Australian cult: Anyone recognize this?
Date: October 30, 2006 08:47AM
Not just on the streets!
On www.amazon.com Zion Ben Jonah's (DM ) book 'Survivors' retails at $6.99 The Spanish version costs more.
This dude has also attempted a condensed version of the dictionary! Easy English series.
Here is the editorial from amazon site.
'Author
Dave McKay won a trip around the world in 1962, as the U.S. 'Newsboy of the Year'. The trip was sponsored by Qantas Airlines, and it featured five days in Sydney. McKay, who married his high school sweetheart, Cherry, when they were both still in their teens, returned to Australia, to live there with his young wife in 1967. They now have dual citizenship (American and Australian).
In 1977, after working as a journalist, public relations officer, and television news reader in Australia, McKay decided to "stop writing news and to start making it". The couple started the first alcohol rehabilitation program in the Northern Territory, one that was exclusively for Aborigines, before going to India as a family, in 1984, where they were soon involved in teaching English to local children.
McKay, and his artist son, Kevin, devised a program for teaching English through pictures, which is presently being used in schools in India and Africa.
As other young people joined them in their adventures, a religious community formed around their family. Although they were referred to as 'Gandhians' in India, they preferred to think of themselves as Christians, and the community later adopted the name "Jesus Christians".
The "Jesus Christians" have never been far from controversy, but their most common activity is just to faithfully distribute copies of McKay's books on the streets of such major cities as London, Sydney, and Los Angeles.
The group's best seller is the novel, 'Survivors', which is an attempt to settle some disagreements they have with the popular 'Left Behind' series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins. The book had sold over a million copies by mid-2006.
Dave and Cherry presently reside in Sydney, but travel extensively in order to maintain contact with the string of Jesus Christian communities that have sprung from their influence. '