Church of Bible Understanding

http://obadiah1317.wordpress.com/2008/09/13/stewart-traill-and-the-church-of-bible-understanding-by-ave-hurley-part-one/

http://obadiah1317.wordpress.com/2008/09/14/stewart-trill-and-the-church-of-bible-understanding-by-ave-hurley-part-two/

Church of Bible Understanding (which was originally named the Forever Family) is a conservative evangelical cult which was founded in 1971 by a son of a Presbyterian minister Stewart Traill. He has been described by former members as a narcissistic and manipulative leader. The cult recruits vulnerable youths and homeless people by playing on their vices such as drugs and alcohol. They are forced to live in squalid communes across America especially within the vicinity of New York which are similar to other communes that were associated with the 1960s counterculture.

The cult is insular and distrustful of the modern world because their beliefs “espouse a return to a primitive "New Testament" brand of Christianity” which is an example of a simulacrum (a copy without an original) because they have no way of verifying how Christianity was practised in the first century. “The ground narrative of religious and philosophical tradition was replaced by a personalised narratives of exploration and expression”. Church of Bible Understanding is one such an example of the ground narrative of established religion being replaced by a dispersed array of smaller sects, however the group is trying to re-establish a grand narrative in terms of religious moral order. The group conforms to the ideal of a counterculture in the way it wants to change Society, however only within the confines of the cult.

Although the group developed out of cultural fragmentation which America underwent during the 1960s and 1970s the group still employs repressive strategies in order to keep the group members in line through a rigidly enforced hierarchy which is controlled from the top down by Traill. Former members have detailed how they were kept in order by “harsh criticism, shame, and public humiliation.” Traill uses his church members like drones who work menial cleaning jobs.

In order to avoid paying taxes an estimated 90% of the member’s income is reimbursed the back into the church and directly into Traills pockets. The death of individuality can be described as the fate of the group members because they are being used by an unscrupulous group leader who is willing to use followers as slave labour for the means of financial gain.