Kathy Lewis Testimony - 'The uglier you were, the more approval you received.'

The Meaning and Significance of Mind Control

In 1897, in the small town of Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, a man by the name of William Irvine began preaching a radical new message to the people there.  He dressed rather oddly, so oddly in fact, that people called him and his followers the Tramps. He required the men to wear beards, brown underwear and old clothing.  The women had to wear straw hats, black stockings, long dresses and shoes with thick heels like boots. Newspaper reports said that they didn’t smell good either. He mocked people who dressed well. He said, “Fine linen, white collars and silk handkerchiefs are the marks of a man going to hell.”  In fact, he talked about hell quite a lot.  He didn’t mention sin or salvation as much as he talked about the need of “giving up all, and becoming poor.”  He said it was wrong for the clergy to receive a salary, take collections or require a tithe. He said that one must become “poor and homeless like Jesus” had been in order to be saved and to please God. He said it was wrong to call men priests, reverend or Father.  He used the word “worker,” “brother worker” or “sister worker” for the preachers’ title.  Yes, he believed in using women to promote his beliefs and spread his fame.  There are about twice as many sister workers as there are brother workers.

William Irvine was a Mason.  He had become a Mason about 10 years before he began preaching. He remained a Mason for over 50 years. Masonry had become a driving force in the British Isles during the 1800s and many people were drawn into this secretive occult organization under the impression that it was a business and public service club.  The Masonic organization has a shady history but appears innocent enough until you study its oaths and secret rituals.  Many things going on in the political world today have their roots in the Masonic organization and its many different orders.

William Irvine mocked Christians and Christianity yet he claimed to be the “Mouthpiece of God.”  You may think he sounds like a nutcase, but believe me, he was a smooth talking, impressive man, charming as well as overbearing.  Men and women alike were spellbound when he spoke.  Instead of the problem of sin, William Irvine condemned Religion, Politics and Education.  He claimed that Religion, Politics and Education were the true problems of the world.

Where did he get his ideas?   No one knows for sure, of course.  But he frequently told people that he had been influenced by a book written by a Chinese woman named Madam Su Lin. 

Irvine said he received instruction for his life’s work from God by opening his Bible and randomly pointing to Isaiah 41:15-16, “Behold, I make you into a new threshing sledge with sharp teeth; You shall thresh the mountains and beat them small and make the hills like chaff.  You shall winnow them, the wind shall carry them away.”  He claimed that he was “the threshing sledge” and that Christian churches were “the mountains and hills” that he was to destroy.  Just like Charles Taze Russell and Joseph Smith, (who were also Masons) he claimed that Christianity was apostate, that the clergy was serving the devil. He was restoring the one True church.  The way to please God was to leave your jobs, home and family, sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor.  Irvine claimed that the instructions Jesus gave his disciples inMatthew 10 and Luke 10 were what saved them rather than Christ’s crucifixion.  He said Jesus Christ was “showing the Way” rather than being the Way.

Irvine said the reason Jesus was killed was because the Pharisees resented his ministry and weren’t willing to be poor like Jesus was.  He said, “It is his “Life” (ministry) that saves people, not his blood.  If it had been his blood that saves people then Jesus could have been killed when he was a baby.  

He said that all preachers must be unmarried, go out into the world two by two, without money or purse and preach the gospel. If they didn’t, no one could be saved.  He said that since Jesus never built a church or gave a name to his followers then we were not supposed to take a name or build church buildings or own church property.  He claimed that we were supposed to meet in homes as the early church did.  Even though Irvine’s followers never took a name, they were called many names by the Christians who knew them. 

The Damnation Army, the Black Stockings, the White Mice, the Dippers, the Cooneyites, the Two by Twos among many other names.

They did not refer to themselves as Christians, disdaining that title because he claimed Christians were apostate.  Instead they said they were “professing Jesus and following his example ministry.”  When someone made a decision to follow the workers, it was said he had “professed”.  The people inside the group often referred to themselves as the Testimony, the Truth, and the Way.

Amazingly, many people followed him, just like the children who followed the Pied Piper.  You can almost understand why poor people would appreciate this line of reasoning but oddly enough some of the first people to join the group were in fact from wealthy families and one of them who sold everything was said to be a millionaire.

