Introduction: Canons, Scriptures, and New Religions

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Notes

1. On the polemical context of Athanasius’ letter, see David Brakke, “Canon Formation and Social Conflict in Fourth-Century Egypt: Athanasius of Alexandria’s Thirty-Ninth Festal Letter,” Harvard Theological Review 87 (1994): 395–419. 2. Athanasius, Letter XXXIX.6; I follow the translation in David Brakke, Athanasius and Asceticism (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins Press, 1998), pp. 329–330. 3. See Brakke, “Canon Formation and Social Conflict,” p. 396, where the sentence is identified as an allusion to the Greek translation of Deuteronomy 12:32. 4. See Gerald T. Shepherd, “Canon,” in Lindsay Jones, ed., Encyclopedia of Religion, 2nd ed. (New York: Macmillan, 2004), p. 1407. 5. See H. M. Vos, “The Canon as a Straitjacket,” in A. Van Der Kooij and K. Van Der Toorn, eds., Canonization and Decanonization: Papers Presented to the International Conference of the Leiden Institute for the Study of Religions (LISOR), Held at Leiden 9–10 January 1997 (Leiden: Brill, 1998), pp. 354, 356. 6. See A. Van De Beek, “Being Convinced: On the Foundations of the Christian Canon,” in Van Der Kooij and Van Der Toorn, Canonization and Decanonization, pp. 336, 337. 7. Z. Zevit, “The Second-Third Century Canonization of the Hebrew Bible and its Influence on Christian Canonizing,” in Van Der Kooij and Van Der Toorn, Canonization and Decanonization, p. 133. 8. See Shepherd, “Canon,” p. 1410. 9. Frederick M. Denny and Rodney L. Taylor, “Introduction,” in Denny & Taylor eds., The Holy Book in Comparative Perspective (Columbia, NY: University of South Carolina Press, 1985), pp. 6–7. 10. Jonathan Z. Smith, “Sacred Persistence: Toward a Redescription of Canon,” in Imagining Religion: From Babylon to Jonestown (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982), p. 40. 11. Ibid., p. 48. 264 Notes

12. See Shepherd, “Canon,” p. 1408. 13. Miriam Levering, “Introduction,” in Miriam Levering ed., Rethinking Scripture: Essays from a Comparative Perspective (Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1989), p. 13. 14. Wilfred Cantwell Smith, “Scripture as Form and Concept: Their Emergence for the Western World,” in Levering, Rethinking Scripture, p. 36. 15. See ibid., p. 39. 16. See Wilfred Cantwell Smith, What is Scripture? A Comparative Approach (Philadelphia, PA: Fortress Press, 1993), p. 357, note 33. 17. On the pejorative uses of the term, see Catherine Wessinger, How the Millennium Comes Violently (New York: Seven Bridges Press, 2000), pp. 3–6. 18. Martin Gardner, Urantia: The Great Cult Mystery (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 1995), p. 387. 19. “Joseph Smith—History,” in The Pearl of Great Price, 1.33; available at http://www.lds.org/scriptures/pgp/js-h/1?lang=eng. Accessed July 12, 2013. 20. J. Z. Smith, “Canons, Catalogues and Classics,” in Van Der Kooij and Van Der Toorn, Canonization and Decanonization, p. 299. 21. See Eugene V. Gallagher, “Sectarianism,” in Peter Clarke and Peter Beyer, eds., The World’s Religions: Continuities and Transformations, 2nd ed., (New York: Routledge, 2009), pp. 610–623. 22. See Athanasius, Letter XXXIX.7. 23. J. Z. Smith, “Canons, Catalogues and Classics,” in Van Der Kooij and Van Der Toorn, Canonization and Decanonization, p. 298. 24. For a classic statement of this competitive situation, see Peter Berger, The Sacred Canopy: Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1969) and also Rodney Stark and William Sims Bainbridge, The Future of Religion: Secularization, Revival, and Cult Formation (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1985). 25. A Course in Miracles, Volume One: Text, (Tiburon, CA: Foundation for Inner Peace, 1975), “Introduction,” n. p. 26. Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (Boston, MA: The First Church of Christ, Scientist, 1994), p. vii. 27. Throughout I will use “modern new religious movements” or rough equiva- lents to distinguish those new religions from the older new religions that W. C. Smith identifies as participating in the “scripture movement” of the second through seventh centuries ce. 28. For an accessible overview see Robert L. Wilken, The Christians as the Romans Saw Them, 2nd ed., (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2003); for a case study of a particular example of polemic against Christianity see Eugene V. Gallagher, Divine Man or Magician? Origen and Celsus on Jesus (Chico, CA: Scholars Press, 1982), SBLDS 64.

Part I Introduction

1. Bruce Lincoln, Authority: Construction and Corrosion (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994), p. 2. Notes 265

2. Gill’s personal testimony and the full text of The Book of Jeraneck are available at http://www.latterdaychurch.co.uk/. Accessed July 21, 2013. For an analysis of Gill’s career and movement in the broader context of the Mormon tradition, see Matthew Bowman, “Matthew Philip Gill and Joseph Smith: The Dynamics of Mormon Schism,” Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions 13 (2011): 42–63. 3. See Anton Szandor LaVey, The Satanic Bible (New York: Avon Books, 1969), p. 39: “For those who already doubt supposed truths, this book is revelation.” 4. Max Weber, “The Pure Types of Legitimate Authority,” in S. N. Eisenstadt, ed., Max Weber on Charisma and Institution Building (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1968), p. 46. 5. Ibid. 6. Ibid. 7. Max Weber, “The Nature of Charismatic Authority and Its Routinization,” in Eisenstadt, Max Weber on Charisma, p. 49. 8. Charles Lindholm, Charisma (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1990), p. 7.

1 A Teenaged Prophet, a Golden Bible, and Continuing Revelation

1. James B. Allen, “Emergence of a Fundamental: The Expanding Role of Joseph Smith’s First Vision in Mormon Religious Thought,” Journal of Mormon History 7 (1980): 43–61, quotation from p. 43. 2. Richard Lyman Bushman, Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling (New York: Vintage Books, 2005), p. xx. 3. See ibid., p. 389; for the text and some commentary on its history see Dan Vogel, ed., Early Mormon Documents (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1996), pp. 54–144. An electronic version of the text is available at http:// scriptures.lds.org/en/js_h/contents. I will follow that version of the text, including its division into subsections. Vogel gives a brief account of the tex- tual history on pp. 54–55. Vogel retains the sometimes idiosyncratic spelling and punctuation of the original texts, which I will follow. 4. Bushman, Joseph Smith, p. 40. 5. On the acceptance of the later version of “Joseph Smith—History” as scripture, see James B. Allen, “The Significance of Joseph Smiths ‘First Vision’ in Mormon Thought,” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 1 (1966): 29–45, esp. p. 44. 6. Howe’s Mormonism Unvailed is available at http://solomonspalding.com /docs/1834howb.htm#cont. 7. Ibid., p. 12. 8. Ibid., pp. 14, 15. 9. See ibid., pp. 17, 19, 31, 43. 10. See Vogel, Documents, p. 55. 11. Fawn M. Brodie, No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith, 2nd ed, (New York: Vintage Books, 1971), p. 25. 12. Ibid. 266 Notes

13. Dean C. Jessee, “The Early Accounts of Joseph Smith’s First Vision,” BYU Studies 9 (1969): 1–13, quotation from p. 11. 14. Marvin S. Hill, “The First Vision Controversy: A Critique and Reconciliation,” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought 18 (1982): 31–46, quotation from p. 41. 15. See, for example, James A Beckford, “Accounting for Conversion,” British Journal of Sociology 29 (1978): 249–262, and Brian Taylor, “Recollection and Membership: Converts’ Talk and the Ratiocination of Community,” Sociology 12 (1978): 316–324. 16. Wayne Proudfoot, Religious Experience (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1985), p. 43; see pp. 61, 66, 71. 17. Ibid., p. 121. 18. See Bruce Lincoln, Authority: Construction and Corrosion (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1994), p. 2. 19. Joseph Smith to Oliver Cowdery, October 11, 1829 in Vogel, Documents, p. 7. Vogel retains Smith’s spelling and punctuation. 20. Articles and Covenants of the Church of Christ, June 1830 in Vogel, Documents, p. 9. 21. Joseph Smith Interview with Peter Bauder, October 1830 in Vogel, Documents, pp. 16–18. 22. See ibid., pp. 17, 18. 23. Ibid., p. 26. 24. “Joseph Smith—History,” 1832 in Vogel, Documents, p. 26. 25. See ibid., pp. 27–29. 26. Bushman, Joseph Smith, p. 66. 27. See Joseph Smith Recital To Kirtland (OH) High Council, February 12 and April 21, 1834 in Bushman, Joseph Smith, pp. 32, 33. 28. See ibid., p. 43. On Matthias see also Paul Johnson and Sean Wilentz, The Kingdom of Matthias: A Story of Sex and Salvation in 19th Century America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995). 29. See ibid., pp. 43–45. 30. See ibid., pp. 46–51 for two examples from 1836. 31. See “Joseph Smith—History” sections 20, 21, 22, 23, 25, 27, 28. 32. Richard Lyman Bushman, “The Visionary World of Joseph Smith,” BYU Studies 37 (1997–1998), pp. 183–204, quotation from p. 197. 33. See Hill, “The First Vision Controversy,” p. 41. 34. “Joseph Smith—History,” section 1. 35. See ibid., sections 1, 20, 21, 22, 23, 25, 27, 28, 56, 58, 60, 61, 74, 75. 36. Bushman, Joseph Smith, p. 50. 37. See ibid., p. 51; “Joseph Smith—History,” section 56. 38. “Joseph Smith—History,” section 46. 39. Ibid., section 10. 40. Ibid., section 11. 41. Ibid., section 12. 42. See ibid., sections 15, 16. 43. Ibid., section 20. 44. See Bushman, “The Visionary World.” Notes 267

