This is a long one, so get comfy.
I’ve been debating on when to share this, I knew it would be soon but this morning as I checked my bible app and saw the verse of the day I knew today was the day….
“And thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
Deuteronomy 6:5 KJV
If you are new here, I used to be a member of AKA but renounced my letters back in 2016. I posted about it on Facebook & IG last year, and I think it’s important to continue to share my testimony with more people, especially since so many of my friends and associates are greek, some of whom are fellow Christians as well, but seem convinced that this was just a personal choice I made simply for me to honor God, based on my personal preferences but has no impact on them or in their lives.
Today I want to tell you that it’s not this simple. This wasn’t something God called me to and only me. If you are a Christian, we are all called to assess where our salvation stands and whether it is being jeopardized or at stake with any of our affiliations and associations, so if me speaking on this topic again keeps just one from perishing, if it sets one more free, then it is worth me continuously repeating.
I share this with you prayerfully as a warning for you to begin to understand what you sit under and I am asking God to make the soil of your hearts fertile to receive what I am about to share, allowing the holy spirit to lead you into the full truth. I also pray that as the truth is revealed that God move your heart to embrace it and take action that honors HIM, not turn away. I pray that God will equip you, protect you and surround you with his warring angels to fight the spiritual battle for your soul, and that if now is not the time for your deliverance that a seed be planted that will be nurtured and watered until so time. In Jesus name. Amen.
Listen to Lily J’s testimony on episode 5 of Truth + Fire: The Podcast.
Over my 8 years as a member of AKA of course I had heard people randomly say that sororities are a conflict with Christianity, but I never believed it or found it to be true for myself. Not that I looked into it real thoroughly or cross referenced it with the bible. I just always considered myself christian and believed I put God first, so when the holy spirit brought me to the word to show me otherwise and how I was in error, whoo child, there was no denying it after that!
November 2016 was a very rough time in our lives. We’d moved from NY to NC in July, I lost my job in September and Duane lost his job in October. I knew during that time I needed to get as close to God as possible to be able to make it through. We had no family in NC, no connections, no prospects for a new job. We had no clue how long we would remain without work or what would happen to us. Would we have to move back? Would we lose the house we were renting? So many unknowns, but what I did know to do was pray.
I was praying to God one day telling him I needed to get as close to him as possible because of what we were facing. I asked him to reveal any barriers between us so I could clean house. I wasn’t expecting an answer right away, but in that very moment while still in prayer the holy spirit revealed to me clear as day that AKA was a barrier.
I was shocked. I could have thought of 10 other things that He could have identified as barriers, but the Lord made it plain as day that if I wanted to get closer to him, I could not bring the sorority with me, so I renounced my letters less than a month later in December 2016.
Before I share how I got to that point let’s go back a little bit. When I was a member I adored AKA, do you hear me? You don’t even understand how much I respected and looked up to the ladies I met along the way! They are beautiful, successful, well educated, well spoken. Slaying motherhood, business, marriage, you name it. I surrounded myself with phenomenal members and built amazing friendships, many which still stand today. So this is not one of those, I hated my org, got mad and left posts. In fact there was nothing that made me want to leave AKA on its own, change chapters maybe, or go general, because I loved regional conferences, boule and all things social, but if it wasn’t for the holy spirits revelation to me I don’t know if I would have ever left.
I am the only woman in my family to ever go greek and I was proud of that fact. Two of my favorite uncles were greek and one of my male cousins too. So I already knew that I wanted to be an active interest in college back in 1998… and knew exactly what org I wanted to join. I was super conceited and competitive back in those days, why wouldn’t I pick the first and finest? But God kept blocking my acceptance into the organization.
In 2000 I was considered for membership but had to stop my pursuit due to transferring schools.
In 2001 I started my pursuit again at a city chapter but didn’t make the line after 12 weeks of events and “study halls”. I CRIED, I mean like boo hoo ugly cry.. not even knowing those blocks were God PROTECTING ME from my own self, ignorance and darkness.
