CUL:Minor "Christian" Cults (what makes a 'cult' a 'cult'?

   "There's nothing wrong with handcuffing a girl to keep her from
going to hell." - Lester Roloff

   Christianity is perhaps the most diverse faith in the world. As a
whole, it is divided into four main groups: Roman Catholicism, Eastern
Orthodoxy, Protestantism, and Pentecostalism. And each of these main
branches, with the exception of Roman Catholicism, is further
subdivided into smaller factions, each one having a somewhat different
view on Jesus Christ, the Holy Bible, sin, salvation, and other issues.
A quick look through any telephone book will reveal hundreds of
different denominations; some of them stretching across the nation or
the globe, with others being no larger than a single church.

   Chances are that listed among those hundreds of valid Christian
denominations, there will also be listed at least one religious cult.

   But what makes a cult a cult? There are many different definitions
of the word "cult." Funk & Wagnalls defines a cult as being "a system
of religious rites and observances." Some ministers would label any
church that did not use the Bible as being a cult. And others would
simply define any new religious movement as being a cult.

   However, almost every group that has been universally regarded as a
cult has demonstrated at least two or three of the following traits:

   1. It is led by an autocratic central authority who demands
absolute, unquestioning obedience and submission to the cult. This
central authority usually, but not always, consists of a single person.
Some cult leaders even consider themselves to be either Christ or one
of His direct representatives.

   2. It does not reveal what it truly teaches up front to those who
ask about its beliefs, but instead gradually introduces the neophyte to
its beliefs little by little until he/she is fully indoctrinated by the
cult.

   3. It uses coercion, brainwashing, and/or threats to gain new
members and keep them in the cult, sometimes also using violence or the
threat of violence.

   4. It urges its members to renounce all ties with their families and
friends and pledge total allegiance to the cult.

   5. It takes the holy writings of an established religion or faith,
such as the Bible (Christianity), the Koran (Islam), or the Vedas
(Hinduism), and negates, denounces, de-emphasizes, supplements, or
alters them. Or it may keep the writings, but insist that the cult
leader(s) alone can correctly interpret them.

   6. It physically or psychologically assaults its own members,
usually for reasons of discipline.

   7. It requires its members to forsake all personal possessions and
to give them all to the cult.

   8. It has a very low tolerance for individuality and/or
nonconformity, and will persecute such attributes as vehemently as it
possibly can.

   9. It uses violence or threats of violence against the cult's
enemies and/or former members.

   10. It holds its own creed to be the only real way to salvation or
peace in defiance of all other creeds or denominations.

   11. It performs criminal activities such as forgery, blackmail,
fraud, and burglary in order to further its own purposes and ends.

   This is by no means a complete list of cult traits, but should serve
merely as a guideline to identifying cults. Groups such as Jehovah's
Witnesses and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints are often
referred to as cults, and both definitely exhibit traits such as the
ones listed above. (Both groups, for example, claim that they are the
only true church and also feature their own interpretations or
additions to the Holy Bible: Jehovah's Witnesses almost invariably use
the corrupt New World Translation, while the Latter-Day Saints hold the
Book of Mormon, the Pearl of Great Price, and Doctrine and Covenants to
be as sacred, if not more so, than the Bible.) However, no matter how
one chooses to look at these groups, they are certainly safer than
organizations such as the ones described in this essay, even though
both groups fall outside the realm of orthodox Christianity.

   Below is a partial list of minor cults in the United States, Canada,
and Mexico, as well as an explanation of their beliefs, their leaders,
and some of their activities. As the title indicates, most of these
organizations claim to be Christian in nature. The true nature of Roch
Theriault's organization, however, is unknown at present, and the
Church of the Lamb of God is a Latter-Day Saints splinter group.

   THE BODY OF CHRIST

   The Body of Christ is a network of religious communes founded by
former Southern Baptist minister Sam Fife, C.E. "Buddy" Cobb, and Dr.
James Meffen in 1962. The Body of Christ is also known as "The End Time
Ministry, " "The Movement," and "The Body." Today, the cult has around
7, 000 to 10,000 adherents in two dozen communes (called "wilderness
farms" by the cult) located in Alaska, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi,
Ohio, Texas, British Columbia (Canada), Guatemala, and Peru. The cult's
headquarters are in Miami, Ohio. The NEW YORK TIMES also reported that
the cult owns "a fleet of planes" which it uses to reach the communes.

   The cultists study and follow the teachings of Sam Fife and Donald
Barnhouse, the other major theologian of the Body of Christ before his
death. They speak in tongues, practice faith healing, believe in demon
possession, and believe that the Bible should guide their lives. They
also believe in an upcoming period of "Great Tribulation" and feel that
it is their duty to prepare to be the leaders in this "end of time" and
to set up shelters where people can take care of themselves after
electricity, food supplies, and other necessities are cut off by the
coming disaster. To this extent, they raise animals and grow their own
food on the wilderness farms in order to be self-sufficient. According
to Dr. Meffen, who left the Body of Christ, the cultists speak of
themselves as "manifested sons of God" and believe that once they have
perfected themselves, "Christ will be manifested through them." The
cult employs a subtle recruitment process. Dr. Meffen and fellow
defector Charlene Hill claim that the cult finds people who are unhappy
and channel them into the Body of Christ and also "infiltrate existing
churches and Bible study groups." Members of the cult live in poverty,
with poor clothing and no radio or television. Any property they own
must be turned over to the cult, and many older followers even sign
over their pensions.

