After Debbie Tobias left there were different ’sisters’ used to help
Stewart in writing out bible studies. They would write out the
verses on the file cards.
Gayle did some writing for Stewart and getting closer to the family
all the time and under Stewart’s eye.
After Stewart got the plane, he started leaving Shirley home and
taking Gayle around to the different centers. Gayle always seemed to
sleep at his feet, I don’t know of her ever being sent to the sister’s
quarters.
Shirley was getting increasingly upset with this, as well she should
have been! On several occasions while at their home, Stewart would
call Rem, Paul or Dave and other ‘older brothers’ like Jim Hurley too,
to ‘calm’ Shirley down. Jim can tell you more about that. This was
usually after some sort of fight
concerning his hanging out with female teenagers; particularly Gayle.-
He knew what he was doing!
He could control the young girls but was losing control of Shirley.
She was beginning to put her foot down.
He wasn’t going to allow her to ruin things for him.
He started to present her as a “freak out” over Gayle, yet all the
while he kept baiting her with his behavior, and he was getting away
with it.
Why put up with her when Gayle adored him!
The incident in the restaurant I heard about many times.
Jim Hurley, my husband, was there. He could give you the exact details
as to demonstrate perhaps why Stewart later didn’t want older
brothers around. No witnesses! This is what I heard back then about it.
Gayle was sitting with Jim in a booth.
Stewart was sitting with Shirley, they were arguing, or at least she
was. He was contemptively ‘cool’. Her fuse was already lit! Other
leaders were there. Those who knew the real deal, knew why Shirley was
so upset.
Others may have not known and ‘judged by the moment’ and thought
Stewart was the victim. HA!
He set her up and knew how to push her buttons!
She was watching him and Gayle get ‘bonded’ and knew her time was
limited.
In a final burst of frustration, Shirley said out loud,
” You can’t control me, can you Stewart!!!”
and she opened a jar of sugar, unscrewed the cap and slowly poured
the sugar over Stewart’s head. It mingled in his hair and beard and
slid down his shirt and pants and onto the floor.
He had victory!
All he had to do know, was sit there and remain silent. The calmer he
appeared, the more hysterical she looked.
He knew what he was going to do and he knew how to punish her for
this! -This was going to cost her, everything!
The rest was easy. He was succeeding in driving Shirley nuts.
She knew that he could get the fellowships to believe anything he
told them.
He also knew that there was enough momentum to handle any exodus of
those who knew the scoop.
He had the fellowships in the palm of his hands! He even boasted
that he could be ‘backslide 5 years’ and they wouldn’t catch on!
She knew it was beyond her abilities to deal with and that he was out
to take over a bunch of naive Jesus freaks and exploit them, much
like he had exploited her, when he married her at 16 and she did what
ever he told her without question- for years!
Here she was over 30, and able to finally ‘talk back’.
Well he was going to fix her but good! He would accuse her of
adultery and these dumb lambs would actually feel sorry for him.
Why what girl in fellowship wouldn’t love to have a husband like
Stewart???
He was planning it for sometime. He had her parade in tight
unbecoming ‘old looking’ compared to the sea of young girls spread
out on the floor before him, listening to every word he said. It would
be easy to get the fellowship to think she was perverse…
Then there were the young men, or boys, who wanted to be
“just like Stewart”.
He had a plan for them as well! They were going to be as “eunichs”
for the kingdom of ‘god’ while he would be ‘a Solomon’, the wisest
of the wise and have many ‘mental’ concubines.
He was going to have some fun, dividing those whom he liked from
those he disliked. Ones he liked could be known later as ‘Gayle
helpers’…
He could ‘whip them into shape’ whatever ’shape’ he wanted to make
them.
He didn’t care what YOUR MOTIVE WAS for being in fellowship, as long
as you produced gain for him.
The more the ‘merrier’ for him…
Turn a buck, into his pocket every little bit helps!
