Bringing down "America's happiest cult" - yet more abuse

[Coldwinterskies]

Buzzfeed has posted an article exposing the abusive practices of a group called "Jesus People USA"

 

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The movement spawned hundreds of religious communes across the country, including Calvary Chapel, one of the largest and most influential megachurches in America today, as well as the Children of God, the notorious sex cult that once claimed as followers Joaquin Phoenix, Rose McGowan, and Jeremy Spencer, one of the original members of Fleetwood Mac. Most of these communes collapsed within a few years. Jesus People USA, which today has about 300 members, is one of the largest that has survived.

The influence of the Jesus People movement on evangelical Christianity is profound. “It gave birth to Christian rock,†says David Di Sabatino, who made a documentary about Lonnie Frisbee and the Jesus People movement called Frisbee: The Life and Death of a Hippie Preacher. “The contemporary Christian music industry wouldn’t exist without the Jesus People.â€

For much of its history, Jesus People USA hosted one of the largest Christian rock festivals in America, called Cornerstone, launching Christian bands that would go mainstream in the ’90s, like MxPx and P.O.D. “Nearly every megachurch in America has a youth outreach arm that’s been influenced by the Jesus People movement,†says Larry Eskridge, author of God’s Forever Family: The Jesus People Movement in America. “You see it in the way they dress, in the kind of music they use. All of that, you can trace back to the influence of the Jesus Movement.â€

 

 

Some of you may have seen some of my rants on here about the Jehovah's Witnesses, a cult that has been responsible for covering up countless cases of child sex abuse in their congregations. Disgustingly, it looks like the Jesus People are yet another culty group that is doing that sort of thing:

 

 

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While Prater still called his parents “Mom†and “Dad,†he unofficially belonged to a larger family headed by a man named Ron Brown, the token black man on the leadership council. The title was more than ceremonial: If the council decided a certain couple wasn’t fit to parent, they would “give†their children to another family, and from then on the kids would take that last name, answer to their new mom and dad, and, in some cases, have minimal to no contact with their actual parents.

“You see this sort of behavior in a lot of authoritarian groups,†says Janja Lalich, who has studied cults for 20 years. “Whether intentional or not, the idea is to break down the family as an autonomous structure to build loyalty. It’s all about loyalty to the leaders. This is textbook cult behavior.â€

 

 

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Of the 120 people Prater reached over two years, 70 said they had suffered some form of sexual abuse growing up in the commune. One woman told him of a trip to the Farm, the 300-acre JPUSA retreat in Doniphan, Missouri, where she said she was sexually assaulted by one of the commune’s leaders. Another said he had been forced to perform oral sex on two men in the Leland Building, the Jesus People dorm for single men. Prater found that the Jesus People leadership had not only been aware of dozens of complaints of abuse, but had conspired to hide those crimes and silence the victims.

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Prater says he’s paid a heavy price for what he’s brought to light. It’s cost him a relationship, a job, and lifelong friendships, and severed any remaining ties to where he grew up.

“It’s almost like I’m attacking my family, the only home I ever knew,†Prater says back at Starbucks. We’ve been talking for more than an hour, but he’s still skittish, looking over my shoulder every few minutes to see if anyone from JPUSA is passing by. “I really struggled with speaking up, with documenting what I found, because it was so disturbing to me, and so painful to relive. But someone had to tell the truth. Someone had to tell the story of what happened there.â€

 

 

I am so fucking sick of these cults using their control over people to sexually abuse their members. I think America needs to wise up and stop letting religion be a haven for abusers.

 

A lot of these culty groups will punish any dissenters with shunning to keep them in line. People who have started to question the group truly have to be strong enough to walk away from EVERYONE they love.

[quincygal]

I literally JUST got this link from my sister. They used to have a music festival in Bushnell IL, and when her BF's brother worked for Jars of Clay, they would get free tix & go. I knew some fundie-lights who had gone as well. Kinda scary something like this was going on in the background.

[Cleopatra7]

I've heard of the Jesus People, but didn't think they were still around any more, much less living communally. Once again, this shows that these isolated religious groups do a terrible job of policing themselves, whether it's Jonestown, the Branch Davidians, the Amish, Hasidic Jews, or the Catholic church during the "Catholic ghetto" days. Rod Dreher and others advocating for a "Benedict Option" for conservative Christians would do well to see how these religious communities breed abuse.

[meep]

Oh man. And to think I had contemplated going to live there when I was younger. *shudder*

[BullyJBG]

Joining the shudder. I was there in the early 90s with my Bible school class. Well, our Chicago missions trip, there were 2 places we could spend the whole week and JPUSA was one of them. I was in the other group, but we did meet up halfway in the week, and all spent one evening at JPUSA. I found this whole communal living thing interesting, though those who stayed there all week claimed that, while the people were really inspiring, the hygiene standards were really low and the food was disgusting. Some people got sick. Most, when they came to our windup at the other place, were pigging out at OUR food.(we were responsible for our own meals and put in groups taking turns doing meal prep) But the impact of the time there was, well, some talked of starting our own JPUSA. Which I guess would have to be JPC, as we're Canadian, lol.

Well, now I'm gonna shudder over EVERY such organization! I think they all start with good intentions of avoiding the troubles the rest of the world faces, or helping others. Even the "workhouses" of old were. And now I wonder, was there sexual abuse there too? Was that why they strictly segregated men and women, and boys and girls? Ugh!

Oh no, one friend of mine works in such a place, though it's much smaller! Must pray for her! And for them, against falling into the same traps!