   The various settlements and branches have different names. The
Dallas group, which disbanded in 1983, was known as The Dallas
Northtown Church. A major commune near Europa, Mississippi, is known as
The Church of Sapa. Many other branches are simply known as "Christian
Ministries." Leaders insist that there is no single organization called
"The Body of Christ, " and claim that the far-flung communes are really
autonomous, separate entities with no official connection. According to
critics Meffen and Hill, the members consider themselves to be one
group in fellowship and also speak of themselves as "The Body of
Christ" when they are together.

   Critics charge that families are broken up if one spouse joins the
cult without the other. The Body of Christ has also been named in
several child abuse cases. Charlene Hill, who stayed in the Body of
Christ for eight years with her husband and three children, claims that
the children are disciplined severely and possesses a tape recording of
her daughter relating that she was spanked "hard" if she didn't answer
questions in school.

   Mrs. Hill also claims that the cultists must constantly listen on
headsets to tapes made by Fife and Barnhouse, and that they must also
read their speeches. She also claims the group teaches that it is not
wrong to "distort the truth when talking to reporters." Many ex-members
believe they have been brainwashed, and the cult has lost some members
to deprogrammers such as Ted Patrick.

   The cult carries out a brutal policy towards possible defectors and
those who break the rules of the cult. Charlene Hill claims that
shortly before she left, the group told her she was possessed by demons
and tried to exorcise them by tying her to a bed and whipping her with
a belt, then submerging her in a bathtub filled with cold water. Shari
Smith, another defector, claims that she was beaten with a wooden
paddle and that rebellious members were tied to beds, chairs or the
floor and thrown into cold showers with their clothes on until they
repented. Smith herself was once kept in a cold shower for four and a
half hours.

   The Body of Christ came under public scrutiny when one of its
leaders, Reverend John Hinson, was convicted in 1977 on charges of
kidnaping in Mississippi and sentenced to ten years in prison. The
conviction, however, was overturned when Hinson appealed.

   As for Fife himself, he was killed in a plane crash in Guatemala on
April 26, 1979 at the age of 54. He was on a small private airplane
carrying himself and three cultists to visit the group's Quiche
Theological Institute and one of its settlements in Guatemala when the
plane crashed, killing everyone on board.

   THE NEW TESTAMENT MISSIONARY FELLOWSHIP

   On the outside, the New Testament Missionary Fellowship may seem
like another Pentecostal group. The members sing hymns, dance, play
guitars, and speak in tongues. However, underneath the facade lies a
fanatical cult devoted to a self-proclaimed prophetess named Hannah
Lowe, who founded the cult in 1964 after serving as an Evangelical
missionary in South America for 40 years. Hannah states, "We are a
small group of Christians who come together for prayer and Bible study.
There are no rules or regulations or church. We believe in Jesus
Christ, we believe most surely."

   It is doubtful that the cult still exists, as Lowe fled to Columbia
in 1973 for reasons that will be explored later. While it existed, the
cult was based in New York City and, according to deprogrammer Ted
Patrick, "preyed upon exceptionally intelligent Ivy League college
students." Some of its branches were located at Columbia and Yale.

   Charlotte Sheniken, a former member of the Fellowship, gave this
description of a prayer meeting within the cult:

   They play tambourines, guitars and other instruments, sing hymns and
dance. You sing and sing, the instruments get louder and some dance in
the center of the singers and players.

   Then the rhythm builds up and gets frenzied and you begin talking in
tongues and some get revelations. Hannah sits in a chair screaming in
tongues and getting visions. Pretty soon all thirty people are doing
something. You can't help yourself - it builds up to a pitch.

   The cult also printed a professional-looking newspaper called THE
YALE STANDARD, which gives the religious history of Yale and hints that
the New Testament Missionary Fellowship would be a good place for
students who wanted to learn about Christ.

   One of the more prominent members of the Fellowship was McCandlish
Phillips, a former writer for the NEW YORK TIMES. He was convinced that
Hannah Lowe was a prophetess, and wrote a book called "The Bible, the
Supernatural, and the Jews," in which he says: "When a prophet, or a
prophetess, speaks by the momentary inspiration of the Holy Spirit, the
words may come like lightning or like dew, but they are always fresh
and arresting and right to the point of immediate need." Phillips even
gave lectures to followers and those who considered joining the cult.