Well anyway, back to the ‘good old days’, the time for the first
“1000 person Big Meeting” came and Stewart made the tragic
announcement!!!
Shirley gave him an ULTIMATUM-
“Come Home and be husband and father, or we won’t be here when you get
back!”[meaning her and the children...]
But as all geniuses plan ahead, Stewart had it all figured out.
He announced to the meeting that she left and made it seem as though
she was telling him Jesus or her.
So of course he was ‘applauded’ for choosing Jesus….
that is the meeting and not her…Why there wasn’t a person present
that couldn’t ‘feel his pain’, but I should have said
‘feel his gain!’….
He had another brother suggest that the fellowship pay
for his legal defense and get back his children for him.
After all, how could Stewart lead the fellowship if he couldn’t manage
his own family, bible basics 101, and to put away his wife, she had
to be an adulteress bible basics 102…
Soon after, he succeeded and got his kids back. He had a private
investigator claim Shirley was with another man in a bar, enough
said. She was backslidden…Alls ’swell’ in the kingdom of Stewart.
The beast was born…From that point on; the ’spirit’ of the
fellowship was under attack. Houses closed as warehouses opened,
salaries collected, and dependence on the Cobu made it harder to
leave. Mentally and physically kept exhausted, becoming spiritually
deprived of the Truth, having it replaced with ‘wormwood’, the devil
had its foothold as Stewart sold out for his Lusts!!!
There were the loyalists. They were saved, but swayed by their desire
to remain in fellowship and or their dependence on the fellowship. No
matter how bad it seemed to get, Stewart could always point a finger
and let them know it was their fault and heap on the guilt. They
always needed to repent and better yet walk around in
figurative ’sackcloth and ashes’. They would be mistreated, abused
and stay on for long periods of time, carrying the ‘hope’ that things
wee going to get better. These hopes were only realized by their
eventually leaving. By then, however, the brainwashing of blaming
themselves and daily doses of guilt, left some bewildered for years
to come.
Stewart gave parting gifts! A curse would be pronounced on you when
you were leaving fellowship. He even told people that Jim killed
himself over 10 years ago! This perhaps to scare others to submit.
He told me in front of the multitudes, that I was going to commit
suicide! Thanks for the prophetic word Stew, I did have a few close
calls, since after all, you took away my hope of salvation…. for a
time. Thanks be to Jesus that he showed me what a liar you {Stewart}
are!
The devil has been having quite a field day with the Cobu, his ‘Cain
child’. I better end now for this part at least, as this is all part
of the “Never Ending Story”
that hopefully will cause those ‘faithfully departed members’ to
find new hope in Jesus Christ the Lord
…and not the “Jesus Christ’ carpet cleaning cult….which has made
Stewart a multi-millionaire, and left those who did the slave labor
with nothing but guilt that they could never please Jesus!
To those left behind, who have a false glimmer of hope that
Stewart would ever care enough to provide for them any sort of
future, it can only be Death and Despair! The sooner you get out the
sooner you can begin to heal and get to know the ‘real love of Jesus’.
Stewart may raise his glass at a poolside toast and say,
“This Bud’s for you!”
YET YOU WILL NEVER BE ALLOWED TO BE THERE TO SHARE AS HE
SPENDS ‘HIS CHILDREN’S INHERITENCE!
‘You can stay back and live in squalor till you are no longer able to
work and you will be cast out
into the street as refuse,
with a parting directive to ‘go drop dead’.
The true Christians that were in the Ff/Cobu were persecuted and to
the ones that still love Jesus, praise God! To those who are still
hurting so bad, God bless you and comfort you! To those who are still
IN and being misled, I pray Jesus protects them and leads them out
safely into real fellowship. To those who have failed to develop a
true relationship with Jesus because of being misled, I pray they
come to know him, the true loving savior and develop that right
relationship with Jesus.
To those of us who fellowship together, I hope that our Savior raises
us up to do more service for him, in the manner of intent we tried to
do in the fellowship.