45. “Joseph Smith—History,” section 22. 46. Ibid., sections 23, 22. 47. Ibid., sections 24, 25. 48. Ibid., section 25. 49. Ibid., section 33. 50. Compare Malachi 4:1, 5 and ibid., sections 37, 38. 51. Compare Malachi 4:6 and “Joseph Smith-History,” section 39. 52. On millennialism in early Mormonism, see Grant Underwood, The Millenarian World of Early Mormonism (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1993). 53. “Joseph Smith—History,” section 42. 54. Ibid., section 34. 55. See ibid., sections 63–65. 56. Ibid., section 50. 57. Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann, The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge (New York: Doubleday, 1966), p. 158. 58. “Joseph Smith—History,” section 66. 59. On how conversion flows through social networks, see Rodney Stark and William Sims Bainbridge, The Future of Religion: Secularization, Revival, and Cult Formation (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1985), pp. 307–324. 60. “Joseph Smith—History,” sections 68–71. 61. Ibid., section 74. 62. See Howe, Mormonism Unvailed, pp. 23, 30, 44. 63. Bushman, Joseph Smith, p. 87. 64. I Nephi 5:4; see 5:2; 2:11. On Joseph Smith, Senior see Bushman, Joseph Smith, pp. 25–26, 36–37. 65. I Nephi 1:4. 66. I Nephi 1:11. 67. I Nephi 10:17. 68. I Nephi 10:19. 69. I Nephi 11:1. 70. See I Nephi 13:12. 71. See I Nephi 13:20, 23, 26. 72. I Nephi 13:35. 73. I Nephi 13:40. 74. See Bushman, “The Visionary World,” p. 194. 75. See “Joseph Smith—History,” section 54; I Nephi 14:22. 76. See “Joseph Smith—History,” section 20; I Nephi 1:16, 17; 8:29, for example. 77. Gill’s story of his call is now included in the list of “Frequently Asked Questions” on the Latter-Day Church of Jesus Christ website: http://www .latterdaychurch.co.uk/faq.html. Accessed July 21, 2013. 78. Ibid. I retain the spelling and punctuation of the original. 79. Ibid. 80. Ibid. 268 Notes

81. See ibid. 82. “Articles of Faith of the Latter Day Church of Jesus Christ,” article 8; http: //www.latterdaychurch.co.uk/beliefs.html. Accessed July 21, 2013. 83. http://www.latterdaychurch.co.uk/about.html. Accessed July 21, 2013. 84. See the testimonies collected in the Book of Jeraneck (Peterborough, UK: Upfront Publishing), pp. ix, xi. 85. Ibid., p. x. 86. Book of Jeraneck, p. 1. 87. Ibid. 88. “Joseph Smith—History,” section 74. 89. Book of Jeraneck, p. viii. 90. See Lincoln, Authority, p. 2. 91. See http://www.latterdaychurch.co.uk/faq.html. Accessed July 21, 2013.

2 The Lamb of God and the Chosen Vessel: A Prophetic Lineage in the Adventist Tradition

1. On Miller see Ronald L. Numbers and Jonathan M. Butler, The Disappointed: Millerism and Millenarianism in the Nineteenth Century (Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee Press, 1993) and David L. Rowe, God’s Strange Work: William Miller and the End of the World (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2008); on the Seventh-day Adventists in general see Malcolm Bull and Keith Lockhart, Seeking a Sanctuary: Seventh-day Adventism and the American Dream, 2nd ed., (Bloomington, IN: University of Indiana Press, 2007). 2. On the concept of “present truth,” see Eugene V. Gallagher, “‘Present Truth’ and Diversification among the Branch Davidians” in Eileen Barker, ed., Revisionism and Diversification in New Religious Movements (London: Ashgate, 2013), pp. 115–126. 3. Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church, Volume One, p. 58; available at www.gilead.net/egw/books/testimonies/Testimonies_for_the_Church _Volume_One/9_My_First_Vision. Accessed July 21, 2013. 4. Ellen G. White, Early Writings, p. 14; available at www.gilead.net/egw /gooks2/earlywritings/ewvision1.htm. Accessed July 21, 2013. 5. Ibid., p. 17. 6. Ibid., p. 20. 7. Ibid. 8. Ibid. 9. Ibid., pp. 22f. 10. Ellen G. White, The Great Controversy between Christ and Satan, p. vii; available at www.greatcontroversy.org/books/gc/gcintroduction.html. 11. Ellen G. White, Selected Messages, Book 1, pp. 33, 35, 37, respectively; available at http://wordoftruth.seedoftruth.net/books/selected_messages _book_1. Accessed July 21, 2013. 12. Brad Bailey and Bob Darden, Mad Man in Waco: The Complete Story of the Davidian Cult, David Koresh and the Waco Massacre (Waco, TX: WRS Publishing, 1993). Notes 269

13. Victor T. Houteff, The Shepherd’s Rod, Vol. I, p. 72; available at www. the-branch.org/Shepherds_Rod_Tract_Israel_Esau_Jacob_Types_Houteff. Accessed July 21, 2013. 14. Ibid., pp. 85f. 15. Ibid., p. 4. 16. Ibid., p. 23. 17. “The Branch” [Ben Roden], Seven Letters to Florence Houteff and the Executive Council of the Davidian Seventh-day Adventist Association, letter 1, p. 2; available at www.the-branch.org/Jesus’_New_Name_The_ Branch_Day_Of_Atonement_Ben_Roden. Accessed July 21, 2013. 18. Ibid., letter 5, p. 11. 19. Ibid., letter 5, p. 13. 20. Ibid., letter 7, p. 22. 21. This brief resume of Koresh’s life follows the account in James D. Tabor and Eugene V. Gallagher, Why Waco? Cults and the Battle for Religious Freedom in America (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1995), pp. 58ff. 22. Negotiation Tape 81, March 7, 1993, pp. 29–30. This and subsequent references to the taped negotiations between those inside Mount Carmel and the FBI negotiators refer to the tape and transcripts that are available at the FBI reading room at the Bureau’s Hoover Building headquarters in Washington DC. References will be given to tape number, date, and page of the transcript. 23. David Koresh, The Seven Seals of the Book of Revelation in Tabor & Gallagher, Why Waco?, pp. 191–203, passage quoted from p. 197. 24. Clive Doyle, with Catherine Wessinger and Matthew Whitmer, A Journey to Waco: Autobiography of a Branch Davidian (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2012), p. 73. 25. Negotiation Tape 57, March 5, 1993, p. 30. My emphasis. 26. On this text see James D. Tabor, Things Unutterable: Paul’s Ascent to Paradise in its Greco-Roman, Judaic, and Early Christian Contexts (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1986). 27. On Muhammad’s night journey and ascension into the heavens see Annemarie Schimmel, And Muhammad Is His Messenger: The Veneration of the Prophet in Islamic Piety (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1985), pp. 159–75. 28. Negotiation Tape 232, April 15, 1993, p. 41. See Negotiation Tape 72, March 6, 1993, p. 29; Negotiation Tape 77, March 7, 1993, pp. 8–10. 29. Negotiation Tape 129, March 15, 1993, p. 43. 30. Livingstone Fagan, Mt. Carmel: The Unseen Reality, 1:5; available at http: //www.giwersworld.org/mgiwer/mgiwer3/fagan1.html. Accessed July 21, 2013. References refer to the part and page of Fagan’s manuscript. I repro- duce Fagan’s sometimes idiosyncratic spelling and punctuation. 31. Ibid. 32. See, for example, the study on Joel and Daniel 11 available at http://www .branchfloridians.org/joel_daniel11.htm. Accessed July 21, 2013. Several other Bible studies from now defunct websites are in my possession. 270 Notes

33. The letter is reproduced in Tabor and Gallagher, Why Waco?, pp. 15f. 34. Ibid., p. 15. 35. Koresh, The Seven Seals, p. 197. 36. Fagan, Mt. Carmel, I:3. 37. Ibid., 1:25. 38. Ibid., 2:6. 39. Ibid., 2:34. 40. See Wilfred Cantwell Smith, What is Scripture? A Comparative Approach (Philadelphia, PA: Fortress Press, 1993), p. 36. 41. On Avraam, see Kenneth G. C. Newport, The Branch Davidians of Waco: The History and Beliefs of an Apocalyptic Sect (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), pp. 335–336. The Chosen Vessel includes biographical details in a screenplay on the www.sevenseals.com website entitled “A Star Falls from Heaven.” No longer available; copy in my possession; accessed August 20, 2010. 42. The Chosen Vessel, A Star Falls from Heaven (2006), p. 14. I retain the author’s idiosyncratic spellings. 43. Ibid. 44. See Eugene V. Gallagher, “The Persistence of the Millennium: Branch Davidian Expectations of the End after ‘Waco,’” Nova Religio 3 (2000): 303–319, esp. p. 317, note 4. 45. On Lois Roden’s teachings see Newport, The Branch Davidians of Waco, pp. 155–170. 46. The Chosen Vessel, A Star Falls from Heaven, p. 14. 47. Ibid. 48. The Chosen Vessel, Seven Seals, I.i, originally posted at www.sevenseals .com; no longer available. Copy in my possession. The two volumes of more than 600 pages are not paginated consecutively; references will therefore be to the volume and page. 49. Ibid. 50. The Chosen Vessel, A Star Falls from Heaven, p. 14. 51. Ibid. 52. Ibid., I.14; see I.172, 253. My explanatory additions are in brackets. 53. The Chosen Vessel, Seven Seals, I.172. 54. The Chosen Vessel, August 2012 A. D.: It All Begins as Foretold (2007), p. 154; originally available at www.sevenseals.com. No longer available; copy in my possession. 55. Ibid., p. 94. 56. The Chosen Vessel, Seven Seals, II.224. 57. See ibid., II.17, 100. 58. Ibid., II.17. 59. See The Chosen Vessel, August 2012 A. D.: It All Begins as Foretold, pp. 9, 80. 60. Ibid., p. 9. 61. The Chosen Vessel, Seven Seals, I.303. Emphases in the original. 62. Ibid., I.274–275. 63. Ibid., overleaf. Notes 271

