Here is an example of the magical thinking & cultic dynamics embedded in much of American evangelical Christianity, that led to the Christo-Fascist extremism & political hi-jacking of Christianity we're now seeing.
We would like to think that evangelicalism was pretty normal, and it just got warped by Trump/MAGA/Qanon/Covid conspiracies/Russian troll farms.
But in fact, the seeds of delusion, extremism and authoritarianism were there all along.
While I was serving as a missionary in Hong Kong (trying to be the good Christian 'serving the Lord' and 'living for Christ'), a friend handed me a book called Born in Zion by Carol Balizet.
It was meant a faith-inspiring resource to encourage prayer and faith in God when having a baby. It seemed harmless.
As I read through it, one sentence stood out to me:
"AND IF SHE WON'T SUBMIT TO HER HUSBAND, THEN REFUSE TO BE HER MIDWIFE, BECAUSE HER BIRTH WON'T GO WELL".
What??
The sexism and legalism of this stood out to me. The author was implying that any Christian wife who doesn't conform to the fundamentalist ideas of male hierarchy, male headship and unilateral female subjugation in marriage can't have good births.
It felt like coercion, to pressure you to go along with their patriarchal teachings.
It felt like a curse.
It didn't sit right, so I started to look into Carol Balizet a little further.
I found out that the 'Born in Zion' teachings became cultic among fundamentalist Christians and was associated with a series of baby and maternal deaths at homebirths gone wrong.
Carol's grand-daughter Angie wrote a series of blog posts called "My Grandmother the Killer"
Angie writes:
"My grandma didn’t murder people like Charles Manson. Instead, she left sponges in surgical patients as a nurse. She ran into and over a disabled pedestrian as a driver. She oversaw dangerous home births and didn’t transfer to the hospital when things got dicey as a 'spiritual midwife'. She advocated for “a complete withdrawal from the Satanic medical system” in her books as a cult author. And killed more people than Charles Manson in the process, all with the outward demeanor of Sweet Little Old Lady – short and round and nonthreatening in every way."
Thanks to Nancy Campbell and Above Rubies, who took Carol Balizet on tour in New Zealand and Australia, women in those countries also got influenced by this extreme and ill-advised teaching. This resulted in a mother in Western Australia dying during a homebirth in which she felt it was anti-faith to call an ambulance when she was haemorrhaging.
Nancy Campbell is another fundamentalist who taught patriarchal ideals of male rule and female submission, In other words, Fascism and authoritarianism. I've no doubt that Carol Balizet would have gone full MAGA had she not declined with Alzheimer's & passed way - and I'm sure it's not shock to you to find out that Nancy Campbell was part of the Jericho Marches and the J6 rally that led to the insurrection incited by Trump.
If you've read MY STORY, you'll know about Roxanne, the young missionary wife who was required to 'shun' me for being a feminist and supposedly having a 'bad influence' on her, when her husband wanted her in 'proper subjection' to his authority.
Well! That young wife, Roxanne, was trained in midwifery - one of the few vocations Bill Gothard permitted females to do. And ... she was involved in promoting Carol Balizet and printing copies of her book. Back in the day when she was fully immersed in the cult.
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Carol Balizet (left) selling her publications at a meet. Photo credit: Roxanne Anderson
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Remember how in a previous post I said that she GOT OUT and has since come full circle?
Listen to THIS PODCAST in which Roxanne describes her foray in to the Born in Zion cult; her exit out of fundamentalism and into grace, and her journey of healing from religious trauma.
Roxanne is living proof that even when you're brought up in Gothard "Shiny Happy People"-style home-schooling and are entrenched in Quiverful doctrines and Bible Belt fundamentalism, you *can*get out, you can heal. You can reclaim your life.
In the early 2000s, I was part of an email group called "Christian Childbirth". Here is a post I made at the time:
"Just a word of warning ... as you know, I am totally supportive of natural & supernatural birth, and home birth as an option for those who feel it's right for them.
But there is one thing to watch out for in some USA Christian home birth circles. Sometimes you find a legalistic, righteousness-by-works religious spirit going on among those who believe in hierarchical approach to interpretation of scripture with regard to the 'role of women'. They believe in extreme submission doctrine and rigid sex roles. So having lots of children, home-birthing, homeschooling,
breastfeeding and being an at-home mother is IT for Christian women - they are defined by their biology and their role and their only function and purpose and calling is to be a wife and mother. You're supposed to have heaps of kids so that child-bearing is basically your only identity and life's work. So if
you read their literature, you sometimes come across horrible phrases like "and if the wife won't submit, then refuse to be her midwife because her birth will not go well" (from Carol Balizet’s book, “Born in Zion”) which in my mind is speaking a curse over women who they JUDGE to “not be submissive enough” according to their interpretation of and application of scripture.
This is heading towards spiritual abuse and is a kind of "Christian witchcraft". Same kind of rhetoric you get in cults. Then another article talks about the husband praying for the wife (a good thing) because he has authority over his wife's body. There is a lot of heavy emphasis on authority structures instead of unity, intimacy and relationship. In fact, the Bible teaches that the wife LIKEWISE has authority over her husband's body. But they kind of omit to mention any of the scriptures that would
indicate mutuality and equality between husbands and wives. The fact is, these scriptures are talking about mutually yielding to one another with regard to being sexually available and considerate to one
another. Praying for your wife when she is having a baby is something you do out of LOVE not because of a mis-applied, mis-interpreted authority doctrine.
I got some useful practical things from Spirit-Led Childbirth, but as I started to delve into some of their "teaching" articles, I found this doctrinal emphasis beginning to leak out ... I found I needed to use a sieve to benefit from the useful tips but sift out the legalism. It is so beguiling and attractive, they make out that they have got the edge on 'Godly womanhood' - which is so attractive to keen, motivated young wives and mothers who really want to please the Lord. But watch out for this stuff! It is an un-godly counterfeit for real authentic relationship with God. If you follow Christ, your role will not be so cut and dried with everything mapped out for you - because you are a totally unique individual with special gifts to use for God's glory - so the way you and your husband and your kid(s) do things will be different to everyone else. Don't accept anyone else's formula or mould. If you let Jesus define your life and your life's purpose - instead of gender - chances are, you will occasionally collide with pharisees who will rankle that you have freedom in Christ and will try to heap all kinds of religious burdens onto your shoulders to try to make you more the way THEY judge that you SHOULD be.
I think home-birthing is great! But I also appreciate that it is not right for every woman. And I don't think that home birth is more pleasing to God or more "using faith" than hospital birth. I love children and I know people who have lots of kids because it's great fun. But I do not believe that "God wants us to have lots of children" or that "your fertility returning is God's way of telling you it's time to have another baby." I'm a great proponent of breastfeeding - but I don't think it's more holy or godly
or spiritual than bottle feeding. Homeschooling is a good option for many families at different stages of their life-cycles but I don't think homeschooling is more fitting for a Godly life-style or that non-home schoolers aren't hearing from God quite right. I think it is really a luxury to be able to stay at
home with my babies while they are still little but I don't think I'm going against God's ordained order and usurping the role of men if I go out to work and achieve excellence in my chosen professional field. Neither do I think that my womanhood and femininity is defined by these things. These things are wonderful, fun, fulfilling things to do and experience and are part of God wanting to bless us - but doing them does not make us holy - we are not more godly if we do them, than another woman or couple who is not doing them. The blood of Jesus makes us holy - not our works, or our roles.
So if someone wants to do some or all of these things by their own personal preference, for that particular season of their life - then great. But formulating these things into a package of how godly womanhood is supposed to look and saying that all godly women who fear the Lord OUGHT to do these things and SHOULD do them and that they are out of order if they DON'T - that is when the blessing becomes BONDAGE. And women who struggle with issues of insecurity and wanting to be accepted can buy into it very easily."
Even 20 years ago, I was waving the red flags about fundamentalism, sexism, black/white thinking, certainty and absolutism. I was involved in homebirth/homeschool circles with other women who were mostly very conservative - in hopes that I might be able to offer a ray of hope or a light bulb moment for some other woman trapped in Christian patriarchy, like the friend who was made to cut off all contact with me.
There were others who were speaking even stronger warnings about the damage caused by Carol Balizet's teachings.
I have no idea was CCGM is, and the link that goes with this article is now broken.
But, this was an expose article on Balizet I found, some 20 years ago:
It's 21 pages long:
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From www.ccgm.org.au
IS IT WORTH DYING FOR CAROL BALIZET AND HER BIZARRE BELIEFS?
On Tuesday 1st May, 2001, a 31-year-old mother-of-five died in Perth, Western Australia, following the birth of her fifth child three weeks earlier. She and her husband had espoused the teachings of Carol Balizet, a self-proclaimed authority on medical issues and biblical interpretation.
WHO IS CAROL BALIZET?
Born in Dalton, Georgia, U.S.A., in 1933, the near-seventy-year-old now lives in Tampa, Florida. A former nurse, Balizet has exercised a disturbing and dangerous influence over many young families in America, Australia, and elsewhere.
The dangers are evident in her extreme and bizarre teachings and biblical distortions, and in deaths attributed to her influence - including the death of the young Western Australian mother.
By the age of forty, in 1974, Balizet was, in her own words: ‘…in an absolutely desperate situation, and everything else I’d tried had failed. I was twice married and divorced, an alcoholic, a single mother of four daughters, constantly broke and in debt, an unsaved Roman Catholic, helpless and hopeless. I finally surrendered the chaotic mess of my life to Jesus, and He has eternally altered not just my situation, but also ME!’
Unfortunately, Balizet’s conversion did not lead to orthodox, biblical Christianity. She does not mention where, or in which group/church her conversion occurred. She indicates in her writings that she could not settle in any one church, and moved through a number of churches. Her writings show a clear influence of the Kenyon-Hagin-Copeland ‘Word of Faith’ movement. Many of her statements echo those made by leaders in this movement - but she takes them to new extremes.
As a result of her unusual beliefs, she gave up the use of medication and left nursing after some 30 years in the profession. Subsequently she became involved in her ministry of home-birthing and wrote 'Born in Zion'. She describes herself, and a small group of Florida-based followers:
‘We’re Home in Zion Ministries, and as our name may indicate, our goal is to encourage separation from the counterfeits of the world, and entrance into what is symbolically called Zion. This is a life TOTALLY dependent on God alone. We advocate home childbirth, home schooling, home healing, often even home churching, and other things which accompany a separation from the world and a return to the God-centered reality of the kingdom. We want to share the experiences and testimonies of the many, many families we know who have victories in these and other areas of kingdom life. We reach out to the "seven thousand" who have not bowed the knee to Baal.’
