The Rev. Joe Kim, director of campus ministry at the Caruso Catholic Center, said The Harvest’s members have used the Catholic Center to gain legitimacy.
Kim said he and other regular visitors of the Catholic Center have noticed members of The Harvest outside the center talking to students or attempting to use its facilities without permission.
The Harvest and the Catholic Center share similar messages about following God, reading the Bible and strengthening their faith, making it difficult for students to distinguish between the two, he said.
“Let’s say a student has a bad interaction. They just make that association: ‘Well, since the content of what they’ve been saying, with the similar terms, happened here on the grounds of the [Catholic] church, it must be the Catholics who are trying to do this,'” Kim said. “I find it very disturbing and disrespectful, but really a big disservice.”
Attention, care in a time of ‘spiritual crisis’
Though college campuses lifted pandemic-induced isolation and social distancing restrictions more than two years ago, the weight of loneliness and detachment continues to plague students, Soni said.
“The real spiritual crisis of our campus is loneliness, and I see that getting worse every year,” Soni said. “Religious community can be a remedy for the kind of loneliness that students often face when they come to a campus as big as USC.”
And as religious participation has risen across the board since the coronavirus pandemic, high-pressure groups’ success at USC has only grown, Soni said. To gain a sense of belonging, students can become vulnerable to the persistence and “love-bombing” tactics of groups that promise attention, connection and meaning.
“That love is actually manipulated into blame, shame, guilt and a power that allows these groups to micromanage a student’s life,” Soni said.
For students who feel targeted by high-pressure groups, Soni said the University can issue a temporary “stay away” order. The Department of Public Safety and the University’s Office of Threat Assessment and Management are also available to students facing harassment from high-pressure groups, Soni said. But USC can’t ban them from public areas like Trousdale and USC Village because their members have First Amendment rights.
Although The Harvest is one of the most visible groups that uses controversial practices on campus — leading to its loss of University recognition — it isn’t the only one.
University-recognized group also exerts pressure, former member says
On her way to dinner one night, then-freshman Melanie Li paused at a table set up on campus to get some free boba. After a quick exchange, the posted-up group invited her to a Bible study. Little did Li know, she would be a part of that group for the next five years — and come to regret it all.
The group was Acts2Fellowship, and the year was 2015. A2F, a recognized student organization, is an arm of Gracepoint Ministries, a widespread network of campus churches.
Soon after that first encounter, Li, who preferred a pseudonym be used for fear of retaliation, started showing up at the group’s Friday Bible studies. Raised culturally but not strictly Christian, she came in with little religious background and was what some call a “seeker”: She tried out several Christian groups and wasn’t, from the get-go, a regular at any of them.
Over time, she became more and more committed to A2F. She went to Sunday services and retreats and took courses in “Christian foundations.” At the time, the group would host worship events at King Hall, Taper Hall and the Religious Center.
A few months in, Li’s mentor, or “spiritual leader,” started to pressure her — including discouraging her from living with certain friends her sophomore year and pushing her to quit the marching band.
Those pressures were often prefaced by intense displays of care that amounted to “love-bombing,” Li said.
“I received a lot of attention and a lot of love,” she said. “That was a way that they would pressure me to attend events or to do certain things or to make certain decisions about my life.”
One of A2F’s key virtues, from Li’s perspective, was a deep tie between members’ self-perception and the group: “Your identity is your ministry.” Surrounded by a community of the only friends she’d kept at USC, Li stayed in the group past her college years as a mentor.
After five years, a switch clicked for Li. Despite putting in 30 hours a week to recruit international students into the church while working her post-graduate job, she said she was repeatedly told she wasn’t spiritual or devoted enough. So she left.
“The more that I found my identity within the group,” Li said, “the harder it was to leave, and the easier it was for them to gaslight me into thinking certain things about myself.”
Members who left the church were cut out and disregarded, Li said. When she began to resent and rebel against the group’s control, Li feared being ostracized the same way.
Other former members of Acts 2 college churches across the country allege “spiritual abuse,” characterized by a coercive environment and leaders that sought to control members’ personal lives.
Though Li graduated in 2019, another student who joined A2F in January 2022 told the Daily Trojan she also faced incursions into her personal life. When the student, now pursuing a master’s degree at USC, started raising concerns about the group’s behavior, she said she was “shunned” and pressured to leave.
Despite these testimonies of “high-pressure” tactics, A2F is a recognized, funded student organization at USC with roughly 40 members.
The group’s most recent president, Burabari Yorka, said she sees no issues with A2F’s practices.
Yorka, a senior majoring in health promotion and disease prevention studies, joined A2F with her sister their first week on campus after a brief conversation at the dining hall. She hadn’t tried out any other Christian groups when an A2F member invited her to a Bible study after a brief conversation at the dining hall, and she hasn’t looked back since.
“Everyone was very welcoming, and they really truly cared about how you’re doing,” Yorka said. “Especially being new to campus, that just really touched me and my sister.”
Now, Yorka spends her Fridays and Sundays with the club, which she said has helped her develop a deeper connection with Christianity and other students.
