CultNEWS101 Articles: 10/22/2025

Jesus Army, UK, Spring Ridge Academy, Australia, Transcendental Meditation

The Guardian: New allegations of sexual and domestic abuse made against the Jesus Army cult

"About 60 former members of the Jesus Army, a cult described as one of the most abusive in British history, have come forward with new allegations against the group, according to a lawyer representing claimants.

The cases range from allegations of sexual or domestic abuse to claims for unpaid work from women who served as "domestic sisters" in the cult, which at its peak in the mid-2000s had several thousand members, many of whom surrendered their assets to the leadership.

Married women living in the group's many communal houses were required to work long hours, unpaid, and some lawyers believe they were treated as modern slaves. Some of the claimants also allege they reported abuse to the Jesus Army's leadership, who failed to act."

HuffPost: From 'Troubled Teens' To Traumatized Adults

"Molly Dickin had only been at an all-girls boarding school in Arizona for a few months when she and two other girls climbed over a barbed-wire fence and ran off into the desert.

It was around 8 p.m. in late April 2015, and Dickin was making her escape from Spring Ridge Academy, a now-closed, for-profit boarding school just over an hour north of Phoenix that housed up to 76 teen girls at a time to treat behavioral problems.

Dickin, now 28, told HuffPost she could no longer stomach the abuse she said she endured while there. Dickin said she was forced to participate in psychological games that included having to roleplay her own sexual assault in front of her peers, and faced punishments that included not being able to speak to anyone for weeks at a time.

"We were just very, very desperate to get away from SRA," said Dickin, who had turned 18 two months before her escape.

" ... Nine years later, in 2024, the school's controversial practices exploded into public view when the mother of a former student won a federal lawsuit after alleging that Spring Ridge was an abusive, cult-inspired program that used fraud and manipulation to "imprison students for an arbitrary and uncertain time period for money." She also claimed that the program was able to "sever" the relationship between her and her daughter.

Spring Ridge, and other boarding schools and boot camps like it, which together are known as the "troubled-teen industry," had started to come under scrutiny from media outlets and lawmakers. Last year, a jury awarded the mother more than $2.5 million in damages, an unprecedented amount that experts hoped would be a turning point toward reining in a multibillion-dollar industry they say preys on vulnerable teens and their families.

But the ruling was reversed earlier this year over allegations that a juror may have conducted their own research on the industry before the verdict was read, potentially biasing the outcome. A judge declared a mistrial and scheduled a new trial for January 2026."

ABC: Victorian inquiry hears from regional cult survivors about their isolation and shame

A Victorian government inquiry into cults and fringe groups has heard evidence about how the groups operate outside of the public gaze.

Survivors are calling for cult-informed frontline workers and better protections for people living in or leaving cults or high-control groups.

More witnesses will give evidence to the inquiry before recommendations are delivered in September 2026.

Paper, An Anthropological Touring of the TM Story in Fairfield, Iowa

Communal Echelons & Generational Wealth in Neighborhoods Built Concentrically Around the Maharishi International University & a Transcendental Meditation Movement Community in Fairfield.  

"In the decade of 1970 to 1980, a million Americans learned Transcendental Meditation.  At the time, this was about 1 in 300+ Americans.

In November 2024, a retired career professor of anthropology who lives on the East Coast visited Fairfield, Iowa. This professor had not really heard of Fairfield, Iowa, and knew very little about TM before coming to Fairfield.

At some point during their visit, I offered to give this anthropology professor a driving tour of the TM community in Fairfield.

I enjoy giving these tours of this utopian story to 'outsiders'.  On this particular driving tour, a throughline thread shared within the tour for this 'anthropologist' was how meditators from their earliest arrival in Fairfield, initially to occupy a newly purchased college campus, settled into living in housing in concentric neighborhoods that developed in sequence over time through different decades of the last 50 years. The pattern reflects distinct waves of growth, socioeconomic, and cultural practices.

In 1974, upon arrival, the move of a university faculty, staff, and students from California to Fairfield focused on settling, occupying, and operationalizing an empty, recently purchased, bankrupt college campus.

In the first few years after initial settlement, a few individual homes were purchased by members of the meditating community in town, often in the nearby neighborhood south of campus.

In 1978, at a large assembly of meditators held at the University of Amherst, a call was made for meditators to move to Fairfield, Iowa, with the mission of holding large-scale daily group meditations.

From this Amherst Assembly invitation, two groups came more immediately to the call: First, those with so much wealth, this was another place to have a house.  A second group who had no life obligations other than that could keep them from coming, and even more wealth came to them more immediately as well.

