Churches that Abuse #4
Fanatic People! Fanatic Deception!
RONALD M. ENROTH Written 1992 Abusive Churches Can Go Over the Edge PAST AND PRESENT Abusive Churches Are Not New It is tempting to think of extreme authoritarian sects as a symptom of modern intellectual and religious aliments. We live in a complex world where personal security is a rare commodity. Pick up any national paper or magazine and you will find articles on stress, marital problems, substance abuse, and the increase of gangrelated violence. Contemporary preachers warn us that materialism and consumerism draw us away from God; we have become an ego-centered society that shuns the simple values and simple faith accepted by citizens one hundred years ago. It is no wonder then that immorality in the church itself is becoming more visible. It is no wonder that people, beset by anxieties and confused by scandal, should find shelter in the more structured environment of an authoritarian church. In America, which has been a haven for numerous small religious sects, there are important historical precedents for abusive churches. Most sects offered variety rather than aberration, but a few could be categorized as extreme. As with their modern counterparts, they often began with noble aspirations and biblical foundations, but were led astray through human frailty. The whole of church history has indeed been one it. The object of Frank's authority was to break down individual will and self-identity. At various times Sandford laid hands upon the heads of members who exhibited too much individuality and exorcised the demons of independent thinking and reasoning. The only thing that mattered was faith. Thinking accomplished nothing. The "death of self" became a spiritual goal for full members of Shiloh. If Sandford asked them to suffer in the process, they admired him even more for pulling holiness out of them. There was little privacy in Shiloh and Sandford did not hesitate in becoming involved in peoples' personal relationships. He encouraged Eliza Leger to leave her husband who had recently left the movement. She was torn between obeying Sandford the anointed leader and her duties as a wife to her husband. In a letter to Eliza, Sandford wrote, "The act of your husband is so dastardly... so utterly unscriptural that there is not the slightest reason that he should have the slightest consideration." Engaged and married people who began relationships without Sandford's permission, when he was abroad or, later, imprisoned, were told to "separate" until he had given them their blessings. It was not uncommon to see separated couples walk on the same road without speaking. As the movement grew, its spiritual elitism became more pronounced. Their physical isolation on the hill was just a part of their separateness from the rest of the world. A visitor to Shiloh would notice immediately that Shilohites were different. They spoke differently. Their clothes were old, simple, and well mended, and their lifestyle certainly was unusual. From the beginning of the Holy Ghost and Us Bible School, David's Band was the spiritual elite. Only the fittest warriors were selected. Frank wrote later that he had to literally scare some people away. The rigors of his community discouraged all but the most worthy. He wanted no ordinary Christians. Shiloh was to be the focal point of the kingdom of God. When the movement experienced opposition and criticism, their very elitism became a defense against the arrows of the Devil. In 1901 Sandford closed Shiloh's communion and worship services to all but full members. If families opposed their relatives giving all their possessions to Shiloh, the members "must be ready to slash every natural tie - turn their backs on their families, if families should oppose obedience to God, Stanford wrote, "You are actually to hate, WITH A PERFECT HATRED, your father, mother, brother, sister, child, and even your own life, in so far as these are not in conformity with the word of God." Many families did dissolve, marriages broke up, and children abandoned Shiloh only to be disfellowshipped by their parents. There was no higher allegiance than to Sandford, for allegiance to him was allegiance to God. Frank warned his followers: First you will be out of joint with the world, then out of joint with the professed Christian world, then out of joint with consecrated people, and then sanctified people, and then people that believe in Divine Healing, and then the Holy Ghost people you know, and THEN you will find a few other people who have gone on alone with God. One of Sandford's greatest weaknesses as a leader was his lack of compassion. He enjoyed the simple exercise of power and authority. The people at Shiloh rarely were given any meat. They lived mainly on cornmeal. When some members prayed for meat during one of Sandford's trips to Palestine, Sandford arranged for a side of beef to be delivered. He made everyone eat nothing but beef until the entire 1,425 pounds were finished. That much meat, after a vegetarian diet, made everyone sick, but it ended prayers for meat. He seemed willfully ignorant of the pain his followers endured for his sake while living the good life himself. Even