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Cult Conversations: The Influence Continuum with Dr. Steve Hassan

How the International Church of Christ (ICOC) Preys on Hispanic Communities with Tania Díaz

Cult Conversations: The Influence Continuum with Dr. Steve Hassan

Dr. Steven Hassan

Self-improvement, Society & Culture, Education

4.8684 Ratings

🗓️ 21 July 2025

⏱️ 83 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

There has been a huge increase in Christian “Bible” Cults over the past 40 plus years- especially ones that do “Shepherding or Dicipling” in an authoritarian structure. The public doesnt understand how millions of people are deceptively recruited and indoctrinated into these groups and why they are called “cults.” One such cult network started in Massachusetts in 1979 as “the Boston Church of Christ” and are not to be confused with the mainline Church of Christ or the United Church of Christ. This group uses BITE Model methods to recruit and indoctrinate followers to follow the top leader as an “apostle or prophet” or “God’s chosen man to lead Christianity on earth. Unlike legitimate Christian churches this cult claims to be the “only” path to salvation and demands people subit and obey a discpling partner as if they were Jesus. Their lives and free will are taken over by involvement with this group. REcruiting other, giving money, abandoning education and careers, even family are part of the playbook. Tania Diaz was recruited as an 18 college student in Mexico and spent over 20 years. She and her husband were groomed to recruit countless Hispanics into this cult. She would rise through the church’s ranks, only escaping nearly thirty years later to become an anti-cult activist, self-compassion advocate, and host of a podcast dedicated to survivors of religious abuse, Voces: Espacio Sagrado para Sobrevivientes de Abuso Religioso (In English, Voices: A Sacred Space for Survivors of Religious Abuse) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hello, I'm Dr. Stephen Hassan with another episode of my podcast called Conversations,

0:10.7

The Influence Continuum with Dr. Steve Hassan.

0:14.4

And I have with me, Tanya Diaz, today.

0:18.5

I'm very excited, Tanya, that you consented to speak with us to share your

0:24.4

firsthand experience with a cult that I've actually been helping people out of since I think

0:31.8

it was about 1982. A cult that I actually included in my first book,

0:40.5

Combating Cult Mind Control in 1988.

0:44.3

It's a version of a Christian church that is not truly following Christian principles.

0:54.0

It's known as a shepherding discipleship group.

0:57.6

We'll get into that in a minute.

1:00.2

But I just want to say a few more things about you

1:03.5

before we get into this.

1:06.2

Thank you.

1:06.6

That you are originally from Mexico.

1:12.2

Your ancestry was indigenous was Zapoteca.

1:17.9

Is that pronounced correctly?

1:19.4

That's perfect.

1:20.9

And you are a citizen of the United States with a green card

1:25.5

and were basically recruited into this cult way back when it was

1:33.2

called the Boston Church of Christ.

1:35.9

It's still, it's morphed into a number of different names, but its founding leader was

1:42.8

Kit McKean.

...

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