CultNEWS101 Articles: 9/2/2025

Malaysia, Falun Gong, China, Nazism, Anthroposophy, UK, The Kingdom of Kubala

Free Malaysia Today: Falun Gong exhibits allegedly seized by 'China police' near National Monument

"A Falun Gong practitioner claims that seven men, identifying themselves as policemen from China, removed her group's exhibits near the National Monument in Kuala Lumpur last Friday."

" ... The woman, who wanted to be known only as Yong, told FMT she had set up the booth there three months ago to educate the public about Falun Gong, a spiritual movement banned in China.

"I chased after them and asked for the items to be returned. One of them said, 'We are policemen from China'. They ignored my pleas and drove off," she said.

Yong claimed the men left in a van accompanied by a local tour guide and driver.

In May, then Kuala Lumpur police chief Rusdi Isa said the arrest of more than 70 Falun Gong followers ahead of Chinese president Xi Jinping's visit to Malaysia was lawful as "Falun Gong is an illegal organisation".

"As such, it is not permitted to carry out any activities," he was quoted as saying at a press conference."

Between Occultism and Fascism: Anthroposophy and the Politics of Race and Nation in Germany and Italy, 1900-1945 by Peter Staudenmaier

"The relationship between Nazism and occultism has long been an object of popular speculation and scholarly controversy. This dissertation examines the interaction between occult groups and the Nazi regime as well as the Italian Fascist state, with central attention to the role of racial and ethnic theories in shaping these developments. The centerpiece of the dissertation is a case study of the anthroposophist movement founded by Rudolf Steiner, an esoteric tendency which gave rise to widely influential alternative cultural institutions including Waldorf schools, biodynamic agriculture, and holistic methods of health care and nutrition. A careful exploration of the tensions and affinities between anthroposophists and fascists reveals a complex and differentiated portrait of modern occult tendencies and their treatment by Nazi and Fascist officials.

Two initial chapters analyze the emergence of anthroposophy's racial doctrines, its self-conception as an 'unpolitical' spiritual movement, and its relations with the völkisch milieu and with Lebensreform movements. Four central chapters concern the fate of anthroposophy in Nazi Germany, with a detailed reconstruction of specific anthroposophical institutions and their interactions with various Nazi agencies. Two final chapters provide a comparative portrait of the Italian anthroposophical movement during the Fascist era, with particular concentration on the role of anthroposophists in influencing and administering Fascist racial policy.

Based on a wide range of archival sources, the dissertation offers an empirically founded account of the neglected history of modern occult movements while shedding new light on the operations of the Nazi and Fascist regimes. The analysis focuses on the interplay of ideology and practice, the concrete ways in which contending worldviews attempted to establish institutional footholds within the organizational disarray of the Third Reich and the Fascist state, and shows that disagreements over racial ideology were embedded in power struggles between competing factions within the Nazi hierarchy and the Fascist apparatus. It delineates the ways in which early twentieth century efforts toward spiritual renewal, holism, cultural regeneration and redemption converged with deeply regressive political realities. Engaging critically with previous accounts, the dissertation raises challenging questions about the political implications of alternative spiritual currents and counter-cultural tendencies." 

Independent: Exclusive: A missing Texas mom was found living with a lost 'African' tribe. Now, her family speaks out

"A missing Texas woman found living with the self-proclaimed leaders of a lost "African" tribe in a Scottish forest insists she is there by her own free will, despite her family's fears she is lost to the sect forever.

Kaura Taylor was recently found living in the woods with the group after vanishing from her home three months ago, leaving relatives distraught.

"It is very stressful, and difficult. It breaks our heart. We're overly concerned about Kaura, but she doesn't think anyone is concerned about her," Taylor's aunt Teri Allen told The Independent.

In a message posted to Facebook after 21-year-old Taylor, mother to a one-year-old child who she took with her to Scotland, said that she was not missing and lashed out at reports she "disappeared."

"I'm very happy with my King and Queen, I was never missing, I fled a very abusive, toxic family," Taylor wrote, following up with a video message telling U.K. authorities to leave her alone in the woods in Jedburgh, 40 miles south of Edinburgh. She added that she is "an adult, not a helpless child."

