- Joined
- Jun 9, 2005
- Messages
- 175
Not sure if this should go here or IHTM. Mods feel free to move it if necessary.
After reading through some of the cult related threads on here it got me thinking about a brush I had with a probable cult when I was about 10 (so late 1980s). The gist of events were that a group of attractive and super-fun american teens/young adults turned up at my primary school and spent the afternoon singing songs, giving out sweets and playing games with us children. None of which was in anyway related to religion of any sort.
They gave out fliers advertising an evening of entertainment at a local community centre that evening which a lot of children from many local schools attended. My recollection is that other than a vast number of american youths there were no other adults present (My mum says that the kids on the door had said something along the lines of adults not being permitted which is one of the reasons that she didn't leave).
Initially all was well and we were treated to caberet style entertainment. After about 20mins an older man (30s/40s maybe?) appeared on the stage and began ranting about Jesus. He asked who in the room hadnt let Jesus into their hearts, and to my surprise I found that I'd put my hand up (being a child of atheist parents as Dawkins would put it). I was then escorted to the front of the room, carefully separated from anyone that I obviously knew and taken to a screened off section of the hall where I was seated on the floor with 5 other children and one of the american kids. We were then instructed to join our american friend in chanting prayers in hebrew, which of course we all had a little trouble with. This seemed to go on for a long time and I became increasingly frightened by what was happening. The american girl started to get angry that we wouldnt join in and began shouting at us and claiming that we wouldn't see our families again if we didn't start praying etc.. when my mum and several other parents burst into the room 'Rambo-style' and rescued as many children as possible. I cried all the way home.
It turns out that some local schools had been warned about the group and their ulterior motive and had turned them away. But I've always wondered who they were and whether I really was in any danger of abduction as my mum seemed to think. I can't find any info about them myself so I wondered if anyone else had any encounters with this lot or could shed any light on events? Was it a cult or merely some dubious and over-zealous evangelist group?
After reading through some of the cult related threads on here it got me thinking about a brush I had with a probable cult when I was about 10 (so late 1980s). The gist of events were that a group of attractive and super-fun american teens/young adults turned up at my primary school and spent the afternoon singing songs, giving out sweets and playing games with us children. None of which was in anyway related to religion of any sort.
They gave out fliers advertising an evening of entertainment at a local community centre that evening which a lot of children from many local schools attended. My recollection is that other than a vast number of american youths there were no other adults present (My mum says that the kids on the door had said something along the lines of adults not being permitted which is one of the reasons that she didn't leave).
Initially all was well and we were treated to caberet style entertainment. After about 20mins an older man (30s/40s maybe?) appeared on the stage and began ranting about Jesus. He asked who in the room hadnt let Jesus into their hearts, and to my surprise I found that I'd put my hand up (being a child of atheist parents as Dawkins would put it). I was then escorted to the front of the room, carefully separated from anyone that I obviously knew and taken to a screened off section of the hall where I was seated on the floor with 5 other children and one of the american kids. We were then instructed to join our american friend in chanting prayers in hebrew, which of course we all had a little trouble with. This seemed to go on for a long time and I became increasingly frightened by what was happening. The american girl started to get angry that we wouldnt join in and began shouting at us and claiming that we wouldn't see our families again if we didn't start praying etc.. when my mum and several other parents burst into the room 'Rambo-style' and rescued as many children as possible. I cried all the way home.
It turns out that some local schools had been warned about the group and their ulterior motive and had turned them away. But I've always wondered who they were and whether I really was in any danger of abduction as my mum seemed to think. I can't find any info about them myself so I wondered if anyone else had any encounters with this lot or could shed any light on events? Was it a cult or merely some dubious and over-zealous evangelist group?