That city chapter was like my love, I always held the utmost respect for any member from that chapter even after I crossed somewhere else. They showed me a side of AKA that was above any other chapter I had ever interacted with and carried themselves in the most upstanding way. I thoroughly admired them.
I wanted to join a sorority for 2 main reasons, sisterhood and older mentors that could emulate a mother figure. I’ve posted on past blogs about the fact that I wasn’t raised by my biological parents and being adopted at 15, surrounded by women who I weren’t sure really loved me or just felt obligated to raise me. So I was looking for love, acceptance, fulfillment, friends, mentors, camaraderie. The list goes on and on.
In 2003 I tried to be an interest again but was pregnant and needed to focus on adulting.
Time passed but my desire to join never waned.
By 2007, I was in grad school and decided to look into grad chapters. After one interest meeting I made the short list of considered candidates and crossed in 2008.
On the day I crossed I felt so happy but also drove home feeling a little unsettled. There were moments during the initiation that felt…. weird. I couldn’t explain them or put my fingers on it exactly so I went home and looked up conflicts between Christianity and sororities. Nothing blatantly jumped out at me so I shook off whatever I thought I felt and moved on.
Fast forwarding to that November day in 2016 all of those old thoughts came back. Had I missed something critical? After such a long pursuit I felt like I knew everything there was to know, but maybe I had missed a memo somewhere. My relationship with God was minor at that time compared to what it is now, so maybe I didn’t really want to see the conflict either.
So what are the other conflicts exactly? Aren’t Greek organizations founded on christian principles?
Its just a social/service org right, nothing more, nothing less. I didn’t worship my letters or org. I didn’t do all those things I have heard people say about sororities and fraternities and the possible conflict.
But God dismantled AKA for me piece by piece over the course of 2-3 weeks and showed me how I did in fact worship it and how it had taken the position of idol in my life.
Let’s walk through the conflicts God revealed to me and then you become convinced for or against in your own mind!
The Lord started with the rituals/ initiation, I didn’t have a physical copy myself at the time, but I found one online. After reading them word for word with understanding and not just a quick breeze through, I knew I could never attend a initiation ceremony again. Pull out your rituals and read through what you agreed to and see how you feel as well.
Second AKA claims to be an org founded on christian principles as most BGLOS do, but there is no christian requirement to join AKA and there are no instances where the org gives glorification of God.
Just because something claims to have loose ties to christianity and does service and good works doesn’t make it a true reflection of christian morals and value standards set by the bible, and just because someone says a prayer at chapter meeting doesn’t make it a place worthy of worship.
In fact AKA only strives to glorify itself, its founders and its members in a way that makes them feel they rise above others which positions them as an idol that others desperately attempt to emulate and infiltrate through worship. People worship greek orgs, both interests externally and members internally.
There is nothing Christlike about the interest process, selection, initiation, pledging, or crossing.
Then unfortunately after crossing you are bonded and contractually obligated to serve with fellow members, some who may be believers, some who may be non believers, some who may worship other gods or some who may worship satan, you just really don’t know but you stay committed and connected under the guise of sisterhood and are obligated to do so like a marriage until death do you part. Yet I don’t have to sign a contract to volunteer with the Red Cross or Good Will and I surely don’t have to commit for the rest of my natural life and even into death.
The bible says do not be yoked with unbelievers
“Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership can righteousness have with wickedness? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness”
2 Corinthians 6:14
And even if all of that wasn’t enough for me to pull back from the org.. even in death you are not freed from your organization, the ritual performed for ivys beyond the wall is demonic plain and simple. Why are you trying to commit someone even in death that they will still be affiliated with an org?? What power or interest does a greek org have in a members soul?
More than we think…
I have even read the Delta rituals, which are even more overt and specifically say, “You are about to take upon yourselves vows and obligations from which you can never be freed. They will follow you to the Final Judgment.”
Final Judgement?!??!?!?!?! That is just too large a price to pay for community service and sisterly relations.
Besides the bible warns us take no oath..