64. Ibid., II.4; see also I.292. 65. On that concept see Tabor and Gallagher, Why Waco?, pp. 56–57, 96. 66. The Chosen Vessel, August 2012 A. D.: It All Begins as Foretold, p. 119. 67. Ibid., p. 219. 68. Ibid., p. 220. 69. For an overview, see Kenneth G. C. Newport, “The Davidian Seventh- day Adventists and Millennial Expectation, 1959–2004,” in Newport and Crawford Gribben, eds., Expecting the End: Millennialism in Social and Historical Context (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2006), pp. 131–146. 70. Koresh, The Seven Seals, p. 199. 71. Ibid., p. 203. 72. See “Resolution on the Spirit of Prophecy”; available at www.adventist.org /beliefs/other-documents/spirit-of-prophecy.html. Accessed July 21, 2013.

3 Straight from the Devil: Holy Books in Contemporary Satanism

1. See the survey results summarized in James R. Lewis, “Who Serves Satan? A Demographic and Ideological Profile,” Marburg Journal of Religious Studies 6 (2001): 1–25. 2. See, for example, Peter H. Gilmore, The Satanic Scriptures (Baltimore, MD: Scapegoat Publishing, 2007), pp. 90, 187, 193, 207f, 212, 221, 236, 251, 254, 261, 288, 301, 302. 3. Anton Szandor LaVey, The Devil’s Notebook (Venice, CA: Feral House, 1992), p. 146. 4. Max Weber, “Charismatic Authority and Its Routinization,” in S. N. Eisenstadt, ed., Max Weber on Charisma and Institution Building (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1968), p. 49. 5. Anton Szandor LaVey, The Satanic Bible (New York: Avon Books, 1969), pp. 104f. 6. Max Weber, The Sociology of Religion, Ephraim Fischoff, trans., (Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1963), p. 55. 7. LaVey, The Satanic Bible, p. 33. 8. Ibid., p. 31. 9. Ibid., p. 30. 10. Anton Szandor LaVey, Satan Speaks (Venice, CA: Feral House, 1998), p. 167. 11. See Paul Ricoeur, “The Critique of Religion,” Union Seminary Quarterly Review 28 (1973): 205–212. 12. LaVey, The Satanic Bible, p. 84. 13. LaVey, “How to Be God (or the Devil),” in The Devil’s Notebook, p. 67. 14. LaVey, The Satanic Bible, p. 41. 15. Ibid., p. 29. 16. For an insider’s account of those attention-seeking rituals, see Blanche Barton, The Church of Satan (New York: Hell’s Kitchen Productions, 1990), pp. 15–23. 272 Notes

17. LaVey, The Satanic Bible, p. 39. 18. Ibid., p. 109. 19. Ibid., p. 48. 20. Ibid., p. 81. 21. Ibid., p. 25. 22. Ibid., 69. Emphasis in the original. 23. In the last interview that he gave LaVey asserted, “We call it ‘Satanism’ because it’s about time the Devil was given his due. The Nine Satanic Statements pretty much spells it out.” See http://www.churchofsatan.com /Pages/MFInterview.html. Accessed July 21, 2013. 24. Ibid., p. 25. 25. On LaVey’s use of Might is Right see Eugene V. Gallagher, “Sources, Sects, and Scripture: The ‘Book of Satan’ in The Satanic Bible,” in Jesper Aagaard Petersen and Per Faxnald, eds., The Devil’s Party: Satanism in the Modern World (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), pp. 103–122. 26. LaVey, The Satanic Bible, p. 34. 27. Ibid., p. 122. 28. Ibid., p. 80. 29. Bruce Lincoln, Holy Terrors: Thinking About Religion After September 11, 2nd ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006), p. 5. 30. LaVey, The Satanic Bible, p. 21. 31. http://www.churchofsatan.com/Pages/MFInterview.html. 32. LaVey, “Foreword,” in The Devil’s Notebook, p. 9. 33. Michael A. Aquino, The Church of Satan, 7th ed. (San Francisco, CA: Self- Published, 2013), p. 476, www.xeper.org/maquino. Accessed July 21, 2013. 34. See the references in note 2. 35. Aquino, The Church of Satan, p. 92. 36. On Karla’s church, see http://www.satanicchurch.com/. Accessed July 21, 2013. 37. See Aquino, The Church of Satan, p. 398. 38. Aquino includes the text of the offer in The Church of Satan, pp. 572–573. 39. Aquino, The Church of Satan, p. 1109. 40. Ibid., p. 93. 41. Ibid., p. 94. 42. Michael M. Aquino, The Temple of Set, 11th ed. (draft), 2010; available at www.xeper.org/maquino, p. 152. Accessed July 21, 2013. 43. Aquino, The Church of Satan, p. 94. 44. Ibid., p. 694. 45. See LaVey, The Satanic Bible, pp. 58–60. 46. Aquino, The Church of Satan, p. 715. 47. Aquino, The Temple of Set, p. 190. 48. Ibid. 49. Aquino, The Church of Satan, p. 1046. 50. Ibid., p. 1047 51. Ibid. 52. LaVey, The Satanic Bible, p. 62. 53. Aquino, The Temple of Set, p. 11. 54. Ibid., p. 13. Notes 273

55. Ibid., p. 15. 56. Ibid., p. 14. 57. Ibid., p. 15. 58. Ibid., p. 171. 59. Ibid., p. 172. 60. Ibid., p. 173. 61. Ibid., p. 174. 62. Ibid., p. 63. 63. Ibid., p. 189. 64. Ibid., p. 175. 65. See note 5. 66. See Aquino, The Temple of Set, pp. 343–468. 67. Ibid., p. 177. 68. Ibid., p. 505. Emphasis in the original. 69. Ibid. 70. Ibid. 71. See Max Weber, “The Sociology of Charismatic Authority” and “The Nature of Charismatic Authority and Its Routinization,” in Eisenstadt, Max Weber on Charisma and Institution Building, pp. 24, 51, respectively. 72. Aquino, The Temple of Set, p. 564. 73. Ibid., p. 581. 74. Ibid., p. 587. 75. Ibid., p. 590. 76. Ibid., p. 591. 77. Ibid., p. 592–593. 78. Ibid., p. 593. 79. See ibid., pp. 604–611. 80. LaVey, “The Church of Satan, Cosmic Joy Buzzer,” in The Devil’s Notebook, p. 32. 81. LaVey, “The Whoopie Cushion Shall Rise Again,” in The Devil’s Notebook, p. 49. 82. Ibid. 83. LaVey, “The Church of Satan, Cosmic Joy Buzzer,” in The Devil’s Notebook, p. 30. 84. Aquino, The Temple of Set, p. 178. 85. Ibid., p. 179. 86. Wilfred Cantwell Smith, What Is Scripture? A Comparative Approach (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1993), p. 19. 87. See note 2. 88. Smith, What is Scripture?, p. 36. 89. Aquino, The Temple of Set, p. 581.

Part II Introduction

1. See, for example, Rodney Stark, The Rise of Mormonism, Reid L. Nelson, ed., (New York: Columbia University Press, 2005), pp. 139–146. 274 Notes

2. See Jan Shipps, Mormonism: The Story of a New Religious Tradition (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1985), p. x. 3. On the reactions of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, see Cari Hoyt Haus and Madlyn Kewis Hamblin, In the Wake of Waco (Hagerstown, MA: Review and Herald Publishing Association, 1993) and Kenneth L. Newport, The Branch Davidians of Waco: The History and Beliefs of an Apocalyptic Sect (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), pp. 11–16. 4. LaVey, The Satanic Bible, p. 48, (New York: Avon Books, 1969); for Aquino see The Temple of Set 11th ed. (draft), 2010, p. 190; available at www.xeper. org/maquino. 5. See Aquino, The Temple of Set, pp. 529–530. 6. Asbjørn Dyrendal uses the term “movement texts” to identify the explicit, formal, and authoritative statements produced by religious movements and to distinguish them from particular ideas espoused by individual mem- bers, which may are not be orthodox renditions of the texts. See Dyrendal, “Darkness within: Satanism as Self-Religion,” in Jesper Aargard Petersen, ed., Contemporary Religious Satanism: A Critical Anthology (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2009), p. 60. 7. See LaVey, The Satanic Bible, p. 84. 8. See http://www.bumperart.com/ProductDetails.aspx?SKU=2004100505& productID=14891.

