Word: sects
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...Plain Truth went to 2,100,000 subscribers. To the millions of Americans who followed him, Garner Ted dispensed glib solutions to such problems as drugs, crime, broken marriages and delinquent children-all implicitly in the name of the Worldwide Church of God. This is a stern, bizarre sect founded in 1934 as the Radio Church of God by Garner Ted's father Herbert W. Armstrong, a Quaker-born ad salesman turned preacher, and still ruled by the elder Armstrong from headquarters in Pasadena, Calif. Garner Ted, 42, was the heir apparent not only to the W.C.G. but also...
...followers of HASIDISM, a movement of mystical enthusiasm that sprang up in Eastern Europe in the 18th century. Among them were the Satmar Hasidim, named after the Rumanian town of Satmar, and the Lubavitch Hasidim, named after the White Russian town of Lubavitch. The Satmar sect is fiercely loyal to the U.S. but anti-Zionist because only the Messiah can re-establish Israel. They remain small (about 5,000 families), but the Lubavitcher, who accept Israel and are also staunch U.S. patriots, now have perhaps 150,000 members and sympathizers...
While there seems to be no hard evidence of kidnaping, drugging or genuine hypnotism so far, a broader charge of "brainwashing" may be closer to the truth, at least in the sense of relentless exposure to the sect's propaganda. At special communes for "babes" (new converts), the apprentice memorizes the requisite Bible passages by reading them aloud while simultaneously listening to them on tape. Bible texts also blare from loudspeakers all day long. Each new convert takes a biblical name, usually from the Old Testament (Caleb, Shadrach, Deborah), and drops his old name as a remnant...
Without Games. Founder Berg, under his sect name of Moses, regularly produces a patriarchal stream of crotchety, sometimes profane "Mo-letters" advising his far-flung Children on everything from visa restrictions to buying a boat. A growing consciousness of publicity may modify the Children's behavior in the future -as it has apparently begun to do. To offset attacks by parents, the colonies sent members home for the holidays; while quite a few stayed home, many returned more zealous than before. Berg has also discouraged clashes with other Jesus People...
...families, for that matter, are disappointed with the results the Children of God produce. Ed Rees, vice president for public relations of the Flying Tiger Line in Los Angeles, watched his son drift from medical studies into drugs, and finally into the Children sect. Rees still finds "a depressing sameness" in the members, "either sucking up this excessive religion or spitting it out," but he also allows that "they are totally without guile, without games. They really believe. They are prepared to die." So far, however, the question is whether they are prepared to live more fully in the world...