Jesus Christians

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Jesus Christians are considered a radical Christian movement who practice communal living. They distribute Bible-based comics and books. They were founded in Sydney, Australia, in 1980 by David and Cherry McKay.

Their beliefs and way of life differ radically from mainstream religious groups, and as such they attract a lot of criticism, as outlined later in this article. The group has been listed on some "anti cult" websites, along with most other small new religious movements.

1 Beliefs & Teachings
2 Group History
3 Criticism
4 See also
5 External links
- 5.1 Generally favorable opinions on the Jesus Christians
- 5.2 Generally unfavorable opinions on the Jesus Christians

[edit] Beliefs & Teachings

God will provide the material needs of people who stop working for money, and dedicate their lives to obeying the teachings of Jesus.
Jesus (not the Bible) is the Word of God. Although holy writings may be inspired, they are all fallible.
Jesus never established any sacraments.
The teachings of Jesus should be the basis of faith, not religious traditions.
Non-Christians can be saved on the basis of their faith in God, even if they have never heard of Jesus. This was made possible through the death of Jesus on the cross.
The return of Jesus is likely to occur soon, although not until after the Great Tribulation.
Christians will judge the world after Jesus returns, and Jesus will reign over the world for a thousand years.[1] [2]
Parts of the Book of Revelation relate to events happening in the world today.
There are spiritual advantages to remaining single; however marriage is not forbidden even though it is an inferior option to celibacy.[3]
There is nothing sinful about masturbation.
When an individual rejects the teachings of Jesus, they are in fact rejecting God. [4]
Technology which will one day be used to implement the "Mark of the Beast" is on the earth now in the form of subdermal RFID chips. [5]

[edit] Group History

The group was started in New South Wales, Australia, by Dave and Cherry McKay in the early 1980s. It has operated under several different names, including Christians, The Medowie Christian Volunteers, and Voices in the Wilderness. The name "Jesus Christians" was selected in 1996. ("A Change of Name", August, 1996) [6]

Members forsake all private ownership, handing over all of their earthly possessions to the Jesus Christian community. ("Forsaking All", from Jesus and Money) [7] The group teaches that all members must have equal say in how funds are to be used. ("Power--Good or Evil" [8], and "Setting Up Your Own Community" [9]) Although there have rarely been more than 30 members of the community, in 2005, the community was broken up into two and three-person teams, with equal portions of the group's funds going to each member. Those teams continue to function autonomously, although members occasionally transfer by mutual consent from one team to another.

As of 2006, there was an on-going team operating in Kenya, which receives and disperses funds from the other, travelling teams in Australia, America, and the United Kingdom. The co-founders (Dave & Cherry McKay), are considered to be part of that team, even though they spend most of their time in a small one-bedroom apartment in Sydney, Australia.

Dave & Cherry are members of the Religious Society of Friends (unprogrammed) in Australia. Members of the Society of Friends are commonly referred to as Quakers. The team in Kenya works closely with programmed Quakers in that country, where they are involved in teaching English in Quaker schools, and a number of other Quaker projects. The activities of the Jesus Christians, however, are not officially endorsed by Quakers, either in Australia or in Kenya.

Over the years, the Jesus Christians have featured in numerous news and documentary reports, often because of unusual activities undertaken by members. In 1983 they made headlines in Sydney when members of the community offered to do free work for one day for any family or business which requested their assistance. In 1984, six of the youngest members of the community, headed by 15-year-old Christine McKay, walked 1,000 miles across the Nullarbor Desert, in the interior of Australia without taking any provisions for their journey. Their success, after seven weeks on the road, led to a front page photo in the Sun- Herald newspaper which was chosen as the news photo of the year for Australia.

They have made headlines for such things as burning money, painting literally miles of religious/philosophical graffiti, and for donating kidneys to strangers. Over half of the members have donated a kidney to a needy person, thus earning them the nickname 'the kidney cult'.