The Construction of two large golden domes to house the group meditation practice followed.  Within a decade of the first arrival of meditators on campus at Fairfield, an off-campus socioeconomic middle-class began to surface, living in town and in the surrounding County area."

The selection of articles for CultNEWS101 does not imply that Patrick Ryan or Joseph Kelly endorse the content. We provide information from multiple perspectives to foster dialogue.

CultNEWS101 Articles: 9/17/2025

Jesus Army, UK, Legal, La Luz del Mundo, FLDS

BBC: Alleged abusers may get share of Jesus Army wealth

"People accused of child abuse could receive significantly larger payments than their alleged victims under plans to share the fortune of a disgraced evangelical sect.

The organisation, known as the Jesus Army, has already paid out compensation to hundreds of people as part of a damages scheme.

Legal submissions, seen by the BBC, reveal it has £25m left which it intends to divide among loyal members. Survivors described the proposals as sickening.

A spokesperson for the Jesus Fellowship Community Trust (JFCT), which is winding up the affairs of the group, insisted the trustees had acted "in accordance with the trust deed".

The Jesus Army, or Jesus Fellowship Church, was founded by Noel Stanton, the late pastor of Bugbrooke Chapel, in Northamptonshire in 1969.

In 2017, three years prior to the group disbanding, documents seen by the BBC showed the estimated total value of its assets was £58.6m.

These included businesses and 55 large houses throughout England, which have since been sold."

AP: Longtime head of Mexican megachurch is indicted in New York on federal sex trafficking charges

"The longtime head of a Mexican megachurch who is serving more than 16 years in a California prison for sexually abusing young followers has been charged with racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking for allegedly victimizing members of the church for decades, federal authorities said Wednesday.

A New York grand jury returned the indictment alleging that Naasón Joaquín García, 56, and five others, including his 79-year-old mother, exploited the church for decades, enabling the systemic sexual abuse of children and women for the sexual gratification of García and his father, who died in 2014.

The newly unsealed indictment said the criminal activity included the creation of photos and videos of child sexual abuse and had begun after the church was founded a century ago by Garcia's grandfather, who died in 1964. Garcia's father, Samuel Joaquin Flores, led the church from then until his death."

" ... García is the head of La Luz del Mundo (The Light of the World), which claims to have 5 million followers worldwide. Believers consider him to be the "apostle" of Jesus Christ.

Federal authorities said that he used his spiritual sway to have sex with girls and young women who were told it would lead to their salvation — or damnation if they refused. His efforts were enabled by others, including his mother, who helped groom the girls to be sexually abused, they said.

Prosecutors said García also directed girls, boys and women to engage in group sex with each other, often in his presence, for his sexual gratification.

Sometimes, they added, he required the children to wear masks so they would not realize they were having incestual sex."

NewsNation: Investigator gets exclusive look at cult leader Warren Jeffs' secret caves

Ashleigh Banfield talks with Mike King, a criminal investigator and author, who got an inside look at the home of Warren Jeffs, the infamous leader of the polygamist FLDS Church.

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'We could hear the screams': Inside the Jesus Army

Kris Holland

BBC News

July 28, 2025

Noel Stanton, the Jesus Fellowship's tyrannical leader, died in 2009 before he could be prosecuted for any crimes.

A small Christian commune that aspired to create heaven on Earth grew to become a cult in which sexual and physical abuse was perpetuated in plain sight.

The Jesus Army church recruited thousands of people to live in close-knit, puritanical communities in Northamptonshire, London and the Midlands.

One of the UK's most abusive cults, it is now the subject of a new BBC documentary and podcast.

They trace the story from its hippy origins as the Jesus Fellowship, through the high-profile launch of the Jesus Army in the late 1980s, to its shocking collapse in the 2000s when the truth about life inside the church started to emerge.

Two survivors have been sharing their experiences.

'It was just horrible'

"I always had these yearnings for a lifestyle that was different to the materialistic lifestyle," he explains.

"This feeling that striving for wealth didn't equate to happiness, and I didn't feel attached to material property in the way that a lot of my friends seemed to be."

In 1976, aged 18, John was told that in the village of Bugbrooke, near Northampton, a Christian preacher called Noel Stanton had created a "communal lifestyle" that had attracted hundreds of young people.

After saving some money, John travelled from his home in Kent to experience it for himself and soon saw the attraction.

"I remember a guy called Andy out in the garden. He was doing some weeding and I remember him singing away to himself while he was doing it.

"And so that was the first thing that really struck me, just how happy everybody looked. I could feel myself melting."