“But I tell you, do not swear an oath at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. 36 And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. 37 All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one
Matthew 5:34-37 NIV
But the final straw, the one that really broke the camels back for me was when I was reading my bible one day and found almost the exact words of the AKA pledge in the bible. Except AKA remixed it up, took out the word God and replaced it with their name, AKA. Girl I nearly dropped my bible! I’ve been reading the bible regularly for years at that point and had never saw that scripture before IN MY LIFE.
“And thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.
Deuteronomy 6:5 KJV
25 And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” 27 And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” 28 And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”
Luke 10:25-28
Why were these scriptures so jaw dropping? Because the pledge for AKA asks you to pledge those exact things to their org.
Yet there it was in black and white in two locations a literal demonstration of AKA taking God’s glory for themselves. The holy spirit leading me to two different scriptures in two different books was significant also because He was dividing and proving the word to me by the word itself.
How can I give my heart, mind and strength to two different askers? Simply, I cannot. I had to choose and in that very moment I knew my salvation was in jeopardy by continuing to be affiliated and I chose Jesus over AKA.
It was painstaking to believe that AKA was potentially blocking me from eternal life and wanting to cheerfully escort me into eternal death, but I couldn’t deny in any way shape or form from God what was rightly His.
The other things revealed I spent moments still trying to justify or exempt myself from while still staying a member, ok I won’t attend initiation but still stay a member. But once I found this scripture I surrendered all protest. It was an absolute direct conflict with God and what He desires from me!
I was filled with holy fear at that point and immediately started the renouncement process. I burned my membership certificate, cut up all my para, and mailed back my pin, documents, financial cards, with a notarized renouncement statement.
Even after sharing this testimony with others I have still heard the claim of individual mission…”Well I’m doing good works that are pleasing to God, like community service and helping children and have never put my membership before God”…
To that I have warned friends, if you took that oath or repeat that pledge then you have already placed the org before God.
Second you have to be careful about this thought process about good works. The bible is pretty clear on this subject. Good works performed apart from God and his will are not considered good at all.
They profess to know God but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedience, unfit for any good work.
Titus 1: 16 ESV
What makes us believe these orgs do works that are pleasing in God’s sight? The bible tells us that if the foundation of anything is rotten so is the fruit it produces no matter how “good” it appears to our natural eye. And if you are a Christian you are challenged to examine the source of everything.
A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit.
Matthew 7:18 ESV
The bible also says to test every spirit to see from where it came and not to be deceived because evil can present itself as good, and good can be misconstrued to appear evil.
Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
1 John 4:1 NIV
So if these orgs are essentially idol worship, (which they are) and the bible strictly forbids idol worship (which it does) then the good works are no longer good in His sight… they are “good works” to the natural eye but contributing to the continuum of idolatry, which is not good by Gods standards at all.
Think about those good works as a marketing tool for recruitment. It misguides those who only tread the surface and don’t examine the foundation of orgs deeper like I didn’t.. the works had me sold too..
I believed what I was joining was good because the output appeared good, but after closer examination I realized 2 things, one I discovered my first year after crossing, which is that I could have broader impact on my community BY MYSELF than with my org, because of the politics alone. And two in 2016 God revealed that those works were just smoke and mirrors in the collection of souls.
I will leave you with this last thing to think about as well. Through the pledge process these orgs attempt to mimic the process of being born again… they take you through a process of going from darkness into light and when you resurface it is in their name and under their authority. (You wear black all throughout your process and then wear white the day you cross) They rename you, and number you according to the orgs standards. You strut around proudly, glorifying that org wherever you go… in fact people often know your org affiliation before they know your name, because its on your jacket, keychain, umbrella, license plate, tote bag, hat.
When you really start to dig into that idea beyond what it appears to be on the surface, what you are actually doing is performing worship and what you are bonding yourself into is not upstanding or righteous at all. Its scary and spiritually dangerous. The only guiding light I want to follow and be brought into is carried by Jesus, praying you feel the same.
Praying for your freedom in Christ as well.
Guest post by Lily J. Originally published at www.mylifeaslily.com. Republished with permission.