though Shiloh averaged around four hundred people throughout most of its history, not all those who experienced it were happy. A few did rebel. Most were bitter when they left and went to the newspapers with their stories. Some even filed lawsuits against Sandford. Ex-members told stories of physical or psychological manipulation and abuse. Former members remembered subtle means for disorienting the members. For example, there was no schedule for work or prayer. At any moment during the day or night a loud alarm bell would call members to prayers or to other work. Members worked hard at keeping up the grounds and constructing new buildings. They were hungry, often overworked, and spiritually intimidated. Eliza Leger said she was "metaphysically stoned." She lay prostrate on the floor for many hours while fellow members circled her body shouting and screaming as they accused her of "spiritual lapses." She was then banished to a room for two weeks of fasting. Sandford interpreted any dissent as the work of Satan. John Douglas was one of Frank's earliest converts and most of Shiloh stood on land donated by John and his family. When John left right after the first building had been raised, after a disagreement over ownership of a small boat, local reporters who were critical of Shiloh, and who had been watching Sandford and his group, picked up the story of Douglas' defection and gave Sandford his first dose of public criticism. Frank answered the papers in his magazine, "[Satan] has used godless editors and reporters to write up the most sensational and glaringly false statements concerning this work... thus poisoning the minds of the people all over the country against God's movement." Ex-members were called quitters, turncoats, and traitors. At first they simply lost their place in the Lord's roll call, but gradually the act of leaving became an act of disloyalty. Ex-members were not to be spoken to or about. Georgia Sheller was told to have no fellowship with her parents who had left angrily and bitterly. She wrote to her parents, "I am following Elijah, and since you have deserted him I cannot and do not have anything more to do with you." This treatment extended to members of Frank's own family. Two of his daughters, Marguerite and Deborah, left as teenagers. They were both shunned, and Helen was forbidden to answer their letters. It was expected that you would stay with the community, even if it meant leaving your family behind. To break away from the group required more effort than to join. After Eliza Leger left she said that "the hypnotic spell began to break as soon as I dared decide that something was wrong with this man.... I know that it is a part of that dreadful, subtle snare that some have broken away from, but that holds so many still under its power." Staying was painful, but leaving was even more so. Members were told that to leave was to invite certain punishment and divine retribution. After Albert Field left with his family, he had a family portrait taken in case they should all perish from God's wrath. Leaving also involved some real risk. All possessions were left at Shiloh. People left only with the clothes on their backs. Every member deeded their businesses, family farms, and all other assets to Shiloh to qualify as full members. When they left, they left destitute. Some were unable to face the real world again and returned to Shiloh. Years of dependence did not make it easy for people to make their own decisions and fend for themselves. Those who did return were shunned, isolated in remote houses until they had earned forgiveness. Merlyn Bartlett left twice. She could not endure the condemnation after her return. When she left the second time, she was followed by Shiloh ministers who rode with her in the train denouncing her to the other passengers as "a whore." The wrath of God fell not only upon those who dared to leave Shiloh. Parents of children who escaped were punished, and so were those who failed at parental discipline. Those questioning any aspect of the ministry were severely reprimanded and punished. Dissent became synonymous with demon possession. It was a convenient way to bring dissenters back into fellowship. It was easier to blame a demon than to admit you had disagreed. Only a person exorcised could be fully forgiven. More often than not, demonic possession was evident when a man simply thought for himself. Sandford said, "Think clearly as he may... he cannot get anything correct... there is only one way out, the person has to submit or is sent away in disgrace." Periods of dissent, grumbling, or restlessness were followed by purges. The threat of being excommunicated and thrown out of the kingdom resulted in a renewal of allegiances. These purges were known as "the siftingout process" or "cleaning-out time." Sandford was looking for only the "fair, clear, and terrible." The first purge in 1890 was meant to purify the members. The purge was a ruthless examination of character and soul. If you passed the test you were allowed to attend a special service for which you were given a ticket. Members considered the tickets to be beyond price. On the ticket were printed the words "fair," meaning