Sitdown Sunday: Unexplained deaths and child exorcisms – inside the cult of the Jesus Army
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IT’S A DAY of rest, and you may be in the mood for a quiet corner and a comfy chair.
We’ve hand-picked some of the week’s best reads for you to savour.
Philippa was only six when her parents joined the Christian cult in Northampton. She later helped to expose what went on there, including unexplained deaths, sexual abuse and exorcisms performed on children.
Of all the strangeness in their new life, Philippa found the fellowship’s approach to family hardest. Under Stanton’s rules, communal living meant renouncing your “natural family” in favour of the fellowship’s “spiritual family”. Women were called “sisters”, men were “brothers” and leaders were “elders”. Philippa’s parents, instead of just being responsible for their family unit, were given other duties: helping to cook and clean for the other Shalom residents, or finding new recruits. When Philippa turned 12, she was moved from the room she shared with her younger brother into a dormitory with women of all ages. Explaining this approach, Stanton would point to a passage from Matthew 10, in which Jesus said: “I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother … A man’s enemies will be members of his own household.” In the absence of the “natural family”, any adult could be responsible for disciplining children. Many did so through “rodding” – hitting children as young as two with sticks. “He who spares the rod hates his son,” Stanton would say, quoting from
Content retrieved from: https://www.thejournal.ie/sitdown-sunday-longreads-longform-35-6771214-Jul2025/.
