What to Know About the Gloriavale Cult from Devotion: Obedience or Betrayal
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New Zealand’s most notorious fundamentalist cult, Gloriavale Christian Community, has a long history of abuse and manipulation. For nearly 60 years, the isolated religious group has been governed by strict rules, with leaders demanding obedience and exerting control over every aspect of members’ lives.
But once allegations of systemic sexual assault and forced labor started to come to light, the group, which inspired The Handmaid’s Tale, began facing much stricter scrutiny. These crimes and allegations are explored in the new Paramount+ documentary series, Devotion: Obedience or Betrayal, which features exclusive archival footage and extensive interviews with former members.
Here’s what we know about the Gloriavale cult and its controversial history.
Gloriavale Christian Community was founded in 1969 by Australian preacher Neville Cooper, also known as Hopeful Christian. Cooper began his career as a traveling evangelist before putting down roots in New Zealand, where he eventually helped found New Life Church in Rangiora.
After a falling-out with church leadership, however, he left to start his own fundamentalist church, originally called The Christ Church. Expanding his following, Cooper acquired a farm in Springbank to build a community he aptly named Springbank Christian Community.
Living a communal and self-sustainable lifestyle, followers worked the farm and built themselves a school, church, and other necessities, making no contact with the outside world. After the reclusive group began to substantially grow in size, Cooper purchased a much larger plot of land and relocated to Haupiri Valley in 1991. It was then he renamed the community Gloriavale in honor of his late wife, Gloria Cooper.
Cooper required followers to shed their individual identities, renouncing their property and assets to the community trust and adhering to a mandatory dress code. At some point, he changed his name to Hopeful Christian, and instructed his hundreds of followers to adopt similar names, like Willing Disciple.
Cooper enforced strict gender roles, requiring women to submit to him and other male leaders known as Shepherds. Under his leadership, Gloriavale members were not allowed to choose who they married; instead Cooper paired people up. He also forced his followers, including children, to work long hours with few breaks and little pay.
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Content retrieved from: https://www.biography.com/crime/a71412026/gloriavale-cult-devotion-obedience-or-betrayal.
