Remember When Watching TV Was the Sign of a Heart Crossed Up with God?

I'm really not sure how the leadership of NTCC can remain so void of self-awareness and so full of hypocrisy. 

Back in 2004, many of us in Graham were personally asked by the Kekels to post our positive testimonies on a Cult Awareness Forum called FACT.net. 

There was a young couple who had left the group and the wife answered a question that someone posed on this forum.  Their daughter had become involved with NTCC and the lady was concerned due to changes in her behavior and distancing herself from her family....just the normal routine stuff for followers of this group.

Though I didn't want to hear anything negative about NTCC at the time, I didn't think the young lady who was once a "sister" said anything in a cruel way as she was portrayed by the leaders.

At one point, Kekel swooped in as The Whirlwind.  He didn't use his real name.  I knew who it was because I was privy to that information, but no one else was supposed to...though most, of course, did....mostly due to his snarky way and personality which caused him to judge harshly without getting enough information first.  He was knee-jerk judgmental and even had to dole out several apologies because of the cruel things he said. 

This is just a snippet of a much longer post from Kekel and it is one that many of us who left found offensive and was one of the many straws which eventually broke the camels back and opened our minds to the truth of this group.

So, this snippet is from 2004.   Kekel is openly and publicly calling out this young man because a "brother" saw him come out of a video rental store....possibly something akin to the now defunct Blockbuster Video.  

In hindsight, I find this so deeply awful because the Kekel's own son was watching movies on his computer as were others.    Kekel assumes it was a TV the young man was going to watch his movie on and we see what his viewpoint was about TV watching in 2004.  Did it matter whether someone watched a movie on a TV screen or a computer screen ?

Let's go back to a time 12 years before this FACT.net post from Kekel as the Whirlwind: 

When I went to my first conference in Missouri in 1992, I was shocked to learn that several of my fellow brothers and sisters were so afraid of the TVs on the dressers in their motel rooms at the Country Inn in Center, MO, that they would do one of two things...turn it to face the wall or throw a towel over it.  I was like.....What?   But, I thought maybe they were really addicted to the TV in their unsaved days and didn't want to backslide.  

Either that, or they thought the TV could turn itself on.

Either that or they thought their standing with god would be compromised by just being in a room with a TV.

Davis used to refer to the Internet as the Sinnernet and TV was not only not allowed, but folks were mocked if they were found to be sitting anywhere there was one...like a hospital ER waiting room and the like.   

In the service Mike Kekel preached on 7/30/23 in Graham, he admitted that back in 1992 while in the hospital with Tanya during her labor, that he watched the TV in the room.  He watched a Benny Hinn service. (Google him).   

Interesting the timeframe that he placed himself in.  That was definitely during a time when TV was so evil that it exposed the desires of your heart if you didn't turn it off if it was within your power to do so. Like asking a nurse to turn it off.   

People were judged as having evil desires if they went home to visit family....who very likely would have a TV and they didn't leave the room.    

No wonder families were concerned for their loved ones in New Testament Christian Church....because  they rarely visited and when they did, they would go out of their way to not be around the Evil Eye.  

It's OK to judge everyone else without context and by outward appearances only as seen here by Kekel as he calls out this young man. 

I truly wonder how those who were in when I was and even longer than I was, can soothe their minds when they see all the changes in the group. Are they just happy the rules have softened?  Did they go right out and buy a TV ?   

It's really OK to ask questions.   

Allow yourself to wonder and explore what you are 

really involved in . 

Fair warning though:  once you do that, there is no turning back.