However, Allen on Thursday pushed back stridently against those assertions, describing her niece's younger years as "very sheltered and protected."

She said Taylor "was brought up in church, but not their religion. Not this thing that they got going. It's a bunch of hogwash."

Speaking to The Independent from her Dallas-area home, Allen said Taylor kept it "totally hidden from the family" when she began communicating in 2023 with so-called Kingdom of Kubala leader King Atehene, a former opera singer and PR agent from Ghana whose real name is Kofi Offeh, and his wife Jean Gasho, who now goes by Queen Nandi.

Queen Nandi did not respond to a request for comment. An email seeking comment from King Atehene bounced back as undeliverable.

The Kingdom of Kubala claims to be a lost Hebrew tribe that aims to retake the land they say was expropriated when Queen Elizabeth I expelled native black Jacobites from England in the 1590s.

The trio in Jedburgh hope to add to their numbers by bringing other supposedly lost tribes back to their purported ancestral homeland."

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Groundbreaking study exposes hidden struggles of ex-Jehovah’s Witnesses in the UK

Humanists: Groundbreaking study exposes hidden struggles of ex-Jehovah’s Witnesses in the UK

A groundbreaking study published in The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion has shed light on the profound and long-lasting challenges faced by people leaving the Jehovah’s Witnesses and ways in which targeted support can assist their recovery.

Conducted by a national group of academic researchers in collaboration with Faith to Faithless, the Humanists UK programme supporting people who leave high-control religions, the research involved in-depth interviews with 20 ex-Jehovah’s Witnesses in the UK. Participants described significant emotional, social, and practical struggles after leaving – often compounded by shunning, loss of identity, and a lack of understanding from professionals.

The study found:

• Many experience acute mental health issues, including anxiety, depression, and PTSD, linked both to life inside the religion and to the process of leaving.

• Social isolation is common, with loss of family and friends leaving some feeling like ‘a little baby’ navigating the outside world for the first time.

• Professional help is often ineffective due to a lack of awareness about religious trauma.

• Recovery is possible – but requires specialist understanding, safe environments, and supportive relationships.

The authors emphasise that leaving a high-control religion is not a single event but ‘a complex, ongoing process of rebuilding identity and worldview.’ With the right support from trained mental health professionals, informed social services, and community networks, former members can ‘piece everything together again’ and go on to live fulfilling lives.

https://humanists.uk/2025/08/05/groundbreaking-study-exposes-hidden-struggles-of-ex-jehovahs-witnesses-in-the-uk/

‘Abuse cult’ priest received sexual massages ‘to relieve tension headaches’

Head of evangelical church movement from the 80s and 90s denies offences

Gabriella Swerling

Religious Affairs Editor

Telegraph 

August 4,  2025

A former priest accused of running an abusive cult received sexual massages to relieve “terrible tension headaches”, a court has heard.

Chris Brain, 68, led a group in the 1980s and 1990s in Sheffield called the Nine O’Clock Service (NOS), and was viewed by his alleged victims as a God-like “prophet” whom they “worshipped”.

The evangelical church movement drew crowds of hundreds of young people enticed by its “visually stunning” multimedia services featuring acid house rave music every Sunday at 9pm.

Mr Brain, of Wilmslow, Cheshire, is standing trial accused of committing sexual offences against 13 women. He denies one count of rape and 36 counts of indecent assault between 1981 and 1995.

At the opening of the trial in July, Tim Clark KC, prosecuting, told the court that Mr Brain ran “a cult”, surrounded by beautiful, lingerie-wearing women known as the “Lycra Nuns”, or “Lycra Lovelies”.

He said that Mr Brain used his position to abuse a “staggering number of women”.

Many of his victims were part of a “homebase team” tasked with cooking and cleaning for Mr Brain, as well as “putting him to bed” and giving him massages, which the court heard would often end in unsolicited groping.

Giving evidence at Inner London Crown Court on Monday, Mr Brain said he received back massages from a number of women in NOS.

