Posted on 02/27/2013 10:44:28 PM PST by nickcarraway
James Todd thought he found heaven on earth. He had a wife, four kids and a high-paying job as a computer programmer.
After nine years of marriage, however, he still worried something was missing.
“We were hungry, we wanted more,” he said.
He and his wife, Jennifer, feared they were not living their faith to the fullest. Both Christians, they had become disenfranchised with their church.
Then one night, while searching the Internet, they discovered a YouTube channel for a community called the “Fellowship of the Martyrs.” It was founded by a man named Doug Perry.
“My first impression was, believe it or not, was like I don’t like this guy,” Todd said.
Perry founded the Fellowship of the Martyrs in 2004 in Liberty, Missouri, which is located about 30 minutes outside of Kansas City.
According to its website, they operate like a co-op, with about 70 members sharing apartments and often praying together. But Todd now chooses another word.
“I consider it a cult,” he said.
Drawn by the appeal of ministry, the family moved in nearly two years ago. After a few months, Todd's life began to fall apart. He said the fellowship allowed addicts and former criminals who could be dangerous and unpredictable.
One in particular, Greg Weiler, was arrested and charged in a plot to blow up churches in Oklahoma.
Then, Todd said his wife started hearing voices telling her to leave him to be with another man. She listened to them. It was the last straw.
Todd says he packed up his kids in the middle of the night while his wife was asleep and eventually brought them to Texas. Not long after that, she filed charges alleging kidnapping and he was arrested.
That was more than a year ago. Today, Todd is back in Texas fighting for his marriage and the custody of his children.
A Missouri court found he had reason to take them and the charges against him were dropped. Yet he still worries the Fellowship of the Martyrs may be growing dangerous.
“Nobody seems to want to label an organization as a cult until the disaster happens,” he said.
He is still hoping his wife has a change of heart and that his children come home.
So he took his family and went and joined up anyways? Am I reading this right?
Not much information to work with there.
A fool and his wife are soon parted.
And I bet they took all his money too.
That should have been his biggest clue. I admit I know nothing about them, but could it be similar to Jonestown?
I thought this thread would be about becoming an Obama voter!
Disenfranchised? Don't they mean something like disenchanted?
What the hell is wrong with journalists? Are they not required to know the English language?
I have numerous family memebers who have been taken over by a cult.
cults are the same in one respect....they hide perversion....
It's a Kansas City Star Magazine article that they did about 3 weeks ago on the cuple.
Oops, cuple=couple
But if the cult leader decides to run for the presidency on the republican ticket, will publishing such articles as this, and exposition of this cult’s doctrines become “hate speech”?
Ever read up on the “Children of God” cult? I hear they changed their name.
eeeesh! What a bunch of....!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_International
They sent out their wives and daughters as hookers to “recruit new members”!
and no, they didn’t leave out sex with the kids, they were “liberated” you know. Until they got caught and had to pretend to ban it.
crazy people
I remember the Children of God very well. In 1971 or so, a group of us were at Surfside Beach, TX. We were ther camping and surfing for the weekend. The CoG bus was nearby and the kids were out saving souls. They got to 3 of us, I was “born again.” One of our friends was talked into going with them on their cool hippy looking bus to join their commune and live right swith God. That would’ve been OK, but he was 17 and had no way to contact his parents that he wasn’t coming home. So, imagine their surprise when my other friend and I showed up at their house to give them the “good news.” We gave them his sleeping bag, surfboard, all his worldly possessions. His dad freaked out and almost killed my friend and me....don’t kill the messenger. His family tried for about 18 months to recapture him. I don’t think they were ever successful, I really don’t know. He was a friend of a friend. I need to find out how it ended.
But yes, the Children of God had some badass tactics.
“saving souls” with perverted sex. lol
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