On Thursday, FBI agents stormed three churches across the South, all of which are located near military installations and have previously faced accusations of being cults.
According to multiple reports, the three raided churches are associated with each other. Each is located near a U.S. Army base:
- The Assembly of Prayer Christian Church near Augusta, Georgia is just outside the gate of Fort Gordon
- The House of Prayer Christian Church in Hinesville, Georgia is less than eight miles from Fort Stewart
- The Assembly of Prayer Christian Church in Killeen, Texas is less than four miles from Fort Hood
These churches have been accused of functioning as cults that prey on military veterans and active duty service members—and profiteer from their government benefits.
According to some veterans, the church is a cult and “deceives the VA during inspections and targets veterans to access GI Bill funding, VA disability compensation, and VA home loans”.
The FBI raided three Southern churches that recruited soldiers and have been accused of fraud and cult-like behavior.https://t.co/o6gCf8TfGD
— Hemant Mehta (@hemantmehta) June 25, 2022
While the FBI has not released a statement, reporting suggests agents were executing search warrants without making arrests…yet.
In 2020, an advocacy organization called Veterans Education Success sent an 11-page letter to the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Georgia Veterans Service alleging that the churches “target veterans in order to access GI Bill funding, VA disability compensation and VA home loans.”
While the feds would not answer to whether or not the raid in Texas was related to the others, they have confirmed that the two raids in Georgia are connected.
According to a report from ‘The Killeen Daily Herald’, “Dozens of Google and Facebook reviews of the Killeen church refer to it as a ‘cult’ with a habit of recruiting Fort Hood soldiers.”
Yahoo News shared these details:
The FBI on Thursday raided three churches associated with the House of Prayer Christian Church in Georgia and Texas.
The FBI has not released a statement regarding the raids.
The House of Prayer is owned by the foreign nonprofit company House of Prayer Christian Churches of America Inc., which registered with the Georgia Secretary of State in 2004. The business’s listed officers are affiliated with the Georgia churches and use Hinesville, Georgia, post office boxes as mailing addresses.
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Its churches, which are primarily located near military bases throughout the country, have been accused by former members and a veterans’ advocacy group of operating like a cult and targeting soldiers.
In August 2020, Veterans Education Success, an advocacy organization based in Washington D.C., asked the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the Georgia Veterans Service to investigate alleged abuses of the GI Bill program by House of Prayer Christian Church’s bible seminaries.
Veterans alleged the House of Prayer Christian Church “deceives the VA during inspections and targets veterans in order to access GI Bill funding, VA disability compensation, and VA home loans,” according to the organization’s letter to the VA and Georgia SAA.
Sources: TheGatewayPundit, KWTX, The Killeen Daily Herald, WTOC, Yahoo News