4 Aliens and Adams: Reimagining Creation

1. Vorilhon translates Elohim as “those who came from the sky” and uses “Eloha” for a single one of the Elohim. See Raël (Claude Vorilhon), Intelligent Design: Message from the Designers (np: Nova Distribution, 2005), p. 11. 2. Ibid. p. 9. This work describes itself as “a newly combined re-translation and updated edition of Raël’s three original French books,” p. iv. 3. On the rhetorical strategy of the self-effacing narrator, see Stephen O’Leary, Arguing the Apocalypse: A Theory of Millennial Rhetoric (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), p. 78. 4. See Rodney Stark, “How New Religions Succeed: A Theoretical Model,” in David G. Bromley and Phillip E. Hammond, eds., The Future of New Religious Movements (Mercer, GA: Mercer University Press, 1987), pp. 11–29, quotation from p. 13; see also Rodney Stark, “Why Religious Movements Suceed or Fail: A Revised General Model,” Journal of Contemporary Religion 11 (1996): 133–146. 5. On the concept of “charismatic persona,” see David G. Bromley and Rachel S. Bobbit, “Challenges to Charismatic Authority in the Unificationist Movement,” in James R. Lewis and Sarah M. Lewis, eds. Sacred Schisms: How Religions Divide (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), pp. 129–146; David G. Bromley, “Making Sense of Scientology: Prophetic Contractual Religion,” in James R. Lewis, ed., Scientology (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), pp. 83–101. 6. Susan Palmer notes that the date of the first contact, December 13, 1973, is the feast of Saint Lucy, whose name means “light.” See Susan J. Palmer, Notes 275

Aliens Adored: Raël’s UFO Religion (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2004), p. 35. 7. Raël, Intelligent Design, p.7. 8. Ibid. 9. See ibid., pp. 63, 61, 83. 10. Ibid., p. 48. Emphasis added. 11. Ibid., p. 94. 12. Ibid., p. 115. 13. Ibid., p. 116. 14. Ibid., p. 117. 15. See ibid., p. 122. 16. See ibid., p. 123. 17. See ibid., p. 124. 18. Ibid., p. 125. 19. Ibid., p. 123. 20. Ibid., p. 161. 21. Ibid., p. 165. 22. Ibid., p. 290. 23. Ibid. 24. See Mark 1:11; Matthew 3:17; Luke 3:22. 25. Bromley, “Making Sense of Scientology,” p. 89. 26. Raël, Intelligent Design, pp. 346. 347, respectively. 27. See ibid., p. 312. 28. Ibid., p. 79. 29. See Raël, Yes to Human Cloning: Eternal Life Thanks to Science (np: Nova Distribution, 2001) and the news stories archived at Raëlianews.org. 30. Ibid., p. 15. 31. Ibid., p. 76. 32. Ibid., p. 60. 33. Ibid., p. 15. 34. Ibid., p. 44. 35. See ibid., p. 33f. 36. Ibid., p. 17. 37. See Qur’an 13:38; 43:1–4; 85:21–22; see also Geo Widengren, The Ascension of the Apostle and the Heavenly Book (Uppsala: A. B. Lundequistska, 1950). 38. Raël, Intelligent Design, p. 84. 39. Ibid., p. 11. 40. Ibid., p. 13. 41. Ibid., p. 16. 42. Ibid., p. 17. 43. For English translations of the collection of Gnostic texts found in 1945 in Nag Hammadi, Egypt see Marvin Meyer, ed., The Nag Hammadi Scriptures: The Revised and Updated Translation of Sacred Gnostic Texts Complete in One Volume (New York: HarperCollins, 2009). 44. For an English translation of Clement of Alexandria’s Excerpta Ex Theodoto, 78, see http://www.hypotyposeis.org/papers/theodotus.htm, 276 Notes

which reproduces the 1934 English translation of Robert Pierce Casey. Accessed July 21, 2013. 45. See Raël, Intelligent Design, p. 7. 46. Ibid., p. 335. 47. Ibid., p. 343. 48. For a sustained treatment of ancient Gnosticism as a new religious movement, using many of the ideas developed by Rodney Stark and his collabo- rators, see Michael A. Williams, Rethinking “Gnosticism”: An Argument for Dismantling a Dubious Category (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1996). 49. George D. Chryssides, The Advent of Sun Myung Moon: The Origins, Beliefs and Practices of the Unification Church (London: Macmillan, 1991), p. 24. 50. Michael L. Mickler, “The Unification Church/Movement in the United States,” in Eugene V. Gallagher and W. Michael Ashcraft, eds., Introduction to New and Alternative Religions in the United States, 5 vols., (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2006), vol. 4, pp. 158–183, quotation from p. 166. 51. Sun Myung Moon, As a Peace-Loving Global Citizen (Washington, DC: The Washington Times Foundation, 2009), p. 22. 52. Ibid., p. 27. 53. Ibid. 54. Ibid., p. 38. 55. Ibid. 56. Ibid., p. 54. 57. As quoted in Joseph H. Fichter, ed., Autobiographies of Conversion (Lewiston, NY: The Edwin Mellen Press, 1987), p. 145. Fichter simply gives first names for each of the converts whose accounts he provides. 58. Ibid., p. 159. 59. Sun Myung Moon, Divine Principle (New York: Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity, 1973), p. 9, see pp. 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 131, 152, 533. 60. See ibid., p. 100. 61. Ibid., p. 149. 62. See ibid., p. 122, see pp. 112, 114, 126. 63. Ibid., p. 119. 64. Ibid., p. 11. 65. Ibid., p. 16. 66. Ibid. 67. Ibid., p. 19. 68. Ibid., p. 101. 69. Ibid., p. 511. 70. See Jon Quinn, Divine Principle in Plain Language, pp. 167–200; available at www.DivinePrinciple.com. Accessed July 21, 2013. Quinn elaborates on themes from the Principle by mixing extensive quotations from Rev. Moon’s speeches with his own comments. 71. Divine Principle, p. 113. 72. Ibid., p. 75. Notes 277

73. Ibid., p. 79. 74. Ibid. 75. As quoted in Fichter, Autobiographies, p. 47. 76. As quoted in Fichter, Autobiographies, p. 122. 77. See Divine Principle, p. 126. 78. Ibid., p. 56. 79. Ibid., p. 533. 80. Ibid., p. 75. 81. Moon, As a Peace-Loving Global Citizen, p. 88. 82. Ibid., p. 84. 83. Rev. Sun Myung Moon, “Leaders Building a World of Peace,” August 24, 1992, Seoul; available at http://www.tparents.org/Moon-Books/Tfwp /Tfwp-5–2.htm. Accessed July 21, 2013. 84. Ibid. 85. See Mickler, “The Unification Church/Movement,” p. 164. On the Blessing in general see Chryssides, The Advent, pp. 131–148. 86. Moon, “God’s Ideal Family.” 87. See Mickler, “The Unification Church/Movement,” p. 164.

5 Black and White and Read All Over: Rereading the Ten Commandments

1. See http://creativitymovement.net/index.html. Accessed July 22, 2013. 2. The Hamatic Church Hymn Book of the A.A.C. Gaathly Under the Auspices of the House of Athlyi, Kimberley–South Africa, Universal Headquarters (Kingston, JM: H. F. Hogg, Printer, 1925), p. 4. 3. For some original documents about the Church in both Jamaica and Kimberley, South Africa, see http://kobek.com/hamatic.html. Accessed July 22, 2013. 4. “Gaathly” may be a play on Rogers’ middle name. It functions as the equiva- lent of “Church.” 5. Shepherd Robert Athlyi Rogers, The Holy Piby (Kingston, JM: Research Associates School Times Publications/Frontline Distribution Int’l Inc., 2000), reprint of the 1924 edition with foreword by Ras Sekou Sankara Tafari and introduction by Ras Michael (Miguel) Lorne, pp. 101, 102. In my copy of the 1924 document the passages appear on pp. 1–3. See The Holy Piby (Woodbridge, NJ: Athlican Strong Arm Company, January, 1924). All subsequent references will be to the current reprint unless otherwise noted. 6. Ras Sekou Sankara Tafari, “Foreword” in Rogers, The Holy Piby, p. 15; see p. 16. 7. Ibid., p. 88. 8. On Rogers and the early Rastafari see Robert Hill, Dread History: Leonard P. Howell and Millenarian Visions in the Early Rastafarian Religion (Kingston, JM: Research Associates School Times Publications/Frontline Distribution Int’l Inc., 2001), pp. 17–18. Earlier versions of Hill’s essay 278 Notes

appeared in Epoche, a religion journal produced by students at UCLA, and Jamaica Journal 16 (1983): 24–39. All subsequent references will be to the current reprint unless otherwise noted. On the international spread of Rastafari, see Ian Boxill, ed., The Globalization of Rastafari (Kingston, JM: Arawak Publications, 2008), Frank Jan Van Dijk, “Chanting Down Babylon Outernational: The Rise of Rastafari in Europe, the Caribbean, and the Pacific” and Randal L. Hepner, “Chanting Down Babylon in the Belly of the Beast: The Rastafarian Movement in the Metropolitan United States,” in Nathaniel Samuel Murrell, William David Spencer, and Adrian Anthony McFarlane, eds., Chanting Down Babylon: The Rastafari Reader (Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 1998), pp. 178–198 and pp. 199– 216, respectively. 9. Rogers, The Holy Piby, p. 63. 10. On the pervasiveness of familiarity with the Bible in Jamaica, see Ken Post, “The Bible as Ideology,” in Christopher Allen and R. W. Johnson, eds., African Perspectives: Papers in the History, Politics and Economics of Africa presented to Thomas Hodgkin (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970), pp. 190–192, 205; William Spencer, “The First Chant: The Promised Key,” in Murrell et al., Chanting Down Babylon, p. 372. 11. See Rodney Stark, “How New Religions Succeed: A Theoretical Model,” in David G. Bromley and Phillip E. Hammond, eds., The Future of New Religious Movements (Mercer, GA: Mercer University Press, 1987), pp. 11–29. 12. For Rastafarian criticism of the King James Version, see Barry Chevannes, Rastafari: Roots and Ideology (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 1994), p. 117; Joseph O wens , Dread: The Rastafarians of Jamaica. (Kingston, JM: Sangster’s Books, 1960), pp. 31, 32, 33, 274; Murrell & Williams, “Black Biblical Hermeneutics,” in Murrell et al., Chanting Down Babylon, p. 327, William David Spencer, Dread Jesus (London: SPCK, 1999), p. 15. 13. Rev. Fitz Ballintine Pettersburgh, The Royal Parchment Scroll of Black Supremacy (Kingston, JM: Headstart Printing and Publishing, 1996), reprint of the 1925 edition with a prologue by Ras Miguel Lorne, ch. 50, “Diploma,” verse 9, p. 84. All references will be given to the reprint edition, unless otherwise noted. 14. Ibid., 5.4, p. 17. 15. Ibid., chapter 50, “Diploma,” 2, p. 83; 19.4, p.33; and 41.2, p. 65, respectively. 16. On the date and authorship of The Promised Key, see Chevannes, Rastafari, p. 42. 17. G. G. Maragh, The Promised Key (Accra, Gold Coast: Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Editor of the African Morning Post, Head Office, 1935), p. 16. 18. See Chevannes, Rastafari, pp. 87–88; see also Ennis Barrington Edmonds, Rastafari: From Outcasts to Culture Bearers (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003), p. 34f. 19. Chevannes, Rastafari, p. 88. 20. See Frank Jan Van Dijk, Jahmaica: Rastafari and Jamaican Society, 1930–1990 (Utrecht: ISOR, 1993), p. 66: “In Jamaica, Ethiopianism took Notes 279

