Is YWAM A Cult? Is YWAM Guilty of Spiritual Abuse?

Youth With A Mission (YWAM) - aka University of the Nations - is an international non denominational Christian missionary ministry founded by Loren Cunningham back in the 60's during the "Jesus Movement". I have just finished reading articles from the above website (Apologetics Index). Here's a sample:

"A Healing Letter to a Y.W.A.M. Friend"--the following letter was written one an a half years after my daughter, Jennifer, returned from a one year term at the Youth With A Mission's base in Guyana, So. America. As you read this letter, written to her best friend, you will sense the compassion that she had for her friend who was deeply hurting from the situation they had both experienced. Jennifer has very astutely identified some of the key manifestations of the control spirit which was devastating the life of the base there. While this letter is written with much sweetness and grace, I can assure you that Jennifer had already expressed much pain and anger during the process of recognizing and putting words to what had happened.

This is the actual letter, as Jennifer wrote it, with the exception that all the names of individuals have been changed. It is her desire that others who have been, or are still, in an abusive missions experience, will recognize the symptoms while reading her letter.

If you have a story to tell and you would like to have the freedom to tell your story without fear of judgement or condemnation, there's an "icon" at the end of her letter which will give you direct access to the ChurchAbuseRecoveryCoach. I would love to listen to your story. It doesn't have to be "nice," but what happened to you DOES need to be acknowledged.

Dear Marie, Hi, how are you doing? Hopefully, all is well for you! How was your trip?

Well, I've been laying in bed for about three hours now and I just can't sleep. So I'll write you a letter.

A few days ago, I was over at my pastor's house and his wife and I got to talking about Guyana. I told her some fun stuff--(like the guy who tried to sell us panties!) And also some stuff that was not so fun. That night John and I were up ‘till 3:00 A.M. talking about it and the next day with my Mom, too. Until talking with my pastor's wife I never realized how much I still hurt. Marie, what happened to us there was WRONG. We were NOT in rebellion. There was a spirit of control there that tried to crush us . . . Bob and Kim were walking in it, Harold was, and so was Carol. The confusing part is that they all manifested this spirit in three ways. (By the way, before I begin--we are NOT gossiping. That was a lie too--this is simply speaking the truth--and the controlling spirit hates that.)

Bob and Kim walked in the lie that says: "There must be balance to grace"--meaning that "Yes, God is loving but . . . do this, don't do that, rules, rules, rules." WRONG! Grace has no balance--if you bring in "balance" it's not grace any more--it's conditional--and GRACE IS UNCONDITIONAL AND TOTALLY UNDESERVED!

Harold walked in the lie of "Peace, Peace"--this means: "as long as you don't make it a problem--it's not a problem." But telling people this creates even more problems because we were made to feel we must be silent and "take it like a good little Christian." That's like telling a boxer he's bad if he raises his fists, even if only to protect himself. If there's a need for peace--it's because there IS a problem, and you can't have REAL peace until you work on and face the problem.

Carol walked in "insecurity"--insecurity actually comes from pride. She was always striving for leadership, rather than simply walking in the leadership God had already given her. In order to feel like she was the leader she had to be in charge of everyone and still in charge of what everyone did. She had to show people their weaknesses and put them down so that she could feel better about herself.

All three of these things: * "balance to grace" * "there's no problem unless you make it one" * "you answer to me because I'm better than you and I'm your leader" are ALL part of the controlling spirit.

Satan comes to: * steal your ministry, your passion for missions * kill your joy * destroy your body

I want to talk about your body. Marie, you lost a ton of weight while there and if I'm not wrong, you're still not gaining much back either. I lost a lot too, but never knew how much until talking with my Mom. We were talking about the time I called her to pray for me because I was losing so much weight and I knew it was because of the stupid kitchen issue. I said to her then, "Mom, I'm even afraid to go get an egg!" That night she prayed and God showed her that there was a spirit of anorexia over me and that I only weighed 105 pounds. Marie, I believe Satan is trying to destroy you in this same way and I want to break that curse over you right now, in the name of Jesus. Do not believe the lie that you are rebellious, or that you are the problem. One night you cried and told me you felt bad that I was taking a lot of junk on your behalf. Marie, that was not your fault.

God showed me last night that one reason He sent me down there, was because you had taken enough and He wanted you to have a break. And that's why John came when he did--it was my turn for a break.

You were NEVER at fault--you were righteous in attitude and desired to be free from this demonic control. You were never the problem--you were the one who saw and would not accept it.

But, Satan did hurt you and me and we did believe some lies and paid a price for that. Right now, I'm learning that it's far better to deal with the past, and that I do hurt, and I need to forgive and I need healing and I need to reject the lies I believed and accept the truth only.

Marie, I just ask you to pray about this and ask God to heal you too. I'm praying that you will gain 20 pounds! I love you so much--you and I were close, so close; BECAUSE WE SAW THE TRUTH.

I want to go on with God, not continue to walk with a spiritual limp from all this. But continually, I'm reminded of you and I want to see you healed too!

I have letters to write to Guyana. I need to speak the truth (in love of course--but still-THE TRUTH). I don't know how or when, but who knows, maybe God will wake me up to write again another night! Please pray for me. I don't expect the letters to be received well, but I must speak truth, because truth brings life.

Marie, I hope this letter brings life to you. May the Holy Spirit fill you with peace as He brings His healing to you. Don't be afraid to be angry about what happened. It is righteous anger that God placed in you.

