Police take kids from apocalyptic church

[Amelia]

Police take kids from apocalyptic church

Leader of dozens in New Mexico claims to be Messiah; no charges filed

The Associated Press

April. 30, 2008

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - State police have removed three children from an apocalyptic church whose leader claims to be the Messiah and acknowledges having sex with some of his followers.

The two girls and one boy — all under the age of 18 — were taken from the northeastern New Mexico compound following an April 22 investigation, Romaine Serna, spokeswoman for the state Children, Youth and Families Department, said Wednesday.

She said a fourth child, a girl, agreed to be interviewed by the department. Serna said that girl had been at the compound but now lives elsewhere with her parents.

The three children were taken into state custody because of allegations of inappropriate contact between minors and the adult leader of The Lord Our Righteousness Church, Serna said.

"I understand that it was very calm and they (state police) did not meet with any resistance," she said. Serna said she wasn't aware of any other youths at the compound.

Serna declined to elaborate because of the ongoing investigation by state police and the district attorney's office. No charges had been filed, she said.

Wayne Bent, who is in his 60s and is known in the church as Michael Travesser, established the church at a rural site called Strong City, north of Clayton in northeastern New Mexico. It has at least 70 members, Serna said.

'My children are kidnapped'

Bent, on an April 27 posting on the church's Web site, accused the state of kidnapping the children. "My children are kidnapped because some demon wrote a letter to people in authority accusing me of some crimes," he wrote.

"When the state came against our children (seed), the state came against God, and this will NOT ever be forgiven them," he wrote.

In a lengthy discussion dated Sept. 11, 2007, Bent said his work is finished and he does not expect to be "in the earthly sphere" much longer.

He acknowledged having sex with three women — the wives of two of his followers and his daughter in law. He said it was at the direction of God and the instigation of the women.

Jeff Bent, who Serna said is Wayne Bent's son, denied in an April 29 letter to Gov. Bill Richardson and posted on the Web site that any child had been abused or neglected at Strong City.

The group educates its children "to avoid the slavery you seek to impose on them, and to experience the freedom they have in God," Jeff Bent wrote.

'We have taught them higher values'

"We have given everything to prepare them for an eternity with God. We haven't oppressed them with your atheistic globalist curriculum, socialist indoctrination, and 'alternative lifestyles' dogma that comprise modern public education. We have taught them higher values than the values of your slave-state, and have sought to shield them from the abuse that is institutionalized in your system," he wrote.

Serna said two of the children were placed in foster homes, and the other accepted voluntary placement, which usually means with a friend or relative.

Serna said her agency received information on April 21 that warranted the removal of the children. She declined to reveal the information or its source.

The New Mexico removal came three weeks after Texas officials raided a polygamist-sect ranch and took custody of 463 children, saying that group's practice of underage and polygamous spiritual marriages endangered the children.

[nuff sed]

I notice that the report quoted did not mention the strong Seventh-day Adventist backgrounds of both Wayne Bent and his followers.

[Amelia]

My Escape From Adventist Hell

By Amana | Tuesday, April 29, 2008

This is my personal experience with sexual perversion in higher places and with child protective services.

Almost twenty years ago, my husband and I left the Seventh-day Adventist church. Just before we left, we were the janitors of the church that we attended. One night we happened to show up at the church to do something and there was a private baptism going on. The man being baptized was an ordained minister of the Seventh-day Adventist church. While he was in office he had molested his daughter, whom he and his wife had adopted while doing missionary work in a poor country. We knew the story at the time. Wanting a better life for her, the mother of the little girl had given her daughter to this minister and his wife to raise.

http://strongcity.info/LOR/sc/post/my_escape_from_adventist_hell/#more-1419

[Taylor]

Wow this guy is WEIRD!

[LynnDel]

I know some of these people. I have wondered for years how long it would take for the state to step in. Wayne Bent left the church years ago (if I remember correctly), and his beliefs have gotten stranger and stranger.