Ireland was a poor country. Chronic depression, alcoholism, hunger, poverty and animosity between the Catholics and Protestants ran deep. There was resentment against wealthy church leaders in poverty stricken neighborhoods.  Young people didn’t have much hope for a future.  Selling all they had and preaching to other people about how to become poor must have been gratifying.  Living off of other people was easier than working in the coal mines or potato fields of Ireland. Even some married couples with children sold everything they had and gave their children to others to raise. Off they went to America, Africa, England, Scotland, Australia, Europe and Canada to spread the bad news about how to be saved.  There were thousands of them. 

William Irvine and his followers came to the United States and preached in Grange Halls, Masonic Halls, Oddfellows’ Halls, tents and school houses.  In 1904, my great grandparents heard them in Boston, Massachusetts. Another grandmother met them in Wellington, Kansas; another great grandmother heard them in Potlatch, Idaho. Their absolute certainty that they represented the Original One True Church because the preachers (whom they called “workers”) went out 2x2, homeless and penniless and met in homes was a very compelling argument and my ancestors believed them. During this time, itinerant preachers were a common form of evangelism.  Whole communities would come to hear anyone speak because it was their form of community activity. So, at first they had lots of willing listeners. 

People most vulnerable to the 2x2 message were usually people who were going through some kind of crisis in their lives.

Many began following the workers during the depression because a church which didn’t require money was quite an attractive idea. And some had experienced problems of one sort or another in previous church congregations or they lived too far away from a church so meeting in a home was very pragmatic.

By 1910, more rules had been added to the beliefs but the brother workers had cleaned up their Trampy appearance.  For some reason, however, they still required the women to look like refugees from the Old Country.  Oddly enough, it was women who were most attracted to this dysfunctional group of people.  Women are also the ones who most frequently influence their children for the future.  The old fashioned appearance of the women and young girls made the group conspicuous, rather like the Amish women.  This appearance was what they called their “example.” It was their way of evangelizing people.  It was sort of a religious “grunge” look.

They didn’t evangelize with the gospel; they proselytized by attracting attention with their oddness and by claiming to be the Only True Way.  They did this by turning people against Christian faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus, claiming it was His example life that had saved us and that “the workers were Jesus Christ come again in the flesh.”   They claimed not only to preach the gospel but to be the gospel. They looked trustworthy and somewhat wholesome, in a weird sort of way. 

They looked like pitiful peasant women with a severe attraction to black, brown and green.  The group was so bad looking that one outsider once said, “This church is just for the old and the ugly.”  Like the Masons, beneath the humble façade was a sinister and harmful reality.  Their unattractive appearance led people to believe they had no immoral motives or interest in money.  William Irvine was a religious con artist but his victims believed everything he said.  They truly thought they were obeying God. 

Fast forward a few years to 1914… William Irvine had a problem with immorality which had become an embarrassment.

He was abusive to his followers and demanded that the majority of donations be given to him.  His words and behavior resembled those of an egomaniac.  So, together they held a counsel and rejected him as their leader and in 1917 they persuaded him to move to Israel to preach.

They excommunicated everyone who was loyal to him and then pretended that he had never existed and they would lie if confronted with their historical roots.

This was possible because their followers were spread out over the world without any communication network to speak of.  They claimed to be the original New Testament Church; that their group originated with Jesus on the shores of Galilee.  Yet, they retained most of Irvine’s beliefs, many of his followers and a great deal of money.  Since they lived with their followers and ate their food, they could collect money fairly quickly!  The more popular speakers became quite wealthy while others were so poor that their health failed and they had no one to support them. Some nearly died of starvation. Workers and members were frequently disfellowshipped for various reasons and this left them extremely heartbroken, confused and lost, believing they were doomed to hell.  The wealthy workers rarely shared their money with others and they didn’t believe in  charity to the poor.  They didn’t want to admit that they had money because they claimed to be penniless.  They lived mostly as misers, hiding their wealth or banking it in elders’ names.  They may have done this out of a realization that there was no security or future unless they looked out for themselves.

The workers still go out two by two, are unmarried, live with their followers and hold all their Sunday services and midweek Bible studies in the homes of their followers. 

Some of their leaders also have problems with immorality as well, but they manage to cover it up and move on just as many Roman Catholic priests have done. 

