my name is summer(obviously) and i was a member of the grc since birth till when i left at 17. i dont know where to start with this story but here goes, up until i was three we lived in geelong and then my mum married a man from warrnambool so we moved there. the night before the wedding my mother went to john buckle saying that she had grave concerns and did not want the marrige to proceed BUT, as it went she was told that the lord would bless blah blah blah and told to go ahead, this man turned out to be mentally ill to the point that he tried to kill my mother , broke my arm( i remember), and psycologically abused my sister, the only good thing to come from him was my younger brother. the marrige lasted 4 weeks. as we were then offically"manless" we assumed our rightful place at the bottom of the hierachy. from the age of .. since i can remember i was sexually abused by another member of this "church".when i was 14 he went to the pastor to confess his sins, he rang me to tell me what he had done and when asked him why he replied " i had to or else we both would go to hell"!!!!!!!the same day allan gangly came around to our house to hear my confession. i begged my mum that my step father(another one sorry i skjipped a few years, also we now lived in melbourne) not be present , but she replied, he is the god appointed head of this household and its his right to be present.hmmm what about my rights? anyway, during this truely delightful interview i was asked such intellectual questions as "How many inches of penetration where there" and "was i ever in the family way?" to which i was expected to answer, of course the avenue that i was being abused was never explored, i was the female i must have been responsible somehow.anyway in the end it was decided that "the lord knew"and no futher action was nessasary. because of this attitude toward me i denided as much as possible and made out like it was only the once it happened, when really it had been going on for 11 years. so fast forward 6 years and abuse still continuing, surprise , surprise, i had developed a faily healthy double life as well as a delicous drug habit. i knew i had to leave but could not face what i knew i would be doing to my family, and besides that life in the grc was all i had even known, what was i going to do on my own, so i made the decision to get myself kicked out with no hope of return. i had to confess to something that was beyond their scope to deal with...i know! I'll tell them im a drug addict, they wont see that one coming.but it was really quite intersting how it all turned out, after i told my mum and pastor ag was called, i was eventually asked why i was taking drugs, Why do you think? i replied, becaused i cant cope with being abused, " Does that still bother you" came my mums incredible reply , after all ' the lord knew', didnt he?..when it finally came out that the abuse was ongoing and hadnt been just the once i was put out of fellowship for lying about it when i was 14. can you believe that, well its true, (and thats just a drop in the ocean to what went on in that place), so the obligotory suicide attempts and stays in the pysch. ward followed. oh i forgot the best bit. as we are all brothers and sisters in the lord, when my eldest brother ( who is still a member toi this day) asked ag what id been put out for , his reply? incest.