I am finally posting my response to the decision made by CCC.  Much of the below appeared in an email I wrote on the matter.

I will continue to evaluate my reasons for making the decision I did and will continue to seek to hear the opinion of everyone.  Please know that the decision was in no way a final rejection, or even a rejection, of CCC.  I was forced into the decision.  Whatever is said, however, it should be realized that the statement made by CCC leadership was divisive in nature (i.e., members of a certain group can't be a part of this group).  There could be much discussion about when and why such divisive statements are a good thing, if ever.  My current belief is that even if the house church was a cult, the decision that was made was not the proper way to handle things.

The statements about house church being a cult or cult-like were nothing new to me.  I had talked to Sean at the end of the summer last year. For that reason I had begun to investigate what he had said and what a cult is.  This is a difficult topic, and it seems there is no clear answer, certainly none that I had come to.  Is there a way to prove that a certain group is a cult?  Is there a way to prove that a group is not a cult?  The definition of a cult seems to very widely.  A few terms used to label religious groups include: cult, cult-like group,  cult of Christianity, and mainstream cult.  Looking at it as a whole, I do not believe that the house church is a cult.  If anyone would like to talk to me about doctrinal issues or other things that indicate the group is a cult, I will galdly speak to them about it.

Given the situation, I do not feel that the leaders who made the decision took adequate time to warn me or tell me about their concerns before issuing that statement.  I fasted and prayed before making my decision, and I will continue to seek God with all my heart.  The situation saddens me, but I hope to continue my relationships with the people in CCC and ultimately hope for restoration to occur and for unity with those in CCC.

Love, Phil

From http://www.watchman.org/:

Dr. Lifton studied Mao Tse-Tung's programs of "Thought Reform" or Chinese brainwashing while doing research for military intelligence. His study focused on radical change in personality and belief systems of certain prisoners-of-war who were held and tortured in Chinese camps. This research was later expanded in his 1961 work, Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism, in which he theorized that subtle elements of these brainwashing techniques could also be found in other environments. He outlined eight criteria for "thought reform," which he called: Milieu Control, Mystical Manipulation, Loading the Language, Doctrine over Person, Sacred Science, Cult of Confession, Demand for Purity, and Dispensing of Existence. While some elements of these criteria could be found in virtually any group, Lifton warned that an environment of mind control or thought reform exists when all eight are found implemented in the extreme.

I'm in the mood to share right now.  Hopefully the things I write are of some value to those of you who read them.  Some of these thoughts may have come out in my comments on other xanga sites, but I want to state them again.  We can not accept something as true simply because it makes us happy or is what everyone around us believes.  There are many people who call themselves Christians who do not have a basis for what they believe because they just accept what they are told.  If you truly believe that your beliefs are correct, will you not be willing to listen to other beliefs and honestly consider them?  We can not deny the things we have seen with our eyes, heard with our ears, and felt with our hands.  The senses and our own experiences are a strong basis to determining the truth.  One must then not read too much into what one gets from the senses (i.e., don't assume).  Something hard and blue falling on you should not be interpreted as "the sky is falling".

To people who say that people are all equal, what is the basis of that statement?  The only basis I have heard is "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights...".  Our nation is an example to the world of democracy, and equality is based on being endowed by their Creator.  Equality can not be asserted with acknowledgement of the Creator. 

"We should all just try to help other people and make the world a better place."  That is just the type of "warm fuzziness" that I cannot stand.  It makes people feel good, but there is no strong basis on which it can stand.  Why should I not just steal, kill, and cheat, so long as I can get away with it?  The underpinnings of this statement do not provide a real answer.

I have plenty more thoughts on this.  I really think it would be fun to take a class on philosophy.