They are still itinerant preachers, staying in a household only about 3 days at a time.  This kind of life keeps them hidden from society and the law and puts them in close contact with vulnerable victims.  Remember these preachers travel all over the world and have members all over the world.  We didn’t know or ever hear about their scandals until we left the group.  The workers control all gatherings and make sure that people never discuss any negative issues.

I was raised in this strange lifestyle and so was my husband. I grew up in Port Orchard, Washington and Don grew up in the Longview, Kelso, and Kalama area. I was 4th generation in the group and had several relatives who were preachers. There were very strict rules about not mingling with “the world” which meant anyone outside the group.  We didn’t live in communes or communities. 

Our families worked and went to school like everyone else but all our spare time was involved in the cult.  Therefore we never knew what Christians believed.  We had been told Christians followed Satan and were going to hell.

This may all seem strange to you. 

How could people be so ignorant? 

Remember, all these people had been Christian believers BEFORE hearing these workers.  Most of the people who joined the group were seriously committed to Jesus Christ.  Some of them had had bad church experiences and when the workers came along claiming to be the only real church who obeyed the Bible, they were looking for a sacrificial way of life and they found it.  They took the bait, hook, line and sinker.  It amounted to a bait and switch con game.  The workers came along offering the Only True Church on earth, claiming to believe in Jesus….but what they offered wasn’t the church of the Bible, or the Jesus of the Bible, or the salvation of the Bible.

We only used the King James Version of the Bible just as the Mormons do.  People who are not studious can easily be confused by the King James Version. Irvine and his followers rejected every Christian doctrine: the doctrine of original sin, the deity of Christ, the Trinity, salvation by grace, doctrine of eternal security, etc. They changed the definition of every important Biblical word. You may ask, “Why were Christian people willing to reject these biblical doctrines?”  It was because the workers wouldn’t tell them that they didn’t believe those doctrines until after the mind control process became complete. 

The workers led people to believe that their salvation depended on their ministry. Therefore people almost worship them.  At that stage the workers give their doctrinal version of scripture and condemn Christian doctrines.  They avoid these topics as much as possible or say things in a way that would lead people to think one thing when they actually meant another. You all know how to lie without telling a lie, don’t you?  That is how they did it and they felt no guilt for it because they think they are doing God’s will.  They do whatever it takes to save someone’s soul!   Moreover, William Irvine taught people not to praise and worship God.  He mocked Christian worship and the words “Hallelujah and Praise the Lord.”  Just saying these things now makes me almost sick to think about it. But when you are raised like that, it seems normal.

They symbolize or allegorize the scripture making it say something completely different than the original words intended. They refuse to publish their beliefs and even keep all their hymnbooks from anyone who is not part of the group.  They hand out hymnbooks at their public meetings and then collect them at the end of the services.  They use Christian hymns in their public services. Only professing people own their hymnbooks.  They changed many of the words in the hymns and wrote new hymns.  They don’t believe in the doctrine of Grace, of course, and do not sing the hymn Amazing Grace.

Can you imagine what it was like growing up like that?

No, you can’t. 

There is no way to tell you how confusing and depressing it was.

It was like living in the dark. 

I had no understanding of the Bible, even though we read it all the time.  I didn’t understand life. I couldn’t relate to outsiders and often envied normal people.  The intrusion of the workers into family life drove a wedge between married couples and parents and children.  You couldn’t trust your friends because they would report on you if you confided any questions or objections you may have had. I hated looking like a refugee.  I had to wear my long hair in a bun as a teenager.  At the end of the day, my hair was falling apart, frizzy and pitiful.  It took hours to wash and dry it and to pin it up.  Most of the time it came to my waist but after I had children it grew to my knees.   Some people look good in long hair.  I didn’t.  I was supposed to look like a worker. The uglier you were, the more approval you received. 

Some girls in their teens looked like they were in their 20s or 30s.  We were not supposed to have a radio or television or attend movies.  Women and girls were not supposed to wear cosmetics, or jewelry, could not wear pants, or cut our hair. We were not allowed to dance or participate in sports. It was surreal.  We had to be at every meeting or funeral or group event….which was between 3 to 5 times a week.  We had to drive for miles to get to them. The amount of time we spent on the road was astounding.  Strangely enough, even though we were supposed to be humble, it gave many people a perverse sort of pride and satisfaction to think that they were the ONLY ONES IN THE WORLD who knew God and were going to heaven.  For me, however, it was horrible.  It was depressing to think that so many people were going to hell.