no blemish, "clear," meaning no guile, and "terrible," referring to the face of Satan when he met a child of God. This purge, like the others that followed, was less a spiritual purification process than it was a reindoctrination, a means to solidify Sandford's authority. The purges lasted for weeks, representing long grueling hours of prayer and fasting followed by intense interrogation. Only the submissive and defenseless were accepted. Sandford interpreted every criticism as a demonic attempt to destroy the kingdom of God. "The malevolence of our detractors only shows that the devil fears the work that we are doing and will take any means to balk US." He did not seem to worry about legal prosecution because God would deliver him from his enemies and detractors. He believed himself to be the prophet Elijah, and as Elijah, he expected to be persecuted and scorned. But he would prevail. Sandford threatened reporters who mocked him, "before long [they] will meet the God of judgment." Sandford was arrested on January 23, 1904 on charges of manslaughter in the case of Leander Bartlett, and child abuse in the case of John Sandford. The case of John Sandford was over in a single day, February 3rd. Sandford was found guilty of abuse and neglect in requiring his son to fast with neither food nor water for three days. The manslaughter trial began the next morning. Leander Bartlett had died of diphtheria that January 25th in Bethesda, the Shiloh infirmary. He had come to Shiloh with his mother and sister, and he was a lively and good-natured boy. He was fourteen years old when he died. Leander had fallen suddenly ill in the middle of January. He became so weak that he could not stand and was carried to Bethesda in the middle of the night. It came out at the trial that Leander had received no medical or spiritual help during the next week, the last week of his life. A week after Leander was admitted, Joseph Sutherland was admitted with small pox. Joseph had refused to obey Sandford's order to cover his face while visiting small pox victims. Sandford heard a message from God, "Dead. He said he would hearken unto thee, and he hearkened not." It was revealed on Sunday, January 25 that both Leander and Joseph had died that day. Helen wrote to the overseas missions, "God has been showing His jealousy for David Truth [Sandford]... the curse falling on those who deviate from it in the least degree." Leander's death was also seen as a punishment as he had confessed before dying that when he became ill he had been planning to run away. The offenders had been punished. No one was allowed to grieve for Sutherland. Sandford had "separated" Mrs. Sutherland from her husband while he lay dying in Bethesda. He told her that even though he had married them, he wasn't happy about their relationship. While her husband died, she sat in a public chapel listening to Sandford tell her that she was now married to Christ because Joseph had been struck down for spiritual pride and seeking popularity. Mrs. Sutherland never fully recovered from the blow. Leander was buried in the Shiloh cemetery. Where other graves bore loving epitaphs, Leander's bore only a name and a date. The definition of manslaughter in the trial hinged on the interpretation of death by negligent omission. The prosecution had to prove that Leander was denied care and treatment. The matter of faith healing was really not the central issue. Sandford was convicted because he withheld not only medical treatment, but faith healing as well. Leander, who had planned to run away, was denied a doctor and a minister. Diphtheria at the time was treatable and almost one hundred percent curable if an antitoxin was given at the onset of the disease. In the end, the jury had to decide if Sandford had withheld faith healing out of spite or ill will, in order to make an example of what would happen to disobedient members. Current and former members took the stand verifying that Leander received no substantial care for the week he was sick before he died. In fact, he had been denied food and water during a seventy-two hour fast. Some testimony was especially damning. "He [Sandford] stretched his hands out before him and said he wouldn't care, or he would like to see... his dead corpse before him.... He said he couldn't pray for him." During his court appearances Sandford took a passive role, neither conferring with his attorney nor taking the stand in his own defense. He seemed completely at ease and unperturbed by the possibility of a conviction. The people of Shiloh flocked to the courthouse to watch the proceedings quietly, trying to avoid the reporters who surrounded the building. In less than two hours the jury returned the verdict of guilty. It took two years and many appeals before the verdict was overturned (the prosecution was not able to prove "culpable indifference"). During those years Sandford became convinced that the Tribulation had begun and if they were to be the refuge in the wilderness, Shiloh needed to be self-sufficient. Shiloh was incorporated as the Kingdom of David. More property was purchased, including dairies and farms. Only a self-sufficient community would be able to ride out the