   One of those swayed by Phillips' lectures was a young man named Wes
Lockwood. When he got to Yale he was introduced the the cult and got
involved in their activities. According to Ted Patrick, "The whole
process of entrapment was much slower, more subtle, more sophisticated
than in any other cults I've dealt with. Wes was gradually isolated
from the rest of the university as a result of frequent Bible study
sessions and prayer meetings. Then step-by-step he was turned against
his family and that made him feel guilty, and served to make him even
more dependent on the group...The members would engage in singing,
dancing, speaking in tongues - so-called ecstatic devotions - that went
on nonstop for up to four or five hours a session, and which left the
converts exhausted and confused, emotionally wiped out. Then the
leaders would indoctrinate them, when their resistance was broken, and
would hammer at them with denunciations of the university, the
political system, their families, the institutions of government, all
of which they were told were of Satan."

   By Christmas, Wes was so dominated by the cult that he called his
parents to tell them he would not be coming home for the holidays:
"There's a man here named McCandlish Phillips who gave a lecture last
night...He said the Lord has more for us to do than go home for the
holidays. He convinced me. I'm going to stay here and do the Lord's
work." Lockwood's parents then inquired about the group, and discovered
that all four freshmen members of the Fellowship had canceled their
plans to go home for the holidays. Wes' father, Joseph Lockwood, then
flew to New Haven to try to talk Wes into coming home. He learned to
his astonishment that Wes had changed. He was withdrawn,
uncommunicative, and hostile, and had lost a lot of weight. Wes
insisted that his father had no right to interfere in his life, and was
supported by Hannah Lowe. For the next two years, Wes stayed in the
Fellowship until he was kidnaped in 1973 by his father and Ted Patrick,
taken to New Jersey, and deprogrammed. During the session, Wes grew
very violent and withdrawn, attacking his father, speaking in tongues,
and dancing in the middle of the room in which he was being held in
what is known by the cult as the "Sanctified Dance, " but made a
complete recovery afterwards, sobbing in his father's arms after the
deprogramming.

   The overweight Hannah Lowe owned an estate in Yonkers and a farm in
Columbia, as well as an apartment in New York. Her devotees worked at
part-time jobs and gave all their money to the cult. Sometimes
Fellowship members were sent to the Columbia farm for a time. One who
was sent there was ex-member Margaret Rogow: "We worked daily from 5AM
to 5PM doing farm work, house-cleaning and cooking. We received no
wages for our labor, but had to pay Mrs. Lowe $30 a week for room and
board. We quickly used up our savings and were placed in a very
difficult situation of bondage." Sex was forbidden within the cult,
even between married couples who belonged to the Fellowship, as Hannah
Lowe taught that it was filthy, disgusting, and of Satanic origin.

   Also in 1973, after a failed kidnaping attempt on another cultist,
Patrick was thrown in jail for a short period of time. When he finally
went on trial for the attempt, McCandlish Phillips and fellow cultist
Calvin Burrows were scheduled to testify for the prosecution, but
neither showed up. As for Hannah Lowe, she took off for Bogota and is
still living there on an estate she purchased for $250, 000. The jury
handed down a "Not Guilty" verdict after only 90 minutes of debate.

   LESTER ROLOFF

   Lester Roloff, a fiery radio evangelist who supported homes for
rebellious children, came under scrutinization in 1973 when it was
alleged that girls at his Rebehak Home were beaten and starved. When
questioned, Roloff admitted that the girls were paddled and whipped if
they misbehaved, maintaining that it was meant to save their souls.

   State officials then insisted that Roloff obtain licenses for his
homes and maintain state standards. Roloff refused, claiming that the
licensing requirement was "Communistic" and violated religious freedom.
Upon learning that the Supreme Court had ruled against him, Roloff
closed the homes temporarily and then reopened them under the
protection of his People's Church. In 1981, a state court ruled that
Roloff could operate the homes without a license. Roloff died in 1982
when his private plane crashed.

   CHURCH OF THE FIRST BORN

   This Oklahoma cult came under scrutiny when a boy whose parents
belonged to the cult died from appendicitis. His parents refused to get
medical treatment for him, claiming that the cult prevented them from
seeking medical help. The parents were charged with manslaughter and
were finally acquitted on 1982. The jury's verdict was based on the the
judge's ruling that Oklahoma's laws concerning religious exemptions to
child abuse laws could also apply to the couple. The outcome of the
trial triggered a massive public outcry, which resulted in a new state
law being passed in 1983, which states that the belief in and practice
of spiritual/faith healing may no longer be used as a defense in cases
of alleged child abuse. According to State Senator Tim Leonard, who
drafted the new law, "My argument was the child's constitutional rights
to life override the parents' constitutional rights to freedom of
religion."

   JESUS THROUGH JON AND JUDY

   A case similar to the incident in the Church of the First Born
happened within the Colorado cult known as Jesus Through Jon and Judy
in recent years when its founders were sentenced to three years'
probation for allowing their child to die of pneumonia. The judge
overturned the religious exemption, claiming that it only applied to
what the judge termed "recognized religions." The case is being
appealed.

