I have read this book, and I would say (not being too familiar with the field of "exit counseling/abusive church counseling" literature, though I read Steve Hassan's book (Jew former-Moonie) - COMBATTING CULT MIND CONTROL - years ago) that it's a pretty good book. If you deal with people who are or were in controlling churches (a lot of the book focuses on the Shepherding/Discipleship movement), or if you yourself were a victim or member of such a group, or even any abusive church, then you should buy this book.

In fact, this book is good to read if you're involved in most conservative Christian denominations/churches/movements, even "good" ones, as it will prompt you to continue to "prove all things [and] hold fast that which is good" as the Scriptures teach us to do, and not just accept leaders' statements or teachings. If you are discipling someone, or if you yourself are being discipled, this book has many good checks and balances and insights that should help you discern between good discipling and abusive or poor discipling. If you are in a small group that is designed to help you and others grow spiritually, this book will also be of value.

We were in a church that had some serious problems, and we finally left it. Skimming through her 6-page checklist at the back of the book of abusive characteristics, I would say that for us at least (I can't speak for the persons in our church who lived together at the "Bible School") we experienced few of these things, at least not in as overt a way as many controlling groups, but I would bet that if I sent Ms. Chrnalogar all my documentation of the things that happened that led to our decision to leave, she would agree that we were in an abusive church situation. She used to be a member of an abusive church or sect or cult (she never names the group) and was rescued by family intervention. She has helped rescue people for 17 years (as of 1997 when the book was written).

She only mentions a few names. She explicitly criticizes several items from the book/workbook EXPERIENCING GOD by Henry Blackaby, a very popular book that my wife and I studied from for at time. She seems to criticize Campus Crusade for Christ, as some of the items she comments on are from their literature (based on the footnotes). One comment, I think, criticizes Navigators literature. She criticizes YWAM at several points. She appears to be an Evangelical Christian (and CCC and Navigators are "favorites" of Evangelicals, so it's interesting that she faults their literature for being unbiblical at points), but I couldn't tell if she is Charismatic.

The Appendix on the history of the Shepherding/Discipleship Movement is fascinating. A particularly relevant item for us these days, as the "Five-Fold Ministries" and "New Apostolic Reformation" movements are continuing to gain adherents, is this one:

"During this same time [i.e., late 1960's and early 10970's], former leaders of the aberrant 1950s Pentecostal 'Latter Rain Movement' taught that the proper church governmental model was the 'Five-Fold Ministries.' The phrase refers to the presumed hierarchical ordering of the apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers found in Ephesians 4:11-13. This group taught that the ultimate purpose of these ministries was to unite all believers, and to acquire a divine nature. The Five-Fold Ministries doctrine also held that there are living apostles who are to rule the church and eventually the world."

Chrnalogar's book is such that you could give it to a person in a controlling group and, if they read it, they would be challenged, but not harshly or forcefully or stridently, to examine what their church does and why, and they would be led, if they allow themselves, to do an objective (if that's possible) evaluation of what their group does and teaches - which could result in loosening the hold their group has on them. This book is said to be the foundation of her exit counseling program.

>>... I have read about half-way through the book "Twisted Scriptures" and have recommended the book to no less than a half-a-dozen people. It has been a God-send to me. Ø >>I read "Toxic Faith" about 5 years ago and it helped me to realize that my family and I were in an abusive system. Although the book touched on manipulation of scripture, Mary Alice Chrnalogar's book, "Twisted Scriptures" has really given me new life. The scriptures that used to haunt me no longer do because they are no longer twisted. So much made sense to me. Obeying, sacrificing, not touching God's anointed all now have new meaning because Mary places them in correct context. I pray that someday I will be given the opportunity to teach from this book. .....read the book... you will never, never be the same.

Wow! This is just the book we needed after discovering that our adult children are infact, in a religious cult. We had our suspicions, but thanks to Mary Alice Chrnalogar and the information leading us to this point, we now know with certainty.
This book is a must for active members, former members, relatives and loved ones who have any connection to an abusive church, "the decipleship, shepherding" type of movements.
They have successfully snared so many to a life of bondage and to a never-ending state of works and guilt mentality.
Our heart breaks for our children, as we watch them sacrafice their own personal choices to the whims of a "discipler".
I can not recommend this book highly enough. It is a must read. And I pray that when one who has found themselves deceived and need answers, "Twisted Scriptures" will find it's way into their hands. They will know that they are not crazy or beyond God's grace, but rather find unconditional acceptance and love from a loving and personal God. With correct understanding of the Scriptures, God's word will present freedom and life and the truth will indeed set them free.
Sincerely,
Parents who are praying for their children's deliverance.

Read the Microsoft documentation instead. This book is a thinly disguised rip-off of the Microsoft documentation padded with examples of dubious value. In 590 pages this book manages to add no value or information beyond the original documentation. That's quite an achievement.

If you want to learn ISAPI...think again. This was "hot" 2 years ago...now it is all but dead.

ISAPI's big promise was better performance and memory usage...ironic that it has now fallen in favor to the biggest performance pig of all web applications...ASP. In an age of fast machines and small web apps, rapid development and ease of use wins out over performance.

ISAPI is hard to learn, harder to get right, unstable, bug ridden (if written in MFC) and surprisingly inflexible.

Look, you're a smart person. You want to do the right thing. You don't need to subject yourself to the torture of learning ISAPI. Only hard-core programmers who are tasked with writing a custom web app that is going to get some VERY heavy traffic should even bother with ISAPI.

So why did I give this book 4 stars? There are no good ISAPI books out there. This one has the most information in it and will allow you the best chance to actually develop something that works. Get this book and hit Genusa's (now dusty) ISAPI site. Also spend a lot of time in the Microsoft knowledge base...there are plenty of workarounds and bugs to learn about too.

Keep in mind that with ISAPI you had better be a damn good programmer. If your DLL ever crashes...bye bye web server. This is harder than you think if you are doing "serious" web programming which includes database access.

Smart managers will not allow mission-critical web apps to be developed in ISAPI by a web punk who has never done this before. Do everyone a favor and get a clue. There is a reason why nobody is doing this stuff anymore!

Game over. Go home and don't look back. Go off and learn ASP and Cold Fusion like a good little web programmer. You will have a marketable skill and will actually get things done.

ISAPI is Microsoft's approach to adding capabilities to web serving. There are only a few books that describe how to use ISAPI. This book is the best of them, because the author: 1) provides examples in both C and C++, and 2) compares ISAPI with CGI solutions. Unfortunately, ISAPI is a complicated subject, so more and shorter examples would help elucidate the reader.