Hi there Discerner,

You are right, about not letting McHugh have that power. Sadly, many, in fact most former members are not strong enough to overcome that horrible residue. There have been several suicides of former members. I praise the true God, our Father, that He richly blessed my family, healing us from that mind-bending experience. My mother still carries unhealthy residue, but frankly, she was very irresponsible to bring her young girls into that environment in the first place...so go figure. From what I have heard, there is a group of hippies proclaiming to be that guys supporters or followers...whatever, it is not tightly organized like it once was, a bunch of druggies, they blend right in with other trashy types. *shudders* Still so grateful to be away from that insanity.

I was in the Christ Family during the white robe days. When I first met the brothers and they told me that Jesus was back, I thought well, nothing else really matters then. I didn't know God's word ( the Bible) well enough to know that Jesus warned about the coming of false Christs. I was sincerely seeking God and the brothers and sisters I met on the road and in camps I believe were also. I do not doubt the intent of the hearts of Michael, Aaron, Theresa, Anna, Sheba, Abraham etc... as I know they too loved God and wanted to serve Him above all; but the fact remains we were deceived! I confused the provision of God on the road as confirmation that Lightning Amen was Jesus. God did and does respond to genuine faith. The first time I spent time with Lightning, was at the camp in Hemet before the bust. He was standing right next to me when he cursed the Bible. He said that he wrote it and he could change it and he was tired of people throwing it in his face. At that moment something inside me changed. I didn't believe in him quite the same, tho it took many years for me to be totally delivered. The real Jesus defeated Satan with the word of God and fulfilled it. Shortly after Lightning told us to take the robes off ( he said they were on the inside anyway ) I travelled with another sister who refused to have sex with Lightning after they rode out to Lake Elsinore on his bike. He told her she had lost her salvation. I never once heard any brother or sister or Lightning say anything about being saved by grace or that it was a gift from God to be received in faith. Never a word about Jesus dying on the cross for our sins---- only no killing, no sex no materialism and be nice, rejoice and enjoy. Lightning took scripture out of context when it suited him and cast it aside as well. I give glory to God that I have been delivered from the Christ Family, and pray that everyone who truly seeks Jesus will find Him.

I just recently came across this forum and want to share my experience with the “Christ Family”. In 1980, I was a 15 year old boy living with my Mom and Stepfather in the Akron OH area. My parents were products of the 60’s and had a lot of left over hippie ideals but we basically had a happy Midwest style family. Well, it was happy until the Christ Family showed up at our door!!! My Stepdad had gone to high school with one of its member who I believe called himself Noah (His real name was Don V.). Noah and some other white robe clad, bare foot, vegan eating “Apostle Wannabies” made themselves right at home in our house. They stayed a couple weeks and in that time dug deep into my parents and I guess my, head. They talked about there no KSM doctrine and we shared vegan meals, passed around joints and Bugler cigarettes. As a teen age boy, I guess it seemed kind of cool at the time. These folks had some interesting ideas and I was invited to hang with the group, didn’t have to go to school and got to smoke all the weed I wanted. After a while, they took off but a few weeks later, more came by. This time Noah and I think a “Gabriel” showed up with about 5 others in an old army truck that had a logo consisting of a Star of David with a lightning bolt in the center. This time they stayed longer and I heard all their stories about this savior they called Lightening Amen, his ideas and I think they had some type of manifesto or typed doctrine the based everything on. When I began to notice how much my parents were getting into this, the fun began to die out. Then one day, I came home and saw my Mom sewing a robe from an old sheet. I asked her who it was for and she said it was hers and she was joining to “Walk in the wind” with the group. I begged her not to go but to no avail. I think I actually asked if I could join along but was told some BS about kids being Hobbits and we couldn’t come. My Mom left with them and about a day later she returned, her bare feet bleeding. It didn’t take to long for them to show up again and this time my Mom left and was gone a little over a month. This experience absolutely destroyed my family and 30+ years later my Mom still feels extremely remorseful and guilty for leaving her family. I try to tell her that I forgive her but I guess this is a mental challenge she must struggle with. She told me that she made it out to the CF’s compound in what she believed was Utah. When she got there, she met the Lightning Amen only to realize he was just a man and witnessed no miracles. With her gone, I went to live with my grandparents and that’s where I stayed until I was old enough to go off on my own. My Step Dad and Mom later divorced. As a victim of a cult, I beg anyone considering joining one to open up your eyes and walk away. The CF brought only pain to me and my family and I was very pleased to have read that Lightning’ has since died! What amazes me is that there are still gullible people out there that believe he was indeed GOD. Wake up people!!! He was a convicted child molester, drug addict/dealer, con-man first class, chain smoker and a drunk!!! How is that Godly!!!!