   THE LOCAL CHURCH

   The Local Church was founded by Witness Lee, now 81, a disciple of a
Chinese Christian known as Watchman Nee, who died in a Communist
prison. Nee's writings can be found in some bookstores. Witness Lee
then came to the United States in 1962 and founded a network of
churches based on the concept of "localism, " the belief that there is
only one true church in any given city. In fact, members of the cult
even call it the "local church, " insisting on lower case because they
consider themselves to be the only true church. Among other things, the
cult "pray-reads" the Bible instead of studying it, which involves
repeating sentences or sentence fragments from the Bible, interspersing
them with shouts of "O Lord Jesus, " "Praise the Lord, " and "Amen."
Critics of the movement contend that Witness Lee has distorted the
teachings of his deceased mentor, Watchman Nee.

   The Local Church, like other cults claiming to be Christian, has
printed full page newspaper ads that denounce Christian groups that
criticize their practices. When the cult attempted to set up branches
in colleges, it has attracted a lot of attention. The branch at Moody
Bible Institute rushed through the campus, shouting "Babylon is
falling" and "Moody is crumbling." Meanwhile, the branch at Long Beach,
California, set up a club at Long Beach City College that was simply
called "Christians, " harassed members of established denominations,
and periodically held burnings at the beach where members affirmed
their loyalty to Witness Lee by burning their dearest possessions,
according to an ex-member. If a member should question such practices,
he/she will probably be reminded of one of the church's teachings:
"Close your mind. When you are in your mind, you are in trouble."

   ROCH THERIAULT

   On September 29, 1982, a provincial judge in New Carlisle, Quebec,
sentenced the leader of a "doomsday religious cult" to two years in
prison for his connection with the beating death of a child and the
castration of a cult member. The leader of the cult was named Roch
Theriault, also known as "Moses." Theriault pleaded guilty to a charge
of criminal negligence in the beating death of Samuel Giguere, 2, whose
parents were members of the cult, and to a charge of causing bodily
harm stemming from the castration of cultist Guy Veer, who was
responsible for beating Samuel to death. Veer was found not guilty by
reason of insanity and placed under psychiatric care.

   BROTHER JULIUS

   The Brother Julius cult is centered in Meriden, Connecticut. Its
leader is Julius Schacknow, 63, a former engineer who preaches that he
is Jesus Christ.

   According to Julius, God first appeared to him in 1946 when he was
stationed at a American naval base in Guam. God allegedly told Julius
that he was destined to become a prophet. Julius also claimed to have
had a complete mental breakdown while stationed at Guam.

   After two failed marriages, Julius married for a third time and
moved to Dover, New Jersey, claiming that it was safe from an impending
earthquake that he predicted would destroy New York. The earthquake was
first slated to hit in 1971; the date has been updated several times
since then. While living in Dover, he would get four or five couples to
read the Bible with him in varying degrees of ecstasy and zeal, but the
group would always fall apart whenever Brother Julius tried to quote
Scriptures as justification for wife-swapping.

   In 1970, Brother Julius claimed to have had a talk with God, where
God encouraged him to ask Him any question he wanted. He claims that
modesty almost prevented him from asking God this question: "Am I Your
Son, Jesus?"

   According to Julius, God's reply was "There never was another."

   Julius then moved to Meriden, after unsuccessfully trying to
convince a Tennessee church called the Church of God that he was
Christ. In Meriden, he began to issue prophecies to his fledgling
following. All of them proved to be false, including a claim that a
diabetic in Thomaston, Connecticut, had been cured. The diabetic
stopped taking insulin, and then fell into a deep coma two days later
and almost died. Julius also tried to raise someone from the dead.

   Curiously, this string of failures has not worried Julius or his
followers, who numbered at least 50 at last count. The cult also
operates an organization in Meriden called TAMPCO, or The Anointed
Music and Publishing Company, which distributes propaganda promoting
Julius and the cult. Julius has even spoken at some high schools in the
past. Deprogrammers such as Ted Patrick have had difficulty in
snatching brainwashed members away from the cult.

   STONEGATE

   On October 5, 1982, the members of a cult called Stonegate, "a self-
styled Christian commune" located in Kabletown in Jefferson County,
West Virginia, gathered in a farmhouse and formed a circle. In the
middle of the circle, Leslie Green, who was 25 at the time, was holding
her two-year- old son, Joseph, as still as she could while her husband
and the boy's father, Stuart Green, who was 28, spanked his buttocks
with a wooden paddle that was one inch thick and one foot long. The
spanking continued for two hours, as the parents tried to force Joseph
to apologize for striking another child. Joseph then turned pale, and
Stuart Green took him to a local hospital, where he was proclaimed dead.

   On August 2, 1983, Judge Frank DePond sentenced Stuart and Leslie
Green to one year in jail each and fined them both $1, 000, having
convicted them of involuntary manslaughter. Judge DePond said it was
"incredible" that he could not impose a stiffer penalty. The sentencing
was interrupted by a man who said that the Greens should be tried for
murder. He later apologized.