[Taylor]

No kidding they are strange! Wow! How people follow someone like Wayne is amazing to me!

[Stan]

People are desperate for spiritual leadership and are willing to follow those who will lead.

[Neil D]

People are desperate for spiritual leadership and are willing to follow those who will lead.

I tend to think that there are some who are called to leadership, but refuse to follow [for whatever reasons, ie unable to decipher the signs that God is calling them, desirious of remaining humble, etc. ] and the masses, desperate for spiritual leadership, will follow someone who is obviously a "kook" [notice, I did NOT say "KooT"!]

[Taylor]

ROFL! Glad you defined that Neil that it is a kook not a Koot. :)

[cardw]

Here is a inside look at this cult from a Firefly, a British documentary team and following is a 2 hour video response which is even more bizarre. You might want to skip farther in to hear the women talk about why they needed to "consummate" their relationship with Wayne Bent.

For further information, the BBC documentary can be viewed here:

End of the World Cult Documentary

Strongcity's documentary can be viewed here:

Strong City's response video

To me this is a partial look into the process of how our church came into being based on a disappointment, a young prophetess, and what I believe is a similar type of need to believe in something even though all the evidence points otherwise.

As I have studied this cult there is evidence that the way Adventists have been taught to believe in Ellen White and the Bible sets them up for these types of off shoots that portray themselves as the non-fallen Adventist church that follows Ellen White more closely and has the so called modern gift of prophecy.

Obviously this group has gone far beyond Ellen White, but the methods of control that appeal to the ego, such as we are the chosen ones, we have a greater knowledge, and therefore a greater responsibility, are much the same.

I can see why a 19 year old Ellen White might become caught up into believing that she had special knowledge and gifts in an atmosphere of disappointment and shame after watching the interviews with the young women of this particular cult.

[Taylor]

With all kindness, any comparison between EGW and this weirdo, sexually perverted guy is circumstancial. I am sure Wayne has worn shirts and socks and we all have worn shirts and socks but that doesn't mean we are like him.

Sure there are some SDA's who have been caught up in this (including him that used to be an SDA), and that is sad but it isn't because of our history it is because our church is a hospital for sinners not a country club for saints and when you are a hospital you have all kinds of "diseases" to deal with of strange people who might be in need of the psychiatric department of the hospital or something.

I agree there are some STRANGE SDA's out there but this Wayne Bent goes far beyond strange and anyone who would go along with him has to be under some type of influence as what he believes flies in the face of Biblical teachings no matter how much he tries to construe it to fit his perverted views. I am so glad the kids are now safe from this man. You are perfectly granted the right to take issue with EGW and that is fine but she was not sexually perverted, she didn't abuse kids, nor did she have multiple partners nor think she was Jesus. This guy is incredibly weird!

[cardw]

Quote:

With all kindness, any comparison between EGW and this weirdo, sexually perverted guy is circumstancial.

You need to read my post more carefully. I did not make a direct association with Wayne and EGW. This is what I DID say...

Quote:

Obviously this group has gone far beyond Ellen White, but the methods of control that appeal to the ego, such as we are the chosen ones, we have a greater knowledge, and therefore a greater responsibility, are much the same.

There are a number of contributing factors that are brought forth by Ellen White in her writings.

1) A painful practice of introspection. Simply read just about any Ellen White for a few pages and you'll come across this.

2) The teaching of an impending doom that requires urgency, loyalty, and unquestioning faith to survive.

3) Teaching people to ignore doubts because their nature is evil and not to be trusted.

4) Making low self esteem a virtue.

5) The overemphasis of the respect for authority within the organization.

6) A strong emphasis on the organization and its goals over the individual.

7) Systems of belief that keep people never good enough.

The few ways to get relief from these systems is to either let go of these beliefs and develop a non shame motivational core or to become some form of god yourself or to have someone in authority pronounce you worthy or the way most people do is to pick and choose some combination of beliefs.

