1 /5 James Weil: I was sucked into a cult in El Cajon, and then I nearly died in a bike wreck in December 2023. My daughter, a Navy officer, stationed in Mississippi, found this church for me after three weeks of prayer. I went to this place a completely broken man. My second Sunday there, I met with one of the pastors. I tried to explain to him the best I could what I went through in El Cajon. He looked at me and said, "I like your hunger!" After everything I have been through, I am hurting for money, so I asked him if the church could float me $20. He said he would, and then he came back with this enormous kid in his arms. In almost a whisper he said, "Im out of here." I felt like a complete idiot! Im kind of old school. I believe that a man should always keep his promises no matter what. I started going to the Mens Fellowship meeting on Thursday nights. I even read most of the material. I brought the matter up with the head pastor. Turns out the guy who runs the Thursday night meetings, Pastor Chris, was the guy who left me hanging when I asked him for money, so, undoubtedly, I had trepidations about attending those meetings at all. I asked them if they could help me with my Last Will and Testament, but the head pastor refused to witness it. He said he needed to get to know me better before he could. I found this disconcerting. There is nothing odd about my will at all. Im leaving my 2019 F-150 and some real estate to my daughter, and the rest of my assets will be divided evenly among them. I had a meeting with the head pastor, Robert Jewell, and I felt oddly threatened by our conversation. He told me that I was not allowed near the women or children, and that I needed to fellowship only with the men. I have been beaten, robbed and sent to jail since I moved to San Diego in August of 23. I had a respectable career as a software engineer. It took almost every ounce of strength I had to get out of the complex where I was living in El Cajon to safety in Kearny Mesa. What struck me as odd about this church is that there seems to be a lot of money there. Everyone is so well-groomed and well-dressed. I also come from money, but these people struck me as though they were Stepford family cutouts. Then I realized that their game is all about control, so my flight or fight instinct took over, and I told the guy that I would fight my way out if there if necessary. When I got home, I sent him a polite email explaining that I wasn’t a good fit for their church, and he politely acknowledged my message. But then I thought about it, so I sent him another email asking him if he would like to be my pen pal, and that I would like to continue going to the Men’s Fellowship on Thursday nights. I was shocked when he wrote back telling me that I was not welcome in their church at all! Again, I responded politely, saying that their Christian values were way out of whack. And for whatever stupid reason, I sent him a picture of a stab wound on my neck with a caption that read, “Knife fights are no joke!” What I sent him was an obvious cry for help, but instead of reaching out to me, as any good Christian should do, he reported me to the police. Yesterday, a police officer and two case workers from PERT frisked me outside of my apartment in front of all my neighbors. I sat down on the bench and very calmly explained my situation and debunked all the lies this pastor told the police. The experience was humiliating and disturbing to say the least. This only intensified my fear of churches, but I am a rational, thinking man, so instead of being angry about it, I am simply going to file a Civil suit against those idiots. Thankfully, almost all our exchanges are in writing, so I have more than enough ammunition to shake them up pretty good. What they did certainly wasn’t Christian, and upon reflection, I realize that they were simply trying to protect the status quo. Let’s hope they don’t do this to anyone else.
