Woman, 24, who grew up in a CULT lifts the lid on all the 'extremist' rules she was forced to follow as a member of the religious sect
- Marissa Martin, 24, took to TikTok to reveal the truth about her upbringing
- She grew up in an Independent Fundamental Baptist congregation
- She alluded to how many leaders are now 'in jail' for 'exactly what you'd think'
A young woman from Albuquerque, New Mexico, has taken to TikTok to speak out about her upbringing in a Christian cult.
Marissa Martin, 24, was spurred to address her childhood after admitting she was lucky for the lack of 'hate' she has usually received on her posts - but with one major exception: Christians on the defensive.
'I want to talk about the fact that I don't ever get hate on my videos, which is amazing, I have really amazing viewers,' she began, also simultaneously testing out a recipe combining raspberry syrup and iced matcha.
'But the one kind of video that I make that I get hate on every time is when I talk about the cult I grew up in,' she described.
Marissa Martin, 24, opened up about growing up in a Christian cult, namely a congregation that followed the teachings of the Independent Fundamental Baptist sect
'This cult I grew up in, yes it was a Christian cult. So a lot of Christians that watch my videos or see the video get personally offended by me saying, "I grew up in a cult,"' she went on.
'But here's the thing - it was an extremist Christian religion. Extremist, okay?'
Specifically, her family had been in the Independent Fundamental Baptist church.
The organization, composed of local churches preaching deeply fundamentalist Christian messaging, was the subject of 2023 docuseries Let Us Prey: A Ministry of Scandals.
The harrowing docuseries highlighted in particular the unchecked sexual abuse of women and children running rampant across the congregations.
Marissa went on to elaborate on the strict dress code that only permitted 'solid white' casual shoes - while 'dress shoes' could be solid black.
She continued: 'We had to wear skirts down to the mids of our calves. We couldn't show our ankles. We had to wear crew socks. We also had to wear pantyhose [under skirts].
'We couldn't show our shoulders. We couldn't show our collarbones.'
The rules she had to follow ranged from adhering to a strict, ultra-conservative dress code, to being forbidden to interact with boys, to being prevented from listening to any music
Marissa also explained that nail polish was also a no-go, unless it was 'a super, super, super light, light pink.'
Any type of physical education required culottes, from running to volleyball and even swimming.
Generally, there was 'no co-ed anything, guys and girls were never allowed to do anything together,' Marissa emphasized.
She continued: 'We weren't allowed to listen to music - no CDs, no MP3 players, no phones.
'When I was in school as a kid, my parents had to sign a contract at the beginning of the year that we would not have a phone.'
Nor were they allowed to have any form of social media, as she declared: 'The list goes on and on.
'If you're one of my haters that is personally offended by me saying, "I grew up in a cult," because you feel like I'm being disrespectful to the Christian religion, all I have to say is, if you're wearing pants in your videos, they don't like you.
'They think you're gonna go to hell, so you can't win,' she stated.
She also alluded to the 'main men' of the cult all being 'in jail' for 'exactly what you'd think' - namely, child abuse and pedophilia, among other things.
The content creator added that while she'd want to do a full-on 'story time' about her experience, she admitted she thinks she has 'trauma-blocked a lot of my childhood.'
However, she endorsed the Let Us Pray docuseries, mentioning that her own cousin is referenced throughout as she'd been a secretary for one of the men convicted of pedophilia.
Meanwhile, she deemed her beverage recipe a complete success, also encouraging her viewers to try it.
'Raspberry and matcha just belongs together,' she declared. 'This is the best matcha I've ever had.'
