The Children of God

Alton Evening Telegraph, Illinois

October 23, 1969, North America

Ninety young people, calling themselves God’s Children, proclaim the Lord will bring about a great revolution in America and punish its people for their sinful ways.

Camped in the Lewis & Clark Park near Hartford, the group is encouraging young people to take up God’s work and eliminate sin in the United States, “—or the revolution will surely come,” they say.

Asked if their messages have anything to do with the war in Vietnam, Lvi said: “That is only a small part of the trouble in the United States. The real problem is sin.”

The young people, 18 to 25 years of age, have given up worldly things to help demonstrate their dedication to God’s work.

The only luxury items they have are trucks, trailers and cars in which they travel from place to place, like the Children of Israel following Moses. They have some money derived from the sale …

Waukegan News Times, Illinois

October 15, 1969, North America

There’s at least one group of people in the United States who are not aware there is a nationwide moratorium on the Vietnam war today.

Clad in red burlap robes, wearing yokes meant for oxen, and carrying shepherds’ staffs, the group—with thousands of Chicagoans looking on in astonishment—formed a silent processional and prayer vigil.

The red represents the blood of Christ, the yoke, bondage. The staff symbolizes justice and the burlap calls for repentance, the cowl means judgment.

Then, after 10 minutes, the group, as mysteriously as it had appeared, disappeared—leaving loop shoppers wondering who they were, what they were doing and where they were going.

Asked if the group was planning to observe today’s moratorium, one long-haired member of the group asked, “What moratorium?” He knew about the war, but not that nation-wide demonstrations had been planned.

License plates in the caravan indicated members of the group came from …

By Richard Foster and Christopher Chandler, The Chicago Sun-Times, Illinois

October 10, 1969, North America

Fifty persons marched on the Civic Center and other places in the Loup Thursday—peacefully, and somewhat mysteriously.

They wore red robes, pounded staffs on the sidewalk, passed out literature and prayed. Their spokesman talked about the death of America and quoted Jeremiah.

Some wore gold or silver earrings in their left ears. Others walked through the Loop with wooden yokes around their necks.

They came to Chicago, their spokesman said, because “God told us to follow the cloud—where the action is.”

At the Civic Center, they stood wordlessly for about 10 minutes, opened scrolls with biblical inscriptions and, one by one, knelt in prayer for another 10 minutes.

On one of the scrolls the words of the prophet Jeremiah were inscribed.

“O daughter of my people, gird thee with sackcloth, and wallow thyself in ashes; make thee mourning, as for an only son, most bitter lamentation; for the spoiler shall …