Almost proudly, and with a cultic persecution complex, Balizet states that she has:
‘…been blessed to walk through a little tribulation. I have been hauled before magistrates (I was arrested in conjunction with the home birth ministry). I have been cast out of synagogues [churches] (church leaders said, "We think you’ll be happier if you go where they believe like you do"). I’ve been investigated by the HRS; I’ve been audited by the IRS. I have been slandered and cursed and insulted and you know what? I’s [sic – it’s] all worked out for my good.’
She claims that her:
‘life has taught me one thing: our God can do ANYTHING!…Can we trust Him? If we can’t trust HIM, then we’re really in trouble. And if not Him, who can we trust? Other people? Our own opinions and abilities? I don’t think so.’
In spite of Balizet’s claim that we can’t trust ‘other people’ or ‘our own opinions and abilities’, that is exactly the issue here.
Carol Balizet has had no theological training but reinterprets the Bible for others; she has been a nurse but has not had in-depth medical training as a medical specialist, yet she speaks and writes as a qualified medical expert on a wide variety of medical issues. Her writings clearly show that she misinterprets, distorts and misrepresents the truth in both these areas, with disturbing results. Her teachings, followed by women and couples around the world, are not balanced biblical teachings - they are Carol Balizet’s personal opinions based on her inability to interpret Scripture soundly and in context. She seems to have developed her own rules of interpretation - most of which are certainly NOT shared by the majority of Christians - from Biblical scholars to lay Christians.
BALIZET’S DISTORTED OPINIONS
Home-birthing
A major emphasis in Balizet’s teachings focuses on home births. But her idea of home-birthing comes with a difference. There is no medical assistance at all, for it is a heavenly birth, and not of this world. Instead of midwives, there's spiritual assistants, who rely on hearing from God for instructions, who surround the mother. These instructions from God seem never to involve physical assistance. Balizet's writings includ exhortations to these 'assistants' to abandon the labouring woman and leave the home right when the labouring mother is having great difficulties. During the pregnancy the expectant mother is not medically examined, and the total emphasis is on a spiritual preparation.
Balizet writes:
‘It began when the book BORN IN ZION was being written. At the beginning, it was called THE BIRTH OF THE MANCHILD, but God didn’t want that. Through a number of different routes, He let us know that He wanted a different name. And HE re-named it. HE gave us the new name, with abundant confirmation: BORN IN ZION. So we began to talk about babies being born in Zion instead of in "Egypt", about Zion births as opposed to "worldly" births. We had recognized and acknowledged a difference between home birth and hospital birth for some time; now we began to contrast "faith births" and "flesh births".’
She sees birth as a scriptural symbol. She teaches that the world we perceive is given to us to see the reality of the spiritual world, for God’s kingdom is behind the veil. Hence, God created the sun to teach us about His Son. God made a lamb to show us something of the nature of Jesus, and for the same reason, he made a lion. And so birth is an illustration -
'it is ‘an eternal act, concerning an eternal being’, and it is also ‘the means through which the female element of humanity will work out her portion of the curse in Genesis. Ch. 3’. It is also symbolic of salvation, that is, of being born again and it parallels death – ‘from the womb into the world, from the world into our eternal destiny’.
She goes on:
‘Our point of view is this: everything which exists or which happens in the natural realm is parallel to, and results from, what exists and what is happening in the spirit. We believe that both the causes and the solutions to any problem are SPIRITUAL. Like other midwives, we look for, check for and discuss possible dangers and take steps to counter them - the difference is that they’re spiritual. We do see a need for preparation for a safe and joyful delivery; we DO give prenatal care. The difference is, our attention is focussed on the spirit. For example, having a home out of order, children in rebellion or a wife who is not in submission, can be a root cause (in the spirit) for breech births (in the natural). If there is something not lining up with God’s order, it is true in both realms. If the head doesn’t come first in the spiritual realm, the head doesn’t come first in the natural. Or if someone in the family doesn’t want this baby born, this can cause the cord to be wrapped around the neck. That is a manifestation of a spirit of child death. If there’s been an abortion or a stillbirth in the past, we deal with the sequelae from that. Morning sickness is caused by a rejection of the pregnancy, etc., etc., etc. Many of the couples obtain a copy of my book HEALING IN ZION which has a section on "Finding the Spiritual Root to a Physical Problem". During labor, we maintain this spiritual focus. A long, unfruitful labor? Could be pride (the Bible says pride produces a stiff neck, and the cervix is the neck of the womb - and the word "cervix" means "neck" in Latin). Ineffective labor can also be caused by words of opposition and death spoken by others about the couple’s decision to trust God. Excessive bleeding? Somewhere the soul life is being poured out. Delayed delivery of the placenta? God isn’t through yet; maybe there’s something they’re "hanging on to" which God wants them to release. I could go on with this kind of thing for pages, but this is sufficient to explain how our ministry operates.’
She also claims that: morning sickness is the ‘result of somebody — usually, but not always, the mother — rejecting the pregnancy’; that perineal tears ‘can result from past defilements’; that difficult and painful labours ‘can be the result of the parents not agreeing with God about the subject of discipline’, and that ‘the area of childbirth is full of parallels, and we are totally convinced that comprehensive preparation in the spirit realm will result in a perfect birth.’
Women who have had their babies in hospitals, according to Balizet, will need deliverance from all sorts of defilement and demons - as will their babies.
According to Balizet,
‘Hospitals are full of demons!’ She claims that demons are attracted and drawn to: ‘nudity, fear, pain, greed, lust, unbelief, drugs, death – these things are all abundantly present in hospitals, and it’s no wonder demons are there as well.’ When a woman allows a doctor (whether male or female, but especially a male doctor) to give her a pelvic examination, she is submitting herself to ‘a spirit of fornication and lust’ and a ‘soul tie with the doctor’ - and will need to repent from these evils. This also applies if a doctor delivers the baby - even at home. Furthermore, according to Balizet, the father is the priest of the home and the route God has chosen to bring healing and blessing to his children, therefore he should be the first to lay hands on his new born child and so claim his priestly authority over the child. However, when a child is ‘born in the system’ [a medically assisted birth] the doctor is the first to ‘lay hands’ on the baby and so ‘the source of authority is the doctor, not the father.’ If a mother has her baby in hospital and is given any form of pain reducing drugs or any other medication, she AND her baby will be invaded by the demons of witchcraft and sorcery. This will also further apply to the baby if he or she is given any form of medication or inoculation just after birth.
According to Balizet such babies will probably grow up with bad drug problems and habit in their teens or young adulthood. All medications and drugs are tools of the Devil and linked to the demon or ‘spirit of sorcery - pharmakeia.’
Balizet regards all Caesarean sections as one of the worst evils in relation to childbirth. She states: ‘I am absolutely convinced that it is an abomination to God and a serious spiritual attack on our children - our children are to be conformed to the image of Christ, not of Caesar.’
Caesarean births ‘render’ children unto Caesar instead of unto God, according to her.
‘"Caesar" is the name of the "strong man", the satanic high prince, over organisations and sphere of humanism.’
According to her, Caesarean births will release ‘a spirit of Caesar’ which ‘is typified by despotic, humanistic man ruling without the Spirit or wisdom of God.’ This is expressed before the birth by women (perhaps influenced by the doctor) choosing the actual date for the birth of their child, instead of waiting on God’s time for the child to be delivered. This is a rejection of God’s authority and an example of people trying to be God, according to Balizet.
Medicine, in general (and obviously including childbirth), is the work of Satan, not of God, and is one of the ‘seven systems’ of mainstream society, along with education, government, banking, religion, science and entertainment, which are condemned.
According to Balizet, God has revealed himself ‘seven different times in Scripture as Jehovah-Something…Jehovah-Jireh of course is "I AM your Provider". Jehovah-Rapha is "I AM your Healer"; Jehovah-Tsidkenu is "I AM your Righteousness" and so on seven times. Our needs would be met by God…’
‘Satan has built himself a seven-headed system (or a system built on seven mountains) as counterfeits for these seven revelations of our need-meeting God. Seven intricate, self-perpetuating, man-glorifying, unholy organizations: government, commerce, education, science, the arts, medicine and religion, which claim to provide all the things that God has promised.’
Balizet points out, quite rightly, flaws and failures in each of these seven areas, but takes them to extreme and sees nothing really worthwhile in them. In some aspects she is similar to the Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Christadelphians. But in her extreme rejections she goes even further than these cultic groups. She tends to see everything as black and white, all of God or all of the Devil - and all interpreted according to her opinion.
Balizet believes that human government is a counterfeit of God’s perfect government and principles for functioning as a community. This human government ‘counterfeit system is used by Satan to produce tyranny and inequity from those in power, and lawlessness and rebellion in those who are governed.’
According to her, religion (all religions, including basically all expressions of the Christian Faith not practicing ‘total trust in God’ as she and her followers believe) ‘seduces the unwary into seeking supernatural power apart from God, with the intention of receiving worship for himself.’ She even advocates, and practices, ‘home-churching’.
In regard to education, she claims that ‘worldly education produces a closed mind, ignorance and deception.’ She advocates home-schooling and non-government educational programmes and activities.
When it comes to science, she claims: ‘Through science, Satan is given a means to reduce us to the level of animals, to deny our spiritual dimension and our heavenly future.’
As far as the arts are concerned, Balizet believes that Satan ‘uses this system to spread his profane and degrading ideas.’ She indicates that only Christians (her variety, apparently) can, and should, express themselves through edifying and wholesome creativity. She does not seem to acknowledge that it is possible for non-Christians to provide edifying and wholesome creativity.
In the area of commerce she declares: ‘Satan’s system often produces greed and love of money, or poverty. He comes as a thief and devourer, and as the Harsh Taskmaster.’ She acknowledges that ‘God would like us to work well at some purposeful occupation, earning our bread.’ While she doesn’t (as far as we’ve been able to see from her materials) tell people they shouldn’t use banks, she does declare that ‘Mammon…is the spiritual ruler…over the organization of money and banking’ and we cannot serve both God and Mammon.'
Balizet’s most vehement, and often extremely bizarre, comments focus on the area of medicine. She claims that the medical system allows Satan to manifest his faculty as killer. She states that the medical system renders those who touch it unclean. It leaves them damaged and defiled - by death; - by invasion; - by surgery; - by nakedness. According to her the medical system is dirty, and is regarded as such by God. ‘The Christians within the system aren’t going to purify it; they won’t change how God feels about drugs and unbelief and blood and defilements…They are really dirty – objectively, truly dirty…We can’t clean the medical system up. The only way out is out…We’re not able to cleanse what God has called dirty; we can only avoid contact with it.’
