Looks like Fathima Rifqa Bary was not the first child abducted by the Fundamentalist Christian Evangelicals of the Xenos Church Fellowship and The Global Revolution Church in Orlando, Florida!...
I want my son back!
By parentsagainstxenosMy name is Annemarie and I am the mother of Tom. I love this child more than anything else in my life. I would die for him. He is a warm, loving, caring, giving human being. But most of all my best friend. His father and I are so proud of all his accomplishments and even his failures have proved he will never stop trying to be better. At 18 he is a man for older men to look up to.
After our recent move to Stow, Ohio where we thought we would find a better, safer life for our children than in Akron where we were living previously, my son made his first new friend at Kimpton Junior High School in Stow, Ohio. This is were our hell began. This friend invited Tom to his Dad’s Bible study at their home. We are Catholics but I have always been willing to let my kids participate with their friends at their church functions. Thinking it made you a more tolerant human being by understanding other people’s religion. But first I wanted to meet this “DAD” and be sure this was not a cult or anything I deemed inappropriate. Little did I know I was right on with my first instinct. So we meant with ************** and he managed to have all the right answers, telling us this was no different than the Catholic religion other than they do not believe in confession and do not have a church. But all the same basic teachings were the same. This is interesting because later on we will find that ****** has a whole speech he does about “those Catholics”. The majority of the people in the group were in high school, Stow Munroe Falls High School, and college, Akron University and his main focus was to keep kids off the streets and to make a group of friends that would be together and keep each other from trouble.We let him go. He loved it. He made friends. But never wanted to really share what it was they discussed. But I felt he would let me know if he felt uncomfortable.
Tom is not your average kid, he never has been. He is younger than anyone in his class. yet much wiser and smarter than most kids older than him. He is very mature. He has always been on the honor roll, he was in the post secondary program at the high school and had an honors schoarship lined up for college. His dream was to be an astonaut. He was amazing and we were so proud of him.
About a year ago at age 17 we began to notice some changes in him and were concerned about their cause and tried to talk to him about these changes. He was very evasive and just reassured us that everything was fine. But the warning signs were all there, weight loss, loss of interest, nothing much to say, not wanting to spend time with family, never home, grades dropping, fighting with siblings, loss of affection and kindness. But the most noticeable was his speaking as if reading from a script and sometimes questions were answered simply by saying I can’t answer that right now. He also informed us that he wanted to be baptized in his “new” church. I was mortified. I had failed in my religion and also my son. Catholics must promise to raise their children also in the Catholic faith, I have always held that dear to my heart and this news just caught me off guard. He wanted to be baptized at theXenos Christian Fellowship, they have no church so I assume it is in someone’s basement. We said no, that he was baptized already and this was not going to happen. The subject was dropped but his behavior became worse and the lies were piling up. But it didn’t stop there he began telling us that it made him to sad to be here knowing that we were going to burn in hell for our religous beliefs and sins of our flesh. What church would teach this to their children? I contacted everyone I could think of for help and support but found very little.
Shortly after Tom’s 18th Birthday on August 5th he invites us to attend his Baptism, when we refused an argument quickly erupted. He told us that he could not feel as close and connected to us as he does the church people, and he could not have relationships that were not centered around his church and “his God”. He told us that he was not going back to college and he was moving out, that he needed time to build his relationship with God. A member of the church helped him get a summer internship at Nasa, so that he would have the money to break these family ties. And that is exactly what happened, he was ridding himself of his wordly things and focusing only on Godly things. He carries on like a madman about society being evil and depraved, yet informs us that now he wants to be a police officer. This is the most heartbreaking thing you have ever seen.
Through much investigation and effort we have been able to figure out how this happened and how ************ brainwashing of these kids works. The older college kids get their siblings at the high school and junior high to seek outkids that will be candidates for them. Kids like Tom who was new to the area with no friends yet, kids from single parent families, kids who have no friends or support system at home, poor kids or kids who just didn’t fit in somehow. Once they get these kids to the “bible study” which is more like a party with pizza, games, scavenger hunts. They build a deep trust over a long period of time. They make it fun to be there and trust is slowly building. I know this sounds totally out there but I missed all these signs for four years and hind sight being what it is, I hate myself for missing them all this time. I am so fortunate to have always been a stay at home mom, here all the time. I have a hard working husband who spent all his free time with me and the kids. Honestly our life seemed perfect, I thought we had the perfect family and had strong family values. It is very frightening how quickly your family can change. Ours caused by one horrible, evil man. He has even let run aways move into his home, nothing is to low for this man.
In August the members took a group of kids from the high school on a camping trip. Some of these girls were 13 and 14 years old. Out camping with college boys. I know there were no sexual things going on as they are supposed to save it for marriage and I beleive Tom would never participate in anything like that. But these kids were their being brainwashed, groomed if you will for their future with this cult.
********** is a very smooth operator and has this plan so carefully worked out and everyone versed on what they are doing and what their job is. I honestly can not believe that his wife does not see or simply just does not care what he is doing to families all over Stow. Groups of girls from this cult have put up terrible hate websites and as soon as it was found out they were quickly taken down. This man is evil and charades as a loving, caring man who just has a personal calling to keep kids off the streets. Believe me I will be the first to admit that I loved telling people that my teenager was at bible study and at church on saturday night and sledding and camping with a church group. I was so proud to be able to tell everyone what a great teenager I had. I am so ashamed, so sad and so sorry that I failed my son and my family.
For now I have lost my son, he is gone, he has moved out of our home and into ***** the prophets control. I have to believe that someday my son will wake up from this nightmare and come home. He will get tired of giving all that he has and all that he earns to this idiot. I do believe this will happen, I have to. I also believe our family values and love are stronger than anything ******* has to offer him.
But my hope in all this is to save another teenager or unsuspecting parent from going through what I have gone through. Be careful know who your kids are with and where they are at. Even better do what I regret failing to do GO THERE!!!! See where they will be, who they will be with and exactly what they will be hearing. Ask questions and demand answers. I did all these things and was still violated by another type of child predator. And this predator is just as dangerous as any other. I will never stop fighting for my son and to break up this “CULT”. I refuse from this point on to call it anything but that. This is what it is and it is taking our children and more people need to care. Right now the pain is unmeasurable for myself, my husband and my other children. We are suffering a great loss, our son, our brother and our friend TOM.
If anyone wants someone to talk to, please contact me. If you are in this situation now, please get your child out of it. If you have something to add, please do.
Annemarie Smith
READ MORE: http://parentsagainstxenos.wordpress.com/2008/10/11/i-want-my-son-back/
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