Chain of Command part 2

Speaker: Previously on Pretend, we introduced you to the New Testament Christian Churches of America, a church that sets up shop outside military bases and recruits young service members at their most vulnerable. We heard from former members who say that the organization uses textbook cult tactics like mind control, total isolation, financial control. Tracy Pelphrey was one of those soldiers.

Tracy Pelfrey: I went to a church service with my brother and something happened that night. Something really crazy happened and my life changed,

Speaker: Tracy Pelphrey was stationed in the Philippines in the 1980s. She was twenty-five when she was recruited by NTCC.

Tracy Pelfrey: And what I found, was just a group of people that didn't put pressure on anybody. There was no pressure. There was a lot of love and a lot of charity, and a lot of reaching people. Not like, let's go get them in church. It wasn't about that. It was just about spreading the word.

Speaker: Tracy says that growing up, she never wanted for anything. she grew up in an upper middle class home with plenty of food, clothes. She had everything.

Tracy Pelfrey: but there was no love there. There was a lot of abuse. Verbal physical abuse. And so to hear about this love, unconditional love, I didn't know that. And I was surrounded now by new people who just liked me and loved me just like, as part of their fellowship of believers. Tracy Pelphrey spent seventeen years at NTCC, and she says that it wasn't always so culty. I've been the staunch defender of the group. I'm uniquely qualified to understand both mindsets and I have compassion and understanding for those who are in.

Speaker: Back when she first joined NTCC, she says that things were different, Street Witnessing Nights

Tracy Pelfrey: And we would have services and bible studies. There was no quote unquote soul winning at the time. That wasn't even a, that wasn't even a thing in the organization yet. But I recall one night he was sitting there having a Bible study teaching about souls and he said, let's go. Let's get out there. everybody wandering around and we just started talking to people. We had cards to invite them, but we were up there to, to talk to people and we prayed with some.

Speaker: but slowly things started to change. Soul Winning Becomes Sales

Tracy Pelfrey: Then we had to show up for soul winning meetings, and now all of a sudden there's going to be this organized effort and we all have to have a notebook and a pen, And I sat there listening to that. I was like, I don't like this. This sounds like sales. Like, uh, we were being told, so you're gonna write the name down of everybody you're visiting. And I'm like, who am I visiting? I just have friends, you know, I have people I meet on base for various reasons. I have people I see in the barracks and I, I go by and chat with 'em or sit with them at lunch or something, So he was telling us, well, this is how it was gonna be, and we would put the name down and af after three times of visiting them and all, they didn't come out. Then we dropped them from the list. I was appalled. I was literally just sitting there like feeling dead inside.

Speaker: But she stayed anyway. Balancing NTCC and her responsibilities as a soldier started to get really complicated because In December 1989, rebel planes dive bombed the Philippines president's private guest house in Manila. ... I get the call that there is this coup attempt and we're gonna be. Like pretty much most of the base is gonna be an integral part of helping the, the government and the current regime to protect them. So I couldn't tell anybody that I couldn't call off base Hey, I'm not gonna be there.

Tracy Pelfrey: We're gonna be involved with a coup attempt. You know, it was, we weren't supposed to say anything to anybody. So I went to the squadron So I get a call from Jean Keys, she was dubious about what I was really doing.

Speaker: Jean and her husband, Billy Keys, were considered royalty at NTCC.

Tracy Pelfrey: I guess you thought I was just skipping out, but I could not say why I was out. So she said, well, I thought you love the Lord. Like, and you were dedicated. I'm getting this while I'm, I'm doing my job. I'm in the military lady And so I was really getting frustrated. But did I leave? No. 'cause I'm an because.

Speaker: Seventeen years later, Tracy and her now ex-husband finally made their move. WE DIDN'T CALL IT A CULT when we left

Tracy Pelfrey: we we didn't even call it a cult. I hate looking back. I think that's why, just leading up to today, it felt like the weight of all the times I should have left and didn't. it's when I realized, oh my God. We were in a cult.