According to Balizet, going to a hospital means there is no trust in God - she teaches that hospitals are full of demons; they are full of actual spirits of death - including ‘Moloch, the spirit of Child Death’; they are temples to pagan gods, where gods are worshipped and sacrifices offered through surgery on operating theatre tables; surgeons are the high priests of these foreign gods who make blood offerings and sacrifices, every time they perform any surgery on a patient (who doesn’t realise he/she is being used as a sacrificial offering); Satan increasingly uses hospitals - to disseminate disease and death.
Balizet claims that all forms of surgery are forbidden by God and misquotes passages such as Leviticus 19:28: Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the LORD and Deuteronomy 14:1-2: You are the children of the LORD your God. Do not cut yourselves or shave the front of your heads for the dead, for you are a people holy to the LORD your God. Out of all the peoples on the face of the earth, the LORD has chosen you to be his treasured possession (both NIV) as her authority.
She believes that in all surgery ‘there is always a spirit of sacrifice, for the shedding of blood and the relinquishing of tissue is a rite of sacrifice, no matter how righteous and beneficial we may consider it. There’s also a spirit of mutilation.’ She also claims and teaches that, ‘In addition, there are specific spirits which are left within the body — sort of in exchange for the tissue which is taken out — and the spirits align with the specific organ which was removed or mutilated. For example, a hysterectomy will leave a spirit of barrenness and infertility; a vasectomy will leave a spirit of sterility.’ These spirits will affect not only the body, but life in general for the victims of such surgery. Therefore, those who have had hysterectomies or vasectomies, will probably experience barrenness and sterility in their careers, finances, and will probably be unable to make or keep friends!
She claims that medical procedures bring numerous ‘defilements’ through nakedness and bodily examinations; through invading the integrity of our bodies by means of hands, needles, knives, speculums endoscopes etc.
Balizet is more extreme than the Jehovah’s Witnesses when it comes to blood. Using the same erroneous use of Bible texts as the JWs she not only totally rejects all forms of blood transfusion, but also totally rejects all blood tests, blood donations, and any other use of medical blood products.
She categorically declares: ‘God says the giving and receiving of blood is wrong – dangerous, forbidden – and this is true no matter what the world, the medical system, the hierarchy of the church, our own reasoning or anyone else says. These practices have a destructive effect on us…In the case of donating blood, we are giving up, pouring out, surrendering, sacrificing a part of our souls…there is a permanent forfeiture in the soul. A diminution, a deprivation , a leanness, which lasts until that soul life is called back…In the case of receiving blood…there is enormous danger…We receive not only the natural, but also a portion of the spiritual factors of that person’s heritage...we allow into our bodies the soul life of another person: that is, a portion of all the elements which comprise his soul: his intellect, emotions, will, memory…We get a portion of the donor’s demons, blood-line curses, generational sins, destructive behaviour patterns, strongholds of deception and unbelief, soul ties, emotional disturbances etc.’
Balizet makes some extremely bizarre claims and diagnoses. Some examples include: ‘BLINDNESS can come from…worshipping an idol…sports - the events, the team, the stars…or persons they honor, like pastors or doctors or celebrities of any sort…Worshipping idols can cause… cataracts, glaucoma, detached retina, and other vision problems.’ ‘WARTS are rooted in witchcraft…The witchcraft might be inherited, or it might be active and deliberate occultic behavior.’ ‘ADULTERY can result in menstrual disorders: irregular periods, painful periods, endometriosis. It can also cause bowel cancer.’ ‘DIARRHEA can result from cursing others, from showing no mercy.’ ‘ARTHRITIS comes from unforgiveness.’ ‘NAIL BITING, especially when the cuticle and the flesh around the nail areas are also bitten, is rooted in cannibalism.’ ‘HEMORRHOIDS are a judgment from God because of defiling and abusing the things of God.’ ‘BREAST INFECTION or INFLAMMATION could be indicative of some "clogging-up" of ministry or other spiritual activity.’
Getting a medical diagnosis from a GP or specialist is tantamount to rejecting God’s authority and word, and trusting in the ‘arm of flesh’ - it will lead to being cursed (Balizet misuses Jeremiah 17:5 This is what the LORD says: Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD (NIV) to support her claims). When the doctor tells you that you have a problem, and especially if you belief him, you are then accepting his curse upon you. ‘The man who goes into the system runs the risk of being cursed…the diagnosis spoken over him may have that effect. The doctor has been handed the authority, and his word is received as final truth and if he speaks a negative thing, it has force and effect.’
This teaching aligns itself with Carol Balizet’s teaching on faith. The influence of the Word of Faith movement is obvious throughout Balizet’s writings. She makes references to Kenneth Copeland in Born In Zion as well as articles on her website.
She writes that ‘FAITH is the force that releases God’s power. Faith is also Satan’s target.’ Words are important in all of this for, according to Balizet: ‘Our words have power, for good or for evil. Death and life are in our words….The words which others speak over, against or about us can injure us too….We must compare what God says with what the Enemy says: OUR words will determine the outcome for us.’ ‘Fear is a spiritual force just like faith; it empowers Satan just as faith looses God.’
She believes that unbelief is a sin, and the flesh, which is the realm of the senses, operates in direct opposition to faith. Acknowledging having any sickness or problems, will, according to Balizet (and other Word of Faith proponents), make them become reality. As these things are negative, they are therefore the same as curses brought down upon the one making the acknowledgement. If a doctor, or friend for that matter, suggests you have something wrong with you, that diagnosis is a curse that will become reality if it is not immediately rejected and renounced.
Carol Balizet also teaches that ‘Double mindedness is an absolute barrier to receiving from God. Under any name, it is SIN.’ If you are double-minded, then NOTHING will be received from God. Hence, to expect God to heal, and at the same time to see a doctor, is to be double-minded - ‘We can choose faith in God or faith in something else.’ To call on the medical system is to lack faith in God and ‘the consequences of not living by faith are profound. For time and for eternity.’
Balizet attempt to authorise her bizarre teachings and claims with an atrocious misuse of the Bible, drawing parallels and meanings that are unjustifiable and nothing like the intention of the original writers. Like all cultic leaders she constantly ignores, and takes Scripture passages out of their, context.
In addition she claims visions and other direct communications from God giving her supposed medical and biblical insights further authorisation. Phrases such as: ‘I have heard a lot from God about it’, ‘the Lord showed me’, ‘I received a vision from the Lord about…’, are scattered through Balizet’s writings in abundance.
Some of Balizet’s statements of supposed revelation and Biblical insight really leave you wondering. What does one do with this statement!?:
‘Our enemy uses both the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air; one deals with attacks on natural things – cars, roofs, water heaters, washing machines and such – while the other brings on spiritual attack – depression, jealousy, fear, anxiety, addictions, etc. Two kinds of evil agents to attack two different realms.’
That’s supposed to be an example, or clarifier, of Biblical parallelism!!!
The image presented through the Home In Zion Ministries material is of happy homes, lots of glowingly happy pregnant young mothers, happy husbands who are high priests of their homes with submissive wives. The men probably perceive it all fairly positively. There is encouragement for a very active sex life (which most men would be happy about) and they probably believe that they are ‘in charge’, with their wives being submissive.
Our experience, however, indicates that it is almost a form of control, with the wives often being the more dominant partner. The wives are often sold on Balizet’s bizarre beliefs before the husbands are. It is usually the women who persuade the husbands to go along with it all. The women are able to use their sexuality, and the mystique of birth, to persuade the men. In reality, under Balizet’s teaching, it is really the ‘weaker vessel’ who rules the home, quietly, from behind the scenes, but strongly.
Balizet herself doesn’t have too high opinion of men, apparently. She was twice married and divorced, and now claims the Lord to be her present Husband. She also reveals that she likes ‘strong women’. ‘Oh, how I admire women who aren’t WIMPS! Those women who are mighty in spirit. It doesn’t mean they’re not feminine or submitted to their husbands or content to be the "weaker vessel". Some of the most WOMANLY women I know are the strongest.’
Balizet, and her band of followers, see themselves as the remnant that truly worships God, and truly expresses faith in his almighty power. She has announced that:
‘With no intention of being elitist or prideful, we are convinced that there is a holy Remnant being separated out from the Church at large, in the same way that Jesus separated out Peter, James and John for a slightly different walk and different relationship with Himself from that of the other disciples. This "inner circle" was with Him as He raised Jairus’ daughter and on the Mount of Transfiguration. They were His closest friends. And in light of this concept, let me say that one meaning of the Biblical word "Zion" is this place, this position, this realm of special closeness.To understand a life in Zion, we can run down the list of "threes" and see what constitutes this Third Realm. These people - those who dwell in Zion - are behind the veil, beholding the face of the Father; they are Baptized by fire and suffering into conformity to His death; they are worshiping God in Spirit and truth from the Promised Land; they minister to God from within the Holy of Holies because they have surrendered, yielded, died to self. This is the end-time army of God, the Manchild of Revelation 12 who is caught up to the throne of God to reign.’
Sadly, the results of Balizet’s bizarre beliefs are not what most Christians would see to be God’s will.
The teaching and practices of Balizet and her Home In Zion Ministries has a ring of Christian Science about it, with much of the 'Word of Faith' movement as well, with dangerous consequences.
There is evidence of babies being still-born, of young children dying through medical neglect, and of mothers dying, when a call to an ambulance could have saved their lives.
Balizet and her Home In Zion Ministries believers are cultic, heretical, bizarre and dangerous. The grossly distort God’s Written Word, dishonour Christ, and endanger lives - especially the lives of young children.
Information and direct quotes used in this article came from Balizet’s books:
Born In Zion, (2nd edit) 1992, ChristCenter Publishing International:Texas.
Christian Home - Childbirth Manual (Packet), nd, Home In Zion Ministries:Florida (?).
Egypt Or Zion, (1st edit) nd, ChristCenter Publishing International:Texas.
Healing in Zion, (2nd edit) 1995, ChristCenter Publications International:Texas.
And from numerous articles authored by her on her Internet Website (all dated 1996), especially the articles:
Birth as a Scriptural Symbol
Carol Balizet - A Short Biography
Establishing A Zion Birth Ministry
Faith- Fighting the Enemies of Faith
What Is Zion?
