BY CHRIS HARRIS
UPDATED 12/12/2015 AT 09:00 AM EST
•ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED12/10/2015 AT 01:40 PM EST
For two years, Michele Colón believed with complete conviction that the end of the world was imminent and that an elderly lady from South Korea was God. For those same two years, Colon, a nurse, attended services at the World Mission Society Church of God in the New Jersey suburb of Ridgewood.
Colón tells PEOPLE she defected from the World Mission Society Church of God more than four years ago. She says she did so because she believes she had been brainwashed into what she alleges is a doomsday cult.
Colón further claims in a civil suit she filed against the 50-year-old World Mission Society Church of God, a copy of which was obtained by PEOPLE, that the group is a “profit-making” cult that “uses a number of psychological control tactics…to prevent its members from exposing its criminal and tortious behavior.”
In its motion to dismiss Colón’s complaint, the church called her allegations “entirely fabricated.” The motion states that Colon’s claim is part of a larger effort by her to “position herself as a veteran of the ‘cult war’ and build a career as ‘cult expert’ to the detriment” of the World Mission Society Church of God’s reputation.
https://www.people.com/article/former-members-call-south-korean-church-a-cult