Speaker: INTRO Tracy Pelfrey is now one of the most vocal ex-members speaking out about NTCC, and according to CEO Michael Keckle, that makes her public enemy number one.

Michael Kekel: What does malevolent mean? Wow. What a definition we have of malevolent. Woo said. Malicious, spiteful, hostile, evil minded ful. Bitter evil. In intentioned, poison, poisonous.

Speaker: That rant went on for a full minute

Michael Kekel: Malign. Malignant. Rancorous. Vicious. Vindictive. Revengeful, vengeful, pernicious, cruel, fierce, nasty, unfriendly, unkind, and ill natured. That's why I named our favorite enemy, m rat, malevolent, racy, Tracy on the attack again.

Speaker: But why would Keckle hate Tracy so much? It could be because Tracy, along with former members, former pastors, pastors' wives, have all left NTCC telling the same exact story. Last episode, we talked about how the church controls its congregation, where you live, where you go, who you love. Today, we are going to follow the money, because behind the soul-winning and the sermons and the bylaws, there is a very well-funded business. And like any lucrative business, someone is getting rich. I'm Javier Leva, and this is Pretend: Stories About Real People Pretending to be Someone Else. ACT ONE

Tracy Pelfrey: And you're made to believe, and this holds true in any cult, in any kind of cult anywhere, is when they have you believe, especially concerning God, that if the voice is contrary to what we are saying it is of the devil. So then you think, well, my heart and everything is telling me to get outta here. But is that the devil?

Speaker: Public Smears and Damage Control

Javier: what are some of the things that Kekels says about you publicly?

Tracy Pelfrey: Oh. Well, he's had whole services where he's talked about silly women going from house to house, saying things. he found out some people there were talking to me he was talking one time about a whole service about wine cellars and how I was in my cellar whining

Speaker: living in the W-H-I-N-E cellar. But Christians who live in the wine cellar have too much vitamin H because that's their kind of wine. It has an H added to it, Vitamin hate, I suppose?

Tracy Pelfrey: And it's like, dude, try to find me whining. One place. I know Mike Eckel, so he's changed through the years. He's always been. Kind of a punk, you know, he is got that kind of punk way about him, and he'll say it, he'll say it. He has it, but he's just so cruel to people. And he didn't know how many people were sending me screenshots of texts they had with him.

Speaker: WHY THE MILITARY

Javier: Do you think it's fair to say that they target primarily military personnel

Tracy Pelfrey: That is that is where their bread and butter is

Javier: So that's, that's by design, right?

Tracy Pelfrey: Yes,

Javier: And why? Why do you think, why military?

Tracy Pelfrey: it's how so many of us were reached, we're in the military, and they set up a home away from home sort of,

Javier: And I keep saying that this is kind of like the perfect cult, right? Because military people are in such a vulnerable place in their lives. It's, it's unlike college student, it's a little bit like college students. 'cause like college, you go away for the first time. But these are people making money. They're in country most of the time and they are highly susceptible to, to authority, Right.

Speaker: Now looking back, it all made sense. This was more than just about believing. This is more than just about righteousness. this was all about the money. In most churches, tithing is a tradition based on the Bible, giving ten percent of your income to support the church and the poor. It's usually seen as voluntary, but at NTCC it's expected.

Tracy Pelfrey: I've been tithing 10% given all my money, I don't have any money left at the end of the month.

Speaker: and one of the higher-ups made sure everyone understood the rules.

Tracy Pelfrey: And so he came to me after that bible study and said, I see here that there's no record of you paying tithe. I said, I have been. I've just put it in the basket. yeah. But it's, this is the way it has to work and uh, so you're gonna have to pay back tithe, and so 20% is added as well, and we can make a payment plan. I'm embarrassed to even tell this, but I mean, that's the truth of it. You know, I was just in. I was. and yet there I was not only paying tithe, not only giving offerings, but back tithe, which is the tithe was 20%. It's not a thing.

Speaker: BRUCE INTRO me introduce you to Bruce Smith, a Washington State reporter who has been covering NTCC for almost twenty years on his blog called The Mountain News.

