God Willing is a powerful exploration of a 35-year-old American religious sect known as “The Church” or “The Brotherhood.” It also outlines the struggles of families whose children turn away from them to become “Brothers” and “Sisters” in the group, renouncing their past lives and the world — often, without ever turning back.
You come out of a group like that and you have no idea who you are because you’ve been so controlled and micromanaged. So everything you do – say, having a drink with a friend – you think is wrong.
A Lawrence man who thinks his daughter joined a cult and left town has received a letter from her. In the letter, Sam Hunsaker said his daughter Lahla, 20, wrote that she had been reading the Bible since she left and was trying to get closer to God without “conforming to the world.” The disappearance of Lahla Hunsaker was reported in Wednesday’s Journal-World. Her father said he last saw her Saturday. Two to three weeks ago, she joined a Bible study group, which she called The Brethren. She left her 10-month-old son with her fiance’, who lives in Topeka. After
Father says daughter joined The Brethren, then disappeared Sam Hunsaker says his 20-year-old daughter, Lahla, has disappeared. He thinks she joined a cult called The Brethren. “Two or three weeks ago, she went to Centennial Park for a walk and to have a little picnic,” said Hunsaker, who lives in west Lawrence. “While she was there, she met a man who was there reading the Bible.” The meeting, Hunsaker said, led to an invitation for his daughter, a former Lawrence High School student, to join a Bible study group at Kansas University. Hunsaker didn’t object to his daughter joining the
Every day, I do everything I can to make the world a better place. I’m not some kind of religious freak or anything — I’m just human — but I sincerely want to do the appropriate thing all the time; or at least so long as it doesn’t affect my competitive edge in the global marketplace. Therefore, I make it my business to at least recycle my trash, drive a small car that gets good gas mileage, buy organic vegetable oil and clothing made only in Amnesty International-approved countries. I buy a lot of hand-crafted native artifacts made by indigenous
Sept. 3 – FORT COLLINS – Sitting in the Larimer County jail on Wednesday, Patrick Rooney assessed his life before he joined The Brethren and deemed it “empty.” “The American dream was my conception of happiness, and from reading the Bible, I was showed that those things wouldn’t make me happy,” Rooney, 24, said in an interview with The Denver Post. “My life had no true love, no true joy and no true peace.” Raised near Boston, Rooney was a 22-year-old environmental-science major at Humboldt State University in northern California when he joined the group in October 1996. Back then,
Aug. 27 – FORT COLLINS – A Massachusetts man who joined The Brethren two years ago appeared in Larimer County District Court on Wednesday and said he wants to fight extradition to his hometown. Earlier this month, Fort Collins police arrested Patrick Rooney, 24, on an outstanding larceny warrant in Wilmington, Mass. His parents had tracked Rooney to Fort Collins, where they tipped off police to have their son arrested. It was a desperate effort to reclaim Rooney from The Brethren, authorities said. Rooney dropped out of California’s Humboldt State University in October 1996 to join the group, then cut
Aug. 27 – FORT COLLINS – Members of a group known as The Brethren said they offer spiritual fulfillment for young people who think their lives are hollow, aimless and loveless. The men – riding mountain bikes and wearing unkempt beards, tunics and sandals – said they are following in the footsteps of Jesus, living simply, devoting themselves to religious contemplation and traveling the country in small groups to witness the Gospel. “I consider my- self a Bible-believing Christian,” Jerry Williams said as he and his “brothers” talked to The Denver Post outside the Fort Collins Public Library. “Our main
Cleveland Man Intent On Reclaiming His Daughter How far would you go to reclaim a child or loved one from the grasp of a religious cult? What if a stranger asked you for your help? These are questions Greg Badger asked himself and others when he set out to rescue his 18-year-old daughter, Stephenie, from a group known as the Brethren. Stephenie was an intelligent, deeply religious high school senior. She was well on her way to college after graduation from high school. But Stephenie mysteriously disappeared one day. It was her disappearance that set off a chain reaction of
N E W Y O R K, March 25 — They assume false names and give away everything they own. They sever contact with family and friends. Wandering the country, they sleep in public places and live off other people’s discards. If asked, they’d be hard pressed to tell you where they’ll be next week, let alone next year. These are not fugitives or drifters who’ve fallen on hard times, but bright, educated individuals who once led successful lives in mainstream America. As Diane Sawyer reported on PrimeTime Live, these people have chosen to lead a nomadic, spartan existence in