Oh, how sad, a cult is crumbling

[shemp]

http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/137/metro/A_Christian_community_falters+.shtml

It was one of the fastest-growing and most controversial churches in America, banned as a cult from dozens of college campuses while boasting 135,000 members worldwide. Its followers were known for spending their free time recruiting new members and waiting on doorsteps at 4 in the morning, hoping to persuade those who had ''fallen away'' to come back to the fold. But now the central organization of the International Churches of Christ, a strict religious body founded in Boston, is collapsing.

Thomas ''Kip'' McKean, its charismatic founder, has stepped down. Its world governing body has dissolved and dozens of local church leaders have resigned or been fired, in part because churches can no longer afford to pay their salaries.

Behind the story of a teetering church empire is the tale of the autocratic visionary who built it and his independent-minded daughter, now a Harvard senior, whose decision to leave the church sparked turmoil in the already troubled group.

I lost a very good friend to this cult. "John" was a pretty average guy, had a wife, two kids, a house, and was active in a mainstream church. He also played chess in our local chess club.

Back in the 80s, this cult, then known as the "Boston Church of Christ," held huge rallies in the old Boston Garden, which more than 20,000 people would attend. John went to one of these and was hooked in like a fish.

Soon, he was spending all his free time attending prayer meetings and rallies, and was actively trying to recruit new members. This cult operated very much like a pyramid scam, with each new member required to recruit more new members in order to move up in the cult hierarchy and receive gifts and bonuses.

His wife resisted his efforts to force her to join, and soon he had to choose between the cult or his family. He chose the cult. He also left our chess club, after unsuccessfully trying to recruit some of us into the cult.

He soon moved to Boston, and we lost track of him. A couple of years later (1990) we heard that he had died of a massive coronary. He was just 38.

I'm glad to see that this cult is collapsing. I hope they disintegrate completely, but I suspect that another will rise from its ashes.

 

[CFLarsen]

They shut themselves down because they can't pay the salaries??

Wow...seems things are looking better. In the old days, it could resulted in mass-murder.

Now, they simply say: "No more money. Go home".

Could be worse.

 

[GrapeJ713]

Wow...seems things are looking better. In the old days, it could resulted in mass-murder.

Yes, but mass murder-suicide had such a cleansing effect on the gene pool. Maybe the new way is like the ex-smoker effect, some of the most rabid anit-smoking zealots are former smokers.

 

[the_ignored]

They shut themselves down because they can't pay the salaries??

Wow...seems things are looking better. In the old days, it could resulted in mass-murder.

Now, they simply say: "No more money. Go home".

Could be worse.

I wish they were all like that, then the ones going broke up here would also fold. Instead, they ask for gov't handouts.

 

[neutrino_cannon]

They must have all become scientologists.