This is why early forms of Adventist teaching and culture produced groups like those present at Strong City and were at Waco. They are the ultimate outcome of these systems of belief when people don't make their way out through alternatives.

Before Wayne Bent announced his Messiahship he had led these people into a community by promising them that he had a system to help them perfect their characters so they could be ready for the close of probation. This is right out of the Ellen White play book. His visionary and prophetic experiences are also very similar. While Ellen White did not claim to have a system to directly perfect one's character, she did say that it would be required so that we could stand before god without a mediator.

I know there are all kinds of complicated apologetics for this, but the simple answer is that she was creating all these ideas so that she could survive the shame of investing in William Miller's teachings. This created an atmosphere where there was always one more thing and if we work hard god will take us home to paradise.

Fortunately today this is not the majority experience of most Adventists, but in the past this was not true. You would find far more similar affects among Adventist believers that appeared much like those in the Strong City cult.

[LynnDel]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPgnLc5d7Is

[Taylor]

Ok Richard. I don't want to try to discredit you. But I still don't see EGW as controlling or anything in her teachings like this guy's teachings. I know you said he went FAR beyong anything she ever did or taught but I just don't see why her name even needs to come up, but then I don't see things the way you do, but yes we agree on one thing, this guy is nuts.

Maybe you don't see anything as absolute truth, but liquid depending on what an individual thinks or experiences. I agree there is a lot more grey than our "early church leaders" may have taught or believed but that doesn't take away that God's Word does have some clear black and whites.

[phkrause]

The difference is that EGW did not sleep with all the men in the church. She told each and all that the Bible is the book to follow not her. I personally did not see any similarity's. I don't think that the Adventist Church is perfect by far. But neither are any other church. But I do believe that we follow the Bible princible's closer that any other Christian Church. Again we are not perfect. And I know as for me I am not a perfect Christian by no means, but only through Jesus I am.

Shabbat Shalom,

pkrause

[John317]

....Obviously this group has gone far beyond Ellen White, but the methods of control that appeal to the ego, such as we are the chosen ones, we have a greater knowledge, and therefore a greater responsibility, are much the same.

I can see why a 19 year old Ellen White might become caught up into believing that she had special knowledge and gifts in an atmosphere of disappointment and shame after watching the interviews with the young women of this particular cult.

It should be mentioned that everything that group is doing, and that leader is doing, is opposed to what both the Bible and Ellen White say to do.

It's impossible to explain the rise of the SDA church and Ellen White's life and teachings simply on the basis that Ellen White got "caught up" into believing something that was not true.

Check out Dramatic Prophecies of Ellen White by Herbert Edgar Douglass, and read the well-documented biography of Ellen White by Arthur White. Is it reasonable to believe that all this happened because Ellen White was under some kind of illusion?

[John317]

Quote:

...There are a number of contributing factors that are brought forth by Ellen White in her writings.

1) A painful practice of introspection. Simply read just about any Ellen White for a few pages and you'll come across this.

Could you give one or two examples of what you are referring to?

The same criticisms are made of the Bible. There's nothing along these lines in Ellen White that cannot also be found in the Bible.

Quote:

4) Making low self esteem a virtue.

Ellen White did not have low self-esteem; and rightly understood, neither the Bible nor Ellen White favor low self-esteem. I can see how someone can think they do, but they're misreading and misinterpreting what both those sources are saying. There is also such a thing as false esteem. I think that if we really believe and understand that God loves us and that Christ died in order to save us, we can't continue for long to have low self-esteem. In fact, it should heighten our true self-esteem-- to the point where we won't let anyone exploit or use or abuse us.

Quote:

5) The overemphasis of the respect for authority within the organization.

6) A strong emphasis on the organization and its goals over the individual.

7) Systems of belief that keep people never good enough.

