Religious group seeking to establish 'wife factories' as Dublin students warned
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A church seeking converts on Irish college campuses has said its houses should be 'wife factories.'
Students here have been urged by universities to exercise caution when interacting with groups on campuses after the Evangelical Christian group set up in Dublin. Videos show Luke Snow, the main leader of the Dublin International Christian Church (Dublin ICC), telling the group that if they had closer relationships with their family and friends outside the church than with people in Dublin ICC, 'you will not get to heaven'.
However, Mr Snow told the Irish Mirror: 'We love God. We love Ireland.' The Dublin ICC is an affiliate of the US-based International Christian Church which was founded around 2006 by Thomas 'Kip' McKean after he separated from a different organisation, named the International Churches of Christ, which he had founded in the 1970s.
Mr McKean is understood to no longer be the leader of the International Christian Church. The International Christian Church describes itself as 'part of a worldwide movement of SoldOut Disciples with the vision to evangelise the nations in this generation'.
Although initially based in America, the group has established several branches in Europe, including in London. In a YouTube video, named Doublin' Dublin, published on September 1, 2024, Luke Snow stated that the Dublin International Christian Church had come to Ireland in 2023.
Mr Snow and his wife Francesca 'Frankie' Snow are living with their young son in an apartment in an affluent area of South County Dublin. The church currently has 16 members. Videos posted on social media show 'disciples' being 'baptised' at several locations around Dublin, including the cross-shaped pool at the Garden of Remembrance.
Videos posted on the Dublin ICC Instagram and Facebook pages show the groups posting religious content using social media trends popular with young people. They regularly advertised events on college campuses, including Trinity College Dublin, UCD, and the Technological University of Dublin (TUD).
A spokesperson for Trinity College confirmed to the Irish Mirror it had been 'made aware of instances of this group approaching students'. They added: 'Our approach is to ask them to leave the campus.'
Late last year, Dublin ICC organised a Christmas event at TUD. A spokesperson said: 'In November 2024, a communication was sent to students on behalf of the TU Dublin Students' Union, urging students to exercise caution when attending events that are not affiliated with the TU Dublin Students' Union or the University.'
Mr Snow said that he has never 'been personally asked' to leave any college campuses, but did not know if his colleagues had been. When asked if they had been at college campuses, he said: 'We have been evangelising all over the city.'
Francesca Snow took part in a 'study' session with female members called 'Are You Marriage Material?', posted on YouTube on April 10. She said that one of her 'biggest passions as a disciple is making women into wives'.
Mrs Snow said: 'God actually desires for us to be wives, which is so awesome. My job is to help everyone become wives as the elder.
'God wants us to be unashamed in wanting to be wives. I think that's so awesome.
'Our sister households should be wife factories; just, like, making wives, producing wives'. She also said that 'men are simple creatures' and should be given 'submission, servitude and respect'.
She warned against becoming a 'cat lady', adding, 'Our husbands lead us to heaven'. When asked if people were only allowed to date others in the church, Mr Snow said: 'We believe in what the Bible says about marriage.
'The Bible is very clear that Christians should only marry Christians. I wouldn't say it is a fair description [to call it an arranged marriage].
'I've been married for five years, have an awesome son, a beautiful daughter on the way. It was absolutely my choice.'
When asked about a 'marriage factory', Mr Snow said 'the whole point is helping people to be the kind of person that would have a happy marriage'. He added: 'Whether people want to get married is completely up to them.'
Members are expected to give a 'tithe' to the church. In a sermon called 'Acceptable Worship', posted on YouTube in March, Mr Snow discussed financial contributions made by a 17-year-old member to the church.
Mr Snow said: '[The young man] is one of the biggest givers in the church when you talk about percentage. He's a teen, so he don't have that much money.
'The tithe is 10 percent. [The young man's] vow is to give 50 percent of what he gets.
'In order to do that, he said, 'Okay, I don't need to eat this food today, I don't need to buy that kind of thing'.
'Some of you guys don't manage your finances half as what he thinks about. Now, it's not the quantity. [He] doesn't have this crazy amount of income that he can give.'
Mr Snow told the group that you can 'always see the condition of someone's faith based on their giving'. He also acknowledged that members of the church were having trouble holding down jobs and told them the reason they 'keep getting fired is because they're not faithful to their pledge'.
Mr Snow branded Islam a 'totally false religion' and recently delivered a sermon called 'Refuting Islam – The Doctrine of Deception'. During the Doublin' Dublin sermon, Mr Snow spoke about the importance of disciples putting the church before their 'physical family'.
He said: 'Last week, we were speaking about family. We were talking about how we must put the family of God before any other relationship in our life.
'If you are not closer to the individuals in this room than you are your physical family or your friends from the world, you will not get to heaven.' Mr Snow also warned that people would have 'weak, quiet times' where they were going to 'fall away' as 'your friend doesn't want to talk to you anymore because you have your commitment to Jesus'.
When asked whether the group might be regarded by some as a cult, Mr Snow stated: 'We love the bible. Anyone trying to do something great is going to get persecuted for it.'
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