I was on staff with YWAM (Youth With A Mission) for over five years. I have just finished reading articles from the website, "Apologetics Index". This particular letter summed it up for me. My family served 18 months at the YWAM base in Belize, Central America (yes, it's a jungle out there). I'm afraid the theme of spiritual abuse was evident there. The rest of our time with YWAM was spent on "outreaches" to Okinawa (Japan), Hong Kong, China and at the Kailua-Kona site, Hawaii. I don't really want to list all my grievances; just wanted to see if this would spark interest by other former YWAMers. (In Kailua-Kona - on the Big Island - the campus is also referred to as "University of the Nations".

When you're on one of these third-world YWAM bases in the jungle, you don't get enough to eat and you start feeling guilty if you eat anything of substance. Meanwhile, some of the leaders are living in better dwellings and eating good food. It's crazy!

On the YWAM base in Belize, we would have beans and rice and sometimes rice and beans and sometimes rice and beans mixed together in the same bowl. Anyway, I told my husband at that time to "GET ME OUTTA HERE!" We moved in to the City of Belmopan and rented a little tiny house with no hot water. Compared with the YWAMers on the base, we were living in luxury and many of them resented the heck out of us. Our son was 8 yrs old at that time and he attended Belizean schools. Many good memories but these stories of spiritual abuse hit home for me.

I can relate. I spent a lot of time as a youth being dragged from one Protestant quasi-cult to another (which is one of the reasons i became a Catholic as an adult). The outfit you guys are describing here sounds like a classic cult-of-personality/mind-control scam. I was wondering, though, why anorexia was referred to as a "spirit of anorexia". It's my understanding that anorexia is a psychological ailment, not a supernatural oppression.

A question, what exactly is "spiritual abuse" and how did this group manifest it? Perhaps I read too quickly, but I haven't figured out what exactly constituted "abuse"

Seems that living in a place like Guyana would be difficult for anyone used to the American lifestyle. Throw that together with the problems that always manifest themselves in human interaction and there will always be people with bad experiences in trying situations. I would imagine that if they had high expectation of what thing "should be" like then any experience that falls short of the ideal will have an exagerrated impact.

"Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave--just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."-- Mat 20:26-28" (NIV)

I've never had anything to do with WYAM myself, but I know a fair number of people who did anything from a month to a year with them, all in central america.

They all give it mixed reviews. Good times with staff, and bad times. Good work done, as well as scaring people away from Christ. Some of the people scared away were the young missionaries themselves. At least all of the former-WYAM'ers I've known stayed with the Church.

I'd say that YWAM as an entity is not guilty of abuse. Some of the people involved, being people, are.

YWAM MAY BE particularly vulnerable for several inherent reasons:

1) Satan targets them because they do The Kingdom of God a lot of good and satan's a lot of damage.

2) Their goals, structures, settings, methods etc. are somewhat of a setup for strong striving people with unhealed personal junk multiplying and afflicting that on all at hand. I don't consider that the structures, goals or even many of the methods are that wrong--just that the people need more healing, deliverance, cleasnsing and monitoring on an ongoing, regular basis. Perhaps the whole organization does. I'll be sharing this with a Board member. I don't know what he'll do with it. He does care about such things.

3) The times we live in exacerbate all of the above.

4) Any Christian group seriously interested in doing great work for The Lord is likely to have similar problems. . . especially with performance oriented people.

In the current mindset about humanity there's not much room for believing in the existance of spiritual beings capable of influencing us at some level. I and other Christians believe that not only does God exist, but so does the devil and his minions. He and his minions are able to attack us spiritually and this war plays out through sickness in the body, affliction of the mind, will and emotions (soul) and spirit (where the focus of the battle really is).

4) Any Christian group seriously interested in doing great work for The Lord is likely to have similar problems. . . especially with performance oriented people.

I've found that performance oriented Christians have the hardest time understanding and allowing Grace to work in their lives. Particularly in the Bible Belt where you have religion and performance orientation mixed - what a recipe for dullness and legalism.

I certainly do believe that demons exist and can harm people. That being said: not every bad thing that happens is the result of spiritual oppression. Since the Resurrection, when Christ detroyed the power of Hell, possession has become rare. (Besides, our Guardian Angels and St. Michael are always on duty protecting us!)

Christianity is neither a superstition nor a "science". Illnesses, physical or psychological, are almost always natural physical phenomena and not the result of spiritual or supernatural involvement. When somebody's kidney goes out, it's not the "spirit of nephritis" causing it -- it's some physical agent at fault. That's all I'm saying.

I did a YWAM DTS in Amsterdam, outreach in Greece. I also spent a few days at the Belize base mentioned, helping to fix the suspension bridge that crosses the river that runs past the base.

I saw some kooky stuff during my time in YWAM, but I would consider it par for my course through the many manifestations of evangelical Christianity. You have to remember that YWAM is a huge organization, with surprisingly little centralized control. Any given person's experience is going to be heavily dependent on the local leadership at the base where they serve. My overall impression is that YWAM grew a little too fast and brought some people into leadership who probably should not have been there.

Is it a cult? Not by a long shot. I have been involved in pentacostal/charistmatic ministries that I would consider borderline cultish, but not YWAM.

But my central point is that these bases scattered around the world can be rather idiosyncratic, based on local leadership.

Cults live in fear of Grace because it takes away their power. They sell salvation. One of the larger Christian cults tells its members not to listen to any Christian music (besides their's) because it pushes the doctrine of a believer's direct line to God.

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