the form of a latent ideology without organizational structures.” See also Edmonds, Rastafari, p. 34. 21. As cited in Leonard Barrett, The Rastafarians, rev. ed., (Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1988), p. 77. 22. As citied in Chevannes, Rastafari, p. 94. 23. Rogers, The Holy Piby, p. 81. 24. See the cover of the reprint edition of The Holy Piby. 25. Ibid., pp. 25–34. 26. The Holy Piby’s identification of God with Elijah seems to rest on both the narrative of Elijah’s ascent into heaven in II Kings 2 and on the use of El as one of the names of God in the Hebrew Bible. “El” is a common Semitic word for “divinity.” See Genesis 33:20; 35:7; Judges 9:46. See Martin Rose, “Names of God in the OT,” in David Noel Freedman, ed., The Anchor Bible Dictionary, vol. IV, (New York: Doubleday, 1992), pp. 1001–1011. 27. See Isaiah 6:1–4. 28. Isaiah 6:5. For Moses’ reaction to his call, “Who am I that I should go to Pharoah, and bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt,” see Exodus 3:11. 29. Rogers, The Holy Piby, p. 26. 30. See possible parallels in Mary’s declaration, “behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word,” in Luke 1:38 and Jesus’ statement in Mark 14:36 (Luke 22:42): “Abba, Father, all things are possible to thee; remove this cup from me; yet not what I will, but what thou wilt.” 31. Rogers, The Holy Piby, p. 31. 32. For the whole scene see ibid., p. 34. 33. See Jeremiah 1:9; Isaiah 6:6–7. 34. See Kenelm Burridge, New Heaven, New Earth: A Study of Millenarian Activities (New York: Schocken, 1969), pp. 11–14, 153–163; the phrase “quarrying into tradition” appears on p. 163. 35. See Rogers, The Holy Piby, pp. 35, 81, 83. 36. Ibid., p. 36. 37. Ibid. 38. Ibid. 39. Ibid., pp. 37f. 40. Ibid., p. 38. 41. Exodus 20:23–24. For Solomon’s temple see I Kings 6–7. 42. See Rogers, The Holy Piby, p. 47. 43. Compare The Holy Piby, p. 36 and Matthew 22:39. 44. Compare The Holy Piby, p. 37 and Matthew 7:3–5; Luke 6:37–42. 45. Compare The Holy Piby, p. 36 and Matthew 25:35–36. 46. See note 4. 47. See Matthew 5:17. 48. Compare The Holy Piby, p. 39 and Matthew 6:7–15. 49. See Rogers, The Holy Piby, p. 39. 50. Ibid. 51. Rogers, The Holy Piby, pp. 44, 45. Compare Matthew 5:1–12; Luke 6:17–23. 52. Ibid. 280 Notes

53. See Ben Klassen, Nature’s Eternal Religion (Milwaukee, WI: The Milwaukee Church of the Creator, 1973) and Klassen, The White Man’s Bible (Milwaukee, WI: The Milwaukee Church of the Creator, 1981). 54. Klassen, Nature’s Eternal Religion, p. 66. 55. See ibid., p. 443. 56. Ibid., p. 1. 57. Ibid. 58. See Klassen, The White Man’s Bible, pp. 2, 3. 59. See Klassen, Nature’s Eternal Religion, p. 479. 60. Klassen, The White Man’s Bible, p. 4. 61. See Ben Klassen, with Victor Wolf, The Little White Book (El Cerrito, CA: The Church of the Creator, 1991), 92. 62. As cited in George Michael, Theology of Hate: A History of the World Church of the Creator (Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2009), p. 174. 63. Klassen, The Little White Book, p. 1. 64. Ibid. 65. See ibid., pp. 4–5. 66. Ben Klassen, Against the Evil Tide: An Autobiography (Otto, NC: The Church of the Creator, 1991), pp. 411f. 67. Ben Klassen, A Revolution of Values through Religion (Otto, NC: The Church of the Creator, 1991), p. v. 68. Klassen, Nature’s Eternal Religion, p. 437. 69. Ibid., p. 439. 70. Ibid., p. 442f. 71. Ibid., p. 443. 72. Ibid., p. 77. 73. Klassen, Against the Evil Tide, p. 395. 74. Klassen, Nature’s Eternal Religion, p. 99. 75. See ibid., pp. 108, 127, 182, 185. 76. Klassen, A Revolution of Values, p. vi. 77. Ibid., p. 444. 78. Ibid., p. 8. 79. Ibid., p. 19. 80. Klassen, The White Man’s Bible, p. 21. 81. Ibid., pp. 1–2; see Klassen, Against the Evil Tide, p. 445. 82. See Leonard Ziskind, Blood and Politics: The History of the White Nationalist Movement from the Margins to the Mainstream (New York: Farrar, Strauss, Giroux, 2009), p. 338; Michael, Theology of Hate, p. 192. 83. Klassen, Nature’s Eternal Religion, p. 256; see Klassen, The White Man’s Bible, p. 436. 84. Klassen, Nature’s Eternal Religion, p. 256; see Klassen, The White Man’s Bible, p. 436. 85. Klassen, Nature’s Eternal Religion, p. 256; see Klassen, The White Man’s Bible, p. 436. 86. Klassen, Nature’s Eternal Religion, p. 256; see Klassen, The White Man’s Bible, p. 437. Notes 281

87. Klassen, Nature’s Eternal Religion, p. 257; see Klassen, The White Man’s Bible, p. 437. 88. Emile Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life, Carol Cosmon, trans., abridged with an Introduction and Notes by Mark S. Cladis (New York: Oxford University Press: 2001), p. 46. 89. See Klassen, Nature’s Eternal Religion, p. 274. 90. Klassen, Nature’s Eternal Religion, p. 256; see Klassen, The White Man’s Bible, p. 436. 91. Klassen, Nature’s Eternal Religion, p. 256; see Klassen, The White Man’s Bible, p. 436. 92. Klassen, Nature’s Eternal Religion, p. 257; see Klassen, The White Man’s Bible, p. 437. 93. Rogers, The Holy Piby, pp. 36, 37. 94. Klassen, Nature’s Eternal Religion, p. 256; see Klassen, The White Man’s Bible, p. 436. 95. Klassen, Nature’s Eternal Religion, p. 257; see Klassen, The White Man’s Bible, p. 437. 96. Klassen, Nature’s Eternal Religion, p. 270. 97. Jan Shipps, Mormonism: The Story of a New Religious Tradition (Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1985), p. 53. 98. See Ben Klassen, Building a Whiter and Brighter World (Otto, NC: The Church of the Creator, 1986). 99. See, for example, on Benjamin Smith, Michael, Theology of Hate, pp. 147ff. 100. Klassen, The Little White Book, p. 94. 101. Ben Klassen, RAHOWA! This Planet Is All Ours (Otto, NC: The Church of the Creator, 1987), p. 12. 102. Rogers, The Holy Piby, p. 37. 103. See http://www.cafepress.com/+the_ten_commandments_not_suggestions _cap,290266973 and http://www.cafepress.com/+the_ten_commandments _not_suggestions_mousepad,290269087, for example. Accessed July 22, 2013. 104. See, for example, the essays gathered together under the general heading of “The Wildest Stories Ever Told,” in Klassen, A Revolution of Values, pp. 117–247, complete with accompanying cartoons.