   The judge told the cultists, "By entering a plea of guilty you have
admitted that you killed another human being, a defenseless
two-year-old boy, your own child. It is a sad day for our society when
a court must intervene to protect a child from its own parents. Joey's
fate is out of our hands today, but your fate is not."

   FAITH ASSEMBLY

   Faith Assembly, also known as "Glory Barn," is a cult based in the
area around Warsaw, Indiana. It was founded about 13 years ago by Rev.
Hobart Freeman and contains about 2, 000 members. The cultists are
discouraged from seeking medical attention on the grounds that only God
can heal, and that the use of medicine is evidence of lack of faith.
Several newspaper accounts claim that at least 52 people have died as a
result of the teachings of Faith Assembly. Most of them were infants
and children. Reporters Jim Quinn and Bill Zlatos of the FORT WAYNE
NEWS-SENTINEL have stated:

   Only a small fraction of the 52 known victims were old enough to
understand the teachings of Faith Assembly. An even smaller fraction
made their own decision to shun medical treatment.

   One victim asked for a doctor a few hours before her death, but no
doctor arrived because her husband and friends decided prayer was best
for the woman. They prayed for her for hours after she had died.

   Routine medical procedures could have prevented many of the deaths.

   Faith Assembly deaths were found in Indiana, Illinois, Ohio,
Kentucky, Michigan, and Missouri.

   CHRIST FAMILY

   What sort of danger could a group of white-robed, barefoot young men
and women who wander the highways telling people about Christ pose to
society?

   They're known as the Christ Family. If they still exist, they can be
found in Florida, especially in the Boca Raton area. And according to
one ex-member, the experience of being in the cult was a terrifying
ordeal.

   The Christ Family has a relatively simple set of beliefs. According
to one member who calls himself Charlie Christ, the cult believes that
"non-violence is peace, no sex is love, and no materialism is harmony."
To Charlie, these ideas are the "keys to heaven."

   As stated earlier, the members wear white robes and travel the earth
barefoot. According to Charlie, "We're all walking on the same ball of
dirt. [Being barefoot] implants that message on the soles of your
feet." They also smoke tobacco and marijuana.

   Charlie Christ used to be known as Charlie Orton, owner of a Boca
Raton air conditioning business. But back in 1975, he sold the business
and his three-bedroom house and joined the group. The reason? "I found
out that they believe the same way I do about love...It's a heavy
experience to live in this world and not be able to relate to the love
you feel inside. That's why people join the Christ Family."

   But a psychology student and former member of the Christ Family who
goes under the pseudonym of Sadie Morgan had a different story. After
only two days of meeting with members of the group, she left home to
wander the highways of Florida with them shortly before Christmas 1977.
She was 22 years old at the time. However, after only one day in the
Christ Family, she was successfully kidnaped by her parents and taken
home. At that point, her voice and color had changed, and she was
reciting schitzoid ramblings and religious phrases. Sadie later made a
complete recovery, thanks to counseling from her father.

   In retrospect, Sadie believes that the cult members who visited her
might have given her a drug without her knowledge in order to brainwash
her. The drug, if there was one, was hidden in either her food or the
cigarettes cult members gave her. Although it cannot be proven, her
family believes that it may have been phencyclidine, or PCP, also known
as Angel Dust. The drug has been known to cause wild and unpredictable
behavior in humans.

   Although the Christ Family denies using any illegal drugs other than
marijuana, four members were arrested around the time Sadie joined the
cult. Their cigarette papers had been treated with LSD, short for
lysergic acid diethylamide, one of the most popular (and notorious)
drugs of the 1970s.

   Sadie says about the group, "A lot of things they said struck a
chord in me because I do believe in Jesus Christ. I do believe in his
teachings and in him as a man and a beautiful person.

   "But I don't believe in someone who I invite into my house
destroying every bit of my freedom, I mean, my personal mental
existence. That I don't believe in and that's what I say they did."

   THE WALK

   Also known as the Church of the Living Word, this cult is led by
"Apostle" John Robert Stevens. At least 100 churches in the United
States are allied with this "restoration movement."

   Although The Walk publicly denies sanctioning any extrabiblical
revelation, Stevens claims that "God has given the apostolic ministry a
unique ability to break into new levels in God and then impart them to
the people." The elite members of the organization are known as the
"apostolic company, " and they reportedly receive "new levels of
revelation" on a regular basis. All members of The Walk are expected to
submit to such revelations.

   Stevens, like many other cult leaders, is extremely intolerant of
individuality. He wrote a book in 1977 called "From Many Comes One, "
in which he claims that "the day of individuality is ending. Christ is
coming to be glorified in His saints, not that a lot of individuals
will be running around with Christ glorified in them, but that they
will lose their own identity as saints...God does not seem interested
in giving His people anything as individuals to make them happy and
contented... God does not want to protract the problem of
individuality." From an orthodox Christian standpoint, Stevens'
description of Christ is disturbingly similar to that of "Big Brother"
of George Orwell's "1984."

