MERCY Worldwide: The ICC’s Fake “Charity” Organization

Most of the money given to MERCY Worldwide goes to salaries and not benevolence, we already know from former ICC evangelist Gabe Reed’s letter (which I covered in my previous article) that 81% to 90% of the money allocated to MERCY goes to paying their leader’s salaries and NOT to the “MERCY projects” which are supposed to be purpose of the organization. If they are pocketing 81% of the money for themselves; you can hardly call this a “benevolent organization”. Now out of the rest of their budget how much actually went to MERCY benevolent projects? Only about 3% in 2014 and a meager 0.5% in 2015.

In order to exempt themselves from paying income tax the ICC was required to fill out a 990 form where their total budget and expenditures for MERCY are listed. This is public information that is available on the internet.

 Here is the link to the 2014 MERCY 990 income form:

http://www.guidestar.org/FinDocuments/2014/264/740/2014-264740560-0b7408f9-Z.pdf

And here is the link to the 2015 MERCY 990 income form:

http://www.guidestar.org/FinDocuments/2015/264/740/2015-264740560-0c9f60ae-Z.pdf

On the 2014 Mercy Worldwide 990-EZ form; their total income was $137,541.

$100,151 of this money went to benefits and salaries.

The only expenses made toward benevolent Mercy events was $500 for the toy drive, $200 for the blood drive, and then $3500 on project supplies for the “Day of Mercy”; amounting to only a total of $4200 spent toward benevolent projects.

The way the rest of the money was used is recorded as “other expenses” such as expenditures for meals and entertainment, printing and publications, travel, and most notably $12,000 just for “advertising” (which is almost 3x what they spent on the MERCY projects themselves).

The 2015 Mercy Worldwide expenditures were even more alarming; out of their total income of $146,377, only a meager $700 was actually spent on Mercy projects ($200 for “Day of Mercy” and $500 for the toy drive) while $131,124 for their own paid benefits and salaries. $18,000 was put under “other expenditures” which included meals and entertainment, admin and travel.

What is really outrageous here, is that even though they had a budget increase of $9000, their expenditures toward benevolent projects was merely one-sixth of what is was from the previous year. Not only that, but the amount spent on meals and entertainment was 2.5 times higher than the previous year, and when compared to the scrawny budget allocated to the “MERCY projects; the amount spent for their meals and entertainment was more than double of what they spent on benevolent projects. It’s as if they have stopped to even pretend that they are a benevolent organization.

Former Evangelist Gabe Reed's Letter to the ICC

This post is not a new article of mine, but rather I would like to bring attention to a letter that was written a few days ago by the former evangelist of the ICC’s church in Eugene Oregon, Gabe Reed. His letter to the ICC reveals many of the ICC’s contradictions, arrogance, and manipulation. It also gets very specific about the stats that show the ICC’s member losses and deception concerning where their special mission’s contribution money goes. In this letter much inside information that the ICC wanted to keep hidden is revealed, and the ICC’s hypocrisy and lies are exposed. Here is a link to the blog web address where Gabe Reed’s letter is posted:

http://livinginthebookofacts.blogspot.com/

And here is a link to a PDF version that is available for download:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B2e5slY-B8ZiZENxX1pqUzRNOE0

Among the most significant information in this article, Gabe reveals where the special mission’s contribution is really going, or to be more specific; where most of the the special mission’s contribution is NOT going:

“Here’s the truth: The Movement has no money. LA operates on line of credit. The money you give to Special Missions does not go to Special Missions, it goes to pay off the line of credit the LA church has ran up. Just look at the Bulletin that CAICC puts out. We raised 2.6 million dollars in 2015 to plant six churches. I know that the Sacramento church only cost $23,000 to get started. So where did the $2,577,000? It doesn’t take $500,000 to start a church. We didn’t send all that money to other churches around the world. The LA church has run up it’s credit limit and our Special Missions goes to pay down that credit. It’s shocking the kind of deceit that happens in the movement.”

The New gods of Kip McKean's "International Christian Church"

So I have seen some of the ICC’s recent sermons and then was going through some friends posts on social media and I came upon a conversation between one of my friends and an ICC leader. They were arguing about how to approach a leadership that is in sin (in the ICC’s case, severely corrupt, as my friend argued) and the ICC leader had this to say:

“As a disciple remember that we must be very careful how we speak about any authority in this world whether corrupt or benign. God takes this very seriously. David himself showed a respect toward Saul, even though Saul was corrupt. This was because David understood the sovereignty of God. When we talk bad about God's leaders whether factually accurate or not, we are calling God's judgment and decisions into question. We see examples of the outcome of this in the Scriptures.”

This was in the context of talking about people who criticize the ICC leadership. This kind of thinking is in complete ignorance of other scriptures about issues of corruption as my friend Josh soon pointed out to him; “You used David and Saul as an example but how about more clear examples that line up with prophets addressing church leaders in the old testament. Consider Jeremiah at the city gates or Jesus in the temple. God is absolutely Sovereign and all believers are ambassadors of the truth. Remember Jesus flipped tables and made a whip. Jeremiah preached at the city gates and phineas picked up a spear.”

Not to mention that Revelations 2:2 calls us to test for “false teachers”; "I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and you have found them false."

[Article 1] The ICC's Corrupt Policies for Money (Part 1)

This article is available for download in PDF format here
A file with all the articles is available for download here

[The Articles of Indignation: Article 1]

Corrupt Policies of the International Christian Church: Part 1

By Daniel Berg           June 25, 2015

I was a member of the ICC for six years. At the time that I was baptized I believed that the ICC was the Church of God since the doctrine matched the beliefs of the early Christians, and indeed those who reached out to me were honest people.  I was aware that Kip had some criticisms about his past but he addressed these in front of the congregation and apologized for his misconduct. I decided to trust Kip despite his past because I believed he had repented; even King David in the Bible fell into sin, so I trusted that Kip had repented the same way that King David had.

