Church of God, Rebecca Gardner & The Today Show – Part 3

As you probably already know, earlier this year, NBC’s Today Show aired a segment in their Undercovered series, “When a Little Known Faith Breaks Up a Family,” to show the “subversive existence/prevalence of religious cults in America.” They interviewed the family of current World Mission Society Church of God member Rebecca Gardner as well as former WMSCOG members to portray the Church of God as a “dangerous group that destroys families.”

In Part 1 of this series, I addressed Rebecca’s background — her Christian upbringing and what motivated her to join the World Mission Society Church of God.

In Part 2 of this series, I addressed “cult experts” who have influenced Rebecca’s family, misdiagnosed Rebecca to make her family believe she has some sort of multiple personality disorder, and how even Rebecca’s previous marriage was twisted to blame the Church of God for placing her into an arranged marriage.

In this part, I want to address the way the Today Show portrayed the Church of God and the real motive behind the recent negative media around the Church of God.

Portraying the Church of God as a Cult

In his investigative report, Ronan Farrow interviewed five former members, one of them being Michele Colon. And because the storyline for this segment was to portray the Church as a “cult,” Ronan Farrow only focused on former members with negative opinions and (alleged) bad experiences at the Church (I will explain later why I say alleged bad experiences). He chose to disregard the real teachings and practices of the Church and what CURRENT members have to say about the Church of God. The show doesn’t even take into consideration any positive experiences former WMSCOG members may have had.

Rebecca’s family and the chosen former members presented a one-sided story about the beliefs of the World Mission Society Church of God. Both Rebecca and Missionary John explained our faith, which is based on the Bible, in an effort to NOT give viewers a biased perception about the Church of God and deliver both sides of the story. Missionary John even explained that because we believe in God the Mother incarnate, many people use this as a basis to label the Church of God a “cult.” But none of this made it into the segment. 

Who is Michele Colon?

If you are not yet familiar with former member Michele Colon, check out my recent post about her.

As Rebecca highlights, Michele has a vendetta against the Church and, as her ex-husband told Today Show producers, Michele has been lying about the Church of God over the past five years since she left the Church. In other recent news articles, Michele has blamed the Church of God for being a “profit-making cult;” claimed the Church of God forces members to have abortions, among other claims that are completely false.

The Church of God is Not a Cult

And as Rebecca explains in this next video, the Church of God is not a “cult” as this show tries to make it seem. We simply want to follow the teachings of God in the Bible. Two thousand year ago, Christianity was also seen as a “cult” because they believed the man Christ Jesus. The disciples preached about God who had come in the human form. And those same disciples wrote in the Bible that Christ would return a second time with a new name. The same disciples also wrote in the Bible about the existence of God the Mother. However, although people like Michele Colon can simply choose to not believe this, they go as far as to make up lies about the Church of God to portray us as a “cult.”

As Rebecca encourages in her video, “do not judge any member of the Church of God based on my family issue.” And definitely do not judge the Church of God based on what people like Michele Colon have to say. Over and over, Michele Colon and other former members have shown themselves to be liars and their only purpose is to defame the Church of God. Check out the World Mission Society Church of God and experience it for yourself.