Very few people would ever “profess” into our group, so you can imagine what it was like growing up.    You knew that if you were ever to get married that you would have to choose from maybe two people who were your own age.  In the old days the workers would sometimes arrange marriages in order to promote their group in a certain community.  If you didn’t get married you were often expected to become a worker. Many marriages broke up over this belief system when a woman or man would profess and the other spouse didn’t. Many people were related by marriage in some way or other.  Divorces, suicides, nervous breakdowns, stress related illnesses, physical and emotional collapse were not uncommon among our group.  

The Two by Twos claimed to be pacifists, so they usually refused to serve in the armed forces or to carry a weapon for defense.  And it was not a sinister variety of cult.  They looked and acted as sweet as Mennonites and the Amish.  In fact, the Mennonites and Amish frequently joined the group because it was less work than their own groups.

Very few people knew anything about what we believed because the leaders were so secretive that if anyone asked them what they believed they would just talk around the question, lie, quote scripture, make a joke or sarcastic remark or attack the questioner for not being willing to be humble and submissive. Quite often, the workers themselves didn’t know what we believed.   What we believed was not really important.  All that mattered was that we believed and honored the workers, went to every meeting and followed the rules.

In fact, people could believe almost anything they wanted to believe as long as they didn’t talk about it.  The group worldview is a cross between secularism/New Age or Jehovah’s Witness and Catholic.   We were afraid to ask questions because there were no answers to be given and we were likely to be met with an accusatory glare, as if we should be ashamed that we didn’t know the answer to that question.  The Spirit was supposed to reveal everything. 

The workers would treat outsiders very sweetly until they joined the group, then their attitude would change and the newcomers would be on the receiving end of being forced into a mold…..a very uncomfortable mold.

The first generation of followers, of course, were usually Christians from many different denominations, so they usually acted like real Christians, giving the group a better reputation than it deserved. There was one problem.  If these real Christians retained their Christian beliefs, the workers would shun them and talk about them behind their backs, telling people that they didn’t have good understanding.  Eventually, some of them would be shoved out or disfellowshipped.  Usually the workers would try to get people to repent of their old doctrinal beliefs and fellowship with other Christians. And the succeeding generations, who were born into the group, were not Christian because they did not know the true gospel and had not been born again.  They simply were manipulated into obeying the rules about appearance and lifestyle.

Remember false religions are always directed by Satan.  1 Timothy 4:1 “The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.  Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron.  They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth.”  This group was more deceptive than you can imagine.  They had spiritual answers for every scriptural objection.  Pastors were even deceived by their answers and a few even joined the group.  Most people who looked on from the outside really believed that it was a Christian group.  And of course, those on the inside really believed they were Christians. They used the words of Christianity but with different meanings.  One woman, Ruth Miller, who had professed into the cult, was the daughter of one of the founding families of Multnomah School of the Bible.  She said that the 2x2's was Satan’s masterpiece of false religion.  She was part of the 2x2's for about 20 years before she discovered that they didn’t believe or teach the true gospel or believe in the true God of the Bible.  And she had tried hard at the beginning to ask all the right questions. They simply outmaneuvered her in their conversations.

One thing that hinders people from finding out information is that the workers travel so much.  You might not get a chance to talk to them carefully but once or twice a year.  And they are very careful not to let themselves get cornered in a private question and answer session.  They remember an important appointment instantly!  Even when they stay a week in your home they will spend most of their time in their rooms or visiting somewhere else.

The leaders, or workers, as we called them despised education and said that education was what produced scribes and Pharisees or the “wise and prudent.” They didn’t encourage the development of musical talent because they said it was worldly.  And of course, they scorned seminaries, Bible dictionaries, and commentaries. Christian books were forbidden.  The workers are professional guilt producers.  If you don’t live up to their expectations you are shunned, preached at, talked about or disfellowshipped.  They have little pity or sense of humor.  Oddly enough, even though these people sold all they had to become workers, they had no pity for the poor and needy.  Usually all the funds from the sale of property was given to the head workers.  They didn’t believe in giving to the poor, the homeless, orphans or widows….They considered themselves to be “the poor”.  They spurned what they called “a loaves and fishes ministry”.