Again, the same criticisms made of Ellen White's writing on these matters can be, and are, leveled against the Bible itself.

I think it's good to talk about things, but we need to remember that the wrongs we see in examples such as David Koresh and Wayne Bent are extremes. Good things are bad when taken to extreme. It's called fanaticism.

Quote:

The few ways to get relief from these systems is to either let go of these beliefs and develop a non shame motivational core or to become some form of god yourself or to have someone in authority pronounce you worthy or the way most people do is to pick and choose some combination of beliefs.

This is why early forms of Adventist teaching and culture produced groups like those present at Strong City and were at Waco. They are the ultimate outcome of these systems of belief when people don't make their way out through alternatives.

Before Wayne Bent announced his Messiahship he had led these people into a community by promising them that he had a system to help them perfect their characters so they could be ready for the close of probation. This is right out of the Ellen White play book. His visionary and prophetic experiences are also very similar. While Ellen White did not claim to have a system to directly perfect one's character, she did say that it would be required so that we could stand before god without a mediator.

I know there are all kinds of complicated apologetics for this, but the simple answer is that she was creating all these ideas so that she could survive the shame of investing in William Miller's teachings. This created an atmosphere where there was always one more thing and if we work hard god will take us home to paradise.

Fortunately today this is not the majority experience of most Adventists, but in the past this was not true. You would find far more similar affects among Adventist believers that appeared much like those in the Strong City cult.

Interesting analysis. You have some good points, I think. I see the cults as taking something that was good and using it in a way that makes those good things into something evil. That is what David Koresh and Jim Jones did.

[Neil D]

Quote:

To me this is a partial look into the process of how our church came into being based on a disappointment, a young prophetess, and what I believe is a similar type of need to believe in something even though all the evidence points otherwise.

Hmmmmmm.......

Obviously, you are thinking that 1844 not only was a disappointment, but also a false interpretation...Because, if the prophecys regarding 1844 are incorrect, then there is no need for a prophetess/guide... Correct me if I am misinterpreting you here....

Assuming that is the case, how do you interprete Daniel? Literally, figuratively, prophectically? How?

[Neil D]

I notice that the report quoted did not mention the strong Seventh-day Adventist backgrounds of both Wayne Bent and his followers.

My question for this is why does the SDA church produce such ultra conservative dysfunctional people? Why do people suspend belief in God, and superimpose a human who claims to be divinity/humanity combined? We already have that in the form of Jesus Christ.....

[LynnDel]

Quote:

My question for this is why does the SDA church produce such ultra conservative dysfunctional people?

I don't think it's so much that the church produces such people, but it attracts such people. Take a look at any group of people who tend to lean toward either end of a liberal-conservative spectrum, and you will find kooks.

[Amelia]

Maybe I just don't know where to look. But I've never seen weird Baptist offshoot sects. Or strange Presbyterian offshoot cults.

[John317]

Maybe I just don't know where to look. But I've never seen weird Baptist offshoot sects. Or strange Presbyterian offshoot cults.

Ever heard of Jim Jones? What "produced" him?

Check out this info:

"Jones began his own church, named the Community Unity Church (after being exposed to the Seventh-day Baptist church). In 1955, he renamed it the church Wings of Deliverance, and later that year the Peoples Temple Full Gospel Church. In 1959 the church joined the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), and Jones renamed it the Peoples Temple Christian Church Full Gospel. Jones sold pet monkeys door-to-door to raise the money to fund his church.

Jones purported to preach what he called "apostolic socialism." In doing so, the Temple openly preached to established members that "relgion is an opiate of the people." Accordingly, "those who remained drugged with the opiate of religion had to be brought to enlightenment -- socialism." In that regard, Jones also openly stated that he "took the church and used the church to bring people to atheism." Jones often mixed those concepts, such as preaching that "If you're born in this church, this socialist revolution, you're not born in sin. If you're born in capitalist America, racist America, fascist America, then you're born in sin. But if you're born in socialism, you're not born in sin."

