Re: The Living Word Fellowship, The Walk, John Robert Stevens
Date: July 09, 2013 02:38AM
I hesitate to call the whole thing a cult, I mean there was a lot of great people in the WALK, and for the most part, JRS had an incredible knowledge of the bible. Comparing the WALK to the churchianity as a whole, it was and probably still isn't all that bad. You see, people tend to make a gold calf out of their leaders, for one thing, if they can put the leader on a pedestal, if they can influence him or her, make them need that worship, they can in essence control them. That is what happened with JRS, he had a bunch of yes men (and women) around him, and they did influence him. Marilyn came along and said everything John wanted to hear, she wiggled and giggled and idolized him and made him feel good, made him feel young, and next thing you know, Martha is out, Marilyn is in, JRS is dead and she has all the property and money and ministry and, well, you know the story, Hargrave figured he would marry the grieving widow and then he would be the man. This is no different than what happens in the rest of Christendom, nothing special there.
I know this, the people that I met at Shiloh from other parts of the country would have been Moonies or Heavens Gate stiffs or Jim Jones followers, whoever came first would be whoever they followed. I don't know that JRS was such a cult leader, but the people in it were certainly lining up to worship whatever man they found.