   Stevens also places a strong emphasis on authority and subjection,
and exhorts members of the cult to totally submit to himself and the
"apostolic company, " using the rationale of "Divine Right" used by
kings in the Middle Ages to cement their authority over their subjects:
"Those who are submissive will accept a word of authority over them,
even when that word is wrong...If the Lord has revealed the authority
over you, you can be submissive, even when the authority deviates from
the will of God. In other words, you can receive some wrong words of
direction and still be a winner." One pastor in The Walk even claimed
that he "would follow Brother Stevens to hell" and be honored by God
for submitting to the will of Stevens.

   The Walk is also involved in psychic and borderline occult
practices. Stevens tells his followers that "In your present state,
even though you are a Christian, your eyes are still not seeing the
spirit world, your ears are not hearing the spirit world...You must
work your way up to the higher plane." Members of the cult practice
such rituals as the "glory chain, " which can supposedly be used to
transfer God's blessings through people. This is done by placing the
right hand, palm up, underneath another cultist's left hand (also palm
up) and transferring the blessing through the back of his hand. Stevens
also teaches that astral projection can be performed, and cites I
Corinthians 5:3-4 for support, claiming that Paul was able to project
his soul to Corinth from a distant point.

   Martha Stevens, who was married to Apostle Stevens for 40 years,
filed for divorce in 1979. During the proceedings, she revealed that
Stevens' holdings could amount to $40 million. A California newspaper
then launched an investigation of the Church of the Living Word, and
learned that it had conducted a Nevada silver mine fraud that allegedly
cheated members of the cult out of at least $500, 000. Stevens also
possessed an extensive art collection and $29, 000 in silver bars, and
hired an attorney for the divorce suit, paying him $10,000 plus $125
per hour. Martha claims, "My husband has total control of the church
and its funds, and total access to all church finances. He is, in
essence, the church himself."

   HOUSE OF JUDAH

   In July 1983, Michigan state troopers removed a wooden stock which
was confiscated from the House of Judah religious camp in Allegan,
Michigan, when police raided the cult and took 67 children from their
parents and placed them in state custody, pending an investigation into
the alleged beating death of a twelve-year-old child at the camp. In
subsequent television interviews, the fanatical leader of the House of
Judah, "Prophet" William A. Lewis, justified the beatings as being "the
will of God." He explained that the cult members had to make a choice
of obeying God and beating their child (supposedly in accordance to the
Bible) or of not beating him and risking the eternal damnation of the
child's soul. Lewis stated that the dead child's parents bore no
responsibility for the child's death because God told them to beat the
child. Lewis explained, "God killed him because God doesn't like bad
children."

   FAITH TABERNACLE

   This church, based in southern California, is a little-known yet
very dangerous cult that exhibits many of the same signs that were
evident in the now-defunct People's Temple. Its leader is "Pastor"
Eleanor Daries, referred to as the "Oracle of God" by cult members. At
first glance, she may appear to be a warm and caring individual. One
woman who joined claimed:

   When you finally met Pastor, you fell in love with her at once.
Everything about her personality was attractive. She treated you like
you were really special. Most of the young people affectionately called
her "Mother." The new- comers soon adopted that term also because she
treated you like you were her own child. This woman [Eleanor Daries]
was constantly saying "I love you."

   One former member claimed:

   She had a fantastic personality that drew people like a magnet. Once
under her power, she could make you believe almost anything. I loved
her very much, and the desire to have her return that love and
friendship was so strong that I was willing to do almost anything to
get it. She used this knowledge to control me for a long time - never
quite letting me close enough to satisfy me, yet always holding
satisfaction before me as a hope, as one would hold bait before an
animal.

   And another former member named Donna stated:

   I had only met "Pastor" a couple of times, but she had me totally
wound around her finger. I adored her and was willing to do anything in
hopes of being someday like her... "Pastor" constantly glowed. You
could almost feel the presence of her personality before you even saw
her.

   Everything came alive when she entered the room. She was a perfect
lady, graceful, pretty, gracious, having the carriage and manner more
associated with royalty or nobility than with a pastor...She radiated
life and vitality, was totally feminine, and at the same time managed
to make her authority and strength felt. One felt both awed and drawn
to her.

   Donna was suckered into Faith Tabernacle, and a few months later
quit her job and moved onto a "dorm" for singles located at the
commune. She then gave all her valuables to "Pastor" Daries as a sign
of submission to her authority. According to her, the leaders "insisted
that the answer to life lay in renouncing self and all earthly ties to
family, friends, and possessions, and by giving oneself entirely to
serving God through the special mission of the commune."