Asked by defence counsel Iain Simkin KC how the massages began, he told the court that “it started off because I had terrible tension headaches”.

He referenced one member of the “homebase team” who gave him massages once or twice a week “and she could tell by touching me what the problem was”.

Mr Brain gestured to the court, lifting his arms above his head to show where he was in discomfort and why he required massaging.

“It was quite severe, I remember coming home and having to lie on the bed with my face on the pillow because the pain was so bad,” he said.

Asked whether there were occasions when the massages would develop into some form of sexual touching, Mr Brain replied: “With very close friends, it may edge towards that, but both parties knew it shouldn’t go there so one of us would pull back again and cool down.

“And we are talking about relationships over years and years… It worked having closeness with friends without having to involve close sexual contact, and of course, I was married.

He added: “With some of my closest friends it would be kissing sometimes, occasionally massaging, stroking. Anything more than that we would back off.”

‘Natural ecstasy’

Mr Brain told the court that NOS was “an evolving experiment” around at the “peak of the rave boom” and embraced “club culture” by creating “a natural ecstasy”.

As part of the “new New Age”, he added that there was a very laissez faire environment regarding “positive sexuality” as well as encouragement of “tantric celibacy”.

“It was normal to be physical,” he told the court. “This was the mid-80s early ’90s,” he said, adding that leggings and tight clothes were “the fashion”.

Regarding the clothes worn by female NOS members at the time, and asked if he prescribed the dress code for the “Lycra Lovelies”, Mr Brain responded: “All these people are completely clued-up and want to wear fashion.

“This is the mid-80s, everybody was obsessed with fashion and what they wore, it was a constant topic of conversation, but that does not mean I was obsessed with what people wore.”

Mr Simkin asked: “Looking back, do you accept you were some form of inspirational character?”

“That’s my thing, enthusiasm and ideas,” Mr Brain replied.

Jurors have previously heard how Mr Brain had his ordination licence “fast-tracked” in 1991 because Church of England officials viewed his organisation as “a success story”.

NOS evolved from holding services at St Thomas’s Church in the Crookes area of the city, before expanding as it grew increasingly popular to a larger premises at Ponds Forge in the city centre. It collapsed in 1995 amid accusations of a sex scandal.

Over the past five weeks, his alleged victims have given evidence describing NOS as full of “brainwashing”, “grooming”, “mind games” and abuse.

They claimed he told them that they “can’t be spiritual without being sexual”. The trial continues.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/08/04/abuse-cult-priest-sexual-massages-relieve-headaches-trial/

CultNEWS101 Articles: 8/4/2025 (Jesus Fellowship Church (JFC), Child Abuse, Legal, Documentary, Cult Characteristics)

Jesus Fellowship Church (JFC), Child Abuse, Legal, Documentary, Cult Characteristics

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.'"

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

" ... 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."

BBC: Jesus Army cult would 'pack out' 900-seat theatre

" ... 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."

BBC: 'You're sold a lie': How do you spot a cult

"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."

News, Education, Intervention, Recovery

CultNEWS101 Articles: 8/1/2025 (King's College, Jesus Fellowship, UK, Lori Vallow Daybell, Legal)

King's College,  Jesus Fellowship, UK,  Lori Vallow Daybell, Legal

Religion Unplugged: The King's College Will Permanently Close After 'Unable To Secure' Funding

" ... Founded in 1938 by preacher Percy Crawford and established in Belmar, New Jersey, the college relocated to Delaware in 1941 and later to Briarcliff Manor, New York, in 1955. After losing its accreditation, the college closed in 1994.

After being taken over by Cru (formerly known as Campus Crusade for Christ) and acquiring Northeastern Bible College, The King's College reopened in 1999 with space in the Empire State Building. The college became independent of Campus Crusade in 2012.

For nearly a decade, King largely relied on donations from wealthy and politically conservative donors such as Richard DeVos, the co-founder of Amway and father-in-law of former education secretary Betsy DeVos during President Donald Trump's first term."

The Guardian: The rise and fall of the British cult that hid in plain sight

Philippa Barnes was a child when her family joined the Jesus Fellowship. As an adult, she helped expose the shocking scale of abuse it had perpetrated.