Bruce: I covered NTCC because I was the Graham Washington reporter for a newspaper called The Dispatch. what is that church that no one talks about and looks very mysterious and it's very large and it's behind a lot of fences, the like eight foot high cyclone fences.

Javier: the way you described the church was like, everybody knows about it, but nobody knows about it. Right. Nobody wants to ask

Bruce: Everybody knows about it, but everybody knows nothing about it. Yeah.

Speaker: And there's a reason for that.

Bruce: So this church behind the fence. Is not only physical experience, but also very much a metaphor for the culture is that we need to pull together hang together and defend ourselves against them, the outside. And so,

Javier: the fence? Is the fence to keep people out or to keep people in.

Bruce: well, it does work both ways because if you leave that community, you're shunned, you're you, you're out. You're a, you're an 18-year-old guy in the army. Buck private. You are in Korea. You grew up in an evangelical church. Having a good Sunday meal with the family, eating the really good cornbread that only your mama can make. Alright? And you're in Korea and you start to have an anxiety attack because you're so far away from home. You are so lonely. There's nobody that you can talk to. You're sitting in your bunk in a barracks and you see Jesus come and sit next to you and put his arm around you, and it's very real. What do you do with that experience? The guys that have those personal experiences find a home at the NTCC and they, they have to find a place somewhere. They have to find a home somewhere. And so the NTCC provides a vital service for guys like that. Now, do they go too far in a lot other ways? money from them and from the military and Yeah. Yeah. I, I'm sure you know this, there's a lot of slimy, slippery. Dynamics that come into this, but guys who are having really profound spiritual experiences of God to find a place to call home.

Javier: that's another interesting point, right? Because what, when somebody might see that as recruitment, as love bombing, which is, uh, a quality that, or, or, or like a feature of a cult, right? You, you have to love bomb. You have to recruit, but. If they stop there, then that's a good thing, right? Like if all they did was that, then they're doing a great service to that community, right? Uh, a home away from home,

Bruce: Yeah, right. Exactly. Yeah.

Javier: But it doesn't stop there, obviously.

Bruce: on going. And speed. Woo.

Speaker: Because once they have you, the church wants something in return.

Bruce: I grew up. Kind of spiritual in New York as a Catholic, but we didn't have a thing called tithing. I had heard of it, but in the evangelical community, it's a big deal. It's a real commitment to your faith,and each member of the New Testament Christian Church was expected to give 10% of their monies earned before taxes. And you were expected to contribute, give to let was the phrase that I was told that they, people felt that they were compelled to give to it hurt. For me, it was a little hard to ascertain because once I started asking these kinds of questions. Kle, uh, Eckle clammed up on They would hang up the phone.

Speaker: TITHING

Rw Davis: Will I pay my time? Well, wonderful. The tithe belongs to the preacher. When you don't pray your tithe, you stole it from him. If he, it's up to him to put it back where it belongs.

Speaker: This is the voice of R.W. Davis, the founder of NTCC.

Rw Davis: Now around here, I don't have any problem. I tell him what to do with the tithe. The tithe belongs to me. I don't even wanna pastor you. If you don't take enough for me to pay me tithe, I wouldn't even want you around me. You are a hypocrite.

Speaker: Former members say that NTCC wants more than just your soul, they want your bank account too. It says so right here in the bylines, "Ministers are required to keep an up-to-date tithing record." Tithing and Paychecks You have a steady paycheck. If they know your rank, then they know how much money you make and how much you should be tithing. so if you're not paying the full ten percent, you're already in debt to the church. fall behind ninety days and you go before the general board for a good talking to. another sixty days after that and you lose your credentials entirely. At NTCC, debt isn't just a financial problem, it's a sign of disgrace.

Tracy Pelfrey: they know the paycheck is coming. It's the military, it's why your extended credit for cars and everything else. When you're in the military, they all prey upon the military. If you go outside any most military bases in the States, that's what you're gonna see. Pawn shops and, and anything that is an on-time payment, So it's a steady paycheck

Speaker: If you're a new recruit in the military, you're not making much to begin with, twenty-eight thousand a year maybe, and if you live off base at the NTCC Servicemen home, you still have to pay rent.

