Recruits are constantly dunned for money to spread the word. Every convert is pressured to give a minimum ten per cent of gross income - even if they depend on social security or student grants. Nor is that all. Members are regularly encouraged to double their normal contribution or put in everything in their wallet during a church service. The more you give, the more you rise in the leaders' esteem.
Disciples often get heavily into debt in order to fulfill their obligations.
Although the Australian organisation claims autonomy from the US, the Los Angeles headquarters houses a database of worldwide finances. So money-orientated is the cult that at least two former cult members claim this database shows on each Monday morning how much any member in any branch has given the previous day. These people are left in a state of utter confusion. They've lost confidence in their own decision-making, they feel guilty and fearful and never know if they've done the right thing by leaving. I have watched them weep uncontrollably as they struggle to accept that they've been duped by someone they trusted so completely.