For that life, though, sacrifices needed to be made because "any kind of entertainment was wrong," John says.

"So no more cinema, no more television. And from now on, I would have to stop listening to any music."

But after some time he began to have doubts, including how children were treated.

He says children were disciplined with birch sticks, which "was meant to be a loving form of correction".

John says: "A young child was taken away from the dining room table to be disciplined, and we could all hear.

"His screams as he was hit, and on that occasion, he was hit at least six times and it was just horrible. It was... humiliating for the child. It was humiliating for everybody. Horrible."

John began documenting what he had seen and heard during his time in the Jesus Fellowship.

He eventually left but was branded a "traitor" and no-one from the group was allowed to contact him.

The Jesus Army's headquarters was at New Creation Hall, the Grade II-listed farmhouse in Bugbrooke where Noel Stanton lived.

Philippa began visiting it with her family as a child before they moved to the village permanently in 1986, "a couple of doors down" from Stanton.

"You could feel his influence, actually," she says. "He didn't need to be there."

Many teenagers, including her older brother, were separated from their families and housed elsewhere.

This was all part of Stanton's belief that the family of God was more important than one's biological family.

Philippa says when she was 12 and 13, she became aware that a friend of about the same age was being sexually abused.

She says: "You're constantly being told that you are sinful as a woman. That you're distracting men from God.

"You're called a Jezebel. You're belittled at every opportunity by Noel. So who's gonna believe that, you know, a man, an elder, has done those things to somebody?"

But eventually, while still a teenager, she testified in court against an elder who became the first member of the group to be convicted of sexually assaulting a young person.

She said she was shunned by the leadership and fled the group before eventually founding the Jesus Fellowship Survivors Association.

When the Jesus Army disbanded following Stanton's death in 2009, allegations against him of numerous sexual assaults on boys emerged.

The Jesus Fellowship Church ultimately disbanded in 2019 following a series of historical cases of sexual abuse.

A report by the Jesus Fellowship Community Trust (JFCT), a group tasked with winding up the church's affairs, found one in six children involved with it was estimated to have been sexually abused by the cult.

It is still thought that some of those accused, including 162 former leaders, may have taken up roles in different churches and Northamptonshire Police is liaising with relevant local authorities to see if any safeguarding action is required.

The JFCT said it was sorry for “the severely detrimental impact” on people’s lives, and hoped the conclusion of the redress scheme would “provide an opportunity to look to the future” for all those affected during a 50-year period.

To date, about 12 former members of the Jesus Fellowship Church have been convicted for indecent assaults and other offences.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2je7l06mgo

War and Defeat: The Jesus Army and Fellowship

John Everett: War and Defeat: The Jesus Army and Fellowship 

"For nearly fifty years the Jesus Fellowship Church (JFC) - known to many as the Jesus Army - offered its members salvation, sanctity and security within the caring brotherhood of a communal lifestyle believed to be God's kingdom here on Earth. Many, in good faith, knew it as their true home, their 'Zion'. Sadly, however, utopian experiments rarely stand the test of time, and the JFC proved no exception: its demise in 2017 followed hot on the heels of a police investigation - codenamed Operation Lifeboat - into allegations of abuse. Operation Lifeboat led to several successful prosecutions.

The official closure statement issued by the Jesus Fellowship Community Trust reported that nearly three hundred allegations of harm and abuse had been received, including twenty-two against the late founder and leader, Noel Stanton (1926 - 2009). These involved serious incidents of sexual, physical, financial and emotional abuse.

Between 1977 and 1982 John Everett belonged to the 'white-hot' hub of the JFC, the New Creation Christian Community (NCCC), whose members sold all their possessions - including former homes - and donated the proceeds to a central community trust fund. They also pooled all their income in household 'common purses'. By 2010 the JFC owned some forty or more properties spread across the whole country - including former cinemas and large, stately houses - and their business ventures had become multi-million-pound enterprises.

In 1979 John was commissioned by Noel Stanton to study the sociological character of the JFC at Warwick University for a doctoral thesis. His research, together with his first-hand experience, eventually led him to conclude that the JFC had become a cult. After challenging Noel Stanton about his autocratic leadership, John found the courage to leave NCCC; but he was then branded a traitor and formally excluded through excommunication. His treatment ultimately led to a devastating mental breakdown.