Bruce: How these houses built, they're all built with free labor from the community, from the congregation.

Javier: And that's interesting because, okay, so they're, uh, a church, right? And they are generally tax exempt, right? If it's church owned property, yet they're tithing, right? Like they're collecting all these, uh, all this money the congregation. Where's that money going?

Bruce: I don't know.

Speaker: Church Franchise Analogy

Javier: I'm fascinated by the whole franchise aspect of it. Because like, let's say you are, you're in South Carolina, you go to McDonald's and you get french and then you go to Oregon and you get french fries and they taste exactly the same, and that continuity, I think is what makes franchisees like McDonald's so successful. It's like, how do you have this franchise of churches and maintain control over them without losing, you know, your grip,

Speaker: McDonalds to Ministry

Tracy Pelfrey: Well, it's interesting you mentioned McDonald's whenever I think of NTCC, I'm like, that is exactly how they are set up.

Speaker: Streaming and Corporate Control

Tracy Pelfrey: They go around, they actually don't visit all the churches. They have these fellowship meetings and things, but they can look in on, on the church streaming. they are a corporation. In fact, Davis taught us that this is a corporation, it's a business. It's, but then he tries to tell you it's God's business. Even Jesus said, I must be about my father's business. And you're sitting there taking notes like, I don't think that's what he meant by that. I don't think Jesus went out and, and started incorporating.

Speaker: Bible School Gatekeeping

Tracy Pelfrey: And so then what happens is then they bring them into their little Bible school thing and they make sure it, you, you're not learning anything. Trust me, it's busy work and it is indoctrination

Javier: but everyone has to go here, right? So say you're Vermont, you're gonna go to Washington

Tracy Pelfrey: be a minister in their organization, there's no other way. You can't just be out in a, let's say in a, in a state. There's a lot of states they've never even stepped foot in and say, oh, I'm called to preach. oh no, you have to come up to our Bible school first, and you have to get licensed through us.

Javier: Hmm.

Speaker: No Deviations Allowed

Tracy Pelfrey: So in the same way you walked into a McDonald's at the time, like, hi, can I help you? You know, you wanna try this or that. It's the same thing and no one can deviate. And if you do, you're going to hear about it.

Speaker: Charts Spreadsheets and MetricsConferences as Corporate Discipline

Tracy Pelfrey: And I've played the clip of him saying, you know, it's a corporation and we expect things from you. And I gave some of you six months and, you know, we're looking at the charts and, and spreadsheets. And he talked about stickers on a chart and gold stars and just weirdness.

Javier: I can't recall the last time I saw a preacher, the head of a church refer to themselves as the CEO. You know, that.

Tracy Pelfrey: yeah,

Javier: I just think that's interesting

Tracy Pelfrey: the weirdest thing. They have an executive board and you're like, what is this for? What, what is the point of view? It's paperwork, it's process, it's everything that, you know, if someone's in trouble, you're gonna go before the board.

Speaker: Terrified Before the Board

Tracy Pelfrey: I had to go before the board once I was scared outta my mind.

Speaker: TAXES Listen to exactly what he tells his followers.

Michael Kekel: Just on this church campus, we have a tax exemption as a 5 0 1 C3 organization and charity. We are legit and our fellowship, they'll only let us have a couple buildings. If you were down south, man, they would exempt all the buildings and pay for your haircut and your lunch. Not up here in this liberal communist stronghold.

Speaker: He's complaining to the congregation about the crushing taxes that the local government places on the church.

Michael Kekel: Is this okay? It's exactly what we're living in. The fellowship hall alone is $25,000 a year in property tax.