In 2000, the group made front-page headlines in the British tabloids, which declared that they had 'kidnapped' a 16-year-old boy, Bobby Kelly. The boy, who had written permission from his grandmother to be with the community, was made a ward of the state in an effort to pry him away from the group. When the Jesus Christians refused to hand the boy over to the authorities, and when Bobby started doing telephone interviews with the media, declaring that he had NOT been kidnapped, the courts imposed a national media ban on any interviews with either Bobby or members of the Jesus Christians until Bobby turned 18. Bobby was eventually located, and placed in a foster home. No members of the Jesus Christians were charged with kidnapping, and a charge of contempt of court (for failing to hand Bobby over) was dropped against two members of the community.

In 2005, another charge of 'kidnapping' was made against members of the group in Kenya, this time by the father of a 23-year-old woman who had joined the community. The woman released a video on the group's web site declaring that she had not been kidnapped. However, one member of the community was arrested and held for several weeks in a prison in Nairobi until a worldwide letter-writing campaign convinced the Attorney General of Kenya that the charge should be dropped. On release, it was learned that the member had contracted tuberculosis while in prison. He and his wife and child left Kenya shortly after release, and have not returned since.

In October, 2006, the group held a mock trial in Long Beach, California, where they charged the parents and two brothers of one of their members with attempted murder and with aiding and abetting others in doing this. It followed an attack on one of their members in which he received a fractured spine, bleeding on the brain, broken teeth, and numerous cuts to the head and face. Although the family did not attend the trial, various sentences of 5-25 lashes of the whip were carried out on volunteers from the Jesus Christians themselves, as an attempt to illustrate their understanding of the cross of Christ. "God hates the sin, but loves the sinner," they said, in an effort to summarise what they were doing.

This family also went to the police, claiming that their son, a top student and basketball player with a scholarship to Yale University, had been kidnapped. The FBI acted on the report for a while, but when the son turned up at a police station in Kentucky, stating that he had not been kidnapped, the missing persons report was dropped.

Members of the Jesus Christians have, for many years, distributed religious literature, much of it written by Dave McKay. In recent years, they have primarily distributed copies of a novel, written by McKay, called "Survivors", in exchange for "a few cents to help with the cost of printing them". They reported, in 2006, that their sales for this one book alone had topped one-million.

Survivors is a response to the popular "Left Behind" series of novels on Bible prophecy, written by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins. In its own words, 'Survivors' attempts to include material that was left out of the LaHaye-Jenkins series.

[edit] Criticism

Divisions in families

New members are required to forsake possessions, and put personal relationships and ambitions second to their service to God. This sometimes involves forsaking some contact with family and friends. Consequently, some families have raised concerns about the effect this has on the family unit.

Jesus Christians argue that virtually all members maintain regular contact with their families (by email if not through personal visits). Because they travel so much it is not always possible for members to visit their families regularly, but they point out that this happens when young people go off to college, decide to travel the world, or get transferred in their jobs. In some cases, families have physically attacked members and/or attempted to hold their son or daughter prisoner. In these cases (and only in these cases, say the Jesus Christians), physical contact has been seriously avoided.

Recruitment

Some critics (notably the media, anonymous ex members, families and so-called "exit counsellors") accuse the Jesus Christians of "brainwashing", "hypnotising", or in some other way "controlling the minds" of members.

Jesus Christians point to the fact that they have only about 30 members worldwide, despite the fact that they have been in existence for around 30 years) as evidence that they are neither aggressive nor particularly talented in their so-called "brainwashing" and recruitment. The group argue that the exit counsellors say the same thing about any group they have been asked to attack, and that no evidence has been presented for such claims.

Lifestyle

There have been complaints about the simple lifestyle that members of the Jesus Christians live. Many of them do not have homes, choosing rather to travel the world in motorhomes. They have developed a high profile as "freegans", or people who recycle food and other things that have been discarded as waste by modern Western society.

The Jesus Christians argue that they take a great deal of care with regard to what they eat, relying mostly on packaged food which has been discarded by supermarkets only because it is out of date. They also accept donations of day-old bread and pastries. They teach that such a lifestyle exemplifies values which are consistent with concern about the world's wasted resources.