" ... In 1979, John Everett, a student at Warwick University, began a sociological study of the Jesus Fellowship for his doctoral thesis. He had joined the group in the summer of 1977, experiencing it as a "pocket of utopian escape from a chaotic, frenetic, unsympathetic world", something "very close to a classless society" where people of all kinds were accepted. Now, he had been commissioned by Stanton himself to go and study its unique makeup. Yet as he conducted his research, examining the group's structure and practices through an academic lens, he began to reach a devastating conclusion: that the church was a cult.

As Everett writes in War and Defeat, a history of the organisation [Jesus Fellowship] that he self-published this year, he couldn't escape the fact that the authority structure and separation from the rest of the world were hallmarks of cultic groups. "It would have taken a huge amount of self-deceit to deny what I could plainly see: the key characteristics of a cult were in our DNA," he writes.

There is a school of sociology that rejects the term "cult", arguing that it has been used to dismiss unusual groups that challenge social norms, and preferring the category "new religious movements". Many other scholars and survivors disagree, arguing that the methods cults use to control their members are distinct. Alexandra Stein, a British psychologist and survivor of a political cult, says that whether religious or non-religious, cults are remarkably similar: "If you've seen one car, you know what machinery is in another car, even if it's a different colour."

In the popular imagination, cults are closed-off entities, physically removing their members from the outside world. The fellowship claimed to work differently: members were free to go to school, work, and live outside of community houses. But just as an abusive partner might exert influence over every aspect of a victim's life, Stanton [founder of Jesus Fellowship] had built a system of mental and emotional control that relied on a common cultic tactic: gradually severing members' attachments to the rest of society, to family members and even to one another. Those broken connections were replaced by a single reference point: the fellowship. With nowhere else to go, any feelings of fear and stress provoked by life in the organisation would only serve to drive members closer to it."

ABC: 'Doomsday mom' Lori Daybell given 2 life sentences in murder conspiracy trials

"Lori Vallow Daybell, the "Doomsday mom" who is already serving life sentences in Idaho in the deaths of her two youngest children and a romantic rival, received two more life sentences Friday in her murder conspiracy trials.

The sentences will run consecutively to each other and consecutively to the Idaho case, an Arizona judge said.

She was found guilty of conspiring to kill her fourth husband, Charles Vallow."

" ... Those who spend their childhoods in cults ... can find leaving particularly hard: "They struggle to know what is the self, and what is the cult." - Alexandra Stein

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Intervention101.com to help families and friends understand and effectively respond to the complexity of a loved one's cult involvement.

CultRecovery101.com assists group members and their families make the sometimes difficult transition from coercion to renewed individual choice.

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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.

The Jehovah’s Witnesses who left the faith and never looked back: ‘I was 37 and had only ever held a boy’s hand’

There can be severe social consequences to leaving your religion behind, but many continue to do it, spurred on by a desire to live and learn independently. Taz Ali meets the people who’ve used their freedom from faith to discover themselves for the very first time – and often far later in life than the rest of us

Independent 

July 31, 2025

Micki McAllen speaks matter-of-factly about all the times she was told the world was about to end. The September 11 attacks. Donald Trump’s election. Covid. Each time, she and her family – strict Jehovah’s Witnesses – would wait with a mix of dread and anticipation for the salvation to come. Of course, Armageddon didn’t arrive on any of those occasions. But McAllen was told to always be prepared – it was right around the corner, after all. It was only when she was 35, and first began questioning her faith, that she asked herself a simple question: why prepare to die when I could choose to live?

The pandemic was the final nail in the coffin for McAllen. Confined to her home during lockdown in Auckland, New Zealand, she found herself searching for answers online. Gradually, the doubt set in. “I started reading people’s experiences, especially going through Covid,” she says. “A lot of people were affected by not having to go to kingdom hall [a place of worship for Witnesses] or any meeting or field service. We all had time to slow down and to think.”