6 Beyond the Gospels: New Visions of the Life of Jesus

1. See Bart D. Ehrman, The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings, 2nd ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), p. 60. 2. On the canonization of the four gospels see ibid., pp. 1–13. 3. For the dating of and a general introduction to The Infancy Gospel of Thomas see ibid., p. 191; English translations of three versions of the text are available at http://www.pseudepigrapha.com/LostBooks/ TheInfancyGospelOfThomas.html. 282 Notes

4. See The Infancy Gospel of Thomas, chapter 2. 5. See The Infancy Gospel of Thomas, chapter 9. 6. See http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/gosthom.html, introduction. 7. See http://www.gnosis.org/naghamm/gosthom.html, saying #1. 8. See http://www.gnosis.org/library/gosjames.htm, chapter 20. 9. Edgar J. Goodspeed, Strange New Gospels (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1931), p. 2; text available at www.tertullian.org/articles/goodspeed _strange_new_gospels.htm. 10. Edgar J. Goodspeed, Modern Apocrypha (Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1956), p. vii. 11. Per Beskow, Strange Tales about Jesus (Philadelphia, PA: Fortress Press, 1983), p. vii. 12. Ibid., p. viii. 13. Ibid., p. 41. 14. See Peter L. Berger, The Sacred Canopy: Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1969), p. 27. 15. David Bradley, An Introduction to the Urantia Revelation (Arcata, CA: White Egret Publications, 1998), p. 1. For a brief overview of The Urantia Book, see Sarah Lewis, “The URANTIA Book,” in Christopher Partridge, ed., UFO Religions (New York: Routledge, 2003), pp. 129–148. 16. Ibid., p. 4. 17. Ibid., p. 5. 18. See ibid., pp. 24f, 79. 19. See Larry Mullins, with Meredith Justin Sprunger, A History of the Urantia Papers (Boulder, CO: Penumbra Press, 2000), p. 5. 20. Martin Gardner, in his critical debunking of Urantia, is convinced that the sleeping subject was Sadler’s brother-in-law, Wilfred Custer Kellogg; see Martin Gardner, Urantia: The Great Cult Mystery (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 1995), p. 97. 21. As quoted in ibid., p. 34. 22. Dr. William Sadler, “History of The Urantia Book,” Urantia Association International Journal 15 (2008): 16–19, quotations from p. 16. 23. Mullins, History, p. 177. 24. Sadler, “History,” p. 18. Gardner, however, argues that Sadler both edited and wrote portions of UB; see Gardner, Urantia, pp. 276, 356. 25. Mullins, History, p. 183. 26. Luc LaChance, as quoted in Saskia Praamsma, ed., How I Found the Urantia Book and How It Changed My Life (Glendale, CA: Square Circles Publishing, 2001), p. 243. 27. See Mullins, History, pp. 240–245; see also the account in Gardner, Urantia, pp. 361ff. 28. See Mullins, History, p. 300 and Gardner, Urantia, pp. 369ff. 29. Sadler, “History,” p. 19. 30. Peep Sōber, “Jesus of Nazareth as a Perfect Leader and Teacher: What Does It Mean to Us?,” International Urantia Association Journal 12 (2005): 1, 8–10, quotation from p. 8. 31. Mullins, History, p. 4. Notes 283

32. Clyde Bedell as quoted in ibid., p. 125. 33. Rick Lyon, “The Early Ministry of Jesus,” Urantia Association International Journal 16 (2009): 6–14, quotation from p. 10. 34. The Urantia Book (Chicago: Urantia Foundation, 1955), 121.8.2.1341. References to The Urantia Book (hereafter UB) are given in this order: paper, section, paragraph, page; when there is no section number, it is omitted. 35. UB 149.2.1.1670. 36. UB 149.2.2.1670. 37. Janelle Balnicke, as quoted in Praamsma, How I Found, p. 89. 38. UB 195.10.15.2086. 39. Meredith J. Sprunger, as quoted in Praamsma, How I Found, p. 13. 40. UB 126.1.6.1387; 128.6.2.1415, respectively. 41. UB 120.4.1324. 42. UB 127.6.13.1405. 43. Thea Hardy, as quoted in Praamsma, How I Found, p. 75. 44. UB 120.3.7.1331. 45. UB 120.28.1328. Emphases in the original. 46. UB 143.6.3.1615. 47. UB 143.7.2.1616. 48. UB 138.2.1.1539. 49. Mullins, History, p. 266. 50. UB 129.3.8.1424. 51. On the Acts of Thomas see http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/actst- homas.html. 52. See UB 131.2.1442; 131.10.1.1453. 53. UB 132.7.6.1467. 54. See UB 120.3.7.1331. 55. UB 132.7.8.1467. 56. Roger J. Abdo, as quoted in Praamsma, How I Found, p. 150. 57. Bradley, Introduction, p. 7. 58. See, especially, Liz Engstrom Cratty in Praamsma, How I Found, p. 219, but see also pp. 133, 150, 203ff., 207, 312. 59. See ibid., pp. 4, 13, 24, 39, 84, 87, 97, 115, 121, 134, 168, 177, 225, 272, 306, 348, 362, 372. 60. See Colin Campbell, “The Cult, The Cultic Milieu, and Secularization,” in Jeffrey Kaplan and Helene Lööw, The Cultic Milieu: Oppositional Subcultures in an Age of Globalization (Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press, 2002), pp. 12–25, (originally published in 1972); for the concept of occulture see Christopher Partridge, The Re-Enchantment of the West, Volume I: Alternative Spiritualities, Sacralization, Popular Culture, and Occulture (London: T & T Clark, 2004), pp. 55–85; for the concept of audience cults see Rodney Stark and William Sims Bainbridge, The Future of Religion: Secularization, Revival, and Cult Formation (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1985), pp. 27–28. 61. William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience (New York: New American Library, 1958), p. 42. 62. UB 134.7.6.1492. 284 Notes

63. UB 134.8.6.1493. 64. UB 134.8.7.1493. See UB 134.8.8.1494. 65. UB 134.8.9.1494. 66. UB 134.8.6.1493. 67. Ibid. 68. Duane Faw, as quoted in Praamsma, How I Found, p. 97. 69. See UB 126.3.3.1389. 70. See UB 144.3.3.1620. 71. See the brief explanation in Bradley, Introduction, pp. 75–78. 72. UB 144.5.2.1622; see also UB 144.5.3–9.1622–1624. 73. UB 189.1.4.2021. 74. UB 189.1.1.2021. 75. UB Foreword.5.8.9. 76. See UB 188.3.8.2015; 189.2.8.2024. 77. Larry Tyler, as quoted in Praamsma, How I Found, p. 114. 78. For general background of The Church Universal and Triumphant and its roots in the “I AM” Activity, see Bradley C. Whitsel, The Church Universal and Triumphant: Elizabeth Clare Prophet’s Apocalyptic Movement (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2003). 79. Godfre Ray King, Unveiled Mysteries, Saint Germain Series, volume I (Schaumberg, IL: Saint Germain Press, 1934), p. 17. I retain the idiosyncratic capitalizations of the original. 80. See J. Gordon Melton, “The Church Universal and Triumphant: Its Heritage and Thoughtworld,” in James R. Lewis and J. Gordon Melton, eds., Church Universal and Triumphant in Scholarly Perspective (Stanford, CA: Center for Academic Publication, 1994), pp. 1–20, esp. p. 6. For a critique of the study of which Melton’s article is a part, see Robert W. Balch and Stephan Langdon, “How the Problem of Malfeasance Gets Overlooked in Studies of New Religious Movements: An Examination of the AWARE Study of the Church Universal and Triumphant,” in Anson Shupe, ed., Wolves within the Fold: Religious Leadership and the Abuses of Power (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1998) pp. 191–211. 81. For a full treatment of the suit and its effects on Ballard’s group see John T. Noonan, The Lustre of Our Country: The American Experience of Religious Freedom (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1998), pp. 141–176. 82. Elizabeth Clare Prophet, The Lost Years of Jesus: Documentary Evidence of Jesus’ 17-Year Journey to the East (Livingston, MT: Summit University Press, 1984). 83. See ibid., pp. 3, 6. 84. Elizabeth Clare Prophet, The Lost Teachings of Jesus 1: Missing Texts: Karma and Reincarnation (Livingston, MT: Summit University Press, 1986), p. xviii. (Elizabeth is listed on the cover as the author, although Mark is listed with her in the inside title page. The four volumes assemble talks given by Mark between 1965 and his death in 1973, see volume 1, p. lxvi. Elizabeth provides an extensive introduction in volume 1 and an epilogue in volume 4.) Notes 285

85. Prophet, The Lost Years, pp. 400–401. 86. Ibid., p. 60. 87. F. Max Müller, “The Alleged Sojourn of Christ in India”; available at http: //www.tertullian.org/rpearse/scanned/notovitch.htm; originally published in The Nineteenth Century 36 (1894): 515–522, quotation from p. 521. 88. Prophet, The Lost Years, p. 414. 89. See Prophet, The Lost Teachings of Jesus 2, pp. 199, 99, for example. 90. Prophet, The Lost Teachings of Jesus 1, p. lxiv. 91. Ibid., p. lxv. 92. Ibid., p. 150. 93. Prophet, The Lost Teachings of Jesus 2, pp. 55f. 94. Prophet, The Lost Teachings of Jesus 4, p. 289. 95. Prophet, The Lost Teachings of Jesus 3, p. 204. 96. See ibid., p. 206. 97. Ibid. See Whitsel, The Church Universal and Triumphant, p. 29. 98. Prophet, The Lost Teachings of Jesus 1, p. 120. 99. Prophet, The Lost Teachings of Jesus 4, p. 66. 100. Prophet, The Lost Teachings of Jesus 2, p. 39, see pp. 249, 266, 269. 101. See Prophet, The Lost Teachings of Jesus 3, pp. 25, 221. 102. Prophet, The Lost Teachings of Jesus 4, p. 271. 103. Prophet, The Lost Teachings of Jesus 2, p. 255. 104. See, respectively, Prophet, The Lost Teachings of Jesus 3, p. 4; The Lost Teachings of Jesus 1, p. 63; The Lost Teachings of Jesus 2, pp. 32, 73. 105. Prophet, The Lost Teachings of Jesus 1, p. 116. 106. Prophet, The Lost Teachings of Jesus 2, p. 270. 107. Ibid., pp. 47–48. 108. Prophet, The Lost Teachings of Jesus 3, p. 7. 109. Prophet, The Lost Teachings of Jesus 4, p. 288. On Paul’s ascent see Tabor, Things Unutterable. 110. Prophet, The Lost Teachings of Jesus 4, p. 163. 111. Prophet, The Lost Years, p. 409. 112. Bart D. Ehrman, The New Testament: A Historical Introduction to the Early Christian Writings, 2nd ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), p. 76. 113. Ibid., p. 83.

