When Scarlet McCauley started her freshman year at the University of Colorado Boulder (CU), she anticipated many of the challenges of college life. Being recruited into a church that’s been accused of cult-like practices wasn’t one of them.
During her first day on campus in 2017, McCauley says she was approached by a woman she assumed was a student. “I thought she needed directions,” McCauley tells Teen Vogue. “But she said, ‘If you were to die today, would you go to heaven or hell?’” When Scarlet replied heaven, the woman, Anne*, said she would go to hell because she needed to, “live her life for Jesus.” A local ministry called Resurrection Church would help her get into heaven, McCauley recalls being told. As it turned out, Anne was a church recruiter called a “campus minister.”
Resurrection Church formed in Boulder in 2008 and heavily recruits new members from CU’s campus. According to reporting from the Arizona Daily Star, Resurrection is one of multiple offshoots affiliated with the controversial campus ministry Faith Christian Church, which was founded in 1990 in Tucson, Arizona, and recruits on the University of Arizona campus.
While churches like Resurrection and Faith Christian promise a faith community to members — something many find comfort in — former members we spoke to claim that being part of the church left them isolated from friends and family, and that the church demanded devotion in ways they felt were extreme. On college campuses, members recruit young people, often living away from home for the first time. These former members say that as the church asked for more of their time and devotion, they felt they were being influenced in ways that left them emotionally scarred.
Neither Resurrection Church nor Faith Christian Church responded to Teen Vogue’s numerous attempts to get comment regarding the allegations in this story. Teen Vogue also reached out to Anne for comment, but has not heard back.
Anne’s bold recruiting language isn’t atypical for groups like Resurrection Church. According to Rick Ross, the author of Cults Inside Out: How People Can Get In and Out, with these types of organizations, “they frequently believe that only their organization can affect your salvation.”
When Anne asked for her contact information, McCauley says she gave her a fake number. A few days later, McCauley says Anne approached her again on campus, visibly upset. “I had my phone in my hand,” McCauley remembers. “Anne took it and texted herself.” Shaken, McCauley told her RA about what she felt was a terrifying encounter with Anne. The RA was aware of Resurrection Church’s presence on campus, according to McCauley.
Unable to shake the strange feeling the interaction gave her, McCauley says she decided to do a school project on the church’s presence on campus, but it went beyond that. She was so appalled at what she learned that she says she decided to go undercover, join the church, and record her interactions with them.
Initially, the church seemed pretty normal. “During the first couple of weeks, I thought that they were nice people. They just cared a lot about God,” she says. “Then it slowly snowballed into thinking that they were crazy, [that] they misinterpret the Bible and manipulate people.”
Former member Nick Puente, who says he grew up in Faith Christian Church in Tucson, tells Teen Vogue that once a college student becomes a member, he feels “the love stops and it becomes control.” The people we spoke to said felt they were encouraged to limit interactions with people who questioned the church’s teachings. Former member of one of Faith Christian Church's affiliates, Cierra Carrico, who was with the church from 2010-2015, said she felt she was discouraged from having friends who weren’t members.
“It was very clear from the beginning that friends outside of the church were considered ‘harmful’ to me, even if they were good, harmless people,” Carrico says. “Over the years, I came close to befriending classmates, co-workers, etc, but was always told to shut it down immediately if those individuals weren't interested in joining the church as well.”
Sena Woodall, who was recruited into Faith Christian Church as a college freshman in 1997, recalls being asked to have meetings with church members if she hung out with non-members.
“If I spent time with people who weren’t members, it was met with meetings to discuss my intentions and more teaching on what it means to be committed,” she says. “I wasn’t close with my family, but when I did go back [home] I was encouraged to meet with my Bible study leader before and after to discuss what occurred and what conversations were had.”
As they lost outside ties, former members like Puente say they instead became part of an ever-growing community within Faith Christian. There was seemingly some allowable contact with non-members: A considerable push to recruit new students into the church, Puente says. “The campus was divided up based on the number of campus ministers or evangelists,” Puente explains. “We were assigned dormitories, student unions, and fraternities.”
McCauley says that during prayer groups at Resurrection, members discussed interactions with different kids on campus, giving details about their lives. They encouraged members to interact with others, especially if there was a student who was thinking about attending church. Looking back, she realizes that the group discussed her before she attended a meeting. “It was eerie,” McCauley remembers. “I think about my first meeting and everyone already knew my name and that I [had] lived in Japan.”
Puente, now 37, recognizes that as a campus minister he tried to recruit students who were at a vulnerable stage in their lives.
“It was predatory,” he says. “You come in [to the church] and you immediately have 350 friends. You get invited to all these events. On the surface, it feels like a good, healthy connection with people.”
Ross says college students, especially those from out of state, are susceptible to these kinds of churches because of that seeming social boon. “They're in a new environment,” Ross explains. “They're seeking to make friends and become a part of that campus and its campus life.”
But for the former members we spoke to felt the new community became nearly all-encompassing. When former Resurrection Church member Conner Dudrey officially joined the church right after his freshman year at CU, he was excited to build a new faith community.