John has spent over four decades since he left endeavouring to expose the JFC in its true colours. This has included involvement with numerous media investigations and features; providing help to ex-members; writing reports for church authorities; creating and running a popular website for over twelve years; and contributing to five TV documentaries and shows. His experience is undoubtedly unique and has culminated in 'War and Defeat' - an account of his fascinating odyssey, which includes the many wonderful - and not-so-wonderful - people who have been an essential part of it."

https://www.amazon.com/War-Defeat-Jesus-Fellowship-Revisited/dp/1803819871

Inside the Cult of the Jesus Army TV review — a story of abuse and oppression

A sober, sensitive BBC documentary examines the rise of a British evangelical church, with powerful testimonies from ex-congregants

Rebecca Nicholson

Financial Times

July 21, 2025

This excellent two-part documentary follows the rise of the Jesus Fellowship, the evangelical Christian church which began as a small group of worshippers in Bugbrooke, Northamptonshire, in 1969. Over 50 years, it amassed thousands of converts across Britain, but by the late 2010s, revelations of sexual and physical abuse by church elders had come to light, shattering the movement’s reputation.

Inside the Cult of the Jesus Army takes a sober and sensitive approach to the story. The first instalment explains how its founder Noel Stanton, who died in 2009, was inspired to form the church, following the lead of evangelical and baptist movements in the US. He was particularly successful at recruiting young members, and after a few years, its followers collectively bought farms and local properties, establishing a largely self-sufficient and socially isolated community.

The Jesus Fellowship attracted media interest from its early days, and there is a trove of fascinating archive material for the filmmakers to call upon. A documentary from the early 1970s, The Lord Took Hold of Bugbrooke, shows villagers complaining about congregants singing too loudly; there is footage of followers speaking in tongues and convulsing. Stanton was known for his “charisma”, but as the years went by his beliefs calcified into strict dogma. The idyllic vision of collective living, of distributing goods according to need, and of giving up all Earthly aspirations, darkened into a more oppressive regime, in which arbitrary actions and items — in one case, a packed lunch — were deemed “worldly” and accused of inviting the devil in.

We know this because of the many courageous ex-congregants willing to speak on camera in this film. The history of the movement is broken up with filmed therapeutic sessions with former members conducted by Gillie Jenkinson, a psychotherapist who specialises in cults and was once in a cult herself. These segments invite considerable empathy as Jenkinson gently examines how cults take hold, and how difficult it is for people to notice that they are being indoctrinated. There is an equal sensitivity when looking at the charitable work done by what would be rebranded as the Jesus Army, camouflage-wearing and more militant, launched in the late 1980s. Recognisable in their brightly coloured buses and vans, the Army would go out on to the streets to help those in need, to “move in peace and love” as they evangelised their message.

The first episode ends with revelations that have been hinted at throughout, of violence and sexual abuse, of children raising the alarm and not being believed, of those who questioned Stanton’s authority being excommunicated and cut off. The final episode reveals its hand more explicitly. This is a sad tale, but a powerful one, told with skill and grace.

★★★★☆

On BBC2 on July 27 at 9pm

https://www.ft.com/content/44b53f09-a995-49cf-b9fa-3b4089128f60

Sheffield Doc Fes: Inside the Jesus Army

Sheffield Doc Fes: Inside the Jesus Army

"It began as a dream of community life, but a 1970s Christian commune soon became a nightmare of abuse, the scale of which is only just coming to light.

In the 1970s, a group of idealistic Christians, led by firebrand preacher Noel Stanton, attempted to create a heaven on Earth in rural Northamptonshire. With testimony by former members, their children and community Elders, this compelling series traces the story of the Jesus Fellowship from its hippy origins to the high-profile launch of the Jesus Army in the late 1980s, followed by its shocking demise in the 2000s. In parallel to this history, a group of former members undergo specialist post-cult counselling to help them come to terms with their indoctrination. In this first episode, despite suspicious deaths and accusations of a cult forming, nothing seems to weaken Noel Stanton’s grip on the community. But then a whistleblower speaks out about the things they’ve witnessed.

Inside the Jesus Army + Conversation

Sat 21 June 15:15 - 16:49

Showroom - Bertha DocHouse Screen 3

Book Tickets

https://www.sheffdocfest.com/film/inside-jesus-army

Jesus Army abuse compensation scheme opens

BBC
September 28, 2022

A compensation scheme for survivors of sexual, physical and emotional abuse at the now-defunct Jesus Army has opened.

In 2019, ex-members told the BBC how children suffered abuse on a "prolific scale", with most claims relating to incidents between the 1970s and 1990s.

The Jesus Fellowship Church Trust (JFCT) said survivors could be entitled to compensation, a written apology and an "acceptance of responsibility".

Applications to the compensation scheme can be made until the end of 2023.