Speaker: for a devoted congregation that's trained to never ask questions, a twenty-five thousand dollar tax bill just to keep the basic fellowship hall open sounds like an absolute outrage, doesn't it? Of course, they're gonna keep the tithing going, but there's a massive problem with Kekel's story. He's dead wrong. Either Pastor Michael Kekel thinks that his followers are a bunch of idiots and is lying straight to their faces, or he is truly misinformed. Remember Sarah DeYoung from part one? She was a Navy Seabee who was stationed in Okinawa, Japan. Well, Sarah pulled the actual Pierce County Auditor tax records, and she exposed the truth behind that twenty-five thousand dollar massive tax bill.

Sarah Dejonghe: He said, were like $25,000. And I'm like, that is not true. There are no taxes on the fellowship hall. You can look on the record and see. They paid $9 and 65 cents. The church paid $9. That's no taxes.

Speaker: the county records reveal, and I confirmed, that that tax bill is for a multi-million dollar personal mansion that's currently under the name of Michael Kekel's wife, Tonya Kekel

Sarah Dejonghe: Like the members don't know that 'cause they've been so trained not to ask any questions.

Speaker: now that Sarah's out of NTCC, it's clear that this is a case of the haves and the have-nots.

Sarah Dejonghe: The leaders live in such luxury and the members, it is very common that they will be, a lot of them will donate blood plasma just to stay afloat like they're that poor. everybody was just poor, like, you know, thrift store shopping, um, couponing free bread from the grocery stores that the stores donated, to the church probably for the hungry. But it was really going to us, Meanwhile, Michael Kekel was standing at the pulpit complaining about the church's tax burden. What he forgot to mention was the sweet deal he got on his luxury home.

Speaker: Actually, his second luxury home. I'm gonna keep this as simple as possible because property taxes can be really boring. Imagine someone sells you a property and tells you that it's just a concrete slab. Nothing is built on it. So you get it cheap, right? But when you get there, there's a four thousand five hundred square foot house sitting on top of that slab. Sweet deal, right? Well, That's what the records show. When NTCC sold this second property to Michael Kekel. In two thousand nine, a luxury home was built for the Kekels inside the church's private neighborhood. For the next fourteen years, that property stayed legally in the church's name, meaning that taxes, meaning that tax bills were sent directly to the church. Then, hmm, two thousand nine to, uh, no, wait, wait. Two thousand twenty-three. Then, fourteen years later, in two thousand twenty-three, the property was officially transferred out of the church's name and into Michael Kekel and Tanya Kekel's personal names for three hundred and forty-one thousand dollars. Their justification was that the property had, quote, "only a foundation installed at the time." But Pierce County tax records from the same year valued the improvements, um, former members call this one expensive foundation. Now, here's where it gets interesting for nonprofits because churches don't pay certain taxes. Because churches don't pay certain taxes, the government has one basic rule: the money and assets a church owns must be used for the church's mission. leadership is not allowed to use it to enrich themselves. So if Michael Kekel used church funds to cover fourteen years of property taxes on his personal home, that's a problem. the legal term for that is called private inurement. Private inurement, which is just a fancy way of saying a pastor is sneaking in the church's money into his own pocket. I am not saying that's what's happening, and I'm not saying that's what happened. Michael Kekel claims that he paid all the taxes himself, but only a tax audit would confirm that. So what we do know is that instead of putting the property on the open market, the church transferred it directly to Michael Kekel at a price set fourteen years earlier. and six months after that transfer, Michael Kekel moved the deed again, and this time into his personal LLC, Willard Properties. Why would he do that? Maybe he wanted some privacy, which is a legitimate reason to put a home in an LLC. Or maybe he didn't want his congregation asking too many questions about that sweet deal. It's all very bizarre. TEASE Next time on Pretend, we are going to switch gears. according to former members, NTCC fosters a culture where adult men courting teenage girls isn't just tolerated, it's encouraged. She was 12. he started, Grooming her when I think she was like eight years old or younger.

Bruce: Fact that ministers date young teenagers, that you have men in their twenties dating girls who are 14 and 15, and that's encouraged by the church and encouraged by the parents.

Speaker: where former members say that a convicted child rapist was welcomed back into the congregation, and where two people who were at the... That's next time on Pretend.