After the exit. What happens when you leave the UPCI cult?

The Onyx Phoenix.
4 min readAug 24, 2022

I wrote in a previous article that I was thrown out of the United Pentecostal Church. I was accused (falsely) of propositioning men in the church. This was an outright lie. I had questioned the pastor who is considered the equal of God, a messenger, and above the rest of the people.

In the United pentecostal church, as well as other Oneness and holiness pentecostals, the pastor is a dictator, and he and his family are not equals, or even a first among equals. They are on a pedestal, and untouchable.

The incident that was the final straw was my friendship with a particular family in that church. This family had two teenage daughters, and the pastor had a teenage daughter. These girls had a rivalry, and I was friends with the girls from the other family. The pastor’s daughter had no interest in a friendship with me, and the other family was welcoming. This was the final straw. I was friends with the rival of the pastor’s daughter, and when the family of the rivals left to attend a church in a nearby city, of the same denomination, that is when the chips all fell. I was cast out for propositioning men. I still had one friend in the church who knew I was innocent, and she took a tape recorder to church on the next scheduled service, and recorded the sermon. It sounded like the rantings of a madman, in my opinion. The pastor screamed about how he had cast out a sinner, and if anyone had a problem with this sinner being cast out, they would feel different when their husbands left. Cheering…

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The Onyx Phoenix.
The Onyx Phoenix.

Written by The Onyx Phoenix.

The Onyx Phoenix is an adopted human who survived abuse and has become an adoption activist. Like a Phoenix, I rose from the ashes of adoption, and survived