Have you ever heard the saying, “Ideas have consequences”?  Lies always affect two sets of people:  the ones telling the lies and the ones who believe the lies. 

We began to see that this way of life was affecting our children, especially our teenagers.  They had to live a severe lifestyle that was mentally backwards and yet attend school with children living in a different era.  It was having disastrous results for lots of professing children. I was helping at the Junior High and the elementary school in an effort to watch the environment there. The only thing that I observed was that the reading teachers couldn’t spell well and the librarian was reading inappropriate books to the grade school children.

I knew that if anything bad happened to any of our children, I would not have the coping skills to manage it.  I loved my children with the fierceness of a mother Grizzly bear.  We didn’t approve of the 2x2 secret society but we believed we had to live this way in order to stay out of hell.

God intervened to answer my prayers in an unusual way.  It was probably 1982 or 83.  At that time we were living in Vancouver, Washington.  A man by the name of Dr. Henry Moore was asked to speak at a school function.  The parents, volunteers and teachers were meeting with Washington State legislators to discuss various educational issues because the legislators and public schools were planning to eliminate the home economics classes from high schools.  The teachers wanted parents to express support for the Home Economics Classes as being important for all students: girls and boys.   Henry Moore had been a professor at Stanford University and had done a thesis for his Ph. D. studying the long term effects of the Head Start Program which had been offered to lower income and immigrant families starting in 1965 as part of the war on poverty.  It was a Government funded Day Care center which attempted to teach children to read and write at an early age.  Copying socialist beliefs, government planners believed that it would be better for children to be raised by professionals and for their mothers to go to work.  Think about it….the government wanted to eliminate programs which teach homemaking skills to teenage girls because they wanted to intervene in family life and take children away from parents at an early age in order to put women in the work force.   And that is what they did.  Dr. Moore’s lecture was like spitting in the wind.  They ignored all that he said. 

Dr. Moore spoke at great length about how emotionally, mentally and physically damaging it was to children to be separated from their mothers and family at an early age and the results were recorded in his book titled Better Late Than Early and another one titled Home Grown Kids.  He was the pioneer in the Home School movement and later Greg Harris joined him in his lecture series.  I was fascinated by what he had to say. To make a long story short we started home schooling our youngest daughter, Jeanne, when it was still illegal in the state of Washington. She had been very unhappy in the public school and begged to be able to stay at home. She was in the first grade when we first learned about it so the following year we began a new life experience.

To our surprise the workers were very much against homeschooling. This seemed contrary to their many statements against formal education. I couldn’t understand their viewpoint but it alerted me to the fact that there was something they were hiding from us that they didn’t want us to know.  Christians we met at homeschool events accepted us as Christians, not knowing that we actually knew little to nothing about Christian beliefs.  Their friendship and the things we learned through the years eventually saved our souls.

It took us five years to figure out what was the matter with the Two by Two beliefs. And at first we didn’t even know there was anything wrong at all.  We had begun to notice that the workers showed no interest in teaching or obeying the Bible, except for about two or three verses of it.  They ignored the children and the welfare of Two by Two families. The meetings were all about the workers; not Jesus. There was a big discrepancy between what was said and what was done. There wasn’t any published information about our group available in the United States. And that made the group seem ancient and mysterious. There was no way to research its background. There was no name to research.  And of course, the workers wouldn’t ever tell us the truth because most of them knew less than we did.  We had never been told what our history or doctrines were, so it took years of talking through each issue and listening to Christians on the radio, reading Christian books and talking to other Two by Twos.  We didn’t even know what the word “doctrine” meant until just before we left the group.  And we didn’t see "The Secret Sect" book until just before we left meetings.

The reason why it took so long for us to figure it all out was the factor of mind control.  Mind control is not that hard to achieve. It starts with believing lies and illogical fallacies. All it takes is to isolate people from information and friendship with people that disagree with or counter balance the person or people in power. 

The difference between mind control and brain washing is the method used.  Mind control is accomplished through friendly subtle persuasion which turns into abuse. The isolation is slowly achieved but eventually can be noticed by the fear, guilt, intimidation, abuse or crimes committed by the one in control.  Brain washing is done against one’s will by an enemy who uses violence, threats or fear.

