Members of the Rio Grande Valley International Church of Christ were shocked to see their church vilified in a recent article by Panorama Magazine at UTPA. The article called the church a dangerous cult. Stephanie Corte was the principal author, cooperating with Kevin Stitch of Panorama’s staff. The amount of falsehood contained in the article was staggering:

• Eager to print the sensational complaints of one person, the Panorama editor never attempted to get the story right. Amazingly, the editor never bothered to attend a single church service, and only reluctantly spoke to members.
• Panorama claims that the church “responded” to the allegations at the end of this article. In truth Panorama refused to show us the article in advance, in spite of our repeated requests. Only a small fraction of the article was revealed to us.
• The publication claims the author was a member of our church. The truth is that she was never a member.
• The author says she was “trying to part ways” with the church. The truth is that she met voluntarily for Bible studies, and was free to stop at any time.
• The author bragged that she warned numerous friends about our church and that they quickly stopped attending. We ask the obvious question: How can she say that we somehow refuse to allow people to leave while also stating that her friends left quickly after she warned them? In truth people attend and stop attending our church all the time, just like every other church here in the Valley.
• The author openly admitted to Angel Delgado, a UTPA sophomore and member of our church, that she was partly motivated to write the sensational article because it could help her future career in journalism. She also told Ariel Torres, a UTPA senior, that it was a good thing for her to be published; when challenged that the content was false, she seemed unconcerned with that ‘detail.’ She also told him Panorama was planning to take her writing and make it “juicy.”
• After choosing to discontinue personal Bible Studies with our church, Ms. Corte approached Angel Delgado with a request to room together the following year. When asked by Ms. Delgado if their differences of opinion with regard to spiritual matters would be a problem, Ms. Corte said they would not. This further points to being more concerned with publishing a sensational article than with actual concerns about the group itself.
  Panorama freely admitted that they did NOT include the testimony of the other students who had called the article “misleading and untrue.” Why would they not include these other student’s testimony?
• The article is a hatchet job. The author was excited to be published and Panorama was happy to have some sensational content. Truth did not matter.
• The author made the sinister claim that: “They took up all my time, so I had none of my own.” This claim is ridiculous. She was active with SEVERAL Christian groups on campus and had complete control of her schedule. Our students meet for a group Bible discussion once a week, and members meet privately whenever they want. Members of our church attend school, hold down jobs, spend time with family, and even participate in intercollegiate athletics. Our schedule is average for clubs on campus.
• The author’s claim that we asked her to confess “every single sin” she had ever committed is also untrue. While we teach that confession is a good thing, we have never asked anyone to confess all of their sins nor do we demand that they turn in a list.
• We also do not call people liars. All of the women in our church who were in Bible Studies with those described in the article adamantly state that no such accusations were ever made.
• The author claims we do not believe in using instruments in worship and only sing from a particular book. The fact is that we sing songs from a variety of sources and often accompany them with instruments.
• Her most ridiculous claim is that “95% of the church is made up of college students under the age of 22.” While some of our older members were happy to take that as a compliment, we in fact have 71 members, only 12 of which are college aged, while most are over 30 and married with small children.
• While the author was never a member, she attended our services a few times. It is astounding how she could make such false claims, unless of course she assumed that no one would check her facts, which to Panorama’s shame proved true.
• The author’s cryptic claim that the church had “access to the dorm building where I lived” is simply a result of the two members who lived there and chose to host a Bible study. Other Christian groups also host Bible Studies in the dorms.
• The author claims the group began by meeting in apartments, and only later on campus. The truth is that the group has operated on campus since it began when a member, Martin Ramirez, enrolled upon graduating from High School. We have never held Alpha Omega meetings in an apartment. Once again, the author has simply invented much of her story.
• The author claims a student organization was chartered for the fall 2010 semester and was subsequently named Alpha Omega to veil association with our church. The fact is that Alpha Omega has been the name of the organization since its inception in the fall of 2008. Our campus ministries across the country use this name and we have never sought to hide its connection to our church. It amazes us that neither the journalist nor the magazine could verify simple facts from the Office of Student Development just a few buildings away!