Tribulation. Sandford began asking families to join the movement. People across the nation, eager to be a part of the true church, sold their farms and transferred their assets to the Kingdom. They had been promised farms in Durham purchased by the Kingdom in their names. In fact, only seven of the twenty-two donors arrived to find land in their names. Sandford's second trial followed the disastrous voyage of 1911. Sandford had felt it difficult to deal with the problems at Shiloh and retreated to his yacht, The Coronet. He selected the best and most loyal members of Shiloh to serve as his crew. After a long, tedious voyage around the globe in an overcrowded boat, Sandford at last returned home to the Atlantic coast. He was wanted by the police on a kidnapping charge made by Florence Whittaker, who had been detained against her will on board one of the Kingdom yachts before being rescued by the local sheriff. Although most of the passengers had not known, Sandford was on the run from the law. The Coronet shuttled up and down the coast, across the Atlantic to Africa, trying to stay in international waters. When supplies of food and water were almost gone, Sandford still refused to land, even in a foreign port. The boat, built to house a maximum of thirty people, was being occupied by more than fifty. Some crew members and passengers fell ill, and some died. For the last few months the passengers survived on biscuits and rainwater rations. The boat had to be pumped twentyfour hours a day. Men became so weak that they could not climb up on deck. The men, women, and children aboard lost their will to live. The constant storms broke the schooner's masts, and it became impossible to keep warm and dry in the middle of the storm-tossed North Atlantic. The passengers and crew began to lose their teeth and suffer constant diarrhea. By the time scurvy was suspected, it was too late. Much later, Roland Whittom remarked that he "could not understand how we could have allowed the man to dominate us so." Only when faced with a possible mutiny did Sandford agree to return. When The Coronet tinally limped into a Maine harbor on October 21st, six people had died of scurvy and many more were critically ill. Sandford was immediately arrested for kidnapping, but when inspectors saw the condition of the boat and crew, Sandford was arrested for more serious charges, "that he did unlawfully, knowingly, and willingly allow a ship to proceed on a voyage at sea without sufficient provisions." At his trial he admitted his guilt to the jury but claimed he was only doing what God had ordered. He was sentenced to ten years in the Atlanta Federal Penitentiary. Three years were cut off from his sentence for good behavior. The final blow to the movement occurred after Sandford returned from prison. He was unhappy with the poverty and listlessness at Shiloh and retreated to Boston in 1919. He became increasingly paranoid, driving in cars with shades pulled down and keeping all the curtains in his house drawn. Despite being abandoned by Sandford, Shiloh still numbered almost four hundred members. In February 1920 a civil suit was brought against William Hastings, a member of Shiloh, for the custody of six of his eight children who were still living in Shiloh. Their mother had died and her family, along with the two eldest children, sued Hastings for nonsupport. Although Sandford was not a defendant in the trial, this was the case that would finally bring his church down. On the stand, the Hastings children recounted the poverty they had experienced. Ten-year-old David said he couldn't ever remember having had breakfast before school, although he did have lard on his bread as a Christmas present. His older sister Mary recounted how, because she was too malnourished, she was hidden in the woods when Child Welfare inspectors came. Neighbors testified to feeding starving children. In his testimony William admitted that they did not have enough to eat, but he refused to work for wages as it was against God's law. He was living on faith even if his children starved, indeed, as they had most of their lives. Hastings lost the battle and his children were taken from him. Shiloh stood at a turning point. Sandford's attorney warned him that other families would use the Hastings case as precedent and that soon most of the children would be taken from Shiloh. God then sent word to Sandford in Boston that it was now acceptable for fulltime members to earn a wage. It was a simple thing really, but it destroyed the movement. When men went to work in the mills and farms surrounding Shiloh, the atmosphere of holiness and separateness was removed. The Bible School closed, and in one month the population was down to one hundred members. Members who had listened to Sandford's words finally wondered why God would change his mind on something so pivotal to the movement. If they could earn a wage, they could wait for the Lord's return in more comfortable settings. It was no longer necessary to suffer in order to live the Christian life. The purpose for Shiloh's existence simply evaporated. A short time later Sandford ordered everyone to abandon Shiloh. Sandford remained a leader of a small group of loyal