“At first, the members weren’t trying to evangelize. They were trying to get to know people,” Dudrey tells Teen Vogue. What started as a simple Friday night meet up with church members evolved into a schedule filled with church services, Bible studies, and covenant groups. “I would go home, go to sleep, wake up, go to work, and hang out with [Resurrection] friends,” he says. “Any sort of self-preservation or self-care happened in the Resurrection community with everybody else.” Attendance wasn’t required, but Dudrey says he was questioned if he missed events. His new schedule was draining, but he assumed that exhaustion was a part of the college experience.
Although he loved hanging out with his new faith community, he was wary of their focus on what he calls “spiritual warfare.” “Everything was either holy or demonic,” Dudrey says. “They talk a lot about how there's a lot of people who profess to be Christians, but they were going to be surprised on Judgement Day.” Similarly, Woodall says people who struggled to fit in with the church “were deemed ‘demonic’ or had ‘oppressing spirits’” at Faith Christian.
Members say the churches ask 10% of their income (a common request in Christian churches) and that some members tried to influence the decisions they made, including what they could wear. McCauley says she recalls members of the church discouraging her from wearing her Grateful Dead Chacos with the band’s signature dancing bears on them. She also says the church wanted her to spend spring break in Arizona to recruit more members instead of visiting her sister in California. “I ended up going to California,” she says. “But I apologized because they were upset with me.” Carrico recalls being told what to wear and how to act at her church.
The churches also discourage dating without the express intention of getting married, according to former members. Puente, who was married in Faith Christian when he was 19, recalls his courtship with his now ex-wife when he was 16 years old. “I had to go to the senior pastor and explain that I had a word from God to marry this person,” he says. “She had to have a similar word from God. Then, I was permitted to court her.” Dudrey says that members of Resurrection Church also said that if someone wasn't planning on marrying whomever they were dating, they were told to focus on their relationship with God instead of the other person.
Carrico describes a similar scenario at her church. “Everyone who got engaged did so in the same way: [They] were brought together through leadership in the church [and] did not initiate courtship without permission,” she says.
Dudrey and Puente both say they felt as though the churches taught that women were expected to be subservient to men.
After spending time in Resurrection, Dudrey’s mom remembers that there was a shift in her son. “He was empty. He didn’t feel anything or have emotion anymore,” she said. Dudrey wrote on his blog about his experience with Resurrection: “I had had multiple instances of doubt and considered leaving the church multiple times during my time there, but the people on staff always convinced me otherwise, that Satan or demons or the fear of man or whatever were trying to make me leave."
Puente also recalls their anti-LGBTQ beliefs. “We were discouraged from recruiting anybody who identified as queer or gay or trans in any capacity,” he says. “It was kind of like they were too far gone.”
Former members say that sexism, anti-LGBTQ beliefs, and excessive influence aren’t the only problematic ideologies and practices within the church. McCauley says that her mental health issues were either downplayed or were framed as being the result of a demonic presence that can be cast out or healed. When McCauley revealed that the church was taking an emotional toll one her and she felt depressed, the response she says she received was startling. “You're not depressed. God takes away depression.”
When McCauley asked to reschedule a Bible study meet up during midterms, she says Anne became livid. She says Anne immediately went to McCauley’s dorm and took her to a study room on the top floor next to where other students were studying. “[Anne] started screaming things like, ‘You [the demon] don't belong here. Jesus will cast you out.’” McCauley said she felt “mortified,” knowing all the other students could hear Anne.
Ross, who has spoken to former Resurrection and Faith Christian members, believes the members are being unduly influenced saying leaders gain “power from that kind of subservience and submission.”
Puente left Faith Christian in 2005 after reading Twisted Scriptures the year before, a book that discusses how Christian organizations use scripture to control their members. “I remember reading it,” he recalls, “And being like, holy sh*t, this is what we do to people.” For Dudrey, it took an intervention from his mom, begging him to leave the church. “It was kind of just like the fog lifted,” he explains.
McCauley, who was an A student, says her grades “tanked” over the year. She also felt depressed and anxious. At the end of freshman year, she says she felt pressure to live in a house the following year with fellow church members. Although she says she wanted to stay in the church to gather more evidence despite these negative effects, her parents wanted her out, so she left. “The amount of time and the emotional toll it took to record everything and dealing with the church took a lot out of me,” she says. “I was so exhausted because I was constantly on and scared because I was recording stuff on my phone.”
McCauley says that when she tried to present her evidence to different departments at CU to try to get Resurrection kicked off of campus she was told nothing could be done because of the First Amendment. “You do have an obligation to keep students safe and inform them about it at the bare minimum,” McCauley says. “I even asked CU to send an email to incoming freshman but they could not do that.”
Teen Vogue reached out to the Dean of Students at CU about Resurrection Church and they issued the following statement: “Members of the public are permitted to be on campus and free speech is protected. In regards to anything that jeopardizes safety, there are campus policies and state laws against harassment. If anyone on campus experiences harassment, we ask that they contact campus police and file a report.”
Ross recommends new college students to think twice about the conversations they have with people that approach them on campus. “Always to remember, it's not about what the group believes so much it is about how they behave,” he adds. “Ask yourself to what extent do the demands of the organization impede or disable me from pursuing the other areas of my life.”
McCauley hopes that her experience is a cautionary tale for new students on campus. “They make them think that they have friends in the support system,” she says. But really, McCauley says members end up isolated.
*Name has been changed.