Independent Fundamentalist Baptist (IFB) churches don't operate under one central authority. Each one answers mostly to its own pastor, which means the same rules, the same language, and often the same patterns of control show up independently in thousands of churches and their affiliated Bible colleges. If you grew up in one, a lot of what happened to you probably has no name where you live now, but it has a name here.
This site collects first-person accounts from people who grew up in or left an IFB church, along with a glossary of the terms and tactics that recur across accounts, and a list of resources for people who are still inside, or who just got out.
We're not trying to litigate theology. Plenty of people who left still hold some form of faith, and plenty don't. What the stories here have in common isn't a belief, it's an experience: a closed system that controlled behavior, relationships, and information, and made leaving costly.
"Independent Baptist" and "Independent Fundamentalist Baptist" (IFB) are not the same thing. Independent Baptist churches are simply congregations that govern themselves rather than answering to a denominational body, and plenty of them are healthy, ordinary churches with no resemblance to what's described here. IFB refers to a narrower movement within that broader category, identified by a specific cluster of beliefs and practices: the ones named in our glossary, like KJV-onlyism, chain-of-command teaching, or affiliation with the IFB Bible college network.
This site is about that narrower movement and the patterns of control some of its churches produce, not about independent or Baptist churches in general. If you've had a good experience in an independent Baptist church, that's not in tension with anything here.
Right now, stories are added directly to the site by hand. A public submission form is coming. Until it's live, if you want your story published here: