A former Gloriavale leader was accused of "following the spirit of the devil" when raising concerns about sexual offending.
Zion Pilgrim gave evidence at the Employment court hearing on Monday, which is deciding whether commune members are employees or volunteers. He said Gloriavale controls every aspect of every member's life, both financial and personal.
Pilgrim ran a number of large Gloriavale companies but said control lay with the shepherds.
"Total unfettered power in all things both pastoral and commercial," he said.
Pilgrim said he knew little of the financial side of Gloriavale.
"I don't understand how Gloriavale has a turnover of $22 million a year accumulating freehold assets at an astonishing rate and yet manages to consistently maximise the working for families payouts."
He said although Gloriavale members were paid wages, no one had access to, or knowledge of, their earnings.
"My understanding was the wages paid by the company were used to cancel out the profit of the business, reducing the tax the company had to pay," Pilgrim said.
Pilgrim wrote a letter to the leaders expressing his concerns about many aspects of Gloriavale, including what he said was overwhelming evidence of widespread sexual offending in the community. He was called into a meeting, which he recorded, where he was asked to take back everything he wrote in the letter or leave the community.
Pilgrim wept in court as he listened back to the recording on Monday.
"You are actually following the spirit of the devil," Gloriavale leader Howard Temple said in the recording.
"You will go. No more discussion, no more debate, no more nothing. Now get that through your head."
Pilgrim's wife Gloriana, who was also at the meeting, was told to stop expressing her concerns to other women in the community.
"I don't see any place in the scripture where a woman should be voicing her opinions strongly about what the church should or shouldn't be doing," leader Salem Temple said.
Zion Pilgrim told the court that although women run half the community and work long hours, they have no authority.
Gloriavale lawyer Phillip Skelton queried Pilgrim's version of events.
"You said 99 percent of the time the shepherds and servants made the decisions as a group."
Gloriavale is expected to open its case later this week.