The Christ Family was of course a cult in every way. When I was on a group bus for the first time with many other group members, my feet bleeding, confused, tired and overwhelmed by the initial experience, I was thinking through this decision, and told by another group member that "Thinking will get you nowhere." The cult experience is a confusing and isolating experience when you first join the group. There eventually reaches a point where you either leave or turn off your critical thinking mechanism and "go on faith." This is of course familiar to the Christian experience, which is what the group does. It hijacks all of your former beliefs and redefines them to fit the group think mentality. We are right and they are wrong. The group is all that can save you, without the group you are surely lost forever. There is a sense of certainty and belonging, and really draws in the young, lost, hurting and searching. It brings meaning where there was only doubt and confusion. I was a perfect target for the group, drifting and searching for meaning. I think this is in part why the group was a positive experience for me. It filled the void in me and created thought for me. Life was easy and clear. No complicated relationships or feelings of failure. I was able to simply let go of self and fall into the mind think of the group. This collective thought is disturbing to the outside observer, who often does not understand the appeal, but appealing to the religious drifter. When I got out I worked as a deprogrammer for a while helping others get out of the group. It always struck me how stuck these young people were, and how key words known only to an insider could break the spell of the conditioning. I for what ever reason knew I would join the group before I joined the group or even knew they existed. I was going to school in Tulsa at the time and quit school after having a series of dreams about white robed people who were vegetarians taking me away from Tulsa on a bus. The day after I withdrew from school two white robbed Christ family members were sitting down outside my apartment building. This has always seemed odd to me, this premonition.

It appears that the Christ Family has several Youtube videos - older women chant-singing eerie tunes. Men sitting around with white head wraps. Seems to be a bunch of old hippies and dopers. I notice they are now wearing shoes. With McHugh dead, I suppose there are some hangers on who enjoyed that nomadic lifestyle. I wonder if there is any central figure in the cult now? I haven't really kept up with it much, however did see some a few years ago on their way to Mexico, down by the border, American side. I'm glad to see that some have found the True Jesus Christ, and abandoned belief in the impostor, McHugh. McHugh, I'm sure, has not encountered the Biblical Jesus, and I'm sure it wasn't a pleasant experience for him.

had similar premonition and experience after I had been deprogrammed. Surely it was a spiritual experience. We know now for certain what spirit.

I always like to talk to other former members. I talked with one former member who is now an atheist. I just can not understand how you go from Christ Family to atheist. It seems that atheism is also a type of cult, I suppose it could be a natural fit for an unreformed intellectual thrill seeker. I have always been deeply spiritual and continue to feel a deep connection to spiritual awareness. I am wary of religions, gurus, or anything that tells me to only believe one way. I think the most important spiritualism for me is love and compassion for others. I wish you the best brother ohjohn. Go with God. I always feel a connection to my Christ family Brothers and Sisters.

Don't check on this enough to stay current. Strange how one finds another who has similar experiences. The everlasting life is what I'm striving for. Lot of wonderful books . Sometimes the bible gets neglected. Good thing I've been going to a real small church in my neighborhood to keep me on track.

I came across this forum last weekend after I met one of the members in Monterey.

I am generally interested in the, I might say, "fringe" schools of thought. So I gave her about 3 hours of my time.

She had white robes on. And a pair of sandals and a white hat and a pair of Ray-Ban sunglasses. The glasses attracted my attention since the very start of the conversation: as soon as she started the pseudo-Christian pitch, I couldn't help but think of how her pair of expensive sunglasses looked so un-Christlike.

