About this episode

This episode explores the authoritarian culture and tactics used by Greater Grace World Outreach through the experiences of former members.

Carl Stevens was an appliance salesman in rural Maine who said God gave him a vision at a pond. From that single claim, he built Greater Grace World Outreach — a network of churches, schools, and missions that spread across more than seventy countries, operated its own Bible college, and ran a daily radio program. For decades, it flew under the radar. Then a group of former members started comparing notes. That led to a Baltimore Banner investigation, a public outcry, and eventually a 172-page independent report that called for the church's top leaders to be removed and described an authoritarian culture designed to keep people powerless. But the investigation findings only make sense once you understand what daily life inside Greater Grace actually looks like — and that's what this episode is about. Elita Galvin was raised inside the organization from infancy at the original Maine location where Stevens founded it. She now hosts the Looking for Grace podcast and has become one of the leading investigators of this group's history. Oscar — using a pseudonym because even twenty years after leaving, the religious trauma is still present — walked into Greater Grace as a fully…

People in this episode

Guests: Elita Galvin, Oscar

Topics covered

• religious trauma
• authoritarian culture
• investigation
• church obligations
• personal autonomy

Keywords

• Greater Grace Church
• Carl Stevens
• religious trauma
• Elita Galvin
• Baltimore Banner
• investigation
• love bombing
• church obligations

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Greater Grace World Outreach, Baltimore Banner

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