Personal Statement of Anonymous 2

I too am an Ex member of the Supreme Council of The House Of Jacob.

As a child my family, went faithfully. We were there every time the doors opened, which was 17 - 20 times a month! I recall a time when I was 7 years old of an instance where a member of the church molested me and my sister and several of my cousins. I went to my mother and she confronted the person, he denied it and, I had to prove I was telling the truth. When the situation died down, I then discovered he was then molesting my sister, I again told my mother, this time I went farther and told my grandmother. She inturn reported this to our pastor, who decided to preach about it across the pulpit!!! He basically told everyone in the mission that night who we were and who was the accused. It was terrible. After service that night the pastor calls all of us to stay after service in front of the whole congregation!!!!! He told us that the overseer was aware of the situation and that he would be with us for service. When the bishop and overseer got to the mission he called us all outside and made me and my sister sit in the back seat of his car, to “discuss” the situation. We were told that we were all going to be put on the backseat for these actions. I could have died, Here I am 7 years old my sister 8 and WE were going to be put on the backseat for being molested by this “church” member. After some thought the overseer tells us he is not going to put us on the backseat, he will just pray for us and hope that will fix it for us. Well it didn’t!!! This man continued to come to church and play music like nothing ever happened, and my sister and me were left to heal our wounds in silent. We have never recovered from this ordeal. I tried to commit suicide shortly after that. I also developed an eating disorder. I am still trying to go on with my life, but it has been a battle. My mother did absolutely nothing, not because she didn’t want too, she was shamed out of it by the “Father” of the church. He wrote to her and told her that no member of the House of Jacob would sue another. If she went to the police, it would look bad on the “Church”. My mother was devastated. She was so frustrated...she cried and she ultimately took her frustration out on me and my sister. It was hard on everyone.

TESTIFYING

One of the procedures following a sermon, especially on “Young Missionaries Day” was to be called to give a testimony. Whether you wanted to or not. The minister in charge would stand up and call for testimonies and if you did not voluntarily run up in the front of the mission to give yours they would call you by name. It was very embarrassing. You always had to begin with “ I rise giving Honor to the forefathers of Israel, to our Founder and to His successors and to our Leader today Father ???, then you could go into on how you enjoyed the sermon. It was terrible. Half the time they would call you just to see if you were paying attention. Some of the younger children would take this opportunity to run and get some water or go to the bathroom to avoid being called by name.

ELEVATION

At each “convocation” . There is a day set aside for elevations and consecration. Each member attending the convocation gets in service and prepares for this “sacred” event. The “mothers and bishops” come out in white robes and they go into the service as usual, then they proceed to call a bishop and a mother to help with the service. They then begin to call the infants and parents up onto the pulpit and they deliver their children to the designated bishop and mother pair. When they have all received the child they are going to consecrate or baptise they announce who the child is and where the child worships, the ceremony ends with the children being sprinkled with holy oil, and being given a gift of Money. There are special requirements for this "consecration". The child must be at least a year old, wiened, and BOTH parents must be in good standing with the church in the areas of attendance, tithing, and other monetary obligations, as well as not being on the backseat. Also on the same day, they have elevations where if “Father” has determined that you were paying your tithes well enough and your building fund and maintenance and attending bible school well enough, you could be promoted to a higher rank in the church. During the 3:00 service on Sunday of the convocation, they start calling the names of the certain "saints” to be elevated. The designated person goes to the pulpit and receives his/her license to minister. During the issuing of the licenses, the issuing bishops have a pre-written oath that they make you agree to, and part of this oath is that "if you go down, uphold this gospel". Then they shake the hand of the bishop and go to the “Father” and kneel at his feet and say "Thank-You". Then after everyone that they feel was worthy to be elevated is presented with their new licenses, the members start to sing ”I’ll walk it with you”.

CONFESSION

On the second Sunday of each month they hold a session called "confession service" where each member of that particular missions's name is called individually, and they have to stand up in front of the whole mission and state whether or not they have any faults that “They Know of”, or if they are “Unworthy”. If you are unworthy, you have to walk in front of the congregation and tell everybody what you did wrong. Especially, if you have not paid your tithes. The Pastor then comes forward and asks you why, and then he ask the congregation to stand on their feet if they forgive you. Then they have some kind of forgiveness and healing prayer so that you'll ultimately have the strength to never do this again. It is highly embarrassing. They begin calling children as early as they are known to be talking. Even though they usually don't start participating and saying the words "I have not a fault that I know of" or "I am unworthy" until they are around three or four. Also, if you don't participate in the confession service, you are not permitted to partake of the communion service that they do during the evening service of that same Sunday.

RIDICULE

It was extremely hard growing up in the church. As children we had to live with being teased and tormented by the “the world”. As females in the church we had to wear dresses or skirts all the time. In blizzards and all sorts of weather we had to wear skirts. For children it is hard to understand, all they knew is we were the kids that could never go anywhere or do anything that was not a H.O.J. function. We were teased daily for not “dressing “ for the weather, not being able to participate in school sports, not being able to cut our hair, not being able to go the "normal" school functions as the prom, homecoming etc. We were not prepared for the wiles of the world.

We as children of the House Of Jacob, could not date outside of our organization, because the people that did not belong to church were unclean, or affectionately named the “Beast”

It was the worst experience of my life. At times I would fake like I was ill to avoid having to go to church. Sometimes the service would last so long that we’d fall asleep,and be made to stand up in front of the congregation for falling asleep.

Mentally I have been held back, because all my family ate, drank, and slept was the House of Jacob and that was all we knew. Unfortunately, my experiences have been shared by many others; I do not encourage anyone to be a part of this organization. Thanks be to god I am free.

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