• A variety of claims are made by the author about dating and marriage, which depict the church as attempting to control this aspect of the lives of members. In reality members date who and when they choose and make their own decisions about whom to marry and when.
• The author claims that students were forced to change classes and end relationships. In truth no student has ever been forced to do anything and these are ridiculous fabrications created in order to justify Ms. Corte’s animosity and to add to the sensational nature of her story.
• The author hypocritically complains of leadership using “your sin confessions against you” while she herself placed in print confidential statements made to her by Adriana Brown. Members of the congregation have never reported any such manipulative behavior in our church. This is a complete fabrication.
• The author claims repeatedly that seemingly countless have reported negative experiences. In reality, she cites only two students other than herself. The rest is pure embellishment.
• Yadira Mejia has never expressed any antagonism toward us to her coworker Jessica Barrera, a member of our church. Additionally, Ms. Mejia was encouraged to “ignore” her boyfriend not because he was not a member but because he was physically and emotionally abusive and was harassing her. He was eventually expelled from UTPA.
• Abelina Longoria likewise never expressed negative feelings to us, but did choose to discontinue personal Bible Studies. After this, however, she continued to come to our group discussions for some time and also came on a weekend retreat to San Antonio with the group. It seems likely that she was influenced by the author, who herself admits to turning students against our church.
• The author represents herself as an expert on our outreach program, how one becomes a member of the church, and life as a church member. The truth is that she attended a handful of services, admittedly discontinued meeting with us long before she would have become a member, and didn’t bother to interview a single church member. This shows there was not much concern for honest reporting.
• The author repeatedly claims to have been told that only members of our church could be saved. This is absolutely untrue as it is not what we believe or teach. Jessica Macias, a UTPA alumnus, recalls: “Adriana often says “we don’t know about everyone else, that’s between them and God, it’s not our decision.”
• The author slanderously characterizes Adriana Brown as manipulative and controlling. The truth is that Adriana Brown has worked without a single such complaint with High School and College women for the past 13 years. There were always others present at the discussions with Ms. Corte and no one verifies her claims. Angel Delgado, who was present, flatly denies Mrs. Brown saying any of what was alleged.
• We warned Panorama that the article was potentially slanderous and filled with inaccuracies and were assured that the article would be fair and balanced and that Panorama had “no intention to harm anyone’s reputation.” We find that hard to believe in reading the article; particularly because Mrs. Brown repeatedly communicated her desire to be personally interviewed and was ignored.
• The expulsions of our organizations from the college campuses mentioned in the article all happened many years ago. Today we have ministries on all of these campuses and are registered as organizations in good standing on many of them. Upon realizing their mistake, The University of Southern California recognized the ICOC campus minister as a chaplain on campus, printed a retraction of an article similar to the one by Panorama, and issued an apology to the church for the harmful and inaccurate claims made and for not researching more carefully.
  
  When the author first approached us with her concerns, Mrs. Brown simply asked if she had seen any of this in our group. Ms. Corte responded that she had not. If she had not seen these things herself, and since these are not the things taught by any of our leaders or members, where did she get these ideas? She gives the answer herself: “all knowing Google.” The truth is that our family of churches did have places in the 80’s and 90’s where leaders were elitist in their doctrine and controlling in their style. This contributed to a media frenzy which blanketed all of our churches unfairly. Many members never experienced any of what these articles describe and were only called to follow Jesus wholeheartedly. The truth is also that our family of churches responded in the early 2000’s by firing some, breaking ties with others, and reorganizing to better imitate the church found on the pages of the New Testament. Our churches have worked hard to rehabilitate our image and will not stand by as the author recycles stories that were written over 15 years ago simply because she wanted to be published and further her career. Additionally, these stories predate the beginning of the Rio Grande Valley International Church of Christ in 2000. We feel this article is completely unfair and untrue and intend to be proactive in defending our good name and in continuing to help people to know God.