IS IT WORTH DYING FOR CAROL BALIZET AND HER BIZARRE BELIEFS?
Part 2
Carol Balizet, a resident of Tampa, Florida, USA, head the ‘HOME IN ZION MINISTRIES’. She claims that: ‘The purpose of Home in Zion Ministries is to unite and edify those within the Body of Christ who are hungry for God, committed to His goals, zealous for His glory, and yielded to His will. We want to support those who (like Peter) are getting out of the boat; and encourage those who (like Elijah) are discouraged and lonely.’
It becomes very clear from her writings that there is an exclusiv-ism and a judgemental attitude that places those who follow her teachings as closer to God than other Christians. In an official newsletter she even lists the names used by some of the individuals and groups that she targets with her bizarre teachings, calling: ‘Attention - Gideons’s Army, The Benjamin Company, The Overcomers, The Barley Field, The Manchild, The 100-fold Harvest, The Remnant.’
Balizet teaches against many things: banking (worldly economy); the medical system (no medicines, hospitals, doctors or nurses); secular education (with a preference for home schooling); worldly government; the religious system (including a preference for ‘home churching’); science; the arts.
Her main Biblical distortions targets the medical system - often with vitriol. According to her, hospitals are full of demons; doctors are ‘high priests’ of pagan religion, and surgeons cut into people as a sacrifice to their foreign gods; demons enter people following surgery and occupy the gap caused by the removal of an organ or tissue; children born through Caesarean birth are, as a result, handed over to Satan; taking medication opens a person to the spirit (or demon) of sorcery. Getting a medical diagnosis from a GP or specialist is tantamount to rejecting God’s authority and word, and trusting in the ‘arm of flesh’ - it will lead to being cursed.
Some of Balizet’s claims and beliefs are so ridiculous and bizarre that they are almost laughable, but the sad reality is that there are people, especially young mothers, around the world, who are taking her claims seriously. With disastrous results.
Balizet has spread her teachings through a number of books; her Internet website, with its numerous lengthy articles; brochures; and public meetings. She has written:
Born In Zion, Christian Home - Childbirth Manual
Egypt Or Zion
Healing in Zion
... as well as three end-times fictional books:
The Seven Last Years
The Face of the Enemy
Plague
Her HIZ Ministries also has available articles/brochures she has called ‘commentaries’ on topics such as:
‘THE STATUS OF MIDWIFERY IN AMERICA TODAY (An overview of practices, dangers, and what's on the way),
PRINCIPLES OF ZION BIRTHS (How factors like surrendered Authority, past defilements and the donating and receiving of blood effect Zion births),
FIGHTING THE ENEMIES OF FAITH (Definitions of faith, and of its enemies such as fear, impatience, the flesh, ignorance, presumption, double-mindedness, etc., and how these principles function),
BALANCING FAITH: 911 ON THE BACK BURNER (Adding fleshly endeavors and ideas to our faith does NOT serve to increase this faith, but rather will diminish it!),
RESTORATION AFTER ABORTION (Repentance isn't enough - in addition to dealing with the sin, we must address defilement, soul ties, evil spirits of murder and conspiracy),
RESTORATION AFTER DEFILEMENT (What is the New Covenant equivalent of the Old Testament subject of defilements, from such things as bloodshed, death, eating unclean food, sexual sin, etc.? How do we apply cleansing?),
PRAYING FOR HOSPITAL-BORN BABIES (How to cancel or reverse any negative effects from the fear, violence, drugs, surrendered authority, separation, cursing and such which are often a part of hospital birth),
THE CALL TO BE A MIDWIFE (What is God saying to women today about the ministry of helping other women to have babies? Do we need an education in the world and its way of functioning? Do we need to be licensed by the state?).’
UNNECESSARY DEATH AND SUFFERING
On April 6, 2001, a young Perth mother gave birth to her fifth child, a son. The 31-year-old Mrs CW had an unassisted ‘Zion Home Birth’ - with no prior medical checks and no medical assistance at the birth. Several ‘Zion Home Birthing’ ‘spiritual midwives’ - friends and fellow believers in the extreme and bizarre teachings of Carol Balizet - were present to assist by praying (no physical assistance to be given).
During the birth CW haemorrhaged and had difficulty in completely passing the placenta. No medical assistance was sought. When Mrs CW’s mother, JR, saw her daughter some three hours after the birth she was very concerned about her daughter’s extremely pale and drawn appearance. The next day she noticed that her daughter’s condition seemed to have worsened with a burning high temperature, shallow and difficult breathing, and a deep cough. She urged medical care, but neither Mrs CW, nor her husband AW, was willing to get medical assistance.
On her third visit, JR was alarmed to see that her daughter’s condition appeared to have declined even further. When she suggested that they should pray for her daughter, the daughter, CW, told her loudly to: ‘Stop! If you’re praying in fear, don’t pray!’ Her mother assured her she was praying for her out of compassion and prayed.
A day later it seemed to her mother as if CW had had a stroke, or was on some heavy drug such as morphine (but she definitely wasn’t!).
About the next day JR was alarmed to see that her daughter’s legs and ankles were swollen to at least twice their normal size. Her expressions of concern and efforts to have medical assistance brought in, were strongly resisted by both CW and her husband.
During subsequent days CW fluctuated between partial mobility and total immobility. While she assured her husband, and anyone else who expressed concern, that she was slowly improving, and was all right, relatives who visited perceived her condition as a serious deterioration to the healthy and beautiful young mother that she had been. Expressions of concern, and pleadings about getting medical assistance, were rejected out-of-hand.
Expressions of concern for newly born baby J, who seemed to have lost weight, were also rejected, and no effort made to get the baby to medical attention.
On Tuesday 1st May, 2001, the young mother-of-five died. The immediate circumstances of her death were disturbing and tragically sad.
Not long after the death, someone from Perth emailed Carol Balizet in Florida, and received a blunt response claiming the death had nothing to do with her, and anyway, CW died from a pulmonary embolism, which could have occurred anywhere - even in hospital. How Carol Balizet could know this, or be able to comment so shortly after the young Perth mother’s death, is not known (obviously the communication network was effective!). However, the coroner’s finding was definitely NOT known at that stage.
Ultimately, it became clear that the actual final cause of death appeared to be a pulmonary embolism - but there were quite a number of contributing factors that led to the blood clot to the lungs which killed her - including septicemia and several deep-vein-thromboses. It was also very clear that CW went through unnecessary agony and deep pain for much of the three weeks between the birth of her fifth child and her tragic death.
Her strongly-held religious convictions, based on the bizarre teachings of Carol Balizet, prevented her from acknowledging any pain or deterioration of her condition to others (and even to herself). And even more so, it prevented her from seeking the medical assistance and care which could have saved her those weeks of suffering, and ultimately could have saved her life.
Any cliched comments that it must have been God’s will are hollow and empty of biblical truth. It is never God’s will that preventable pain and suffering should be endured; it is never God’s will that a young husband should unnecessarily lose his life’s partner; it is never God’s will that young children, including a new-born baby, should unnecessarily be deprived of their loving and care-giving mother!
Following CW’s death, family relatives took a closer look at J, the young baby, then strongly expressed their concerns to AW, the child’s father. A midwife had initially told the father that the baby would be fine, just needed some additional fortified formula, and didn’t require hospitalisation. When relatives challenged her and told her that they would hold her responsible if anything happened to the baby she acknowledged that she was a retired midwife and no longer registered. She also then suggested that the baby should be taken to hospital. Grieving and in shock, confused, uncertain about how things had and were developing, AW took young J to Princess Margaret’s Children’s Hospital. The baby was found to have lost considerable weight (more than 3 lbs - over 1 kilogram), and also had a stomach blockage requiring an operation. The operation was approved, and after a recovery stay in hospital the baby improved significantly and was able to be taken home by his father. This all helped to prevent a possible further tragedy for the family.
THE AUSTRALIAN CONNECTION
How did Mrs. CW start on her unnecessary pathway to pain and death?
There were two connected streams: (a) Above Rubies and (b) Kingdom Living.
The Above Rubies movement was started by New Zealand born, Nancy Campbell, in the late 1970s. With her husband, Colin, a Pentecostal pastor, she moved to Australia in 1982 where Colin pioneered a church on Queensland’s Gold Coast. In 1991 they moved to the USA. Colin is no longer involved in pastoral ministry, and they have both become dependent on their Above Rubies ministry for their income. They continue to live in Tennessee, in the US. At the time of writing they have six children and 17 grand children.
Nancy Campbell describes her ministry as: ‘Strengthening Families Across The World. Above Rubies is a magazine to encourage women in their high calling as wives, mothers, and homemakers. Its purpose is to uphold and strengthen family life and to raise the standard of God's truth in the nation. The name has been chosen from Proverbs 31.10 AMP, " A capable, intelligent and virtuous woman, who is he who can find her? She is far more precious than jewels and her value is far Above Rubies or pearls."’
Above Rubies not only produces a magazine (Australia has its own local edition). Above Rubies camps and retreats for women are also throughout the year around the USA as well as around Australia. The emphasis for the camps/retreats, as well as the magazine, is, as stated above: ‘to encourage women in their high calling as wives, mothers, and homemakers. Its purpose is to uphold and strengthen family life’. The magazine and programmes are made attractive to young mothers and promote Christian family life. The magazine has some excellent and helpful material for families; numerous personal stories and testimonies of family life add to the appeal; the magazine is professional and well-presented - it apparently goes out to some 90 countries, with about 130,000 copies published per issue.
However, Above Rubies also has a particular agenda.
More than anything else it promotes the claim that any form of contraception and limiting of families by choice is contrary to the Will of God, and to (in their opinion) the plain teaching of Scripture. Big families become a matter of one’s Christian commitment and faith, according to Above Rubies.
Apart from the magazine, Nancy Campbell has also written some manuals and books, mainly:
‘The Power Of Motherhood (What God says about Motherhood in the Word of God)’;
‘God’s Vision For Families (What the Bible says about having Children)’;
‘The Family Meal Table And Hospitality’;
‘A CHANGE OF HEART (This book includes 50 testimonies of couples who have had reversals from vasectomies or tubal ligations)’.
These manuals, extracts from them, along with other articles on the Above Rubies Internet website, reveal a distorted Biblical proof-texting and very strong views on the importance of large families and the rejection of all forms of contraception.
