More (Greater) Grace Under Pressure

Harnessing the power of the internet and media various groups and individuals are using everything from satire to activism to bring attention to the Church headquarter in Baltimore, Maryland.

Internet Blog begets News Articles and Huge Volume of disscussion:

On May 15th 2004 Frank Langfitt of the Baltimore Sun article read: “Seventeen years after a federal court ruled that his church used undue influence to obtain more than $6 million from a donor, a Baltimore-based evangelist faces a new controversy in a different venue - the Internet.”

Later in the article he writes: “The bulletin board, which has drawn more than 3,100 postings from as far away as India and Argentina, is among hundreds of Internet sites set up by dissident former church members to discredit or reform religious groups founded in recent decades, scholars say.

Volume of Response:

What many did not know or expect is that the internet would play such an incredible role in the story. Now with new allegations the internet is being used to encourage others to report their stories to the media and attend meetings and events related to the activism.

The Factnet site now has over 75,000 postings: http://www.factnet.org/discus/messages/3/2056.html?1147713843

More Dialog:

Other sites have discussion boards and are not so heated or controversial:

Discuss GGWO: http://s10.invisionfree.com/DiscussGGWO/index.php

Independent Media:

Baltimore Independent Media has had 3 postings including:

• http://baltimore.indymedia.org/newswire/display/12610/index.php A posting about recent activism effort to bring more stories to the media.
• http://baltimore.indymedia.org/newswire/display/12617/index.php A posting that is commentary on the affects on members.
• http://baltimore.indymedia.org/newswire/display/12582/index.php A posting about new allegations.

Controversial Satire Blog:

Satire has become an interesting and often controversial piece of the discussion with a blog using digitally edited pictures with the faces and likeness of the leaders of the groups. This blog site has in and of itself created controversial discussions within other blogs. http://liquidwaves.blogspot.com/

Various Online Research Sources concerning GGWO:

Actual GGWO website: www.ggwo.org . Notes: Rick Ross Information: www.rickross.com/groups/greatergrace.html
Apologetics Research: www.apologeticsindex.org/g00.html
Freedom of Mind Reference: www.freedomofmind.com/resourcecenter/groups/g/greater/
Aberration Christian Groups neirr.org/s7-aber2.html
Christian Research Jounel: www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/cri/cri-jrnl/web/crj0126a.html
Strangers among us: www.kashiashram.com/people/strangers_txt.htm
Court Transcipt CAN vs. Jason Scott home.snafu.de/tilman/mgarde/can1.txt
IC for Religious Freedom Vs State of Maryland: www.religiousfreedom.com/tskfrce/TRO.html

Maryland Bible College and Seminary: www.mbcs.edu


Notes on the New CAN:

New Cult Awareness Network: www.cultawarenessnetwork.org/ This is the group that was taken over by Scientology interest and is headed up by George Robertson who was the Vice President of Maryland Bible College and Seminary. It includes information on the details of the demise of the old CAN www.cultawarenessnetwork.org/dbase/clippings/demise.html and information on its leadership: www.cultawarenessnetwork.org/WhoWeAre.html They have other websites: www.toleranceforall.org/ and www.religiousfreedomadvocates.org/ which appears to be offline.

More Information is available at:
Scientology’s Revenge: www.lermanet.com/scientologynews/newtimesla-can.htm
Incredible amount of documentation on CAN at Rick Ross site (30+ articles): www.rickross.com/groups/newcan.html
And another anti-cult site: www.apologeticsindex.org/r00.html Go to George Robertson name.
Court Transcript concerning George Robertson, GGWO and Scientology: www.whyaretheydead.net/misc/Factnet/SCARFF1B.TXT
Information on the buyout at Rick Ross site: www.rickross.com/reference/apologist/apologist1.html
Another interesting article written as a primer about CAN www.holysmoke.org/report/cult-apologists.htm
Another article on George Robertson from the cache of Wellsprings site: 72.14.207.104/search
Another article; mondediplo.com/2001/06/09sects “Brooks clearly recalls Reverend George Robertson, who runs Greater Grace with a rod of iron: "He’s in close touch with the leaders of Scientology. When the Scientologists are loath to intervene on certain matters that might damage their image, they get Robertson to do it. He’s their main mouthpiece in the evangelical movement." The Cult Awareness Network was once the main support organization for victims of religious cults. It was founded in the 1970s. Greater Grace and the Church of Scientology set out together to bankrupt it by lawsuits. Then they bought up its logo and license agreement in the federal bankruptcy court (13).

International Association of Grace Ministries:

The 2005 spin off of GGWO affiliated ministries.
Special notes concerning: Notice that there are listing for affiliated ministries including the new churches of Carl Stevens sons Paul Stevens www.fwministries.org/ and Steven Stevens gracereconciliation.org/ . There are also links to many of the other former affiliated ministries: www.iagm.org/links.php .

Greater Grace Christian Academy: www.ggca.org/ The k-12 and special “Discovery school of GGWO ministries. Note there is a  link at the bottom of the page for Pastor Schaller’s affiliated school in Budapest, Hungary. www.ggis.hu/ and older article on Baltimore Academy of Excellence can be found at: www.calvertinstitute.org/main/pub_detail.php

Mission Field America: www.missionfieldamerica,org An apparent abandoned project of GGWO. In its list of Board of Directors it only lists John Bilowith who has been sent to Delaware to help correct major problems.