7 The End of the World as They Know It: Revelations about Revelation

1. Catherine Wessinger, “Introduction,” in Wessinger, ed., The Oxford Handbook of Millennialism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), p. 5. 2. I will follow the account of Chen’s life in Charles Houston Prather, “God’s Salvation Church: Past Present and Future,” Marburg Journal of Religion 9 (1999): 1–9; available at http://www.uni-marburg.de/fb03/ivk/ mjr/pdfs/1999/articles/prather1999.pdf. See also the account in Catherine 286 Notes

Wessinger, How the Millennium Comes Violently: From Jonestown to Heaven’s Gate (New York: Seven Bridges Press, 2000), pp. 253–263. 3. Hon-Ming Chen, God’s Descending in Clouds (Flying Saucers) to Save People ( Garland, TX: self-published, 1997). The text lists “God—The Supreme Being” as its author, but in my discussion I will refer to Chen as, at least, the conduit through which the text has reached human beings. At a very few points I have inserted words or a few letters into brackets to improve the clarity of the text. 4. See Prather, “God’s Salvation Church,” p. 2. 5. See God’s Descending, pp. 6, 174. 6. Ibid., p. 1. 7. See ibid., pp. i, 41. 8. Ibid., p. i. 9. Ibid., p. 66. 10. Ibid., p. 68. 11. Ibid. 12. Ibid., p. 123. 13. Ibid., p. 125. 14. Ibid., p. 81. 15. See ibid., p. 31. 16. Ibid., p. 122. 17. Ibid., p. 129. 18. “Transcript of Chen Tao’s March 12, 1998, Press Conference in Garland, TX,” p. 2; available at http://www.watchman.org/cults/chentranscript.htm. 19. On Marcion, in general, see Sebastian Moll, The Arch-Heretic Marcion (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2010); see also Adolf Harnack, Marcion: The Gospel of the Alien God, John E. Steely and Lyle D. Bierma, trans. (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2007). 20. God’s Descending, p. i. 21. Ibid., p. 41. 22. Ibid., p. 131. 23. Ibid., p. 132. 24. Ibid. 25. Ibid., p. 135. 26. Ibid., p. 138. 27. “Press Conference Transcript,” p. 5. 28. See God’s Descending, p. 79. 29. Ibid., p. 130. 30. As quoted in Prather, “God’s Salvation Church,” p. 6. 31. “A Notice to Those in the United States and Taiwan Who Have Evolved to Be Part of the Life of God and Buddha,” originally posted at http://home.earth- link.net/~trueway/neutron.html. Link now broken. Copy in my possession. 32. Ryan J. Cook, who followed the group from its beginnings in the United States, provides that update on his website: http://www.anthroufo.info/un- chen.html. Accessed July 22, 2013. 33. For overviews of Heaven’s Gate see John R. Hall, with Philip D. Schuyler and Sylvaine Trinh, Apocalypse Observed: Religious Movements and Violence Notes 287

in North America, Europe, and Japan (New York: Routledge, 2000), pp. 149–182; Wessinger, How the Millennium, pp. 229–252. For a review of the scholarly literature on Heaven’s Gate, see Benjamin E. Zeller, “Heaven’s Gate: A Literature Review and Bibliographic Essay,” Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review 1 (2009); available at http://www.academicpublishing. org/V1I1.php. Accessed July 22, 2013; Zeller’s forthcoming Heaven’s Gate: America’s UFO Religion promises to be the best available account of the origins, history, practices, and beliefs of the group. 34. Representatives of the Kingdom of Heaven, How and When “Heaven’s Gate” (The Door to the Physical Level Above Human) May be Entered (Denver, CO: Right to Know Enterprises, 1996), section 4, p. 79. 35. As quoted in Hall, et al., Apocalypse Observed, p. 151. 36. Brad Steiger and Hayden Hewes, Inside Heaven’s Gate: The UFO Cult Leaders Tell Their Story in Their Own Words (New York: Signet, 1997), pp. 100–101. 37. Ibid., p. 195. 38. Ibid. 39. As quoted in Rodney Perkins and Forrest Jackson, Cosmic Suicide: The Tragedy and Transcendence of Heaven’s Gate ( Dallas: The Pentaradial Press, 1997), p. 112. 40. As quoted in Hall et al., Apocalypse Observed, p. 177. 41. As quoted in ibid., pp. 158–159. 42. As quoted in Steiger and Hewes, Inside Heaven’s Gate, p. 13. 43. See ibid., p. 19. 44. Representatives of the Kingdom of Heaven, How and When, section 3, p. 5; see also section 4, p. 72 for a longer version of the story. 45. As quoted in Steiger and Hewes, Inside Heaven’s Gate, p. 191. 46. Ibid., p. vi. 47. Ibid., appendix B, p. 1. 48. Ibid., p. 111; see section 1, p. 3; section 3, p. 6; section 4, pp. 4, 9, 13, 15, 79; section 6, p. 6; appendix A, pp. 2, 35. 49. Ibid., p. iv. 50. Ibid., p. iv. 51. See Robert W. Balch, “Waiting for the Ships: Disillusionment and the Revitalization of Faith in Bo and Peep’s UFO Cult,” in James R. Lewis, ed., The Gods Have Landed: New Religions from Other Worlds (Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1995), pp. 137–166, esp. p. 154. 52. Representatives of the Kingdom of Heaven, How and When, p. x. 53. Ibid., section 1, p. 5. 54. Ibid., section 4, p. 6. 55. I will cite biblical texts that Do includes in Appendix B of the Heaven’s gate anthology in the specific translation that he uses. He employs both the King James Version and the Amplified Bible translation. 56. Representatives of the Kingdom of Heaven, How and When, appendix A, p. 3. 57. Ibid., appendix A, p. 20. 58. See, for example, Wessinger, How the Millennium, p. 233. 288 Notes

59. George Chryssides notes Do’s “piecemeal” use of Revelation in “‘Come On Up, and I Will Show Thee’: Heaven’s Gate as a Postmodern Group,” in James R. Lewis and Jesper Aagaard Petersen, eds., Controversial New Religions (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005), pp. 353–370, esp. p. 365. 60. Representatives of the Kingdom of Heaven, How and When, addendum section 1, p. 2. 61. Ibid., addendum section 1, p. 9. 62. See Steiger and Hewes, Inside Heaven’s Gate, p. 19. 63. Representatives of the Kingdom of Heaven, How and When, section 1, p. 1. 64. On the origins of the Lucifer story see Jeffrey Burton Russell, Satan: The Early Christian Tradition (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1987). 65. Representatives of the Kingdom of Heaven, How and When, section 4, p. 14. 66. Ibid., section 1, p. 6. 67. See ibid., appendix A, p. 20. 68. See ibid., section 4, p. 44. 69. Ibid., section 6, p. 13. 70. See ibid., appendix A, p. 29. 71. See ibid., section 4, p. 74. 72. Ibid., appendix A, p. 4. 73. Ibid., section 3, p. 6. 74. Ibid., p. iii. 75. Ibid., section 5, p. 7. 76. Ibid., section 3, p. 13. 77. Ibid., section 4, p. 37. 78. Chryssides, “‘Come On Up,’” p. 367. 79. Representatives of the Kingdom of Heaven, How and When, addendum appendix A, p. 7. 80. As quoted in Paul Boyer, When Time Shall Be No More: Prophecy Belief in Modern American Culture (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992), p. 238. 81. Representatives of the Kingdom of Heaven, How and When, appendix A, p. 2. 82. Chryssides, “‘Come On Up,’” pp. 367–368. 83. Dale B. Martin, Pedagogy of the Bible: An Analysis and Proposal (Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2008), p. 31.

Part III Introduction

1. The phrase “another testament of Jesus Christ” has been added to the title page of copies of the book of Mormon since 1982. See http://beta-news- room.lds.org/article/book-of-mormon. 2. See Introduction, Part I, pp. 15–16. 3. Cantwell Smith, What is Scripture? A Comparative Approach (Philadelphia, PA: Fortress Press, 1993), p. 206. Notes 289

4. The Church of Scientology International provides a very strong example of an institutional desire to retain tight control over the canon of L. Ron Hubbard’s teachings. The Church describes the canon in this way, “the Scripture of the Scientology religion consists of the writings and recorded spo- ken words of L. Ron Hubbard on the subjects of Dianetics and Scientology. This Scripture includes more than half a million written pages, over 3,000 tape-recorded lectures and some 100 films.” See http://www.bonafidescien- tology.org/Chapter/04/index.htm. The Religious Technology Center of CSI International is in charge of enforcing Church copyrights and thus of pro- tecting the canon. The Church asserts that “To ensure the purity and ortho- doxy of the Scripture, the copyrights on all of its published works, which are owned exclusively by the Church for the benefit of the religion, have been registered in all relevant countries. These registrations ensure that the Scripture cannot be altered, perverted or taken out of context for improper or harmful ends” (Ibid.). 5. Ibid., p. 207. 6. Jonathan Z. Smith, “Canons, Catalogues and Classics,” in A. Van Der Kooij and K. Van Der Toorn, eds., Canonization and Decanonization: Papers Presented to the International Conference of the Leiden Institute for the Study of Religions (LISOR), Held at Leiden 9–10 January 1997 (Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1998), pp. 295–311, quotation from p. 298. 7. The Twelve Blessings: The Cosmic Concept for the New Aquarian Age as Given by the Master Jesus in His Overshadowing of George King, rev. ed. (Los Angeles, CA: The Aetherius Press, 2010), p. 11. 8. Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (Boston, MA: The First Church of Christ, Scientist, 1875 [1994]), pp. vii–viii. 9. A Course in Miracles (Tiburon, CA: Foundation for Inner Peace, 1975), “Introduction,” n. p. 10. Ibid., “Publisher’s Note,” n. p. 11. Sandra Kramer, “Foreword to the Third Edition,” in Eileen Caddy, God Spoke to Me, 3rd ed. (Findhorn, Scotland: Findhorn Press, 1992), pp. 7–8, quotation from p. 7. 12. Ibid. 13. Starhawk, The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess, 20th anniversary ed. (New York: HarperCollins, 1999), p. 33.

