Jesus Freaks?
Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. — Mark 16:15
The Ottawa Citizen
March 11, 1972, North America
So they do, on a cold, sunny late winter afternoon on the Mall.
They skip and walk, singing updated hymns. A youth who passes them comments: “See what Jesus freaks are turning into nowadays.”
At the corner of O’Connor and Sparks, they stop and pause. In groups of two and three, they clasp arms and pray. A woman who notices remarks to her companion, “They’re putting on a play or something.”
With shouts of “Praise God”, “Revolution! For Jesus! Ottawa! For God!” the nondescript band of nine breaks up to go witnessing.
They walk up and down, talking to people who’ll listen and the gist of every message is Jesus is good for whatever ails you.
The Children of God are in Ottawa.
Jesus Revolution
The six-member group is but one colony of the most publicized out-growth of the Jesus revolution. The children number only 2,000 in all but they’ve spread their “teams” across Europe, the Middle and Far East.
They’ve also gained a sinister reputation is some areas. Angry parents have accused them of drugging, hypnotizing and kidnapping sons and daughters into the sect. Embroiled in a law suit brought by one parents’ group, the Children have struck back with a libel suit. In California, a Parents’ Committee to Free Our Children from the Children of God, is trying to drive the group out of the state.
At their eerie best, the Children have stunned passers-by with their “vigils”. Dressed in symbolic trappings- red sack cloth for repentance, neck yoke for bondage, ashes for mourning and carrying staffs for judgment- the Children have stood in silence with interruptions only for cries of grief or prophecy like “Abomination! Abomination!”
Ebed, the 23-year-old Montreal native who leads the Ottawa contingent, recalled standing in silence for six hours once.
Quiet Lives
Despite the bad publicity, which the group branded as outright lies, and the doom-saying, which they explained was only an occasional thing, the Children lead quiet, simple lives. “We’re not doing our own thing; we’re doing God’s thing,” says Ebed.
Socially, they have don’ts- no drugs, no alcohol, no tobacco, no casual sex.
People who walk into their house at 1372 Scott St., and look like they might be carrying drugs, are frisked. They estimate 80 to 90 per cent of their total membership are former heavy drug users so rehabilitation is their greatest charitable work. They tell members drugs can’t fill human needs, that Christ is the answer. “There’s a Jesus-shaped space in every man,” says Ebed.
Spiritually, their do is the Bible.
They study it continually and take it literally. They use it to explain their way of life and as an answer to almost every question.
They memorize it, partly because it’s their daily code, and partly, they say, to have it safeguarded in their minds for the day when Bibles are not allowed. They believe the last judgment is approaching fast but before it arrives, the anti-Christ will drive practising Christians underground. There, like the first Christians in the catacombs, the Children of God, will dispense the gospel.
They take Biblical names- Ebed, Lea, Jeconiah, Elisheba. Although they don’t object strongly to revealing their original names, they’d rather not, says Ebed, “because it’s the past, 2 Corinthians 5:17.”
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away..
One of the things about the Children that critics find objectionable is their refusal to hold down jobs. But God and mammon can’t be served, says Ebed, and to work for the Lord the group has to be mobile.
What’s worse to some parents who’ve lost sons and daughters to the Children, is the practice of giving up all worldly possessions to the colony when a new member joins. Except for the clothes on their backs, nothing is owned individually.
The accumulation of forfeited material goods helps the colonies survive financially. The Ottawa team pays $125 a month for their small home and they say they have few troubles meeting the rent or maintaining the household. Other colonies will help out if there are problems and parents of members often send money. They also canvass supermarkets for edible castoffs.
The Children of God have no political affiliations.
My kingdom is not of this world….John 18:16
Although well-known as war protesters, the Children, says Ebed, limit their activities to speaking against western capitalism and Russian and Chinese-style communism.
Governments must be obeyed, they insist, and to stay on the right side of the law, refuse members under 16 (the legal school-leaving age).
Ebed says they’re well aware of the publicity the Children have picked up but the Children are not distressed.
“They’re saying it’s some weird, hypnotic thing,” he said. “But it’s not. This thing is working and it’s going around the world.”
Then with a sort of cheery martyrdom he flips open the ever-ready tiny leather-bound Bible and points to the small print in Acts 7:38, 39...
If this plan or undertaking is of men, it will fail; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow it.