. 
• When he tried to co-opt the conference room for those lunchtime prayer meetings, he was told to stop, and he tried to complain up the chain of command and was shocked to get no support from the government bosses who managed his contract.
• When he harassed a single Mom, his company reprimanded him.
• When he complained about being reprimanded because of his efforts to 'save' that single mother, the company again reprimanded him and suggested the single mom get a lawyer and sue him for harassment.  He shut up about that subject after that.
• When the project ended, he was let go -- the only employee who wasn't changed to another contract.  According to him, he was told not to apply with that company again for a new position and to never use them for a reference.

How do I know these things?  It wasn't from secret meetings and hidden messages.  Everything that happened to him, he placed on his sleeve and used it to try and convince everyone within earshot that he was being persecuted for being a Christian and that those of us -- contractor, blue-suit, and government civilians -- that didn't support him were going to Hell.  I happened to have a desk less than 10 feet away, so I got a regular earful whether I wanted it or not.  I pretty much tuned him out and, on occasion got to tell him to shut the hell up because he was being disruptive.  Sometimes, those were the highlights of my day because he would lower his volume for at least the rest of that day.

A few years later, after I retied and became a contractor myself, I heard that he had given my company a resume, but wasn't hired.  If anyone had asked what I thought, they would have gotten my experience dealing with him, but I guess it wasn't needed.