It was dim in the room. It was crowded with people dressed in clothing fit for a depression-era movie. All of the women wore dresses and many had little pieces of clothe stuck to their hair—“headship veilings” they called them. Most of the individuals were poor and fairly uneducated. I'm not sure how my mother found them.
My eyes glanced through the attendance book. Homeschoolers. Most of the participants that night wrote down their names, addresses, and how many days of homeschooling their children had attended that year. For some entries in the book, the days were disturbingly few.
I sat squirming uncomfortably in my chair as a tall, relatively good-looking man commanded the attention of the room. His voice droned on and on about things I can’t remember anymore. What I do remember, was when he commented that he hadn’t allowed his wife to read a book that I had read. I was taken aback and looked awkwardly at my mother. Wouldn’t allow her to read it because he thought it might frighten her?
Something was terribly wrong with this group of Christian homeschoolers. Not all homeschool groups are strange—I know that. But this one was. I was thirteen at the time and I can still remember being shocked that I could grasp how erroneous the man’s teachings and control of the group were, (on a variety of levels) but that the adults in the room didn’t.
I am still shocked.
Yesterday the FBI apprehended a man who ruled a small community of polygamists in a town straddling the border of Utah and Arizona. A highly conservative off-shoot of the Mormon religion, the group is under investigation for sexual abuse of minors in the form of under-age marriages, property-tax evasion and welfare fraud.
Included in a recent journalistic analysis of the group were features on two other groups known to have conservative “Christian” ideologies. These two other groups, however, had hidden histories of sexual abuse as well.
One was the story of an Amish girl who was raped by her brothers repeatedly throughout her childhood. The brothers willingly confessed their “sins” and were welcomed back into the community with relative impunity. When the girl later discovered that her younger sister was being abused as well, she alerted outside, non-Amish authorities to the situation.
Her brothers were convicted and sentenced. In the courtroom the Amish community cried for the sentencing of the brothers. But not for the girl who was raped. She was excommunicated and is no longer allowed to see her sister or other siblings. No one inquired as to who was abusing the boys, which undoubtedly must have been the case.
Another group, called “The Family” (originally it was called “The Children of God”) was also featured. The story focused on a young man who grew up in the group and suffered sexual abuse at the hands of members—including his own mother. As an adult he murdered one of the women who abused him and then shot himself.
This morning I watched a video about a Chechen woman tortured and humiliated for an alleged act of adultery by Muslim police loyal to the Kremlin in her village. Her abusers adhere to a pre-medieval code of Islam and more than likely will go unpunished.
It is the same story repeating itself in various forms—groups lauding control over other groups under the veil of supposed religious teaching. Usually there is a strong leader who takes the helm. They threaten the hereafter. They twist Scripture or other “holy” writings. They adhere to dogma. They commit evil acts in the name of some higher authority and do so with relative impunity obtained through the silence of their victims. It is the silence that is the biggest culprit of all.
After reflecting on these stories and their eerie similarities, I decided to look up the man responsible for the cult-like group I briefly experienced in my childhood.
I half expected the leader to be in jail or headed in that direction. Instead he is the author of a seminar and teaching series entitled “Bold Christian Living.” His teachings are so off-the-wall that even conservative Christian groups are beginning to take notice and some have written criticisms of his perspective. Why they concede anything he writes, however, is beyond me. More than merely twisting Scripture, he twists the very concept of God—making him an emotionally manipulative, authoritarian figure concerned only with behavior. The man, Jonathan Lindvall, makes himself the god of his children as well as the people in his groups.
When I was still thirteen my mother and some of my siblings visited a family from the Lindvall group. I believe we were picking up herbs from them. It was winter and the house was cold, stark and dirty. Three or four children slept in one tiny room—with the baby kept in a drawer in the dresser. The backyard was muddy and full of chickens. They lived in squalor. I asked one of the darling barefoot little girls about their home and she said they were growing vegetables and herbs and selling them so that they could make money.
“For what?” I remember asking.
“To buy land.” She said.
“Why do you want to buy land?” I asked while thinking the better question would have been "Why would a ten year old be concerned with things ilke that?"
“Mr. Lindvall told Mommy and Daddy that land is the only thing the Government can’t take away from us so we all need to buy land.” She said simply, smiling as she answered. Cause that's normal, I thought.
Apparently he twists notions of polity as well.
Spiritual abuse is not illegal. Emotional abuse is. Jonathan Lindvall has committed both against his family and his loyal followers. He uses the tactics of fear, intimidation, authoritarianism, absolutism, etc. to gain allegiance.
Perhaps such abuse and misuse of God and His image is exactly why the debate about that image is so intense. Perhaps rather than vehemently engaging in disputes about recasting the image of God, our time could be used more wisely. Perhaps we could spend time having a conversation about what wounds have caused these hostilities and the desire to change language. Perhaps we could discuss how these wounds might possibly be healed. A God who loves, heals, and sets free is one I think those involved in such sects, and Lindvall especially, need to discover.