   Donna then stayed on the commune for two years, letting her life be
planned out for her by the cult. Then she started dating a fellow
member, and was soon afterwards called to special meetings where she
was told that her fiancee couldn't manage money or maintain a clean
environment. She was coerced into signing a pledge to remain loyal to
the group even if her fiancee didn't. She was then pressured into
attending secret night meetings where she was interrogated harshly and
humiliated. Still undaunted, Donna finally won permission to marry, but
later learned that the cult had instilled in both of them a mutual fear
that the other would either leave Faith Tabernacle or inform on his/her
spouse. As a result, they rarely spoke to each other.

   Donna also unearthed - and was subjected to - a nightmarish system
of fear and terror that served as the underlying foundation of Faith
Tabernacle. The security system was very complex, yet so subtle that
the untrained eye would take years to see it. Everything one said or
did within the cult, including using the telephone, was done under the
watchful eyes of Daries' bodyguards and reported to Daries. Guards were
also posted at the doors during every sermon. Nobody entered or left
the compound without their knowledge. The guard system served two
purposes: to protect Daries and to prevent any members from escaping or
forming a mutiny. The compound itself was surrounded with a tall wire
fence that was bugged every step of the way.

   Members of Faith Tabernacle are forbidden to watch television or
read newspapers or magazines. Most individual activities are also
discouraged by the cult. Members are also expected to reveal every last
detail they can on their friends in the cult to the leaders. If one did
not inform on his friends, he could expect to be disciplined for not
doing so. As Donna said, "The result was that everybody watched
everyone else and cut the other guy's throat in order to save his own
neck."

   And there was good reason to fear discipline. Although there is no
evidence of physical abuse as in the People's Temple, there is a lot of
psychological abuse within Faith Tabernacle. A Japanese boy who was a
member of the cult was, according to Donna, interrogated for an hour at
one session until he was reduced to tears. Teen-age children in the
cult were forced to slap their parents who were being disciplined. Even
the youngest children were not spared; one little girl who was quite
pretty and just learning to talk was forced to repeat "I ugly, I ugly"
over and over in order to keep her from developing pride. Another girl
got spat on. Most discipline meetings were held at night on the spur of
the moment in order to further disillusion victims so that it was
harder to resist the psychological assaults they were forced to undergo.

   As for Eleanor Daries herself, she is an extremely paranoid and
manipulative individual who went through two failed marriages. Donna
said that Daries probably hated men: "She taught that women should rule
everything, and that men didn't have any brains and weren't good for
anything except to father children." Daries also ate from sterilized
dishes and drank only sterilized water, having an abnormal fear of
germs and poisons. She was also accompanied by a bodyguard at all times
for fear of being shot or stabbed, and took part at all discipline
sessions.

   CHURCH OF THE LAMB OF GOD

   This violent cult, with a thirst for blood that rivals that of the
People's Temple or Charles Manson's group, has its origins in a
relatively peaceful Mormon splinter group known as the Church of the
First Born of the Fullness of Time. (Whether or not it is related to
the Church of the First Born discussed earlier is unknown.) It was
founded by Alma LeBaron, a polygamist who was kicked out of the
Latter-Day Saints, who took his wives and children, along with a small
band of fellow polygamists, to Mexico in 1943. Alma then set up his own
church and a tiny village named Colonia LeBaron, which Alma ran until
his death.

   Joel LeBaron, one of Alma's seven sons, assumed control over the
church and was assisted by his brother Ervil, a stocky, oval-faced man
who then tried to wrench control from the group away from Joel. Unable
to do so, he then split from the group with approximately 50 followers
and formed the Church of the Lamb of God in the early 1970s. In 1972,
Joel was assassinated by two of Ervil's followers, Gamaliel Rios and
Daniel Jordan, who killed Joel on Ervil's orders. After another
brother, Verlon, took over Colonia LeBaron, Ervil tried to have him
murdered as well, but failed.

   The theology of the cult is relatively simple. Ervil LeBaron was the
One Mighty and Strong Prophet of God, and thus the sole ruler of the
cult. Members of the Church of the Lamb of God practiced polygamy, and
LeBaron himself took 13 wives and fathered at least 56 children. Ervil
taught that there were some sins that men could not be forgiven for,
and the only way they could be saved was by the spilling of their own
blood. Among the acts for which LeBaron prescribed "blood atonements"
were failing to tithe to him, failing to share wives with him, and
failing to adhere strictly to LeBaron's teachings.

   In 1974, two trucks filled with cult members attacked a rival
LeBaron commune located near Mexico's Baja Peninsula. Once there, the
cultists fire-bombed every building, killed two people, and left around
two dozen seriously injured. The "blood atonements" were on.

   In 1975, one of Ervil's wives left him and was promptly killed. In
the same year, cult member and fellow polygamist Robert Simons refused
to give one of his wives to Ervil. He too was murdered soon afterwards.

   It is believed that in 1977, LeBaron ordered the strangulation death
of his pregnant teen-age daughter, Rebecca Chynoweth, who was living in
Dallas with her husband Victor Chynoweth, who was suspected of planning
some of the cult murders along with his brothers Mark and Duane. All
three broke with the Church of the Lamb of God several years ago.