The following quotes are from some of the above named sources/materials:
‘BE FRUITFUL AND MUTIPLY. The very first recorded words that man ever heard from the mouth of God were these: "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the seas, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth." Genesis 1:27, 28. This was the first commandment that God gave to mankind, so it must be important. Isn’t it strange that we seek to obey God’s other commandments, but many of us refuse to obey the very first commandment?’
‘God wanted the children of Israel not only to increase, but also to increase ABUNDANTLY, EXCEEDINGLY, MIGHTILY, PLENTEOUSLY and MULTITUDINOUSLY!
1. ABUNDANTLY Genesis 9:7 says, "And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein." The Hebrew word for 'abundantly' is 'sharats' which means 'to swarm or abound.' The MLB translation gives a correct rendering when it says, "As for you, be fruitful and multiply, swarm over the earth and multiply it." (Exodus 1:7)’
In a chapter from her manual: ‘The Power Of Motherhood’ entitled PROTECT YOUR WOMB, Nancy Campbell gives 18 points on the significance of a woman’s womb in God’s plan for humanity and the world.
Her first point is that a woman’s womb is her ‘distinguishing identity’ adding: ‘We must positively seek to protect our womb. There is an unprecedented attack against the wombs of women today, which is inspired by the enemy.’
She states: ‘Satan hates the womb. He knew that through the womb of a woman would come the Messiah, the Saviour of the world, who would destroy his head. He knows it is through the womb of the woman that the 'godly seed' still comes to destroy his works. Satan comes to "steal, kill and destroy."
His attack is upon the womb through a number of areas:
1. Abortion where human beings, created in the image of God in the secret place of the womb, are cruelly torn apart limb by limb or slowly burned alive.
2. The Pill and IUD. Did you know that both the Pill and the IUD are abortifacients? Did you know that more babies are killed in the womb through the IUD and the Pill than even the holocaust of abortion? Your doctor doesn't tell you this. Your pastor or minister doesn't tell you this. Thus, many God-fearing people are ignorantly aborting their own babies. The womb, which is a sanctuary to nurture and protect life, has become an extermination camp. Satan is having a heyday! For more detailed information on this matter see companion manual, "God's Vision for Families."
3. Permanent contraception such as Tubal ligations where the barren womb is denied the life it was created to nurture. When we decide on permanent contraception such as tubal ligation we are in actuality saying, "God, I don't appreciate the way you made me. You did the wrong thing when you gave me a womb. It doesn't suit my present lifestyle so I will make sure it can't be used." Now, I know that most women don't say those words… this is the bottom line of what we are doing. The womb never says, "It is enough"… The truth of God's Word is eternal and true. When we go against it, we do so to our own hurt.
4. Drugs and the curse of sicknesses upon our reproductive organs.
5. Unnecessary hysterectomies…Only cancer or emergencies should necessitate such radical surgery. If you are recommended a hysterectomy, please seek a number of other opinions before making your decision. Protect your womb.
6. Curses. The sins of the parents from past generations can bring a curse upon the womb. It can also come upon us through our own sin or negative confession. We should be careful not to speak negatively about any of our reproductive organs. Guard how you speak about menstruation. When you call it 'the curse' or other negative names, you give an opportunity for the curse of barrenness or other disorders to come to your womb. A curse on the womb can be a failure to menstruate, painful or irregular menstruation, cramps, cysts, tumors, continual miscarriage and inability to conceive - in fact, anything that affects your reproductive organs. Now please don't get me wrong. I am not saying, that if you have one of these disorders that it is because of a curse. There are often other factors involved. But there could be a possibility.’
These comments show the influence of the Word of Faith emphasis - an influence obvious in the bizarre claims of Carol Balizet, who has just taken them to a further extreme.
Nancy Campbell also states that the womb is a woman’s blessing and glory (2 separate points she elaborates).
‘Conception, pregnancy and motherhood are the glory of a nation and it comes through the wombs of women.’
One of the disturbing elements of the Campbell/Above Rubies claims is that a woman’s womb is:
10. IT IS A WEAPON AGAINST SATAN.
It is the womb that conceives and nourishes the 'godly seed' who will come forth to be the light in the darkness and who will destroy the works of Satan in this world. God is looking for an army. The greatest threat to Satan in this world is godly parents who understand God's intentions and who will bring forth and train a godly seed to fulfil His eternal plans. God's people have unwittingly decreased God's army in this hour. The womb is a powerful weapon against Satan. Some women fear to bring babies into this evil world - but this is one of the greatest reasons for having children - to be the light in this dark world!
According to Campbell and her group, women are supposed to use their wombs to continuously conceive so that they can raise up an army against Satan - and if they don’t they are letting God down and are not being faithful to the Bible or the Christian Faith:
‘Pharaoh said to his people, "the people of the children of Israel are MORE AND MIGHTIER than we." They were a threat to Egypt. This was God's intention for His covenant people of Israel. And it is still His plan for His people today. He wants His people to become MORE AND MIGHTIER in the land. He wants the godly seed to be a threat to the devil. Is the Christian church a threat to the devil today? No! Instead we have given in to the enemy's tactics to deplete the godly seed. There are some Christian couples who voice that they do not want children at all. This is opposite to God's heartbeat and God's Word….Instead of becoming MORE AND MIGHTIER, we are becoming less and less. Christians are having as few children as the world. Instead of obeying the Word of God, we have followed the trends of the world.’
‘Now at this end time when God is looking for a people to fulfil His purposes like no other time in history, Satan is once again trying to eliminate the army of God. Over these last few decades he has been very successful. Born again, God loving Christians have fallen into His deceptive plan and helped him reduce God’s end time army. How long will we continue to become his pawns? May God help us to truly live in the kingdom of God which is the kingdom of LIFE.’
Campbell states that children are:
‘ARROWS FOR GOD’S ARMY. God calls our children arrows. Psalm 127:4,5 says, "As ARROWS are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. HAPPY is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate."
In the context of Bible days, arrows were for the purpose of war! We are at war today and God needs arrows for His army. God wants children born to fulfil His strategies and plans. When a warrior went out to war, how many arrows would he want in his quiver? One or two? No, he’d want to squeeze in as many as he could. The more arrows he had in his quiver, the more weapons he had to slay the enemy and the more protection he provided for himself.
Have we forgotten God’s Word which likens our children to arrows?…this is the very reason for having children. We train them to be the "light" and the "salt" in this dark world. We train and sharpen them to be "arrows" for God’s army.
Satan hasn’t forgotten God’s Word. He knows that if he can limit the arrows from Christian parents, he can limit the light that will expose his darkness. He can limit the truth that will expose his deceptions. He can limit the arrows that will destroy his works! Yes, the enemy is scared of the godly seed. He is out to destroy it by any means he can…He seeks to limit the godly seed before it is even conceived. By doing this, he limits the army of God. If the Christian church had not listened to the humanistic lies of the enemy and limited their families, the army of God would be more powerful in the earth in this end time hour. The enemy’s camp would be trembling. Instead they are laughing. Has contraception limited the army of God even more effectively than abortion?’
She goes on to quote numerous Bible verses that refer to arrows (but NOT children!) to add ‘ammunition’ for her claims that God has been let down by churches, pastors and other leaders, Christian families in general, who have used or refused to discourage the use of, contraceptives and other ways of limiting the size of families.
Her teachings show a ‘dominion theology’ emphasis, as well as a Word Faith/Health and Wealth influence.
She ignores the numerous passages that reveal that the SIZE of God’s army was never an issue for God. Again and again the Scriptures record God’s Word declaring that the victory was HIS - and that what he wanted from His people (including His soldiers) was their TRUST and FAITHFULNESS. The story of Gideon is also a very clear example of this truth (read Judges chapters 6 and 7).
Nancy Campbell is against women in the workplace outside the home. Mothers who work outside the home have succumbed to one of Satan’s many seductions. She reminds them:
‘When a new baby is conceived in your womb, you have eternity in your womb. You bring forth a life that will last forever and ever. Motherhood is an eternal career. It carries on into the eons of eternity. One of the greatest deceptions of Satan is to seduce mothers to be captivated with their careers and ministry outside the home so they don’t have time to create life.’
Campbell also believes that women are not to have any independence:
‘Women are not meant to be out of covering for one day of their life. While she is unmarried, a daughter is under the protection and guidance of her father, until the day that he says, "I do" and "gives" her to her husband. The father has a responsibility to know before God that the man that he "gives" his daughter to on the wedding day is the one that God has chosen for her, a man who will continue to provide, protect and care for her as he has done all his life. The new bride now comes under her husband’s covering, and under this protection she can fulfil her highest calling of nurturing the children that God gives to the marriage. As she embraces her nurturing instinct, she becomes a nation builder and a nation shaper. Dear wives and mothers, please understand my heart. I do not write this to condemn anyone but to re-focus our minds on God’s highest plan, rather than the mind-set of this society.’
While Campbell and Above Rubies state many good, worthwhile, and Biblically sound things, there is also a distortion of balanced Biblical truth, with Bible verses pulled out of context and used as proof texts to support her particular viewpoints.
Most of the texts Campbell uses for her teachings are based in the Old Testament. Her misuse of texts to support her claims almost shows some desperation in her quotes from the New Testament.
A chapter on ‘Fruitfulness’ in Campbell’s manual, ‘God’s Vision For Families’, was republished as an article on the Internet as: ‘The God of the Full House’. This article/chapter lists numerous Old Testament verses used to prove that God is against contraception and that he wants His people to have lots, and lots, and lots of children - and then some more! Then the New Testament is (mis)used to continue the claims.
She quotes from John chapter 15 to ‘prove’ that God wants us all to bear fruit, much fruit and more fruit. That may be true - but it has absolutely nothing to do with the number of children one’s wife conceives or able to conceive. She acknowledges a ‘spiritual’ application but still uses it in the context of fathering (and mothering) lots of children. Some people use the same chapter to refer to the number of converts we are to make. It has nothing to do with children, or the sizes (numbers) of people who directly join some church fellowship because of our faithful witness. The context makes it clear that the ‘fruit’ Jesus is referring to is LOVE. It is a fruit of which we are to bear a great deal.
Then Campbell goes on and states Jesus was a member of a big family (Mark 6:3); she furthers adds that Jesus loves children and welcomed and drew the children to Him (Matthew 19); then she clinches her New Testament use to back up her arguments with: ‘THE GOD OF THE FULL HOUSE Luke 14:23, "Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled." God is the God of the full house. He wants to fill eternity. He will embrace all who will come to Him in His family. Do we have the same heart that God has? Do we want to fill our homes with furniture, TV’s, and material possessions - or children?.’
