Be Happy

Review of Agape International

I've waited many years before posting this review....

I've waited many years before posting this review.

I began attending Agape in the late 90s. By then, I was happily involved in Unity Church of Christianity as well as Ernest Holmes Science of Mind churches and teachings.

I'd started on the path to become a minister with Unity; when I moved to Los Angeles and started attending Agape (as well as a few similar-teaching churches) I considered becoming an Agape-ordained minister.

Overall, I've found the energy of the Agape staff, employees, representatives, volunteers, et al, elitist and at odds with each other.

Mostly I've enjoyed the music, meditation, dancing and good vibes. I've heard Jesus spoken of yet never understood why there were no Jesus visuals.

In 2006, at the end of a public service while people were hugging, Reverend Michael Bernard Beckwith kissed me on the lips . At the time, this man didn't even know my name. We'd barely spoken to each other.

This was not appropriate. Yet neither was I scared to attend church. There had been other instances at all the churches I've attended, where men have been out of bounds--even in 2019.

But until then, no man--and certainly no Senior Minister--had ever touched me inappropriately.

Over the years, I'd witnessed many Agape volunteers showing hostile, aggressive behavior toward attendees - grabbing arms, fighting over seats - emotionally immature. Okay.

Then in 2007, Reverend Nirvana Gayle (now deceased) posed this question to me, "Where do you live?"

This was a week after the earlier incident. .

That's two big-time inappropriate back-to-back behaviors from two of the top Agape ministers.

I had an Agape Revelation

Seven or eight years later, I hear that Reverend Michael Bernard Beckwith has been cheating on his wife Rickie Byars Beckwith for a number of years; this is the real reason why Tim Mcafee-Lewis was hired to be the Associate Director of the Agape Music Ministry and the Agape International Choir--so Rickie Byars Beckwith could travel with her "husband" Dr. Michael Bernard Beckwith.

This revelation made a lot of sense and simultaneously, I felt sickened.

There have been many betrayals (of all kinds) within the Agape staff and practitioner community.

Sure, we're all human and it happens.

I'm happily no longer involved with Agape.

Rickie Byars Beckwith is divorcing Michael Bernard Beckwith (the divorce may even be final).