We left meetings in 1988 when our older son, Gary and his wife, Merrilee, came to us one night and said, “We are leaving meetings this weekend.  We are going to give our testimony in meeting and tell them why we are leaving.” Gary, too, was suffering from the cult.  He had internalized his emotions and it was harming his health. He was thin and very pale.  We knew we had to make the same decision.  We had been talking about leaving for quite awhile.  Don was 44 and I was 43 years old. We knew we had to honor the Lord by putting His Word and His Son before our own parents and all the people we had known all our lives.  It was a difficult experience but we were rewarded with a joy that can only be called euphoria.  I felt like I had lost 100 pounds and was 10 years younger!  The Lord has blessed us in so many ways ever since. All our children became Christians but our parents and siblings stayed in the cult and refused to listen to us.  Don’s brother became a Christian about 19 years later.

One of the best things that ever happened to us was the Home School movement and the friendships we made during that time. Our family life bonded on a much deeper and more spiritual level.  Through our daughter, Jeanne, we met many wonderful Christian families who helped us understand scripture.

Spiritual abuse can be a real problem even in good doctrinal churches. Legalism and confusion can happen inside the church if people do not understand the meaning of certain words and Bible verses or the practical application of them.   This is why Bible study is so important. Families can be harmed in the same way we harmed our daughter and son.  We were harmed as well.    The Holy Spirit transforms us into the image of Jesus not people…. That was what the 2x2s were trying to do….usurp the role of the Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ.  They were producing unChristian religious clones.

A person does not just leave mind control situations at the drop of a hat and suddenly become normal overnight.  It takes about ten years to become normal and that is with the Lord’s help. Your brain chemistry and logical reasoning ability is harmed by unscriptural rules and guilt imposed by humans rather than God. Some people never become normal. Deprogramming used to be in the news during the 1980s because there was so much trouble with different mind control groups like Scientology, Moonies, Hare Krishnas, New Agers, Rajneeshies and other Indian Gurus. Jehovah Witnesses, Mormons and Islam are obviously mind control groups. Witchcraft, Darwinism, and Marxism are others.  But most of the deprogrammers gave up on the project because they were being sued by the different cults. There is only one place I know of that counsels such people:  Wellspring Retreat and Resource Center in Albany, Ohio.  It was founded by people who had escaped a mind control experience and then went to school and got training in how to help others. 

Remember, mind control also occurs in other settings besides religion.  It can happen in boy/girl relationships, in schools, through the media, in government politics, street gangs, organized crime syndicates, work settings, business, and families whenever people abuse others or manipulate them with lies, threats, intimidation, fallacious reasoning, guilt, blackmail, physical or emotional abuse.  Right now the slave trade is still operating, even though it is illegal.  Children and adults are being kidnapped, lured, bought and sold as slaves in Africa, Thailand, China and other places.  It is even happening in the United States in the back alleys and streets.

And think about how the abortion industry works….in the same fashion.  It isn’t exactly mind control in the sense of controlling every aspect of their lives; but they tempt or lure girls and women into sexually promiscuous behavior, and then manage to trick them into killing their own children by deceiving them into thinking that babies are not babies, just blobs of tissue. They promoted their plan in every public venue possible.  It started in the public schools as a debate topic.  I was in high school at the time and remember how shocked people were at the topic. It was no accidental choice of topics.  The National Debate Society chose “Abortion” for High School students and College students to defend and debate. Every public school debate team had to debate it. Of course, Planned Parenthood had all the arguments for abortion and no one had ever thought about it before, so there was no information against abortion. Planned Parenthood has very strong allies in the public school system.  It had almost been inconceivable to consider abortion prior to this. But it only took about 4 or 5 years and the whole thing went like clock work.  The very first time they put it to a vote, the law was changed.  Via the media and the public school system people had become convinced that the problem of child abuse could be stopped by abortion.  Yeah right!  Like murdering helpless babies is more humane than spanking them for disobedience!?  I think Oregon was one of the first states to make it legal.  Beware of what the media tells you and beware of the media’s messages.  There are hidden agendas to capture the unwary.  The love of money is the root of all evil and promoting evil is one way of making a great deal of money.

Jesus Christ sets us free from sin and from bondage of all sorts.  If we have Jesus we are free indeed when we believe, understand his teachings, meditate on them and obey them.