Captive Congregation My Fourteen Years In The Church Of Bible Understanding [Paperback]

The Church of Bible Understanding (COBU) had a presence in many cities in the United States during the late seventies and eighties. It was well known in New York City for its carpet cleaning business, Christian Brothers Carpet Cleaning, which was such a regular part of the fabric of city life that it was parodied (as Sunshine Carpet Cleaners) on Seinfeld. Its 39.95 Carpet Cleaning Special flyers were slipped under many doors and left in many apartment lobbies. Unlike other religious organizations whose zealous devotees stood on corners selling flowers, the COBU brothers and sisters gave live demos of the cleansing power of their carpet cleaning machines on city street corners. The carpet cleaning business raised money to start orphanages in Haiti. COBU still has a presence in the New York City and several other cities. It left the carpet business for the more successful architectural antique business called Olde Good Things. COBU was recently in the news when Haitian authorities considered closing the orphanages because of the poor conditions there. News stories contrasted the high earnings of these stores with the run down condition of the orphanages. This book describes how James LaRue, a young seeker of truth, was approached in a mall by a cult member and how he joined the group and stayed in it for fourteen years. It is not as much a history of The Church of Bible Understanding as it is a story from the viewpoint of the average member of a cult. Though James's descriptions of daily cult life, the reader has a front row view of the kind of manipulation, lies, harassment and abuse practiced by the cult's leadership and particularly by Stewart Traill, COBU's self-appointed pastor who had the only true method of Bible interpretation, a man who portrayed himself as a right Christian example and the restorer of Christianity to its original purity (which he said had been lost since the time of the Apostles), who, behind closed doors, kept a harem of young women whilÃF