This a clear case of eisegesis - not sound exegesis. She ignores the context and distorts the actual meaning of what Jesus what teaching in this passage. It had absolutely nothing whatever to do with the number of children conceived in our families!
While breastfeeding is well-supported with medical and psychological evidence, Above Rubies materials go to extremes and use numerous proof texts (out of context) to give Biblical support to breast feeding.
We are deeply disturbed by the lack of love and understanding shown to women who are unable to conceive children when Above Rubies manuals and materials state that ‘bareness is a curse’. Nancy Campbell’s emphases on the importance of wombs, breasts, motherhood and fertility as the things that identify, bless, glorify, and endorse womanhood strongly suggests that women who are or have always been single; women who have lost their wombs or breasts as a result of cancer treatment surgery; women who are infertile, or who through a genetic accident of birth don’t have all their organs functioning productively are not really, fully women. There is little in any of her manuals to say that God still confirms them as fully loved by him as women.
We don’t have space here to give further examples of, what we believe, is inappropriate use of proof texting which characterises much of Nancy Campbell’s material - especially that which is found in her manuals and Internet articles. The material is significant, because the manuals are used and promoted at Above Rubies camps and retreats.
The teachings of Nancy Campbell/Above Rubies are NOT identical to those of Carol Balizet.
Above Rubies does NOT teach that only unassisted home births are acceptable to God; it does NOT teach the rejection of medicines or medical assistance; it does NOT teach that medical surgery is a sacrifice to foreign gods or that children born through Caesarean birth are, as a result, handed over to Satan - in fact, the Above Rubies magazines has had positive articles on multiple Caesarean births.
However, we believe that the Above Rubies emphases on the importance of wombs, breasts, motherhood and fertility, the judgemental comments against all forms of contraception (even the ‘natural’ or ‘rhythm’ method), tend towards imbalance and extreme - and provide a ready groundwork for the acceptance of the more extreme and bizarre claims of Carol Balizet.
CLARIFICATION: CCG Ministries, as a Christian Ministry has nothing against large families, or small families. We believe that families have the right to choose, for whatever reasons before God, to have large families or small families. It is appropriate for them to make those choices before God. We don’t believe that the size of one’s family is a condition of faith and commitment as a Christian, nor does the size of one’s family provide grounds (or the right) for other Christians to judge others who choose to limit their families.
Nor are we, as a ministry, against home birthing (a number of us were born at home and not in a hospital). Again, Christians have the right to choose to give birth in their own homes or in hospitals. Neither choice is inherently ‘Christian’ or ‘biblical’ - it is a matter of choice - and therefore neither choice gives ground for negatively judging others as inferior Christians or as those who are disobedient to God’s commands. In this issue our major concerns are unassisted home births where medical assistance is deliberately avoided or rejected.
THE DIRECT CONNECTION
Above Rubies and Nancy Campbell have been directly responsible for introducing Carol Balizet to many young Australian mothers.
Following the death of Mrs CW on May1, 2001, the Australian Above Rubies representative and director, Mrs Val Stares, was interviewed by Channel Nine TV. She was new to media interviews but seemed to cope fairly well. Her televised comments, however, were not the most helpful. In response to a question relating to comments from Dr Simon Townsend, the then President of the AMA, stating that medical assistance could have saved Mrs CW’s life, Val Stares responded
‘Well, the Australian Medical Association is behind their doctors. Obviously, anything new [Carol Balizet's bizarre teachings?]is threatening and, and umm, of course, when something what they see as wrong goes wrong, and someone dies, naturally it's just almost instinct to attack it.’
She also stated: ‘I don't see death as a failure. I don't think Carol [Balizet] would either. I think this, this precious mother [who died in Perth] was just seeking truth and walking in faith’ [and for 3 weeks suffered and then died in enormous pain!].
The Channel Nine team referred to her as a Carol Balizet ‘follower’ - though inaccurate, according to Val, it was perhaps an understandable conclusion they jumped to given her comment:
‘The book [Carol Balizet's Born in Zion - which Val acknowledged she had been promoting and selling for years] advocates that you have faith in God and trust Him.’
In later correspondence with inquirers Val Stares gave a ‘full account’ of her perception of the interview. It is clear she felt that she was misrepresented when the interview was aired. She expressed concern that the questions she was asked were not actually aired, only her answers. In some ways that’s irrelevant as her comments were few and brief - and she did make the comments aired on television.
She also claimed in her correspondence statement that she ‘had no idea how they got my name or linked me with Home in Zion Ministries of which I know very little…I was informed that my involvement through selling the book Born in Zion linked me to these people because they had read the book and believed everything they read.’
In her statement Val Stares shared that she had not been ‘threatened into the interview’ but just asked if she would agree to an interview. She sought advice from her husband, her pastor, a pastor in Perth, and her ‘immediate covering in Above Rubies.’ She claimed that, ‘Without exception I was warned of potential danger, but no one said, "Val don’t do it."’
She had already stated that she was aware the interview could be dangerous, ‘However, I didn’t receive anything from the Lord to indicate that I wasn’t to go ahead. It would have been so easy for God to stop me, but He chose not to for reasons I cannot explain.’ Feeling she had been misrepresented, it seemed to her that God ‘had chastised me as a son. If it was for a reason bigger than my understanding or imagination, then I am glad He chose me to be crucified with Him.’
We believe that in actual fact there was very little misrepresentation of Val Stares or her comments on the Channel 9 programme that went to air. Some of her comments were naïve and insensitive (though not intentionally so), but her claim that this ‘misrepresentation’ amounted to being ‘crucified with Christ’ was a gross exaggeration.
Accompanying Val Stares’ correspondence was a statement from Nancy Campbell, the Founder and Editor of Above Rubies. She declared: ‘We are more aware than ever that you cannot expect the truth when you watch TV shows. We also grieve that the book, Born in Zion, could have been a factor in this family refusing medical help. We also confess that although we haven’t promoted this book (we only promote our Above Rubies manuals) we have had it available for those who were interested.’
We feel that neither Val Stares, nor Nancy Campbell have been as open with the facts as they could have been in these matters.
In 1995 Nancy Campbell sent Val stares a copy of Born In Zion for her 50th birthday (a fact that Val acknowledges in her correspondence statement). Nancy had inscribed the copy she sent Val with the following comments: ‘To dear Val, Happy Fiftieth Birthday! If our precious Saviour does not return, may you live another 50 years in the power and health and anointing of the Holy Spirit. Much love, Nancy.’ and with a further attached note: ‘Dear Val, I’m sure you’ll love this book! I did! Would you like to make them available in Australia? Tell me what you think of it when you read it. Love, Nancy.’
CCG Ministries' records show that we began to receive inquiries about Carol Balizet and her Zion Home Birthing in 1995. Concerns were expressed by a Presbyterian minister in Queensland at the time.
Our records also show that ABOVE RUBIES was responsible for first introducing some Australian Christian women to Balizet and her bizarre and distorted teachings through the promotion of Born In Zion, especially through women’s camps. Since then we've had inquiries from individuals and leaders/pastors from various churches and denominations (Pentecostal to Non-Pentecostal, e.g. Baptists). Most have been deeply concerned about the extremes and potential risks to life for mother and child resulting from becoming a follower of Balizet and her teachings.
Nancy Campbell declared: ‘we haven’t promoted this book’ but that hardly stands up to the facts. Her note to Val Stares shows she thought Val might be interested in making it available in Australia (surely that would involve some promotion?!), and Nancy had it clearly listed on her international Internet website under their ‘Resource Materials’ section:
‘BORN IN ZION By Carol Balizet - A book about home birth that will inspire your faith. Even if you are not interested in home birth, this book is a great faith-builder.’
That, in anyone’s dictionary, amounts to promotion of the book!
In New Zealand Above Rubies had promoted and sold Carol Balizet’s Born In Zion, particularly at their camps and meetings they attended. Their promotion ultimately led to the establishment of several Zion Home birthing groups in New Zealand. In the lead up to the Year 2000 Above Rubies had continued their promotion of Carol Balizet’s Born In Zion and seemed to express an obsession over end-times preparation for the Y2K.
Both Val Stares and Nancy Campbell have now stated that they will no longer sell Balizet’s book - but it took the death of a young Perth mother to convince them!
IS IT WORTH DYING FOR CAROL BALIZET AND HER BIZARRE BELIEFS?
Part 3
Mrs JR writes of the death of her daughter, Mrs CW:
A HEARTBROKEN MOTHER’S STORY -
This is the story of my 31-year-old daughter, a devoted wife and mother, who had a Zion Birth on 6 April 2001 which resulted in her death on 1 May 2001, leaving five motherless children.
About three years ago, my daughter and her husband were influenced by the teachings in a book which came into their hands called Born in Zion. This book was written by a woman from America named Carol Balizet. Through believing the teachings in this book and attending meetings about Zion Births, my daughter and her husband became convinced that an unassisted home birth was a wonderful experience and that they would be richly blessed by God if they forsook all medicines and avoided doctors and midwives during pregnancy and home childbirth. This is all well and good if everything goes according to plan.
Back in 1997, the couple planned an ordinary homebirth for their third baby with a midwife in attendance. However, the baby was born before the midwife arrived. Because there were no complications with this birth, the couple believed that there was no reason why they should not have a Zion Birth next time. All went well for the Zion Birth of their fourth baby and he sailed into the world in July 1999 weighing 11 pounds.
Subsequently my daughter gave birth to her fifth baby, also a Zion Birth, on 6 April 2001. The baby, who weighed 10lb 2oz, was born very quickly but my daughter bled for three hours whilst delivering the placenta, the blood loss leaving her very weak and bedridden. She could barely speak beyond a whisper. I expressed grave concern at her condition but she said God was healing her. Although she must have been in a great deal of pain, she made no complaint.
I visited the house every day following the birth and pleaded with the couple to get medical attention.
One day it seemed as though my daughter had had a stroke. Her speech was slurred and she was incoherent.
On day five, I was alarmed to see that my daughter’s legs and ankles were swollen to at least twice their normal size. She was still unable to walk and I was concerned at the possibility of deep vein thrombosis.
A few days before she died, when I raised further questions about her condition, my daughter told me to leave the house.
My daughter died before my eyes over three and a half weeks. An autopsy revealed the cause of death to be septicaemia and a pulmonary thrombo-embolism which travelled from her legs (confirmed at autopsy to have had several deep vein thrombosis), to her lungs.
