{"id":22,"date":"2008-10-10T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-10-10T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/textmessages\/2008\/10\/don-lattins-jesus-freaks-1.html"},"modified":"2008-10-10T16:00:00","modified_gmt":"2008-10-10T16:00:00","slug":"don-lattins-jesus-freaks-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/textmessages\/2008\/10\/don-lattins-jesus-freaks-1.html","title":{"rendered":"Don Lattin’s Jesus Freaks"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"JesusFreaks.jpg\"<\/span>One of the most unshakeable reading experiences I’ve had in the last year is Don Lattin’s Jesus Freak: A True Story of Murder and Madness on the Evangelical Edge<\/a><\/span>. Taking a cue from Jon Krakauer’s Under the Banner of Heaven<\/a>, Lattin uses the story of a freakish murder-suicide as the occasion to research the nature of cultish religious belief. Lattin’s sect is a little less known than Krakauer’ fundamentalist Mormons–in Jesus Freaks <\/span>we follow the founding and flourishing of the Children of God\/Family International. The group was initially an offshoot of sorts from the Jesus Movement, the\u00a0evangelical hippie revival of the\u00a01970s. But under the apocalyptic teaching of a self-described messiah and “End-Time Prophet” named David Berg, the Children of God became a corrupted, sexualized regime that drove its decedents to murderous acts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
When I spoke with Don about his book–read the interview after the jump–we focused quite a bit on his title. How can an outsider group like this be described as “evangelical”? I admit that I went into the book with a chip on my shoulder, because I’m always frustrated when the strangest, most radical elements of Christianity are made to represent mainstream faith. (IOW, “How can the New York Times think of Pat Robertson as a typical evangelical leader when every evangelical I know is embarrassed by him?”) But I came away from Jesus Freaks <\/span>thinking of it as a warning cry. More after the jump. And I’d like to know what you think of Lattin’s thesis about this story as an indication of what can happen to those who follow strong religious leaders.\u00a0<\/div>\n


\n<\/p>\n


\n
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

You anticipate in
\nyour introduction that a lot of evangelical Christians will have a problem with
\nthe title “Jesus Freaks.” You’ve got that right–this is a book about
\ncultists, and it sounds like you are conflating them with other Jesus
\nfollowers. Why did you choose this title?<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

When I did the
\nhistorical research on Berg’s beginnings, two things were clear. One, that he
\ndefinitely came out of the evangelical movement. He was in ministry with his
\nmother and with his children and ordained with the Christian Missionary
\nAlliance. And when the Children of God started, they were originally called
\nTeens for Christ. He initially had support within the evangelical movement
\nuntil some people started hearing what was really going on underneath.<\/span><\/p>\n

What were
\nBergen’s evangelical roots?<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

He started out kind
\nof Holiness Pentecostal. His mother was a pretty well known evangelist in the
\n1920s in the mode of Aimee Semple McPherson. That’s where he really learned the
\ntricks of the evangelical trade.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

How does someone
\ntransition from garden variety evangelical preacher to “The End-Time
\nProphet”?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

This was a guy who
\nwas a miserable failure as a preacher and evangelist. He was 50 years old when
\nhe started this thing, and he had been in his mother’s shadow for so long. I
\nthink a lot of it was he was just mad at the world because of the failures that
\nhe had in his own ministry. Then, when he got this following, I think it
\nconvinced him more and more that he was a prophet. His time had finally
\ncome–you know, the whole Messianic complex.<\/span><\/p>\n

Berg is often in the background in this book, which
\nI think is probably how he existed for his followers, too.<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

That’s the thing.
\nHow can someone have this much power over people that had never even see him?
\nThey didn’t even know what he looked like. They weren’t allowed to see pictures
\nof him. He was a drawing of a lion–a friendly lion–on all the literature, his
\nphotograph with a drawing of a lion for the head.<\/span><\/p>\n

Was Berg central
\nin the minds of the community as the leader of this movement?<\/span><\/p>\n

No doubt about it.
\nHe wrote thousands of missives. I talked to people who were in his inner
\ncircle, one that was anonymous in the book. He said that [Berg] never went
\nanywhere without someone carrying a tape recorder. A lot of his writings were
\njust his rantings. He was basically a religious drunk. He would get drunk
\naround the dinner table and start talking, and that’s kind of why he said such
\noutrageous things. But it was later edited and checked, and they still sent it
\nout.<\/span><\/p>\n

You write that
\ncults show us how religions are born, and you draw a connection between David Berg
\nand Catholic pedophilia and Muslim terrorists. <\/b><\/span>\u00a0What
\nconnects those three different groups?<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In a way you could
\nsay that all religions start as cults, or sects. Christianity started as a
\nJewish sect, right? And take the Mormon church–a lot of people still think
\nthat Mormonism is a cult. People are so interested in studying the development
\nof Mormonism because there’s a written record. Most religions are from
\nantiquity, and it’s really hard to see what was going on. With Berg–he wrote
\ndown everything<\/i><\/span>. So you can see how the theology develops.<\/span><\/p>\n

Do you see Ricky
\nas kind of a symbol for products of religious upbringings?<\/span><\/p>\n

As a religion writer
\nover the years, I have come across a lot of people who were raised in strict,
\nconservative evangelical–some would say fundamentalist–churches that feel like
\nit was abusive, that they’re survivors of Christianity.<\/span><\/p>\n

[David Hoyt] said,
\n“The lesson for me is to be very, very careful not to give your loyalty to any
\nnew teaching, new prophet, special revelation. My loyalty is to God and Jesus
\nChrist and the Holy Spirit, and to no pastor, teacher or evangelist. I\u00a0don’t care how big
\na following they have. No pastor or leader or man is infallible. I’ve got that warning burned on my soul.”<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

That’s why I think this a book that Evangelicals should read.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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