I ask Jesus for me to be enabled to lead many young people to Christ
again in the time I have remaining on this earth and that they may
not be caught up in any false teachings like that of the Cobu. In
Jesus name.Amen
GBU
Ave
Thank you for your wonderful articles,Ave.Sometimes it all seems so long ago,like it was all a dream,or should I say a nightmare!I was in COBU in Cleveland in the late 70’s.I have suffered terrible spiritual damage,to this day,from this cult.I would love to hear from former memebers,especially if they knew me back then.Donna Deming was my shepherd,and biggest influence at the time.Please feel free to contact me at Galgonedaft@aol.com My name back then was Alease Brink,I was from Euclid.God Bless,Alease
What really shocked me,was to hear that Stewart was in sexual relationships with a few female COBU members.As much as I despised Stewart,after I left,I always thought that he believed what he taught.I truly believed that he held himself to a high standard of moral conduct(as warped as his ideas about Christianity were.) We were not even allowed to date,God forbid,we were not even allowed to have a crush on someone.At COBU,that was referred to as “being into someone”,and sharply condemned.Of course,no one could ever get married(except Stewart,apparently) I had heard a rumor back in the late 70s,that Stewart had something going on with the sisters that lived at his house.It may or may not have been true,but at the time I did not believe it at all.I was shocked to hear that he had taken”half wives”,and pressured them into compromising situations sexually.At least,Jesus was able to use that situation to cause people to escape the COBU.Former COBU members,don’t give up on Jesus Christ,because of what you went through.What went on in that cult had very little to do with actual Christianity.
I heard a story that Gayle had been in a very “suspicious” car accident that left her with some pretty bad brain damage.Is this true?Did people think Stewart had caused the accident?
There is no suspicion. Stuart made the horrible mistake of not putting down his landing gear when landing and Gayle was a passenger and due to the accident she has some brain damage.
You should pray for her if you care.
As far as sexuall allegations are concerned, I have yet to hear any real proof. Since this is the case, they will always remain mearly allegations.
Although we might wish to limit them to being allegations, if you search the net and see angelfire website, you can click on the inner links and read the testimonies by some of the sisters he has done wrong to, especially one called Anne.
Cobu Website by Mike M http://www.angelfire.com/nm/cobu/
Please tell me what happens when someone tries to leave. Does the group get them back to the facility and then hide them from the outside world so they can brainwash them? Is there any suspicion of foul play towards a member who tries to leave? I don’t want to post too much on a public website because I don’t know who reads this from the COBU group. I am concerned after reading as much as I have.
Jill
I had heard that Gayle had been in a car accident.I am not happy that she was injured,I just wanted to know if this story I heard was true or not.You can read just about anything on the web.
I thought that Stewart had publicly admitted “straying”with a woman,and then saying that he had missed the concept of “grace”,all along.Did he not come out and admit it?
Jill~
The Cobu brainwashed its members individually and collectively. Stewart was portrayed as having a relationship with the Holy Spirit and that he was treated like the pope.No one could ever challenge Stewart without him using his closest loyalists to attack and defame anyone who questioned his authority.Stewart also distanced himself from being questioned privately as time passed and he was elevated as head of the church in cobu world.
When someone joined they were uprooted and moved to a place where they received little world comforts and contact other than working for Christian Brothers Carpet Cleaning and when the IRS tried to interfere, members were told to sign their paychecks and ‘donate’ them back to Cobu so they could keep the money. The members were given food, shelter and later on clothing as needed and were taught not to trust the world for anything,nor to trust anyone outside of Cobu. They were also taught to constantly confess every idle thought that came into their heads so they were left unbalanced and not trusting in their own thoughts but instead relying on those Stewart placed over them.
As for those who were closest to Stewart, whom he used to execute his plans, he would ‘detrone’ them every so often to keep them ‘beat down’ emotionally and spiritually as well, so that no one could rise above him.
