Brotherhood
Continued from Page 11
people without the orthodoxy ”
Although group members call
themselves Christian, their
beliefs differ from traditional
Christianity To brotherhood
members, Christ is ' absolutely
not” the only way to God Bob
says
To the group Christ was sent
as an example not as an atone
ment for sin Sin — or "missing
the mark” — is created by "the
system," not inherent in man
Bob says The group also says
the world will end in nuclear war
within a decade
To solve mankind s problems,
people should practice "simple
friendship peace and goodwill
and live in harmony with your
self, nature and others," Brown
says. “Love and peace are the
armour I wear "
David Espinoza, a former
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member of the brotherhood
who flew to Eugene from New
York this week to help officials
investigate the group says the
group's harmony, love and
peace is carefully regulated and
controlled by Brown
“Without his leadership and
role the group loses its mean
ing,' Espinoza says adding that
Brown 'manifests and maint
ains the type of authority (over
the group) that one would ima
gine God to have '
Brotherhood members say
they live by the four New Tes
tament gospels and several
gnostic writings including the
Gospel of Phillip the Gospel of
Thomas and the Gospel of
Truth “The truth is written in
the gospels.' Brown says
Although many people con
sider the two sets of gospels to
be radically different the gnos
tic writings are valid “because
of the power and authority of the
words themselves," Bob says
"It strikes one as being truth in
one's heart It confirmed my
own experience
These ' metagospels' — as
the brotherhood calls them —
are books generally associated
with the gnostic movement of
the the second and third cen
turies says religious studies
Prof Stephen Reynolds
“Most people would regard
them as being very different
from the New Testament.' he
says
Reynolds says that Bible
scholars generally agree that
the gnostic gospels contain little
historical or independent value
in themselves and their authors
relied on fabricated stories and
parts of the New Testament
gospels for the writings
The four gospels in the Bible
emphasize the reality of the
incarnation of Jesus' while the
gnostic gospels are usually
secondary collections of say
ings attributed to Jesus, he
adds
Cults such as Christ Brother
hood often pick and choose
beliefs from the Bible, other
religious books and Eastern and
Western thought to develop a
set of beliefs that it likes, says
Dick Beswick, a member of
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Toys are scattered throughout the Christ Brotherhood houses, but
the group's children were taken into custody by state authorities
because of allegations of sexual abuse
Campus Intertaith Ministry who
teaches a class on cults
"When you deviate from the
basic position that the Bible in
its entirety is inspired by God,
it's fairly easy to come up with
almost anything,' he says, ad
ding that he has seen deliberate
mistranslations of the Bible in
some of the brotherhood s ma
terial
They (Christ Brotherhood)
edit out what they don't like
essentially,' Groothius says
But the group prefers to be
evaluated "on the basis of our
fruit," not on crazy accusa
tions" and doctrines, says Bob
"We don't really go by any dog
ma What we live is a return to
the garden That, in fact, was
what Christ was living "
But Groothius, Beswick and
Espinoza say they are evaluat
ing the group on its fruits" —
that s why they don't hesitate to
call it a cult
The group leads a calculated
— not innocent — religious life
that includes welfare fraud,
sexual freedom and hate for
parents. Espinoza says
What's sinister is that they lie
about what they re doing "
Story by Sally Hodgkinson
Photos by Bob Baker