   In 1977, LeBaron then targeted a rival polygamist leader. Rulon
Allred, a naturopathic physician who lived in Murray, Utah, was shot to
death by two women in front of several patients. The women are believed
to have been among Ervil's wives. LeBaron was finally convicted of the
murder in 1980. Victor and Mark Chynoweth were also charged with the
murder, but not convicted. Ervil LeBaron was then thrown into a Utah
prison, where he died in 1982. One of his wives, Anna Marston, claimed
the body and had it buried at Resthaven cemetery in Houston.

   However, an FBI spokesman claims that while Ervil was in prison, he
supposedly wrote a hit list naming 23 disloyal cultists. He claimed
that the names came to him in a revelation. By 1988, 21 murders would
be credited to members of the Church of the Lamb of God, possibly
working on the hit list Ervil left behind. After LeBaron's
imprisonment, his followers founded a new commune near Mexico City.
Others left the cult and established non-polygamous families in America.

   In 1984, a Utah woman and her 15-month-old daughter were killed,
their deaths attributed to LeBaron's followers. Daniel Jordan, one of
the two cultists responsible for the death of Joel LeBaron, left the
cult and settled near Denver with his four wives, one of them being a
daughter of Ervil. Jordan was killed while on a camping trip in Utah in
October 1987. On the night of Jordan's funeral, Ervil's son Aaron
showed up at the Jordan family's main dwelling and proclaimed himself
the new One Mighty and Strong Prophet of God. A fight broke out, and
Aaron was arrested on a misdemeanor charge. After staying in jail for
three or four days, Aaron was released and hasn't been seen since.

   Shortly afterwards, another one of Ervil's brothers, Ross LeBaron,
told the LOS ANGELES TIMES: "It's gonna be terrible, a blood bath. I've
had the revelation. Ervil's kids, they're just gonna kill and kill and
kill."

   Ross turned out to be right. On June 27, 1988, cultists shot to
death Mark and Duane Chynoweth, who were living in Houston. Also killed
was Duane's 8-year-old daughter, Jennifer. Mark was killed in his
appliance store. At the same time, Edward Marston, who was living in
Irving, was also shot to death by cultists. Edward was the son of Anna
Marston, one of Ervil's wives and the one responsible for his burial in
Houston. The killings all took place within a few minutes of 4pm CST,
with what the DALLAS TIMES HERALD called "stark brutality and military
precision."

   The killers left few clues. Both the Houston and Irving drove dark
pickups, with the driver of the Houston pickup wearing a beard. Aaron
LeBaron, along with his brothers Andrew and Heber, are being sought for
questioning. Heber is also wanted as a suspect in a 1986 bank robbery
in Richardson.

   IN THE NAME OF GOD?

   Naturally, some doubt may exist about denouncing the teachings of
some of these cults, especially concerning the belief that God will
cure any diseases that trouble His followers. The Bible does reveal
some instances of miraculous healings performed by people other than
Christ, but it does not say anywhere in the Bible that the use of
medicine to cure ailments is in any way blasphemy. Many people who are
devoted to Christ nowadays, including the author of this study, will
claim that God has healed them of disease or ailment, or at least
relieved them of some kind of pain.

   However, it should be stressed that when one, claiming to act in the
name of God, prevents another person from receiving medical aid without
any consideration for the afflicted person, it can be safely said that
the person blocking medical aid to his/her comrade is defying God's
law. The individual believer should, of course, be able to refuse
treatment on religious grounds if he/she refuses it on his/her own free
will. However, the believer should be reminded of the incident where
Satan tempted Christ to jump off the Temple in Jerusalem, saying that
the Scriptures claimed that God "will command his angels concerning
you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not
strike your foot against a stone." To this, Christ simply replied, "It
is also written, 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'"

   As for disciplining children, there is no mandate in the Bible that
demands that all children be disciplined in the same way; for example,
spanking. Solomon once said that "Foolishness is bound in the heart of
a child; the rod of correction shall drive it far from him."
Unfortunately, too many people, even those who mean well for their
children, put the stress on "the rod" instead of "correction." It
should also be noted that Solomon elsewhere said that "He that troubles
his own house shall inherit the wind." And in no way does God ever
tolerate brutality in discipline; Christ spoke out vehemently against
it in the Gospels.

   It should be remembered that Christ handed down two commandments to
serve as a "foundation" for the Christian ethic: "'Love the Lord your
God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'
This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it:
'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on
these two commandments." (St. Matthew 22:37-40, NIV)

   Religious cults such as the ones described above go against these
two cherished principles that Christ taught while on the earth. If a
religious group claims to place anything above a person's God-given
right to life and love while still claiming to serve the Lord, avoid
the movement at all costs. Chances are that the movement in question is
one of the hundreds of religious cults that still flourish to this day.

   And the last thing a Christian needs is a foundation based on
shifting sands instead of a solid Rock.