Anyone leaving Cobu often left only with the clothes on their backs and no money or direction to obtain any help or counselling. Many would return and re-submit to Cobu authority but have to ‘prove’ themselves with more self denial and more loyalty. Today there is an estimated 40 members still living ‘IN” and they are older and totally committed to Stewart and the lie they live.
Some who left after 10-20 years of servitude, have not been able to adjust to the world outside of Cobu and because of all the head games and preprogrammed thoughts, find it nearly impossible to join in any church fellowship for any length of time. Some who may not have been too brainwashed have gone onto college and other ministries, but that is only a few compared to the majority.
There have been an estimated 40,000 members over the years, some who stayed only briefly and others who spent years there.
Since all had to work and donate their salaries, no social security was ever paid on their accounts and no tax records exist for their benefit. At times some wanted to join together to start a class action suit against Cobu but nothing has ever been established as the paper ‘traill’ is well covered.
Stewart keeps nothing in his name, which protects him from Rico laws and IRS tax evasion. He owns his condo in Florida but all the business ventures and church are kept seperate and well dispursed. There are Christian Brothers Carpet Cleaning services in NYC Florida, Texas and Los Angeles, that are known but now run independently on paper [although you know he gets his share!] and they even have hired people that have no ties to Cobu which helps cover it up.
When taking donations for their ‘orphanage’ in Haiti, they accept anything which gets stored in the Scranton warehouse only to resurface in another company he had started called ” Olde Good Things’ which sells on ebay and at store locations across t he nation, being a well known reclamation service for antiquities and a multi million dollar operation, since most items were donated to the ‘church’ of Cobu and the members donate their salaries, so the profits are very high.. Where does that money go? who knows?
Stewart was a smart con man in the world and has managed to get very good financial advice on how to run his scam of operations! He is similar to Al Capone but avoided the mistakes that got Capone busted, namely how the IRS can track him, since he keeps most things out of his name.
He now has 4 airplanes, designated for the Haiti orphanage and the current members are so brainwashed t hat they easily manipulate any outsider Christians and obtain help from unwitting others.
They have real estate holding corps and stores all over, some based in either N or S Carolina [ I forget which one but did manage to contact them once]
The biggest thing that is imparted to current members is secrecy, loyalty and the delusion that they are elite and special only as long as they remain loyal to Stewart and the current Cobu administration, which are puppets of Stewart.
A few have escaped but needed extensive deprogramming and some services are obtainable through WellsSpring in Ohio ~ which helps deprogram and reintegrate members back into Christian communities, although it is expensive, so most who have managed to leave go into hiding.
There has been reports of suicides, accidents and other deaths. Most if not all who have left have been branded as backsliders and those who remain in fellowship have been seriously trained not to trust any former members or outsiders.
A few years back when Gayle had her accident, they changed some things ‘corporately’ so that the aging members now have health insurance through their Scranton address.
Last year the warehouse in Scranton had a ‘fire’ which eliminated many assets which were also reported to be heavily insured…
The orphanage is a front that allows them to obtain government grants and donations. Most monies go for ‘administration’ but some orphans are at least ‘fed’.Abuses have been discussed over the years. Some sisters who were brought down there on rotation from the NYC area were often ‘packed’ with up to $15,000 cash each under their clothing to smuggle in money that went “where”?….
Sexual abuse reports from the ‘half wives’ has been documented by a few who had the guts to tell all…One brave sister named Anne has her ‘testimony’ as to what Stewart did to her and others, posted on the Angelfire site to which you can find it in our ‘links section’ on the xcobu4Jesus yahoo group. or at http://www.angelfire.com/nm/cobu/
Stewart demasculated the brothers verbally and that kept them in check to not give into their flesh to seek marriage and many brothers today have either never been married or failed in their marriages as a result .The minutes of the brothers meeting with Stewart is available on the Angelfire site as well. http://www.angelfire.com/nm/cobu/
Undercover reporters have also tried to infiltrate the Cobu. One female reporter almost succumbed to the brainwashing while obtaining materials for her newspaper article.