If the Church had stayed the way it was back when I was baptized, I would still be there, worshipping alongside everyone else. Unfortunately, after Kip got his Church started and got enough momentum going, he began to take the Church in a different direction and the Church evolved into something else.  The Church began to introduce some odd policies and make some questionable decisions that all seemed to revolve around money issues, and these changes were introduced using manipulative methods. There have been many people who have brought their concerns before the leadership on these issues, and the leaders always give the same excuse; “the Church is not perfect, everyone makes mistakes”. The Church is not expected to be perfect, but it is expected to repent; and there has been no repentance shown here.

[Article 2] The ICC's Corrupt Policies for Money (Part 2)

This article is available for download in PDF format here

A file with all the articles is available for download here

[The Articles of Indignation: Article 2]

Corrupt Policies of the International Christian Church: Part 2

By Daniel Berg           June 25, 2015

In my previous article I wrote about psychological concepts involved in the ICC's abusive actions. So as not to appear arrogant; I write not as an expert on psychology but as an engineering graduate who has also taken up the study of psychology and group psychology on the side. The key behind manipulating a person or a group of people is to keep them from realizing that they are actually being manipulated, therefore the manipulation needs to either be disguised as something else or psychological tactics must be used to keep the victim from thinking about the possibility of manipulation altogether. Many of these manipulative policies appear seemingly innocent at first as these leaders claim that they are just trying to make sure that their members are “spiritual”, but they serve as components in a larger system. I now try to write further about the nature of the psychological manipulation in the ICC that is behind more questionable policies involving money. Hopefully the logic and truth behind my words will hold more sway than what credentials I may or may not have as I once again tackle more aspects of this corrupt system that the ICC has created.

[Article 3] The ICC's Extortion and Coercion for Money

This article is available for download in PDF format here

A file with all the articles is available for download here

[The Articles of Indignation: Article 3]

The ICC’s Extortion and Coercion for Money

By Daniel Berg           June 25, 2015

Coercion and Extortion

In 2013, Kip McKean put in action a policy which dictated that members who did not give a contribution for two weeks in a row would be “warned” that they would be disfellowshipped. This is regardless of whether that member is actually receiving any income. Now for those of you outside the ICC who have studied your Bibles on the subject of how the Church went about collecting their finances; it should be fairly obvious how unbiblical this policy is, however, I shall continue anyway to explain why this is not in line with the scriptures because my target audience has been manipulated into believing otherwise.

[Article 4] The ICC's Psychological Control System

This article is available for download in PDF format here

A file with all the articles is available for download here

[The Articles of Indignation: Article 4]

The ICC’s Psychological Control System (Part 1)

By Daniel Berg           June 25, 2015

For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error. While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage. –Deceptions of False Teachers, 2 Peter 2:18-19

Introduction: A System of Abuse Twice Used

Many people refer to Kip McKean’s psychological system of control as “mind control”, but seem unable to explain how this is actually done. The term “mind control” sounds so sci-fi that it seems ridiculous to some people that something like this could be realistically implemented by a church, and yet we see examples of this throughout history such as Steward Traill’s Church of Bible Understanding (don’t all such organizations claim that they are just “following the Bible”?) which was founded in 1971.

My articles have outlined the different ways that the ICC would psychologically manipulate people and I often use the group psychological theories of recognized nineteenth-century thinkers such as Gustave Le Bon and Sigmund Freud to show how this is being done. The key behind manipulating a person or a group of people is to keep them from realizing that they are actually being manipulated, therefore the manipulation needs to be disguised as something else. It is interesting to note that when people bring up the subject of psychological theory to discuss how the members are being manipulated they are criticized for bringing up “worldly concepts” against their “holy organization”; as if they are somehow exempt from such psychological phenomena. Once again this plays right into the theories of group psychology, that the people who get pulled into this mentality think that their organization is above the rules. Many of these manipulative policies appear seemingly innocent at first, but they serve as components in a larger system and come together to form a system that serves a specific purpose; very much like an engineer will put together various components to create a specific device. The system that the ICC has built serves to maximize the money that they take from their congregation as well as establishing significant control over them and this was the same type of system that Kip built during the ICOC as can be seen in the letters from the ICOC leaders in 2003 where they apologize for this abuse and coercion done during Kip’s leadership.

Many have concluded the reason for all of this sin, disorder and bitterness was “the system” –

World Sector Leaders, discipleship partners, Bible Talks, megachurches, the “Study Series,” etc.

(Some have even gone so far as to call it the “evil” system.) A system is simply applying Biblical

principles to create methods. Some churches in the name of “freedom in Christ” have abandoned

all methodologies such as Bible Talks, discipleship partners, etc. We must have a system that

uses Biblical principles in order to evangelize the world. –Kip McKean, “From Babylon onto Zion”, July 13, 2003.

It is interesting to note here that Kip criticizes the ICOC on the basis that some of their Churches had done away with discipleship partners and bible talks, and yet once again he avoids the issue of abusive money policies as being part of the system and instead obscurely alludes to “sin, disorder, and bitterness” instead of addressing the main concerns that people had with his organization. His avoidance of the issue of obtaining money from members through coercive tactics continues throughout the rest of the letter as I show in my other article; How Kip McKean’s Old Movement Fell which addresses this part of Kip’s history. It has become very clear from my previous articles that this system has not been based on “Biblical principles” on which Kip attempts to make his argument and this article will serve to enforce that as I describe his current psychological system of control.