Houses Of The Holy: The 2016 Article On The Queen City's Haight-Ashbury

 

Aside from Reddit links, scattered Facebook pages and it's own hagiographical PR treatments about itself, there's very little information on the Gladstone Community on the internet aside. Their website page has been revised several times. Since we are unable to drive several hours and stay around for a week to try to connect with them, we're forced to start on the web in our research. 

But in many instances, that's a lot to say right there. As you read these forums, you hear and see that there's something about Gladstone's activity that leaves a bad taste in a lot of people's mouths. Ultimately, some of this is just plain bias and irreverence and can be attributed to a scorn for spirituality so common today. But by no means can that explain it all away whatsoever. The vibe people read from contact with Gladstone's activities as well as their past doings isn't something you can just dismiss out of hand. For a group claiming to be the only true expression of New Testament Christianity on the earth, it's abrasive attitude seems out of place especially when you realize that this is where they've been since their inception.

Social media is not a good place to find primary sources of information about something. When it's all you got, however, you proceed with caution and a good working baloney detector. So we were quite surprised to find that in 2016, Cincinnati Magazine published an article on this cultic movement that was the first and at this time only such source. It described the rise and presence of Gladstone as part of the organizational prowess of one Zac Kijinski, a likable and bright young man whose spiritual fervor, innovative mindset and charismatic personality remind you immediately of another religious innovator by the name of Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormon heresy whose stature and bearing commanded a likeability and allegiance of so many around him in the 1800's. 

Unlike the gregarious and extroverted Smith, who would go on to found a cultic religion all  his own, Kijinski doesn't like to talk to reporters. Click on the link to find out why. Thank you, Cincinnati Magazine.

The Gladstone Controversy: Another Cult Hidden In Plain Sight

We first want to apologize for not keeping our blog up as current as it should be. Thanks for your patience if you've been coming by for updates and not getting them!  We have been so completely overwhelmed by the responses to our work in helping bring light upon the Remnant Fellowship and Xenos / Dwell cults in recent months. We're going to try to keep this going! Our major thrusts of ministry have been related to our "Where Are We Going" Spiritwatch podcasts and we've been featuring testimony from survivors of both of those movements who've generously given us interviews into their involvement which are truly worthy of download and that's just a mouseclick away above.

Mindy Munoz' testimony has turned out to be the most downloaded episode of our podcasts so far. A well known and well loved member of the Remnant Fellowship in it's earlier years, her testimony -- barely cited in the "Way Down" documentary -- seems to be resonating with a lot of people in Tennessee. Our metrics indicate that the region around Franklin is ablaze with activity and visits from people there to our podcast. May the truth be told. 

Our last blog post was too long ago .. although we are glad to see that perhaps Dr. Loritts had listened to our entreaties and maybe a few others because he's no longer listed as a speaker on the Xenos Summer Institute roadshow of "Christian apologetics." It's amazing what the power of Internet outrage can leverage, but regrettably, there had been no communication from him about his withdrawal, much less any explanation as to why he was involved to begin with, going to speak at a "Christian apologetics" conference helmed by a religiously abusive and cultic movement.

Discernment isn't pretty but it gets the job done. There's no beauty in this affair but the vindication of truth. 

Moving forward, on our most recent podcast, we want to begin an exclusive expose on another controversial movement that has been contributing to the spiritual confusion of the Midwestern community it currently flourishes in. Well known there, this movement is almost completely unknown anywhere else. And as always, it’s a tragic story of good people in an evil situation, of love twisted by deceit, of the ecstasy of fellowship and the agony of bullying. In short it’s a cautionary tale of how there are still those who lie in wait to deceive in the name of God, those who boldly come off as champions of truth and draw so many to follow a path to hell in this world and possibly the next.

You see, when you speak of such groups as cults being in our very midst, it tends to confuse a lot of people with a sensationalism that clouds perception. Many assume that cults assemble in secrecy in well hidden compounds in some wilderness stronghold where they cavort with demonic forces, sacrifice children and wear some kind of robes, paint and feathers. As the great French philosopher Pepe Le Pew once said, Au contraire!   They are embedded in our society everywhere and are your friends, your neighbors, maybe even your family. They are the barista at the coffee house and the realtor with an office in town. They are intelligent, idealistic and sharp people with families and interests like you. Cult members are quite ordinary people who just so happen to be in the bondage ofa  cultic mind control that ties them to their chosen gathering. That’s something all too ordinary as we’ve been sharing in our podcasts.

Our attention now turns in our podcasts and outreach to come to a place calling itself a Christian church of intentional community, but which has become an antichristian den of intentional control.  Hundreds of people have been drawn into its orbit since 2006 or so, young and sharp men and women who believe it to be the only Christian movement under the sun, just as any well mind controlled cult member might conclude after having been love bombed, wined and dined and then recruited into yet another cultic billet to slave away for "the Kingdom." 

Click here to listen to our newest episode on the movement calling itself the Madison Place Community Church, after being known as the Gladstone Community Church, and before that, the Gladstone Community. The old adage of something being hidden in plain sight gets new life when considering the recent history of this controversial and quite destructive cult. We'll be focusing on them for the foreseeable future to come, as well as in research articles on the Spiritwatch website as well. Stay tuned!

We are exploting ways to launch two podcasts a week since the Xenos heresy's ongoing outrages require ongoing responses. Pray for us. We're busier than a two tailed cat in a rocking chair factory and we need God's hand on us.