Witnesses who have left the organisation told me that abandoning or even questioning the faith has severe social consequences, particularly shunning. Driven by this fear, McAllen kept all “worldly” people – a term used by Witnesses to describe anyone outside of the religion – at arm’s length. But it did nothing to quell her desire to learn and think independently. “I want to be my authentic self, and have an authentic life,” she recalls saying to herself. “I don’t know who I am, but I want to begin and I want to figure this out.”

After just a weekend of poring over online forums and speaking to former Witnesses, McAllen decided to leave. Within a week, she had dyed her hair bright pink and began her dream career in dog grooming, something she says she would never have been able to do as a Witness, when she spent all of her free time preaching. The rest of her thirties were spent catching up on the firsts she'd missed in her teens and twenties, from late-night parties to first loves and even losing her virginity.

I knew I wasn’t a good Witness. So from a child I was like, ‘whenever Armageddon hits, I am done’. Also, I hated all the Witness boys, I hated this patriarchal idea of what they stood for. Hating men was a part of me - Sian Harper

“Being able to do that took some time,” she says. “It wasn’t until two years after I left [the religion] that I had sex for the first time. I was 37.” Up until that point, McAllen adds, she had only ever held a boy’s hand. “I was so nervous. My friends were like, ‘make sure he uses a condom, and that you pee after sex’ – bits of information that I had missed out on that most people know by now.”

McAllen, 39, who lives in Greenwich, south-east London, is today active in support groups that help people who leave high-control religious groups. She has also created a safe space online through her TikTok channel, Apostate Barbie, where she educates others about the realities of life as a Witness. A series of videos on “Random Things You Can’t Do as a Jehovah’s Witness” has amassed hundreds of thousands of views. “I try to keep things very factual and light,” she says of her content. “I don’t want it to be heavy or [involve] calling people names. I try to show that there is life after religion. That it’s not all doom and gloom, that we’re all happy and fine, and in fact life is better.”

Like a lot of ex-Witnesses, McAllen describes leaving the religion as “waking up”. She had devoted her entire life to the faith, attending regular meetings at kingdom hall and spending dozens of hours a week knocking on doors and handing out pamphlets.

Jehovah’s Witnesses are prohibited from socialising with nonbelievers, higher education is often discouraged to prioritise witnessing, and dating is strictly reserved for those seeking marriage. Former members say they were warned that questioning or leaving the faith could lead to “removal from the congregation”, a formal practice of excommunication that was, until recently, known as disfellowship.

A person who is disfellowshipped stands to lose everything. They are effectively shunned by the community and end up “grieving the living” after losing contact with family and friends. Nicolas Spooner, a counsellor who specialises in working with Jehovah’s Witnesses who leave the organisation, says exclusion from the faith can have a lasting negative impact on mental health, career prospects and quality of life, but it can also present an opportunity for self-discovery and new experiences that would change their lives completely.

“Looking at the sorts of things they’re finding out about themselves, I think mostly they’re starting to realise how many life skills they lack,” Spooner says. “This is what I hear more than anything else. It’s quite common for [former members] to find that they shy away from social situations, because they lack certain life skills that everybody else takes for granted – like how to make friends, how to treat friends, how to be a friend. These are things that we learn as we’re growing up. If you’re growing up as a Witness, it’s not the same.”

But it’s never too late to learn, he adds, as he points to his wife, Heather, who left the Jehovah’s Witnesses at the age of 48. Since then, she has completed a PhD in psychology researching the effects of religious ostracism, authored a number of academic articles on the subject and is a lecturer in psychology at Manchester University.

“She got her life back,” says Spooner, who met Heather a year after she left the Witnesses. “She reached the point where she had to say to herself, ‘they’ve had 48 years of my life, they’re not having any more’. The people that recover the best do inevitably have to get to that point… realising, ‘I left so that I could get my life back’.”

McAllen and other former Witnesses I’ve spoken to – all of whom have since come out as bisexual or gay – said the organisation initially gave them a sense of belonging, but proselytising left them with a feeling of vague disquiet. They would preach that God condemns homosexual acts, feelings and thoughts, a message that clashed with their own internal struggles about their sexuality.

