Grace Elizabeth, a second-generation AK, shares interviews with former Assembly members in a new podcast, In God’s Name: An Unseen Cult. Episodes air bimonthly on Sunday mornings at 9:00AM PST on Spotify and Amazon Podcasts. Watch for episode announcements below and see previews on Instagram.

• February 25, 2024 9:00AM PST  In God’s Name: An Unseen Cult, Episode 4 ‘The Ephesians Wife’. “Submissive was a big word – women were to be submissive.”
• January 11, 2024  In God’s Name: An Unseen Cult, Episode 3 ‘The Work/ers’. Finding yourself entrenched in a cult is surprisingly easy.
• January 28, 2024  In God’s Name: An Unseen Cult, Episode 2 ‘The Recruit’.“Where do you think God wants you in fellowship?”
• January 14, 2024  ‘In God’s Name: An Unseen Cult’, Episode 1 ‘The Founding’.
• December 31, 2023   In God’s Name – An Unseen Cult, The Trailer. “I’m gonna quote George Geftakys.”

Grace’s mother, Sue, has this to say about the project:

“From the start of her archival project for Cal St Fullerton through the transition to a podcast Grace Elizabeth has compiled information and documentation with the utmost professionalism, integrity of process and objectivity. Over the last 20 years I’ve heard many versions of people’s remembrance of their experience in the Assembly. Most are a variation of, “It was a sincere group of people, but it got legalistic at the end,” or, “Well, I was not in the inner circle so my experience was not so bad,” or, “Yeah, it was not good, but I learned how to read my Bible and I made lifelong friends”. There is a nugget of truth in every revisionist lie we tell ourselves. We do it to spare ourselves pain or shame, I think.

“But few are willing to admit that the Assembly fits the framework of a cult. The importance of this podcast is it lays bare our truth and the truth of the Assembly culture. Why it’s important is two-fold. Let it be a cautionary tale for those who seek to be Christ followers today…do not ignore the red flags. And for those of us who lived through it, to process the truth, accompanied with all the regret and remorse, because the unexamined life will continue to perpetuate a micro-version of the Assembly culture in another place and time.”