Jesus Fellowship Church (JFC), Child Abuse, Legal, Documentary, Cult Characteristics
BBC: Jesus Army cult would 'pack out' 900-seat theatre
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."
The Telegraph: 'We give our genitals to Jesus': The cult that promoted celibacy while covering up its own abuse
A powerful BBC documentary reveals the dark secrets of Britain's Jesus Army movement.
" ... 'In 2013, we as the senior [Jesus Army] leadership initiated a wide-ranging process that invited disclosures of any kind of abuse, both historic and recent, and referred all such reports to the authorities."
The crimes are not just documented by victims."
" ... [A] Shepherd in Leicester, admits he was informed of "rapes" and "sexual activity with minors" in confession. When he raised it within the organisation, he was told 'the power of that sin was under the blood of Jesus and therefore cancelled out'."
" ... 'The biggest takeaway for me is that any government body should not be complacent in thinking that this was a strange anomaly that happened in Northampton many years ago," she tells me. "We have high-control groups operating throughout the country and there's been a proliferation since Covid [one expert has estimated there are 2,000]. So, this is absolutely a scenario that could happen again. None of these leaders have been criminalised because our coercive control laws only apply to domestic and intimate partner relationships.'"
" ... 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."
" ... The man who ran the theatre owned by an orthodox evangelical church said the group would "pack out" the 900-seater auditorium when it held worships there.
The Jesus Army church recruited thousands of people to live in close-knit, puritanical communities in Northamptonshire, London and the Midlands, but was later exposed as a cult in which sexual and physical abuse was perpetuated.
In 2000 it purchased what was the Savoy theatre in Northampton, which at the time was derelict, reopening it as the Jesus Centre and the Deco Theatre."
" ... When the Jesus Army disbanded following the death of preacher Noel Stanton 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."
"For seven years of her twenties, Gillie Jenkinson was in a religious cult. She recalls being told what to eat, when to sleep and what clothes to wear.
"It was completely coercive, controlling," she says, going on to add that the group operated from an "ordinary" looking terraced house.
She remembers giving all of her money to the group, believing it would go towards their mission of "saving the world".
"None of that happened, we didn't save anybody or do anything with it, but you're sold a lie," she explains.
After leaving the cult, she sought mental health support to help process her experiences but she was unable to find any trained therapist with experience in helping cult survivors.
In the end, she decided to train as a therapist herself and has now been practising for around 30 years, specialising in helping people who have left cults.
This led her to appear in the two-part BBC documentary Inside the Cult of the Jesus Army, which sees her work with people brought up in the now-defunct religious cult to recognise cult dynamics and identify the group's impact on them.
The BBC revealed allegations of widespread child abuse in the group, which disbanded in 2019.
The Jesus Fellowship Community Trust, which has been winding up the group's affairs, said it was sorry for "the severely detrimental impact" on people's lives.
Speaking to the BBC, Jenkinson explains how to recognise a cult and why more support is needed for those who leave."
" ... While cults can be hard to spot, Jenkinson and Montell note some "red flags" people can look for:
- One possible indicator Jenkinson highlights is "love bombing" - a manipulation tactic that sees abusers use affection and declarations of love as a way of gaining power and control.
- Another common theme is promising "answers to life's very complex problems", like climate change or the meaning of existence, the psychotherapist adds.
- Montell says the combination of mantras, buzzwords and nicknames for insiders and outsiders of the group, as well as language that elicits a strong reaction while encouraging us not to ask further questions, can be indicators.
- The linguist adds that certain texts being "off-limits" in the group can also be a warning sign.
- The most "extreme" trait of a cult for Montell is a "high barrier to exit", meaning group members being made to feel they might lose their identity or friendships, or fear retaliation, if they leave the group."
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