The autopsy has revealed that Caroline had: septicaemia, pneumonia, a pulmonary thrombo-embolism, complicating uterine infection and venous thrombosis of the legs, infection of the womb, uterus was enlarged, lungs congested, areas of death of lung tissue, enlarged spleen caused through septicaemia, strep in lungs consistent with pneumonia, endometrium was infected and profusely eroded.
The suffering and death of this young mother had been preventable. Basic medical care during the pregnancy and at the time of the birth would have prevented the complications that led to her pain and death. The reason why this medical attention was not sought was the faith the couple had put in American former nurse, Carol Balizet, and her bizarre beliefs.
Bizarre Balizet Beliefs
Carol Balizet, a resident of Tampa, Florida, USA, heads the ‘HOME IN ZION MINISTRIES’. She claims that: ‘The purpose of Home in Zion Ministries is to unite and edify those within the Body of Christ who are hungry for God, committed to His goals, zealous for His glory, and yielded to His will. We want to support those who (like Peter) are getting out of the boat; and encourage those who (like Elijah) are discouraged and lonely.’
It becomes very clear from her writings that there is an exclusivism and a judgemental attitude that places those who follow her teachings as closer to God than other Christians. In an official newsletter she even lists the names used by some of the individuals and groups that she targets with her bizarre teachings, calling: ‘Attention - Gideons’s Army, The Benjamin Company, The Overcomers, The Barley Field, The Manchild, The 100-fold Harvest, The Remnant.’
Balizet teaches against many things: banking (worldly economy); the medical system (no medicines, hospitals, doctors or nurses); secular education (with a preference for home schooling); worldly government; the religious system (including a preference for ‘home churching’); science; the arts.
Her main Biblical distortions targets the medical system - often with vitriol. According to her, hospitals are full of demons; doctors are ‘high priests’ of pagan religion, and surgeons cut into people as a sacrifice to their foreign gods; demons enter people following surgery and occupy the gap caused by the removal of an organ or tissue; children born through Caesarean birth are, as a result, handed over to Satan; taking medication opens a person to the spirit (or demon) of sorcery. Getting a medical diagnosis from a GP or specialist is tantamount to rejecting God’s authority and word, and trusting in the ‘arm of flesh’ - it will lead to being cursed.
(See Parts 1 & 2 of this series in our magazine, TAKE A CLOSER LOOK, May/July and August/September 2001 issues - or on our website: www.ccgm.org.au - for more specific details about Balizet’s beliefs and the part played by ABOVE RUBIES in promoting her in Australia.)
Balizet is not the only person who believes in home births, or even unassisted home births.
Also in Florida are some licensed Christian midwives operating under the very similar name of: Zion Childbirth Ministries - see their website at:
http://members.aol.com/_ht_a/Babcatcher/index.html
On each page of their website they give a very clear disclaimer, disassociating themselves from Carol Balizet and her beliefs or group: ‘Zion Birthing Ministries is in no way associated or affiliated with Carol Balizet, author of Born in Zion, or the philosophies put forth by said person.’
Charity Gregson operates a website (http://www.birthjunkie.com/homebirth/) focussing on planned and unplanned unassisted homebirths, and is happy to use her website to share stories of unassisted home births (as well as hospital births and midwife assisted homebirths) provided such stories meet with her criteria:
‘If you would like to have your unassisted birth story here, please email me the story. If it meets my criteria, I will put it up.
1) I will not use a birth story that has any mention of Zion births. I do not agree with the birth philosophy of Carol Balizet or "Home in Zion Ministries." Here is an article [THE ZION BIRTH HERESY by Jill Barrett] that describes some of the problems I have with the book "Born in Zion."
2) I will not use a birth story that contains new-age practices and/or philosophies. The interpretation of what is considered "new-age" will be solely my discretion.’
Accompanying the THE ZION BIRTH HERESY article by Jill Barrett on the ‘BirthJunkie.Com’ website
(http://www.birthjunkie.com/ZBHarticle.html) are four appended ‘Tragic testimonials’ - giving accounts of death and tragedy resulting from following the claims and teachings of Carol Balizet. The fourth of these testimonial accounts deals with the death of the young Mrs Caroline W mentioned in our articles.
In the four or five years since Jill Barrett’s article appeared on Charity Gregson’s website, Jill has had numerous emails from people sharing their story. Many of these were not intended for ‘public consumption’ - their grief was too personal. By June 2001 Jill Barrett had counted the deaths of 7 babies and 3 mothers as a result of Zion Home births - according to personal information she received.
Jill’s article is well worth a thoughtful reading. She has strong views about Balizet, her book and views - and those, like ABOVE RUBIES, who promote (or have promoted) Balizet:
‘How anyone with even a modicum of theological knowledge could view this book as "faith-building," even at first glance, is beyond me. It greatly calls into question the qualifications of many of these women to teach other women, that they were incapable of seeing the cultism of this book immediately. I received the public statement of Nancy Campbell, the founder/editor of "Above Rubies," in which she stated that she assumed her subscribers would be able to "eat the meat and spit out the bones." There is no meat in "Born in Zion"; it is sheer cultic lunacy paragraph for paragraph.’
The preceding comments make it clear that the issue with Carol Balizet and her followers is not one of home births, or even unassisted home births. There are the real problems of biblical distortion, heretical teaching, and destructive thinking and behaviour.
The Attleboro Group
In about 1998 a small group of people drove their motor vehicles from Massachusetts to Maine, in the USA. But their cars ran out of fuel while still on Route 1 in Maine before they arrived at their intended destination. Instead of walking to the nearest service station for some more petrol, they surrounded their cars, laid hands on the cars and prayed for God to ‘fill ‘em up’. For three days they stayed near their cars, eating berries from trees off the side of the road for their survival. Eventually, following the intervention of a concerned relative and a small contribution of money for petrol from local police, the group was able to return home.
The leader of the group was Roland Robidouox. He and his wife, Georgette, had been members in the Worldwide Church of God, then a fully-fledged cult, which they left in about 1976. The following year they formed the Church of God of Mansfield, in Massachusetts, and had about 75 people attending. Some time later the group moved and became the Church of God of Norton.
Division within the group led to a decline and the church went out of existence, but Robidoux continued to hold Bible studies in his home. Ultimately he established the group in Attleboro, south of Boston.
During the 1980s Roger and Vivian Daneau, and their children, joined the Robidouxs. A few years later they all began home schooling their children. Women in the group stopped using make-up or jewellery; birthdays and holidays were no longer celebrated; the medical system was increasingly rejected as evil.
By the mid to late 1990s several others had joined, or married into, the group - including Dennis Mingo and David Corneau. The group basically called itself ‘The Body’ and Roland Robidoux (born in August 1940) became the group’s ‘ordained’ pastor. Two of the Robidoux children married two of the Daneau children, including Jacques Robidoux and Karen Corneau. Carol Balizet’s book, Born in Zion, had become a significant guide for interpreting the Bible in the group. A little later her other book, Egypt or Zion, further influences the group.
Roland Robidoux elevated his son, Jacques, to the position of ‘Elder’ of the group around this time. Before long the junior Robidoux was challenging his father, especially his father’s claimed direct revelations. Soon he became the stronger leader. He was even more ardent in pushing and insisting on Carol Balizet’s bizarre claims and beliefs in the group.
The group became more isolationist and extreme in its beliefs and practices. This led to two significant things: 1) Tragic deaths; 2) Several defections
Robidoux’s son-in-law, Dennis Mingo, became disturbed by the extreme developments, the death of one of the children, and the extreme control of his father-in-law, Roland Robidoux, over his family, especially his wife, Michelle. Mingo left the group. Then one of Robidoux’s daughters was excommunicated from the group for buying corrective glasses (spectacles) to help improve her eyesight. Another married couple left shortly after.
These departures reduced the group’s numbers, but made remaining members more entrenched in their extremes.
In April 1999 Samuel Robidoux, son of Jacques and Karen Ribodoux, died, apparently of starvation. In August 1999, Jeremiah Corneau, son of David and Rebecca Corneau, was apparently stillborn. Both were buried by the group without authorities being notified of the births or deaths.
Members of the group refused to let anyone know where the babies had been buried and when the authorities found out about the deaths the group refused to cooperate in the inquiries.
Rebecca Corneau caused a controversial precedent setting court ruling in September 2000. Fearing for the life of the then-pregnant Rebecca Corneau’s unborn child, Attleboro Juvenile Court Judge Kenneth P. Nasif issued a Court Order confining Rebecca Corneau to a security health facility until her baby was born.
Investigations into the group, and members’ refusal to talk to a grand jury, led to 14 children being placed into welfare care, including the four other children of David and Rebecca Corneau. Several leading members of the group were jailed for refusing to cooperate with the authorities.
Throughout 2001 the group remained in the attention and focus of authorities and US media, as eventually David Corneau, in a deal with the authorities, revealed where the two babies had been born. Subsequently forensic evidence led medical authorities and prosecutors to claim that both children would have lived if medical care had been provided at the right time.
Jacques and Karen Robidoux will go to trial in March 2002 on murder charges, while Michelle Mingo faces charges of accessory to murder.
At the time of going to print (January 2002) local county authorities are again concerned about the group - specifically that Rebecca Corneau has had another baby, in a secret unassisted home birth last December. Efforts to locate the baby have proved difficult, and authorities are hunting for another couple from the group, Mark and Trinette Daneau, whose whereabouts has been unknown since last August. It is suspected that they have taken the latest Corneau baby into hiding with them.
Underlining this long sad saga, is the influence of Carol Balizet and the books and materials promoting her disturbing and bizarre beliefs.
KINGDOM LIVING
In Part 2 of this 3-part series we looked at what had happened to Mrs Caroline W. in Perth, and how she was influences into accepting Balizet’s bizarre beliefs to the personal destruction of her life, and the unnecessary end of her marriage and motherhood. We revealed the role and influence of Above Rubies as a major contributor to the spread of Balizet’s distortions in Australia and New Zealand.
Another major influence in Australia, in spreading the Balizet distortions, has been Kingdom Living and the man behind it, David Devenish.
It began when David Devenish’ wife, Helen, went to an Above Rubies camp for women in about the mid-1990s. There she was introduced to Balizet’s book, Born in Zion. It seems she became ‘sold out’ on Balizet and persuaded her husband. The result of their interest in Balizet led David Devenish, a PhD lecturer in engineering, and a friend, Ron Camp (who also contributes to Devenish’ magazine), to pay for Carol Balizet to visit Perth. Whatever David Devenish’ views prior to Balizet’s visit to Perth, Western Australia, her visit converted him into a follower and seemingly Western Australia’s main proponent of Balizet’s views. At the time, Balizet conducted a number of lecture meetings - at least 3 on one Sunday - and the late Mrs Caroline W. was invited to these meetings and was personally introduced to Balizet.