In 1961, Jones helped to integrate churches, restaurants, the telephone company, the police department, a theater, an amusement park, and the Methodist Hospital and became the executive director of the Indianapolis Human Rights Commission.

Jones received considerable criticism in Indiana for his integrationist views. In 1965, Jones left Indiana, moving the Peoples Temple to Redwood Valley, California based, in part, on Jones' belief that it would be a more safe location if nuclear war were to occur.

Jones also authored a booklet he would distribute in the Temple titled "The Letter Killeth" pointing out what he felt were the contradictions, absurdities, and atrocities in the Bible, but also stating that the Bible contained great truths. He was particularly fascinated with his ability to manipulate people. Jones perfected his craft and was very skilled in his new found talent. He claimed to be an incarnation of Jesus, Akhenaten, the Buddha, Lenin, and Father Divine and performed supposed miracle healings to attract new converts. Members of Jones' church called him "Father" and believed their movement was the solution to the problems of society; many did not distinguish Jones from the movement.

Unlike most other figures deemed as cult leaders, Jones enjoyed public support and contact with some of the highest level politicians in the United States. For example, in the heat of the 1976 Presidential Campaign, Jones met with Vice Presidential Candidate Walter Mondale on his campaign plane. Likewise, First Lady Rosalynn Carter personally met Jones for a private dinner at the Stanford Court Hotel. Mrs. Carter later called Jones personally. In the 1976 grand opening of the San Francisco Democratic Party Headquarters, Jones packed the audience with Temple members and garnered louder applause when he spoke than Mrs. Carter. Governor Jerry Brown, Lieutenant Govenor Mervyn Dymally and Assemblyman Willie Brown, among others, attended a large testimonial dinner in Jim Jones' honor in September of 1976. At that dinner, Willie Brown referred to Jone as "a combination of Martin King, Angela Davis, Albert Einstein, and Chairman Mao." Both Assemblyman Willie Brown and Governor Jerry Brown attended Temple services. After the Peoples Temple participation was instrumental in the Mayoral election victory of George Moscone in 1975, Moscone appointed Jones as the Chairman of the San Francisco Housing Commission."

Later, of course, Jones would go on to be directly responsible for the murder of hundreds of men, women, and children.

[Amelia]

Oh I remember Jim Jones very well. I just didn't know his religious status prior to his cult creation. Same for those alien believer people and the comet people. I think some of these kooks create a cult long after being exposed to a religion, maybe as a child. Some I believe are just wacky from the start.

[Amelia]

The Liberty Blog

A Texas Sized Mess!

By Alan J. Reinach

May 1, 2008

Texas is a big state with an even bigger ego, and now it has a legal mess to match. Everyone is familiar with the incursion of government officials into the Yearning For Zion compound of the Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints. We all know that 413 children [and counting] were removed ostensibly for their own protection, and that the legal games have begun. Many questions are being asked about religious freedom, and whether the rights of the church members were violated.

http://www.religiousliberty.info/blog/?p=73

[cardw]

Quote:

Obviously, you are thinking that 1844 not only was a disappointment, but also a false interpretation...Because, if the prophecys regarding 1844 are incorrect, then there is no need for a prophetess/guide... Correct me if I am misinterpreting you here....

Assuming that is the case, how do you interprete Daniel? Literally, figuratively, prophectically? How?

To me its quite obvious that Ellen and James White were making a lot of it up as they went. I don't believe it was a pre-meditated or even conscious process, but one that grew out of the need to make something meaningful out of their extreme commitment to the idea of a second coming.

What makes the most sense to me is that the Old Testament was put together in the 6th century BC from various documents that had been collected and rewritten to blend Egyptian Babylonian and Semitic religious belief systems.

I think Daniel Dennet's work on memes has some insights into religious beliefs and processes. You can see this on the following video

Daniel Dennett & Bill Moyers