The Endtime Family: Children of God

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 4 Practices Faith is as much about what people do as what they think, so we must consider religious behavior as well as belief. But some of the most significant forms of religious behavior are subjective experiences of contact with the supernatural , and practices such as prayer naturally generate spiritual experiences. In the two years after Father David’s passing, thousands of members of the Family began to have experiences they interpreted as messages from the spirit world. The contemporary religious movement most famous for its sexual practices transformed into the source of the greatest volume of prophecy in the world. To begin our examination of Family religious practices, we will compare them with General Social Survey respondents in terms of two very conventional activities, prayer and Bible reading. We will then compare their dediction to salvation and spiritual experiences, before concluding with an examination of the group’s orientation toward prophecy. Prayer In their pioneering questionnaire study of American church members, Stark and Glock noted, “Undoubtedly the primary private ritual expectation of Christian churches is prayer. In all denominations members are urged to use prayer as a personal means for worshipping God and for seeking divine aid and guidance .”1 However, Stark and Glock found that the frequency of prayer varied greatly, from a low in the “liberal” or “mainstream” denominations to a high among the sects. Thus it is advisable to begin our consideration of religious practice in the Family with a question about prayer. 69 Immediately after the question about whether the respondent’s belief in God had changed over the years, the survey asked: “Now thinking about the present, about how often do you pray?” Table 4.1 shows that almost all members of the Family pray at least several times a week, and more than 95 percent pray several times a day. One fifth of the American public prays several times a day, and another fifth prays once a day, so prayer certainly is not uncommon outside the Family. About 16 percent of the public prays no more than once or twice a year, suggesting prayer is not a personal choice for them but arises only on rare social occasions, such as a Christmas dinner of their extended family , a wedding, or a funeral. All members of the Family pray more often than this. Thus prayer is far more common within the group than outside, even though there is nothing deviant about frequent prayer in American society. A Canadian member named Peter told me, “We believe in the power of prayer. Whenever we move into a home, we pray over the home. We pray over everything, because we believe there is a spirit world. We believe spirits exist, and there are good ones and bad ones. There are ones that are locked into houses and condemned to stay there until they are released. Jesus himself gave examples to people about spirits and devils and demons where he would rebuke them and send them off.” On several occasions when I was visiting a Family home and happened to mention some problem in my own life, the members immediately offered 70 Practices Table 4.1. Frequency of Prayer About how often do you pray? Family 1991 GSS Never 0.0% 7.9% Less than once a year 0.0% 2.8% About once or twice a year 0.0% 5.5% Several times a year 0.1% 8.3% About once a month 0.0% 4.9% 2–3 times a month 0.2% 5.4% Nearly every week 0.1% 5.8% Every week 0.4% 4.6% Several times a week 2.0% 12.5% Once a day 1.8% 21.8% Several times a day 95.5% 20.5% TOTAL 100.0% 100.0% This table is based on 1,025 cases for the Family, and 1,325 for the General Social Survey. to pray with me about it. We might hold hands, bow our heads a little, and perhaps close our eyes. Then one of them would ask Jesus and the Lord to help me with my particular problem, referring to it specifically. Every one of the many times I rode with the Family in one of their vehicles, they would pray briefly before starting out. I never saw a member kneel in prayer, or fold his or her hands in one of the stereotypical Christian prayer positions. Rather, they...