The Jesus Army was a religious movement that sprang up in Northamptonshire in the 1970s.

At its peak it had more than 2,000 members, hundreds of whom lived together in communal houses throughout central England.

Several men have been sentenced for the indecent and sexual assault of victims.

It dissolved itself in 2019 after the BBC revealed hundreds of former members were seeking damages for alleged sexual, physical and psychological abuse.

The BBC exposed allegations of abuse on a "prolific scale" including rapes, "brainwashing" and the brutal or sexualised beating of young children by groups of men.

In 2020, a leaked report found abuse was covered up by senior members of the religious sect.

Media caption,

Jesus Army founder Noel Stanton preaching about sexual "sins"

In a statement on its website, the JFCT said the scheme "offers fair redress to those who have suffered harm, abuse and/or adverse experiences within the Jesus Fellowship community".

It said it was "specifically designed to give survivors and applicants an effective means for swift and compassionate settlement, without having to go through the courts".

"It ensures the compensation available goes to survivors and applicants, rather than being eroded by legal fees. It also means no survivor or applicant, who claims through the scheme, will have to restate their experience in court."

A spokesman for the Redress Scheme said: "The trustees are hugely grateful to the survivors whose collaboration was a crucial element in its design.

"It has a wide scope, and we firmly believe it is the best means for providing applicants with a swift, fair and compassionate settlement, without their having to go through the courts.

"It not only offers redress to those who have suffered harm or abuse, but also provides a clear process for employment, pension, national insurance and retirement claims."

In response to the scheme opening, the Jesus Fellowship Survivors Association said: "We have been appealing to and negotiating with the Jesus Fellowship Trust on behalf of survivors for five years.

"During that time we have never been assured for definite that what we have asked for would be included in this scheme.

"Time will tell if anyone will get proper redress for their adverse experiences and abuse."



https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-63059575

Jesus Army: shocking reports of life inside Christian cult

Gabriel Power
The Week
Jul 19, 2019

An evangelical church called the Jesus Army is facing renewed police interest as former members come forward with fresh allegations of historical sex offences and other abuse.

According to the BBC, hundreds of past recruits to the Jesus Army - also known as the Jesus Fellowship Church - are seeking damages for alleged abuse inside the Baptist sect, which was set up in the late 1960s.

An investigation by the broadcaster has found that a total of 43 people who were active in the church have been linked to reports of historic sexual and physical abuse, including rapes, bullying, brainwashing, forced labour, financial bondage and “barbaric beatings”.

Most of the claims relate to incidents in the 1980s and 1990s.

Launched by former Baptist Noel Stanton in the manse of a small chapel in Northamptonshire in 1969, the Jesus Army followed a “strict set of rules which banned toys, sugar, sweets, TV and all the trappings of a normal childhood”, according to The Sun.

One particularly “sinister creed” issued by the church - or cult, as it has been described - instructed elders to “beat Adam [sin] out of a child by the age of seven”, the newspaper reports.

At its peak, in the early 2000s, the evangelical group is believed to have had more than 2,500 members living in communes in Northamptonshire and various other areas of the country.

The sect claimed to be helping homeless and vulnerable people, who were offered the promise of “new creation” through an intense regime of work and worship. 

“All of their income was given to a common purse and everything was shared - from underwear to parenting,” says the BBC.

Members also allege the church decreed that children could be disciplined by any adult, and that many were separated from their parents by the age of 12 or 13.

In the wake of assault claims in 2013, the Jesus Army initiated what it called a disclosure exercise in which alleged  victims were encouraged to talk to the church’s “safeguarding department”, which then passed the information to the police.
Since the disclosures began, five offenders have been convicted of historic child sexual offences.

In May, as the allegations continued to mount, members voted to revoke the church’s constitution and dissolve the institution entirely.

According to Christian news site Premier, the church “blamed a badly damaged reputation, declining membership and a slowdown in giving for the closure”.

But a statement posted on the church’s website also acknowledged and apologised for what it termed “faults and failures”.

“We are deeply sorry for, and appalled by the abuse that has taken place within Jesus Fellowship Church and the New Creation Christian Community (NCCC) and offer our heartfelt sympathy and unreserved apology to all those affected,” the statement said.

A spokesperson for the church has announced that a formal redress scheme is being developed “to provide money and counselling” to “those who had suffered poor treatment in the past”.

But a survivors’ group has raised concerns about the level of compensation being proposed and is now preparing a group legal action. 

https://www.theweek.co.uk/102355/jesus-army-shocking-reports-of-life-inside-christian-cult