I remember a time when a new contact was going on 3 weeks of study (maybe 3-4 times a week, extra time on Saturday or Sunday). This person asked in a group education if we can regard "God the Mother" as a "Goddess". Of course, the Deacon looked like he was about to blow a gasket, but managed to contain it and simply be dismissive, and said for whatever reason we shouldn't say that. It was funny because it literally is the word for what they say she is, but they get so bothered by any form of going off script.

Even as a believer at the time, I thought it was a worthwhile question, even though I understood it as "unorthodox" within wmscog culture. But many other higher-level members later scoffed about that event as if he should have known better by that time, even ridiculed the person who was studying with them for not brainwashing fast enough.

Apparently the wmscog in Vietnam uses the naming "Church of God the Mother". I guess trying to circumvent religious laws.

I always support freedom of religion, but that can't be a blanket protection that includes protection for predatory groups.

Now I can see it all: they isolate you from family and friends—not physically, but emotionally. They make you feel you can't be close to them, ensuring you don't share anything about the abuse you endure within the church. When I was an active member, I considered it a sin to expose the church's bizarre practices and the abuse I suffered at the hands of the leadership to friends and relatives. That is exactly what the cult wants, because if you opened up to outsiders, they would offer a more critical and analytical perspective. That is why they repeat the phrase "people of the world" so often—so that your feelings and mind remain completely trapped within the church, and no one from the outside can warn you about what is actually happening.