Surfacely the ‘brethren’ that are still “IN” talk only biblically and in a religious ‘double speak’ so that they go undetected by the casual observer and can interact minimally for business purposes, as though they received ’spiritual lobotomies’…It is very hard to rescue any of those who are left, but hope is still maintained so that by befriending any of them, that one day they may see the light and be freed from their enslavement to Cobu.
GBU~!
Ave
You can contact many former members through :
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/XCobu4Jesus/ This is an open to join in one click group, I started several years ago that you can join without having to provide personal info if that is a concern.There are also a few moderators with differing experiences from Cobu between the 70’s – 90’s to offer help and guidance for any needs.You can also request any type of help there and I will try to help you any way possible.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/X-Cobu/ This is a group of former members and it is private, so you need to request membership and identify yourself to the moderator only.Some members are active in ministries, some have no church affiliations and others are just there for friends.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ex-cobu/ This is an unmoderated group that has former member emails along with alot of spam since it is unmoderated but you may find some beneficial information in the archives.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Cobu_Survivors This is a closed private group which is moderated as well and there are some good former members there as well that may help.
http://www.angelfire.com/nm/cobu/ This site has many pictures and testimonies from former members and info on reunions and gatherings.
GBU~!
Ave
If you leave COBU,you can not remain friends with anyone who is still in it.This is very painful at first,because the other members of the group have become your “brothers and sisters”,and you love them.They are your closest friends in the world.It’s not like you can say”I’m going to be Baptist now,and you are COBU,but we can still be close friends.Once you leave,you are the enemy.COBU members are only allowed to speak to you if they are trying to scare and coerce you into going back.No casual conversations.I dont know of anyone being kidnapped by the COBU,but I have heard of someone being kidnapped OUT of it.If Stewart can get someone yo come back,he will assign them to live in a state faraway from their family and friends,to break “outside ties. If you leave,they will keep calling you,and stopping by your house.They will refer to you as a “spiritual suicide”,a backslider,7 times more evil than before you were saved,a dog returning to it’s vomit.I remember one time,going to the house of a girl who had left COBU.My guardian took me with her,to try to get this girl back.The girl had a record player,and my guardian put on a record,and turned it on.The song was called “You’ve Been Left Behind”.The song was about Jesus coming back for his Church,and someone being left behind…because they were not “ready”,or worthy to be taken.It ended with some words like”There’s no time to change your mind,the Father spoke,the demons dined,the Son has come,and you’ve been left behind…” I thought we were there to rescur this poor girl,spiritually,but now I can see how it was all planned out to scare her into returning.Fortunately,she was too smart to return to the COBU,so our efforts were in vain.
For some details about Gayle’s accident, see this court document:
Cut and paste this link in your browser:
http://www.paed.uscourts.gov/documents/opinions/06D1130P.pdf
Sample paragraph from document:
The following facts are undisputed. On February 7, 2002, Gayle Traill was injured in a
car accident in Exuma, Bahamas. Compl. ¶ 5. At the time of the accident, Mrs. Traill was a
passenger in a rental car operated by her husband, Pastor Stewart Traill. Id. The Traills were in
the Bahamas due to airplane trouble they experienced on their way to Haiti to work at an
orphanage owned by COBU. See Defendant COBU’s Brief Statement of Material Facts (“Def.’s
Statement”) ¶¶ 3, 4. Following the accident, Mrs. Traill filed a worker’s compensation claim
with American Home seeking coverage for her injuries. See id. ¶ 7; see also Plaintiff American
Home Assurance Company’s Statement of Material Facts (“Pl.’s Statement”) ¶ 4. American
Home denied Mrs. Traill’s worker’s compensation claim on March 1, 2002. See Def.’s
Statement ¶ 8; Pl.’s Statement ¶ 5. Following the denial of her claim, Mrs. Traill filed a claim
petition with the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry’s Bureau of