“Leaving the religion and having time to figure out who I am and think about things I’ve never thought about, I realised I was bi,” says McAllen. “I got to talk to other people from the queer community and it was such a really nice, fun and creative environment.”

For some Witnesses, coming out can be a painful and terrifying ordeal. Ben Gibbons, 37, had been outed by another member of the organisation when he was in his early twenties. He was forced to attend Bible studies with an elder in the congregation for days on end and wasn’t allowed to leave his house without another member of the group present. Some of the practices he was subjected to were so extreme that he describes them as a form of gay conversion therapy. While the religion does not officially endorse the practice, its teachings can put strong pressure on LGBT+ members to suppress or reject same-sex attraction.

Gibbons says he was made to drink a bitter liquid to make himself sick every time he had an “impure” thought. “I was told how wrong it was, told to hide it, constantly read from the Bible,” he adds. “I used to bleach my hair and wore bright colourful clothes. By the end of it I had a shaved head, everything was monochrome, nothing too tight, all to make me look ‘straight’.”

It took years of therapy for Gibbons to be able to recover from the trauma, but he says he is now in a much happier place. He left the religion, married his partner, Lee, in 2022, and they live in the Norfolk town of Dereham, where Gibbons works as a wedding videographer.

When he talks about his past as a Witness, he says it feels almost otherworldly. “It was like I was in a PC game. The crowd filler, the random humans walking around the screen – that was me, because I couldn’t live authentically there. Leaving has allowed me to live a much freer life and do things that I otherwise wouldn’t have had a chance to do. If the younger me could see me now … the idea of being married, having a roof over my head, being free and OK with everything and now speaking out, I would never have believed it. That is my goal, to be the person that I needed back then.”

The fear of isolation leads many to live double lives, like Sian Harper, 28, a building manager in Oxford, who was born and raised a Jehovah’s Witness. She had friends outside of the organisation, and did just enough not to raise suspicion at her church. She later came out as lesbian, got engaged to a woman and told her family about her sexuality and intention to leave the religion, which they didn’t take well, although they admitted they had seen it coming. “I knew I wasn’t a good Witness,” Harper says. “So from a child, I was like, ‘whenever Armageddon hits, I am done’. Also, I hated all the Witness boys. I hated this patriarchal idea of what they stood for.” She laughs. “Hating men was a part of me.”

Like McAllen and Gibbons, Harper has little to no contact with her family today. While none of them has been formally disfellowshipped, they have taken the difficult decision to let go of their old lives and everyone in them in order to build new ones.

The relationship didn’t work out for Harper, but she allowed herself to heal and grow from the heartbreak. “We grew apart, unfortunately, but that’s OK. I hope that they continue to grow and I hope I do too. I am more open to new experiences, moving different places and not being worried that this is some kind of moral failing. I’m going to die either way – I might as well just have fun, go out and snog some girls.”

https://www.the-independent.com/life-style/jehovahs-witnesses-leaving-apostasy-b2798731.html

'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

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

Christian missionary group accused of public shaming and rituals to ‘cure’ sexual sin

Exclusive: young volunteers also allege spiritual abuse and controlling behaviour at bases of Youth With a Mission

‘It felt like a demon was inside me’: young Christian missionaries allege spiritual abuse

Shanti Das

The Guardian

April 5, 2025

The world’s biggest youth Christian missionary organisation is facing allegations of spiritual abuse and controlling behaviour from young people who say they were left “traumatised”.

An Observer investigation has revealed evidence of safeguarding failings within Youth With a Mission (YWAM), a global movement that trains young Christians to spread the gospel. A spokesperson for YWAM said the organisation was “heartbroken” by the claims and was “deeply committed to the safety and wellbeing” of everyone in its care.

The allegations span two decades and include claims that young missionaries were publicly shamed, subjected to rituals to “cure” their homosexuality, and told that leaving was against God’s will.

Young British adults who signed up for training schools and overseas mission trips – many during their gap years – described regular confession sessions where they were pressured to admit their “sins” in a group.