followers, many of whom had endured through many hardships and tragedies. A small group of believers continues to be known as "The Kingdom." The Shiloh complex has long since disintegrated, but in a few homes Sandford is still revered as a prophet and man of God. Shirley Nelson, whose family history is part of the history of Shiloh, puts the purpose of remembering Shiloh in perspective: "I tell it for all the innocent, for those who ... are bound to be the victims, destined to fall from the cliffs of someone else's ascent toward the highest and the best." The story of Shiloh is not unlike other nineteenth century American religious experiments that emerged around a single authoritarian leader. One way to achieve an understanding of current abusive movements is to step back and take a broader, historical perspective. An examination of Sandford's Shiloh reveals amazing parallels to the spiritually abusive groups of today. The lesson we learn from Frank Sandford is that there is indeed nothing new about "new" Christian movements. Now, as in the past, the spiritual power holders exert strong control-oriented leadership and exercise immense influence in the day-to-day lives of adherents. In the present, like the past, Christian groups claim new divine revelation through inspired prophets or preachers who "receive a word from the Lord" regularly. Like Sandford and his predecessors, today's movements express the conviction they alone are the repository of "truth," or that they have been chosen by God to restore a lost or dormant spiritual vitality. Both groupings share a strong consciousness of persecution; both illustrate attitudes of negativity toward established churches; both view their "spiritual family" as superior to the biological family; and both have exhibited concern about the role and fate of ex-members. In short, the narrative of churches that abuse has important beginnings in our past. ...... To be continued Note: For you ex-Worldwide Church of God members, are you seeing your history under Herbert Armstrong revealed to you from the practice of Frank Sandford and the Shiloh church. As Solomon said, "There is nothing new under the sun" - indeed, history repeats itself, and it seems over and over again, especially when we will not learn from it. Much of the mind-set of Sandford was the mind-set of Herbert Armstrong after his wife Loma died in 1967. As I read about the Shiloh church I am reminded of how much Herbert Armstrong became another Sandford. Power over people, exclusiveness, control, fear, only one true organization that was the one true church of God; special insight and a special connection with God; loyalty to a man and an organization above anything else; safety promised from the hour of the great tribulation; demonic powers were behind anything that opposed Armstrong and his church; ministers under Armstrong acting and thinking as clones to Armstrong himself; people cast out at the drop of a hat if any disloyalty was evident; members told to have nothing to do with those disfellowshipped. Divorce and re- marriage for the sake of loyalty was given God's approval by the leadership; Armstrong was by many looked upon as the "Elijah to come" - a graph shown on worldwide TV (Worldwide Church of God Telicast) of God the Father, under the Father, Jesus the Christ, under Christ, Herbert Armstrong. The Worldwide Church of God became anther Shiloh church, and another of the MANY churches that abuse, that have appeared in the past and in the present. Armstrong often preached one thing and lived another; the abuse of tithe money and the teaching of "third tithe" for the poor and needy, was finally also abused by the ministry for their high living life style. Herbert Armstrong becoming the chief abusers of money and physical wealth. All of this and more is expounded for you on my Website under the book by John Tuit called "The Truth shall Make you Free." The shame of all this is that churches that abuse turn hundreds or thousands OFF from God and His Word - they turn their back on God and Christ - they throw the Bible out of the window - they walk away from salvation and the Kingdom of God - they go back into the world of sin and "doing their own thing" - they are like the dog that returns to its vomit. Men and organizations that leave such a pathway in history .... well, as Jesus said, "You shall know them by their fruits." The end fruit is decay and rot. Then often such church organizations leave behind "offshoot" organizations with leaders and people who will not admit the errors and fanaticism and corruptness and false teachings of the man and organization they came from, and so in a more subtle way Satan continues to weave his tangled web over the lives of people. I suppose it must be so. I suppose it is so because the wheat must be separated from the chaff. I suppose it must be so that the very elect who cannot be deceived must be shown, must stand up and be counted, must be witness to the falsehood and errors of men who are led astray by their own self-righteousness and vanity. God knows who are His, and He will have them stand and witness to the truth that shall indeed set you free!! Keith Hunt |
No comments:
Post a Comment