Well, my best friend used to be a Southern Baptist and I remember her saying something about a Southern Baptist “Conference “ which sounded like it was some kind of governing body. So maybe contacting them and asking them to condemn COS might be useful.

Full disclosure, I am agnostic….but I do recognize Southern Baptists as a religion. They don’t do things like require parishioners to pay thousands of dollars up front to attend religious functions, they don’t tell their members to disown non-Baptist family members. If anything I think they do the opposite of those things generally like telling parishioners that if their loved ones aren’t believers they need to witness to them (so connect with them MORE not less).

I think a lot of young people are developing codes of conduct for themselves outside of any church dogma which is somewhat a new concept. Back in the 50s for instance when COS started I think society expected church attendance of most people but with church attendance falling especially amongst the younger generations they are establishing their own codes of ethics which isn’t to say they are immoral. It’s like “How should we behave?” and they are thinking for themselves rather than doing it because some religious authority tells them to. Like don’t kill because I can see for myself it’s wrong to do so not because God told me not to.

I think this can actually lead to a much better society in the long run.

I totally get it. You are clearly still suffering missing your son. It’s awful that you are going through that. As are many other families torn apart by COS. I have heard it said many times that no legitimate church should seek to separate families. Real churches seek to bring families together and keep them together. That disconnection is part of “church” dogma should tell people all they need to know right there about the groups legitimacy as a religion. The KGB isn’t a religion and neither is COS.

That situation where Mike’s family is screaming at him when it was they who disconnected from him , not the other way around, also speaks volumes about COS because they orchestrated that attack.

Take solace that the tide of public opinion is turning against COS and people like you and Mike have been and are instrumental in that.

Mike saw the light after doing the “church’s” bidding for a really long time …so I think there is hope that your son may break away from them someday. If Mike , who was one of COS’ most vocal supporters , can have a change of heart then so can your son.