These included perceived moral transgressions such as homosexual thoughts, sexual activity, abortions and watching pornography, as well as other “sins” such as disobeying a leader or having “rebellious thoughts”. Those who confessed could be questioned and made to give public apologies, according to former missionaries. They could be prayed for or could face punishment, including being removed from volunteer roles. In some cases, interventions were more extreme. Former YWAM volunteers described the use of rituals similar to exorcisms to banish demons from people who acknowledged having sex outside marriage.

Another former British YWAM worship leader described a “casting out” at a base in Australia, arranged after a man revealed that he had sexual relations with other men. Leaders placed their hands on him before chanting prayers to “banish the spirit of homosexuality”, and he reportedly convulsed. The British man was himself struggling with his sexuality and said he was left feeling as though a “demon” was living inside him.

Others described how people disclosed being victims of assault or sexual abuse, as well as transgressions such as speeding fines.

The “repentance and forgiveness” rituals are alleged to be part of a wider picture of control at some bases, which also included restrictions on romantic relationships, clothing and when missionaries could visit family.

Commands were often communicated by leaders as though they were instructions from God. “They were always changing what other people wanted to do by saying: ‘I reckon, God is saying this.’ It was used to manipulate,” one former missionary said.

YWAM operates in about 180 countries and sends about 25,000 people on short-term missions each year. It was founded in 1960 by the American missionary Loren Cunningham and has key bases in the US, Australia, Switzerland and the UK, where it is a registered charity.

A spokesperson for YWAM England said it was committed to “continuous improvement in safeguarding practices” and that each location was responsible for upholding standards. It said it was “strongly opposed” to forced confessions. “While confession of sin may occur, the person should never be publicly shamed or pressured to apologise.”

Last year, YWAM’s base in Perth, Australia – one of the biggest in the world – faced scrutiny over its handling of alleged historic sexual misconduct, including claims that its leaders told alleged victims to apologise to their alleged attackers for “leading them on”. A YWAM base in the UK was recently closed amid claims of spiritual abuse.

The allegations come as a prayer movement linked to YWAM – which aims to recruit the next generation of Christian missionaries – sweeps through Britain.

The Send UK & Ireland, an initiative by a coalition of Christian groups, which is legally controlled by the YWAM branch in Harpenden, Hertfordshire, launched with a show last July at Ovo Arena Wembley. It has since held pop-ups at churches and concert halls across the UK.

Its aim is to recruit 100,000 young British adults to do missionary work in the UK and abroad and reverse the trend of decline among western missions.

After the Wembley event, hundreds of people signed up via QR code to serve as missionaries through YWAM and the Send’s other partner organisations.

The allegations, made by former missionaries whose experiences span two decades and 18 countries, raise questions about culture and safeguarding within YWAM, which has a decentralised structure that critics say leads to insufficient oversight. The organisation defers power to leaders on bases around the world, who say they take safeguarding seriously.

YWAM has underlying statements of principles and runs discipleship training schools which have a similar structure across all bases, with lectures on topics such as “sin, repentance and restitution”, “spiritual warfare” and “discipling nations”.

The code of conduct for the University of the Nations, YWAM’s unaccredited Christian university, which oversees YWAM training schools, says “any moral violation”, including “sexual immorality”, is grounds for disciplinary action. Other bases list fornication and homosexuality as immoral behaviours alongside incest and bestiality.

In 2020, Lynn Green, one of YWAM’s most senior leaders and the founder of YWAM England, published a blog post urging the human race to “repent for ignoring the laws of God”, blaming abortion and “the homosexual agenda” for “bringing destruction”.

Felicity Davies, 34, a designer from Yorkshire who spent six years in YWAM after joining at the age of 18, said the “purity culture” and alleged controlling behaviour at a base in South Africa left her feeling “suffocated” and “not good enough”.

“I constantly had to do certain things in order for God to love me or to be accepted,” she said. “People should be aware that this isn’t all happy-clappy. A lot of people get traumatised.”

Lena Stary, 26, from Bristol, who joined YWAM aged 18, said her experience in Switzerland left her suffering panic attacks and had taken years to untangle. It had made it “very difficult to trust other people”. She is no longer religious. “I just found it so difficult to believe that God is a loving being if all of what I was being told was true,” she said.

