The cult in the woods of East Texas: Church of Wells

The Church of Wells

The Younger Years of the Church Elders

Ringnald and Morris graduated from Baylor in 2008. Without the structure and demands of college, their religious fervor intensified. They traveled and preached on the street for two years before amassing a handful of followers and moving their tiny church to Arlington. In 2012, they moved the group for financial reasons to Wells, a town of 792 people located between Lufkin and Jacksonville, where their fervent evangelism has not found a warm welcome, particularly after the death of Baby Faith in May 2012 and the arrival of Catherine Grove from Arkansas in July 2013. Grove, 27, left for Wells without a word to her family about her plans, and her parents have been trying without success over the last eight months to see their daughter outside of the presence of the church’s elders, as Morris, Ringnald, and Gardner now refer to themselves.

Exposing the Church of Wells 

Ryan Ringnald: Women Silence Stripes Subjection : “The Blueness of The Wounds Cleanseth Away Evil”

Transcript of Audio : 
"Silence! Sisters need to LEARN with all subjection. Silence. She is not to usurp authority. She is to learn in silence with all subjection. She is to LEARN: sisters, you gotta LEARN! And 'the blueness of the wound cleanseth away evil, so do stripes the inward parts of the belly'.....speaks about women; women if they would adorn themselves with good works, and they would learn with silence with all subjection.....not usurping men but to be in subjection and he gives the reasons why notwithstanding she shall be saved: IF the woman continues in charity and faith and holiness with sobriety. If you don't you won't be saved. If you don't continue in those things, sisters, women, you will not be saved. Charity -- you gotta keep charity -- Faith with Sobriety, because those things equal Christ. Those things equal abiding in Christ; and if you're not having holiness with sobriety, if you're not having charity, if you're not having faith, then you're not abiding in Christ; and there is no salvation anywhere else. Those things are in Christ. Christ is in those things, and a woman shall be saved. She is not to usurp authority. She is to learn silence with all subjection. She is to LEARN: woman, you got to LEARN. Sisters need to LEARN with all subjection, in silence. She shall be saved through childbearing, bearing her cross if she bears it in Christ. And in Christ when you bear crosses and tribulations, they're not losses: they're for gain. They're sanctification; they're bread for you in Christ. Outside of Christ, crosses and losses and distresses and pain and shame is going to mar you and make you bitter and make you upset and make you angry. But in Christ, if you are abiding in faith and charity, holding to sobriety, sisters, no matter what you go through, it's going to be bread for you. You're going to be more holy. You're going to be more sanctified, and 'the blueness of the wound cleanseth away evil, so do stripes the inward parts of the belly.'"

Sinners in the Hands: WHEN IS A CHURCH A CULT?

A couple of months later, on July 2, Catherine gave all her belongings to Goodwill and disappeared without a word. Her parents had no clue where she had gone. On July 7, their phone rang, just after eleven-thirty at night. “I’m in Wells, Texas, with a group of people who are taking good care of me,” Catherine said. “But I can’t listen to you anymore, I can only listen to my elders. I have to keep my hands over my ears. You’re going to see a lot of bad stuff on the Internet about them, but none of it is true.”

…

But as Catherine had warned, there were some truly unsettling stories about the church online as well. About a year earlier, in May 2012, a baby born to church members had died while her parents—instead of calling 911 as she struggled to breathe, her tiny body turning blue—prayed that Christ would heal her. If that wasn’t chilling enough, there were the eerie stories about a serial killer named Israel Keyes, who the FBI believes is responsible for at least eleven murders and whose mother and four sisters belong to the church. Keyes himself had no involvement with the Church of Wells, but he had been arrested in March 2012 while in East Texas to attend the wedding of one of his sisters.

…

Faith Shalom Pursley had been born at home on May 23, delivered by her father inside the family’s apartment. She wouldn’t nurse, and over the next three days Daniel had to feed her breast milk with an eyedropper, according to an investigator’s report. She also had a bluish tint to her hands. Despite this, a doctor was never called. When Faith began to struggle to breathe, the elders gathered some twenty members of the church around her bassinet and prayed over the infant. Other residents of the apartment building recalled hearing chanting coming from the unit. She died around 12:45 p.m. on May 26. For the next fifteen hours, her body was ferried from house to house as members prayed that she might be resurrected. Finally, at 4:06 a.m., Daniel called the authorities to report the death. When deputies arrived they discovered Faith, clad in only a diaper, lying in a blanket-covered bassinet in the corner of her parents’ bedroom. Her tiny body was whisked away to the Dallas County Medical Examiner’s office, where an autopsy determined that her death was caused by pulmonary valve stenosis, a congenital heart condition that is dangerous but treatable. She had lost more than two pounds since birth.

ABC Breaking News | Latest News Videos

ABC Breaking News | Latest News Videos

ABC Breaking News | Latest News Videos

Family fears son was targeted by cult in Downtown Austin

Women Silence Stripes Subjection : “The Blueness of The Wounds Cleanseth…” https://t.co/airDV64p69 #stateofpastors #churchofwells #cult

— Amy Smith (@watchkeep) January 26, 2017

@watchkeep When your doctrinal statement is a ‘manifesto’, you might be a cult. pic.twitter.com/5rq9Wd8jEU

— Anna Keith (@annakeith) January 27, 2017

@watchkeep @wartwatch @ABC @Nightline That clip is clear justification for physical abuse of women. Can only imagine terror they live under

— Dawn Choate (@dawngreerchoate) January 27, 2017

I can’t believe what I just read. 😠 I cannot imagine the parents & grandparents agony…😢 https://t.co/G8IhjqY0P3

— Gail Marie (@0301479341) January 27, 2017

@watchkeep @jmitchelllittle The audio clip posted this wk the elder is claiming husb beat wife & she lost baby. Did he report? Did she +

— Angie Sanderson (@AngieKSanderson) January 27, 2017