Under His Command Documentary

A month or so ago, I was incredibly lucky to sit with someone I admire deeply, John Campbell, a truly humble, gentle and real human. The greatest surprise to me was that he had no ego, he was just ... him.

I was filmed as part of a documentary series called "Under his Command". This series investigates Destiny Church. My part was a small one, but what I wanted to achieve was highlighting coercive control. As you all know that is one of my life's greatest intentions, is to have society become aware of how coercion can be an intentional tactic in order to gain control over another human being, stripping them of liberty and freedom of self. 

My passion sits within how coercive control is perpetrated within family violence, but it can also be bigger than that and involve groups of people - cult like environments. Regardless of the setting, there is normally one person, that engages intentional acts of coercion such as fear inducing behaviour, threats, intimidation, physical, sexual, emotional, psychological, financial harm etc - the tactics used are almost immeasurable, but the outcome is the same. 

The intention is to control, to entrap and remove another person/s ability to exist freely in their world, their ability to make decisions free from fear, and to live a life not concerned about what the detrimental impacts to self and others may be if you do not align with and adhere to the demands of another person. That is coercive control.

You can watch this series, it is five short 10–15-minute videos, with my contribution being towards the end of episode four. You can find it on TVNZ On Demand

Watch Under His Command

My inclusion in this documentary was not to belittle anyone's beliefs of God, for many seek connection to what we believe is our higher power - myself included. It is about recognising when something that should be about the greatest of love and kindness, becomes about turning human against human and encouraging and creating hatred and fear.

I know there are many people within Destiny Church that truly and genuinely love their God, but I have also had many personal experiences with people that are victims of family violence from within Destiny Church, especially in the Man Up space. I did not enter into this space without having first-hand experience of the harm that can and is being done.