A YWAM spokesperson said: “Although a high number of individuals have had a positive experience in YWAM, we are aware and deeply regret that some have had harmful experiences of spiritual abuse and manipulation.” They said each base was responsible for safeguarding and was held to account by leadership teams overseeing specific regions.

In England, a YWAM spokesperson said leaders had “implemented stricter oversight mechanisms” after claims of spiritual abuse at a base which has since closed. They said YWAM held “traditional Christian views on sexuality and marriage” but was reviewing how it communicated those beliefs to prevent “shame or rejection”, and that it condemned any practice that traumatised people or associated their identity with demonic influence.

“We are deeply grieved to hear reports that spiritual practices intended for healing were instead used in coercive or shaming ways,” they said.

Green stood by his comments on abortion and homosexuality and said he sought to approach the matters “with both grace and faithfulness”, adding that he, “like others in YWAM”, condemned any form of spiritual abuse.

A YWAM Perth spokesperson said any comment that an alleged victim had “led on” their alleged attacker or must apologise to them did not reflect the views of leadership.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/apr/05/christian-missionary-group-accused-of-public-shaming-and-rituals-to-cure-sexual-sin

CultNEWS101 Articles: 11/14/2024 (Gloriavale, Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, Legal, UK, New Zealand, International Cult Awareness Day)

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The New Zealand Herald: Gloriavale's banned children's books: Senior leader's email lays out rules

" ... Lord of the Rings, stories about Christmas and Easter, and nearly all books containing pictures of animals wearing clothes are on the list of reading material considered too "worldly" for Gloriavale's children.

An email leaked from the West Coast Christian community and sent to politicians has laid out the vast amount of book categories senior leadership disapproved of for members who were homeschooling their kids.

Labour MP Duncan Webb, who has spoken against Gloriavale in the past, warns while some of the banned books might seem funny, the reality of the censorship was "deeply troubling" and children were being denied stories that served as a "window to the outside world".

The leaked email, sent from senior leader Peter Righteous' email address last month, noted he was "disappointed to find books celebrating Christmas on our shelves, and others that were simply worldly".

Righteous refers in his email to "rules" put in place by founding brethren, which forbid books in the following categories:

• Fairy tales and fantasies

• Science fiction

• Anything promoting Christmas, Easter and the like

• Supernatural or occult themes

• Myths and legends presented as truth

• Anything promoting evolution

• Books presenting wrong as right, or the idea the end justifies the means"

London News Online: Concerns raised over relationship between 'cult' church and Lewisham council

"Concerns have been raised over the relationship between Lewisham council and a church which allegedly showed teenagers a video of a dead body to scare them from leaving, according to former members.

The Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG) is a Christian denomination with five chapters in South London – Brixton, Peckham, Croydon, Woolwich and Catford.

The UCKG has been described as a "cult" by former members after allegations of preying on vulnerable people, brainwashing them, performing exorcisms and making them pay 10 per cent of their income to the church.

Two weeks ago the Diocese of Southwark – responsible for more than 100 Anglican churches in South London and east Surrey – apologised for including the Catford branch of the UCKG in an annual interfaith peace walk through Lewisham in September.

Rachael Reign, 30, the director of Surviving Universal UK, a support group for ex-members, said the inclusion of the UCKG on the interfaith walk caused "considerable upset and distress" among ex-members of the church."

November 18th is recognized as International Cult Awareness Day

1991 - Wikipedia: Synanon

Synanon is a US-founded social organization created by Charles E. "Chuck" Dederich Sr. in 1958 in Santa Monica, California, United States. It is currently active in Germany.

Originally established as a drug rehabilitation program, by the early 1960s, Synanon became an alternative community centered on group truth-telling sessions that came to be known as the "Synanon Game," a form of attack therapy.  The group ultimately became a cult called the Church of Synanon in the 1970s.

Synanon disbanded in 1991 due to members being convicted of criminal activities (including attempted murder) and retroactive loss of its tax-exempt status with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) due to financial misdeeds, destruction of evidence, and terrorism  It has been called one of the "most dangerous and violent cults America had ever seen.

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