Cult survivor to share warning signs of coercive control at Moscow event 

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Cult survivor to share warning signs of coercive control at Moscow event 

Former cult member Meliesa Tigard speaks in Moscow, Idaho, on coercive control, Christian nationalism, dominionism and Christ Church’s influence.

By Cassy Benefield | FāVS News Associate Editor

MOSCOW, Idaho — Meliesa Tigard grew up in a cult for almost half her life. She has spent the other half learning and writing about the language and “architecture” of coercive control, information management and what she names as a theology that rebrands obedience as holiness and questioning as sin.

Her dad — and mom, by marriage — were fourth-generation members of the Two by Two Church, a high-control religious sect that Tigard said “controlled what I wore, what I read, who I could talk to and what I was allowed to think.” She left in her mid-20s.

On Thursday, she will bring her lived experience and expertise to Moscow, Idaho, from 6-8 p.m., at the 1912 Center LeCompte auditorium, 412 E. Third St. Tigard said the event was organized by Cafe Artista owner Bev Bafus, and it will be free and open to the public. No registration needed.

“I’m going to name it, document it and give [people of Moscow] the tools to recognize it before it gets its hooks in,” Tigard wrote in a July 21 Facebook post.

Tigard says she came of age listening to confident and self-assured preachers who “know the will of God and are ready to dispense it to you.” She adds they sounded a lot like Doug Wilson, leader of Christ Church in Moscow, and Josh McPherson, leader of Grace City Church in Wenatchee, Washington, and organizer of the “Freedom Con: Rise of the Statesman” event at the Gorge Amphitheater last month.

“I’ve seen the binary thinking and the belief that there’s no other way to see it,” Tigard said. “I know what that preaching creates in the home, in schools and in government, if we let it get there.”

She has spent 30 years fine-tuning her understanding of coercive control, and she will teach the audience how to view Christian nationalism, Doug Wilson and Christ Church’s influence in Moscow through this lens — one very common in high-control religions and cults.

“One of the things that is the most successful is what’s called pre-bunking,” Tigard said. “When you let people know what the manipulation is before they encounter it, then they have the tools to recognize the manipulation when it shows up.”

She names the current brand of thought control creeping into Christian communities like Wilson’s as dominionism, which she defines as a movement seeking “dominion over civic life.” 

It includes imposing a narrow theology upon individuals, an inflexibility to compromise with a mindset of “only our way is the right way” and an inability to allow for questions and disagreement.

Wilson, a self-described Christian nationalist who believes in an eventual Christian republic, has gone on the record to say he doesn’t believe in Christians taking over society through coercion, but through the natural fruit of the gospel in the hearts of individuals influencing society.

Still, critics to his theology and the ways Christ Church members have bought up about 20% of Moscow business real estate, say otherwise.

“While Dominionism might not be the thing that [they] are saying they are about … the theology that they are preaching and the way they’re choosing to live out their faith is one that I think leads to coercion,” said the Rev. Hannah Brown, who leads The United Church of Moscow. 

She explains what she means using the example of how women are treated within the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC), a fundamentalist and Calvinist denomination Wilson co-founded, in that their self-determination and individual choices are swallowed up by their husbands in the name of them choosing this submissive lifestyle with the “illusion of choice.”

“Women are often put in situations where they are sort of unable to choose for themselves what their lives will look like,” she said. “Because a lot of their choices are sort of taken away and given into the hands of their husbands.” 

Brown won’t be able to attend Tigard’s event herself, but she is encouraging those in her congregation to attend. 

“I’m hopeful that people will be able to learn and be able to recognize where dominionism is creeping into their own spaces of worship even if they aren’t a part of CREC,” she said.

Her hope doesn’t end there, however. She sees the Moscow community she has been involved in the last year as one inhabited by people who value “seeing both sides” of issues.

“There are a lot of really kind, good people here who really care about building a better future,” she explained. “So, it’s exciting to see an event like this take place here.” 

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