Steve Sanchez is a former minister at The Spiritual Rights Foundation who left after 15 years of affiliation with the church. His relationship with The Spiritual Rights Foundation became strained over the years due to several reasons. The whole sordid affair is well described in his book "Spiritual Perversion"
Steve's no saint and he admits it - that is also well described in his book. But behind he un-saintly behavior is a graphic description of daily life at The Spiritual Rights Foundation. Steve's frustration with SRF is directed at the founder, Bill Duby and much of the megalomania, foul behavior and unrelenting verbal abuse did indeed come from Bill. Some amount of that behavior ended with Bill's death in 2001. However, his legacy of control, greed and incomprehensibly irrational and impulsive behavior continued.
Steve Sanchez describes several events in his book. Many were stories of how Bill Duby (Rev. Bill to his followers) influenced his followers to work for the church for free, actively and deliberately pitted spouses against each other, turned children against their parents and started for-profit companies (owned by himself, his partner or his wife) using the money donated to the non-profit church as start-up capital. Monies earned from these for-profit companies were then skimmed off to pay the church's board or directors - who would serve as the for-profit company "managers". People like Steve, who were the for-profit company's employees were paid less than market rate wages and frequently, paid nothing at all.
I won't go into the details here as Spiritual Perversion can be previewed on Google Books and purchased at Amazon. I will say that I had either witnessed or was told of several of the events he writes about. While some of those events have some artistic license applied to them, in general they are accurate. Spiritual Perversion is not a well-written book by any stretch of the imagination. It is one of the few first-hand accounts of life in a cult of mind control and it will put a chill down your spine.
Steve describes many events where he was fiercely berated, shunned and humiliated in front of his SRF peers, students - even his wife and child. He also describes having to work for SRF for free. In one utterly amazing event, The Spiritual Rights Foundation stooped so low as to force him to turn over every penny he had (even the small amount in his pants pocket) and work a full work week in an SRF-owned construction company for absolutely no pay.
That event was prompted by a supposedly illegal act Steve committed while employed by an SRF-owned construction business. From what I was told about the acts, Steve's actions were maybe a bit shady but less than illegal. Besides, he was paid very little - about half of market rate, and was forced to support his then-current wife (who did not work outside the home), support his two daughters and find room to pay the fees demanded by The Spiritual Rights Foundation. Did I mention he had to tithe also? Who wouldn't resort to some shady dealings if he was desperate to feed his family? Why not deal a bit for yourself, if the church was paying you with the left hand and taking away with the right, especially if you have a family?
However, The Spiritual Rights Foundation called it embezzlement. According to Steve and others, the President of SRF conjured up evidence against Steve while in a self-induced trance state. Using the visions experienced in this trance state, the President of The Spiritual Rights Foundation concluded that a criminal act was committed and set a dollar value on the amount supposedly "stolen". According to Steve's writings, he was not presented with actual concrete evidence of theft.
Steve was led to believe that felony charges would be filed unless he submitted himself to humiliating, degrading, and very likely illegal "retribution".
I would have loved to see that case presented to the district attorney. What reaction would you expect from an officer of the court when you ask him to prosecute a guy, claiming a psychic vision as evidence? Maybe the D.A.'s office would have picked up the hot line to the nearest psych ward. Come to think of it, that's probably why no one went to the D.A.'s office. Why risk having the D.A. throw you in the nut house, when you can just bully, intimidate and degrade someone you hate?
Even if there was an illegal act and even if Steve could have been convicted, no one has the right to confiscate a man's entire paycheck in order to make restitution. The courts and common sense insist that a person making restitution deserves to keep at least enough to feed, clothe and otherwise care for himself. But if you are The Spiritual Rights Foundation, you believe you have the right to take everything that anyone owns or earns and leave that person's living to his own devices.
The Spiritual Rights Foundation exerted such control over Steve, he believed they would ruin his life. In fact, his life was ruined much earlier as his wife (who was a devoted SRF member) and child (who was intentionally kept away from him and raised within SRF) were told to shun him as he was at a "lower vibration" and could contaminate their spiritual growth. Steve could not live with his family for a long time.
After the alleged theft incident, he soon hit bottom with The Spiritual Rights Foundation and made the decision to get out and get away to save his life. Steve's book is his way to heal the trauma and inform the public of the inner workings of dangerous cults. He is now re-married and is living a very comfortable and happy life.
If you do have an interest in mind control cults, Spiritual Perversion is a fair account of the kind of behavior the current and former members faced in The Spiritual Rights Foundation. He makes no conclusions nor does he direct the reader to any opinions. It reads like his journal, rather than a textbook. But, reading Spiritual Perversion can help make sense of situations such as the FLDS polygamist cult and others.
Of course, The Spiritual Rights Foundation hates this book. Shortly after it's publication, the President of SRF related to me that she was seeking a legal action against Amazon.com because one of the book's reviewers used the phrase "Spiritual Rights Foundation" on the book's web page without saying that the term was owned by the "Spiritual Rights Foundation". She went on to say she instructed her attorney to begin a lawsuit.
The only problem with that is, a search on the U.S. Copyright Office and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office could find no registration for the term "Spiritual Rights Foundation". Besides, that term was not use in a manner that usurped their name for commercial purposes or confused it with something else. It was used in a commentary, which constitutes fair use. Even better, she was not smart enough to look at the Amazon legal page stating that all copyrighted terms belong to their owner - a perfectly legal way to give attribution to copyright holders.
The offending statement "The Spiritual Rights Foundation" is still there on Amazon. I wonder how hard the Amazon legal team laughed?
Well if you can't beat them in the courts, try to make the guy look bad. The president, rebuffed by the legal system, decided to read some passages of Steve's book where he described how the isolation, abuse and humiliation drove him to seek a sexual outlet with prostitutes and other men aloud to the assembled SRF congregation. No other passages were read aloud.
All of the current members of SRF have sworn to not read Steve's book. It's no wonder why.
If you are interested in Spiritual Perversion, here are some links to get you started:
Spiritual Redemption Blog
A Review of "Spiritual Perversion"
Another Review of "Spiritual Perversion"
Yet Another Review of "Spiritual Perversion"
Buy "Spiritual Perversion"