I was chilling by myself, sitting at an outdoor table of a local coffee shop in Monterey. She came over with a bag, later found out to be tortilla chips and some cups of different dips, and started eating out of it on an adjacent table. Since, at the time, I was smoking a cigar I called her out and apologized for the smoke, if any would get to her, and asked her to let me know if she was bothered. She answered with "you are a gentleman" and promised to let me know.

She went on eating her chips and I with my book and the cigar and the coffee. When she finished, she came over to throw some stuff in the garbage bin on my side of the coffee shop. It was then when she started talking to me. She asked of the book I was reading, interestingly titled "When God Was a Woman", and after a moment of confusion on her side, I asked her to sit down at my table if she wanted to. We had an interesting talk after that for about 3 hours.

She was incoherent, went on tirades about how she loves everybody and about her brothers and sisters. Eventually, after a long time into the discussion, she pulled out a cut-out of a picture, showing only the eyes of an old man she called "God". She never mentioned the name of the group, never mentioned any locations for the supposed group and never gave out any details about them. She pointed out any pictures of "lightnings", on t-shirts and one on a brochure, uttering "this is a good sign". She started by telling me how he loved everybody and me, with more emphasis on "you", which later on I came to understand the opposite: actually she came across as a very bitter and judgmental person, hating a lot of things about people and especially with a deep grudge for children. This last one was baffling for me.

She was incoherent, in a nutshell. Obviously was in a, what I call, a "preacher mode". It means, there were parts of her stories that obviously were made up on the fly at that moment. Like, how "God" once through a "couple-of-million-dollar check" in the fire. Or on how she hates sex now and once that she "happened to" see sex on a TV somewhere, she came to conclusion that how mechanical and stupid it had looked; I guess seeing porn on random TVs is something that all of us come across a couple of times per day :)

I asked her numerous questions. She was very enthusiastic in the beginning. Towards the end when I hinted I was married, she kind of deflated and the discussion just kept going on with the same incoherent manner. At the very end, I asked for her name and asked if she was OK with taking a picture with me. She told me she was "Kerry" or "kera", or something in that order, and we took a picture on my cellphone.

The discussion left me with a lot of questions. I came home and searched for "amen" and "lightning" and "cult" and some other keywords and, finally, I came across this board. I read the whole thread and now I am amazed by the whole experience even more.

Did you know they actually have a Facebook page now? Christ Family Amen

There has always been a loosely organized philosophy, and interpreted by different members in different ways. Some members were able to follow the "no killing, No sex, no Materialism, while others were not so successful. There has always been "stories" rumored through the Christ Family of Amen doing various things, including tearing up a two million dollar check. There are contradicting beliefs that run through the group, which tend to clash. Like most religious groups, there is a belief in love, and even a song "Love over all things love," however there is a harsh rejection of alternative beliefs or ideas. This is of course a tool of any exclusive group, which assures that the member maintains his/her idealogical prison. Breaking outside of the approved parameters of thought will result in spiritual catastrophe. Most group members i encountered were like the one you described. They keep fragments of their past religious/spiritual beliefs and make it fit the parameters of the Christ Family. The primary parameters being Lightening Amen is God, No Killing, No Sex, No Materialism, and that the Christ family members have been raised from the world into the body of Christ, the family of true believers. There is a feeling of being elite and "special" and no one can get to God "Amen" but through their group. It is their mission to save the non members, and help them rise above the world into the kingdom of Heaven on Earth, The Christ Family. One of the worst sins anyone can commit is to say something against Lightening Amen. This is not tolerated, not even in thought. This is seen as the face of Satin himself. Like any cult, or other religious movements to some extent, they attempt to control not only what you do, but more importantly what you think. They not only want you to live the life, but to believe "be and live in", without question. Todays group is not near as zealous and far roaming as the group of the 80's. i spent almost three years in the group, and traveled non-stop in the group. I went North in the summer and South in the winter, including Mexico and Canada. At that time the lower less connected group like myself did not stop at camps or live in buses, but lived on the road all the time, white robe and bare feet. Many of us became fairly good at putting together a coherent message, primarily from just being on the road and having to talk about it daily. This was before the melt down of Lightening, arrest, scandals etc...I only visited with him one time in the desert of California for about 3 days. He was like a mythical figure come to life for those of us who were under the control of the group, and of the thoughts required by the group.