David and Helen Devenish live in a semi-rural outer metropolitan area of Perth with their 7 children. They conduct their own ‘home-church’ services, with others of like belief joining them from time to time. They emphasise and seem to experience a happy family life. The children are home schooled and contribute to their father’s magazine: Kingdom Living. The magazine promotes a withdrawal isolationist view of society: Encouraging those who are walking in the Kingdom of God - "Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues."
The magazine promotes Balizet’s views, books and writings, and similar ideas of rejecting and withdrawing from her claimed ‘seven systems of Satan’ - medicine, education, government, banking, religion, science and entertainment.
The 3rd issue of Kingdom Living, December 2000, revealed something of his personal connection with the late Mrs CW - and under the heading: ‘Andrew and Caroline - Our Testimony’ he published a brief 7-paragraph article by the couple, revealing how far they had gone in following Balizet and others espousing her views. The article showed that, after reading Balizet’s material and using her twisted interpretation of the Bible, Mrs CW and her husband came ‘to the final conclusion that doctors are indeed just a counterfeit for the healing that Jesus had already paid for at Calvary. We made the decision to throw away our medications, which were numerous. We read that John G Lake said to flush them down the toilet and then apologise to the toilet so we did.’
In the very next (2 page) article David Devenish writes about his/Balizet’s view on the medical system. In this article he acknowledged, ‘many of us can give credit to the ‘Above Rubies’ movement as starting that process of opening our eyes to the way we had been sucked into the world’s way of thinking...the two main tenets of this movement are firstly; that God opens and closes the womb - we can trust God for the size of our family and secondly; that of home-schooling.’
Devenish went on to say that: ‘In today’s medical system, we find the counterfeit of the healing that is in Christ. It does not involve faith in Jesus, but faith in man. It does not involve the priesthood of the believer by which we may go directly to God, rather it involves the intermediary of a human priest which we go to in order to obtain healing. They have priestly garments which are their surgical robes. They have their own altar, the operating table upon which they offer the living sacrifice of our bodies, (and not always a living sacrifice). They perform their own signs and wonders by which they deceive many…In the medical system, the bread and wine take on the form of pills and serums of all kinds, but especially we may think of the blood transfusion as the clearest substitute for the blood of Jesus.’
These words are a very clear echo (almost identical) of the statements made by Carol Balizet.
Helen Devenish reveals the Balizet way of spiritualising physical things - especially seeing a spiritual cause behind physical ailments. She writes: ‘Two and a half years ago, I had a miraculous delivery from thrush and other allergies related to a yeast intolerance I had developed 10 years earlier. After cleaning out our home of leaven (things offensive to God, even things that were fine in themselves, but were a source of pride), I was totally healed…Occasionally in the last 2 ½ years the symptoms of thrush would start to manifest again, so we would seek the Lord as to the reason. Often it was because we had not been discerning and allowed something into our lives not acceptable to the Lord. The Lord has used the thrush symptoms to keep us on our toes. One day we hope to be at the place where we don’t need thrush symptoms to wake us up to an invasion of something in our home that is offensive to God.
Recently I developed a lot of thrush related symptoms again. Over the span of a couple of weeks they became progressively worse. I knew the leaven must be something big, for the symptoms of thrush to manifest themselves so badly. We sought the Lord and he showed David that it was our involvement with Christmas.’ (!!)
Thrush is fungal based irritation that periodically afflicts many people, especially women. Its control can sometimes be difficult, but most of the causes are well documented - and are very physical in origin - from food related issues (e.g. yeast and sugar intake) to tight clothing, weather and other things.
To blame family celebration and involvement in Christmas activities as the cause of a severe lingering bout of thrush is something that cannot be supported medically or theologically.
Furthermore, what sort of God punishes the woman (wife, mother) with severe
discomfort and irritation because the rest of the family was involved (with her) in celebrating Christmas. Why didn’t she report that her husband and children all came down with severe thrush?
Why only her?
Perhaps the Devenishes, and other Balizet believers, haven’t read the Scriptures where God clearly states:
EZE 18: 4 For every living soul belongs to me, the father as well as the son—both alike belong to me. The soul who sins is the one who will die. 5 "Suppose there is a righteous man who does what is just and right... 9 He follows my decrees and faithfully keeps my laws. That man is righteous; he will surely live, declares the Sovereign LORD. 10 "Suppose he has a violent son, who sheds blood or does any of these other things 11 (though the father has done none of them)…13…Will such a man [the violent son] live? He will not!… 14 "But suppose this son has a son who sees all the sins his father commits, and though he sees them, he does not do such things…17… He keeps my laws and follows my decrees. He will not die for his father’s sin; he will surely live. 18 But his father will die for his own sin, because he practiced extortion, robbed his brother and did what was wrong among his people…20 The soul who sins is the one who will die. The son will not share the guilt of the father, nor will the father share the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous man will be credited to him, and the wickedness of the wicked will be charged against him. 21 "But if a wicked man turns away from all the sins he has committed and keeps all my decrees and does what is just and right, he will surely live; he will not die. 22 None of the offenses he has committed will be remembered against him. Because of the righteous things he has done, he will live.
The context of the passage, and the rest of Scripture is that God is just, not unjust. Balizet and her believers distort Scripture to their own destruction (very literally) and turn God into an unloving and unjust cruel being.
It is sad to read Devenish’ Kingdom Living newsletters, especially to read through various issues and see the comments from children under the ‘Kid’s of the Kingdom’ section. It is sad: to read a 12-year-old make statements such as, ‘The Olympic games then, are held in honour of Satan…Blasphemy on lighting the Olympic Flame…Overall, the Olympic Games contain signs that we are fast approaching the End Times’; to read a 15-year-old make statements such as, ‘Smash! Everyone in the family, no exceptions, stands around the Television…The floor is littered with smashed glass, Dad [David Devenish] is holding Sledgy, and the TV is hitherto, no longer in one piece. What drama! What courage! It is gone, finally the TV has gone…we got rid of the TV…God told us to…I am now studying Accounting through Open Learning Australia. So am I going to go to University? No way! …There is a common saying from news reporters around the Christmas period (mind you, this statement was from a few years ago and is completely drawn from memory as I haven’t listened to the news, Channel 9 or otherwise for years)…’
It is extremely sad how distorted a perception of Christianity is followed and portrayed by good people, who basically want good things: to serve God in humility and obedience; to live in depth of faith rather than superficiality; to have happy, harmonious and loving families.
It is extremely sad that such good people allow others direct their thinking and lead them to: distort Scripture through misinterpretation; distort the image of God which he revealed through Jesus Christ; allow their children and spouses to die because of warped concepts and pride that their interpretation of Scripture, God’s will, and medical principles is more correct than that of other Christians, today and through the centuries; isolate themselves, their children and spouses from other family members, relatives, friends; deny their children and spouses a well-rounded education and social interactive opportunities with a diversity of people and experiences.
Can we reason together?
Do Balizet believers and followers really believe that all medical doctors, including Christian missionary doctors, (through the years and around the world) are servants and priests of Satan? Are such doctors actually sacrificing severely sick and injured people in remote and impoverished areas as they operate on them - on operating theatre ‘altars’ in mission outposts? Are such Christian doctors really guilty of donning Satanic priestly robes when they change into more sterile clothing for the health and well-being of the patient? When young children are given a new physical and social start in life through plastic surgery to overcome cleft palates and severe burns scarring - is it all a Satanic ritual and witchcraft because drugs are used in the follow-up treatment after surgery?
What about medical missionary groups, such as the Leprosy Mission? Have its doctors, nurses and other staff and volunteers served God or Satan by bringing new life (physically, socially and spiritually), through their medical treatments with corrective/restorative surgery and the use of pills to keep the old scourge of leprosy under control?
We call on Balizet followers, as well as others, before God to very carefully seek truth in life and through the Scriptures (read in context) with balance and deep thought, carefully considering all the evidence that God makes available to us all, and to show compassion to all, especially children.
_______________________________________________
So that is the 21 page document that I found buried in the hard-drive of my computer, that I must have gleaned from the internet 20 years or more ago. I have no idea who the author was, or what "CCGM" is, because the link no longer works. Let me know if you find out anything!
Here's a few other links to info on the fall out from the 'Born in Zion' cult:
The Zion Birth Heresy
Carol Balizet Cult by Vincent Bruno
Cult Death - mother rejects doctors to put faith in God
Lawsuit Blames Religious Group for Woman's Death AFter Stillbirth
Parents Sue Over Woman's Homebirth Death - December 2012
The Bizarre Religious Roots of the Abortion Tweeter
Book Influenced Sect - August 2000
ATTLEBORO — Two experts on religions and cults say they expected Rebecca Corneau to refuse to submit to an exam by a medical health professional.
“ It's consistent with what this group has said all along,” said Robert Pardon, a founder of the New England Institute of Religious Research.
Pardon, who was a guardian to the 13 children taken from the fringe religious sect in November, said the group believes God will deliver their babies without the help of medical professionals or midwives.
The group is heavily influenced by the writings of Carol Balizet of the Home in Zion Ministries in Florida, said Pardon, who has read all of the sect's journals seized by authorities.
Rebecca Corneau's last child, Jeremiah, suffocated and died because of the lack of medical assistance during a home birth last August, authorities now say.
It is not too much to call this extreme brand of evangelical fundamentalism a "death cult". They also believe in physical corporal punishment of children, which has resulted in children being beaten literally to death:
Strict discipline: Ex-member testifies cult beat children - January 2024
Attleboro cult leader Roland Robidoux taught his brainwashed minions to beat their children with paddles to "break their spirit" and encouraged spanking babies who were just a few months old as "training," an ex-member testified yesterday.
"As soon as they could crawl or walk, that's when the training would begin," former sect member Dennis Mingo said from the witness stand in Taunton Superior Court. "Roland had a saying: All he needed was two weeks and a paddle and he could straighten out any child. That was his philosophy."
Mingo described how Roland Robidoux instilled a culture of fear , prompting members to blindly follow his every order. When asked why he never called police if he was concerned about Jeremiah and Samuel, Mingo replied,"I didn't trust the police."
The government is one of seven societal institutions which the group believes is evil, based on the teachings of Florida author, Carol Balizet.