8 Guidance for a New Age and a New Paganism

1. See Eileen Caddy, Flight into Freedom and Beyond: The Autobiography of the Co-Founder of the Findhorn Community, rev. ed. (Forres, Scotland: Findhorn Press, 2007), p. 28; Peter Caddy, with Jeremy Slocombe and Renata Caddy, In Perfect Timing: Memoirs of a Man for the New Millennium (Forres, Scotland: Findhorn Press, 1996), p. 101. 2. Eileen Caddy, Flight into Freedom and Beyond, p. 33. 3. Ibid. 4. Ibid., p. 34. 290 Notes

5. Ibid., p. 37. 6. Ibid., p. 59. 7. Eileen Caddy, God Spoke to Me, 3rd ed. (Forres, Scotland: Findhorn Press, 1992), p. 71. 8. See ibid., p. 77. 9. On Peter’s various early encounters with spiritual wisdom see Ibid, pp. 21–30. 10. Eileen Caddy, Flight into Freedom and Beyond, p. 38. 11. Ibid. 12. Ibid., p. 82. 13. Peter Caddy, In Perfect Timing, p. 189. 14. On Dorothy’s communication with the devas, see The Findhorn Garden (New York: Harper & Row, 1968), pp. 53–99. 15. Wilfred Cantwell Smith, What is Scripture? A Comparative Approach (Philadelphia, PA: Fortress Press, 1993), p. 36. 16. Eileen Caddy, Flight into Freedom and Beyond, p. 45. 17. Ibid., p. 57. 18. Eileen Caddy, with a biography of the author by Roy McVicar, The Spirit of Findhorn (Forres, Scotland: Findhorn Press, 1994), p. 34. 19. Eileen Caddy, God Spoke to Me, p. 91. 20. Eileen Caddy, Flight into Freedom and Beyond, p. 117. 21. Eileen Caddy, God Spoke to Me, p. 19. 22. Eileen Caddy, Flight into Freedom and Beyond, p. 119. 23. Ibid., p. 189. 24. Ibid., p. 94. 25. See Eileen Caddy, God Spoke to Me, pp. 40, 94. 26. Peter Caddy, In Perfect Timing, p. 165. 27. See ibid., pp. 262–263. 28. On the contrast between progressive and catastrophic forms of millennialism, see Catherine Wessinger, “Millennialism with and without the Mayhem,” in Millennium, Messiahs, and Mayhem: Contemporary Apocalyptic Movements (New York: Routledge, 1997), pp. 47–59; see also Eugene V. Gallagher, “Catastrophic Millennialism” and W. Michael Ashcraft, “Progressive Millennialism,” in Catherine Wessinger, ed., The Oxford Handbook of Millennialism (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), pp. 27–43 and pp. 44–65, respectively. 29. Eileen Caddy, God Spoke to Me, p. 96. 30. Peter Caddy, In Perfect Timing, p. 315. 31. Peter Caddy, In Perfect Timing, p. 142. 32. See Raymond Akhurst, My Life and the Findhorn Community (Cornwall, England: Honey Press, 1992), p. 52. 33. See Eileen Caddy, Flight into Freedom and Beyond, p. 183. 34. See ibid., pp. 169, 171. 35. Ibid., p. 173. 36. Akhurst, My Life and the Findhorn Community, p. 32. 37. Ibid. 38. Eileen Caddy, Flight into Freedom and Beyond, p. 102. Notes 291

39. See note 6. 40. Eileen Caddy, God Spoke to Me, p. 11. 41. Eileen Caddy, The Spirit of Findhorn, p. 32. 42. Liza Hollingshead, “Introduction,” in Eileen Caddy, Flight into Freedom and Beyond, p. 7. 43. Eileen Caddy, Flight into Freedom and Beyond, p. 114. 44. Eileen Caddy, Foundations of Findhorn, Roy McVicar, ed. (Forres, Scotland: Findhorn Press, 1978), p. 78. 45. Peter Caddy, In Perfect Timing, p. 273. 46. Ibid., p. 315. 47. See Eileen’s own estimate in The Findhorn Community, The Findhorn Garden, p. 37. 48. See Eileen Caddy, Flight into Freedom and Beyond, p. 114. 49. See Eileen Caddy, Opening Doors Within: 365 Daily Meditations from Findhorn, 20th anniversary ed. (Forres, Scotland: Findhorn Press, 2007). 50. See http://www.findhorn.org/inspiration/. Accessed June 30, 2011. 51. Roy McVicar, “Foreword to the 1971 Edition,” in Eileen Caddy, God Spoke to Me, p. 9. 52. Ibid., pp. 9–10. 53. Ibid., p. 10. For another example, see Eileen Caddy, Flight into Freedom and Beyond, p. 136. 54. Ibid., p. 141. 55. Liza Hollingshead, “Introduction,” in Eileen Caddy, Flight into Freedom and Beyond, p. 8. 56. See Eileen Caddy, Flight into Freedom and Beyond, p. 239. 57. The Findhorn Garden, p. 46. 58. Eileen Caddy, Foundations of Findhorn, p. 23. 59. Starhawk, The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess, special 20th anniversary ed. (San Francisco, NY: HarperSanFrancisco, 1999), p. 2. 60. See Starhawk, The Spiral Dance, p. 128. 61. Chas S. Clifton, Her Hidden Children: The Rise of Wicca and Paganism in America (Lanham, MD: AltaMira Press, 2006), p. 3. 62. Ibid., p. 23. 63. See ibid., p. 106. 64. Helen Berger, “Learning about Paganism,” in Eugene V. Gallagher and W. Michael Ashcraft, Introduction to New and Alternative Religions in the United States, vol. III (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2006), pp. 200–216, quotation from p. 200. 65. Ibid., p. 204. 66. “Starhawk,” in V. Vale and John Sulak, eds., Modern Pagans: An Investigation of Contemporary Pagan Practices (San Francisco, NY: RE/ search Publications, 2001), p. 7. 67. www.goodreads.com/review/show/41753621. Accessed July 22, 2013. 68. http://paganwiccan.about.com/b/2008/06/17/happy-birthday-to-starhawk. htm. Accessed July 22, 2013. 69. See www.thedomesticpagan.com. Accessed July 8, 2011. Link now broken. 292 Notes

70. www.beliefnet.com/Entertainment/Movies/The-Chronicles-Of-Narnia- Prince-Caspian/How-Narnia-Made-Me-A-Witch. Accessed July 22, 2013. 71. www.news.cherryhillseminary.org/?tag+starhawk. Accessed July 8, 2011. 72. See Starhawk, The Spiral Dance, pp. 3, 264. 73. Ibid., p. 3. 74. Starhawk, The Spiral Dance, p. 23. 75. Ibid., p. 34. 76. Ibid., p. 32. 77. Ibid., p. 217. 78. For the complete text of Murray’s book, see http://www.sacred-texts .com/pag/wcwe/; for Gardner see Scire (Gerald B. Gardner), High Magic’s Aid, reprint (Hinton, WV: Godolphin House, 1996); Gerald B. Gardner, Witchcraft Today, reprint, with introduction by Raymond Buckland (Lake Toxaway, NC: Mercurey Publishing, n.d.), and Gerald B. Gardner, The Meaning of Witchcraft, reprint (Thame, England: I-H-O Books, 2000). 79. See, for example, the exposé of Gardner in Aidan Kelly, Crafting the Art of Magic, Book I: A History of Modern Witchcraft, 1939–1964 (St. Paul, MN: Llwellyn, 1991). Also see Ronald Hutton, The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999); Philip G. Davis, Goddess Unmasked: The Rise of Neopagan Feminist Spirituality (Dallas: Spence Publishing Co., 1998); and James W. Baker, “White Witches: Historic Fact and Romantic Fantasy,” in James R. Lewis, ed., Magical Religion and Modern Witchcraft (Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1996), pp. 171–192. For a full presentation of the mythic origins of Wicca see Raymond Buckland, Witchcraft from the Inside: Origins of the Fastest Growing Religious Movement in America, 3rd ed. (St. Paul, MN: Llwellyn Publications, 1995). 80. See Starhawk, The Spiral Dance, pp. 231f., 263f. 81. Ibid., p. 63. 82. T. M. Luhrmann, Persuasions of the Witch’s Craft: Ritual Magic in Contemporary England (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1989), p. 244. 83. Starhawk, The Spiral Dance, p. 128. 84. Ibid., p. 10. 85. Ibid., p. 11. 86. See, for example, Margot Adler, Drawing Down the Moon: Witches Druids, Goddess-Worshippers, and Other Pagans in America Today, reprint (Boston: Beacon Press, 1986); Z. Budapest, The Holy Book of Women’s Mysteries, reprint with new introduction (Newburyport, MA: Weiser Books, 2007); Scott Cunningham, Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner (St. Paul, MN: Llwellyn Press, 1993); Silver RavenWolf, Teen Witch: Wicca for a New Generation (St. Paul, MN: Llwellyn Press, 1998). 87. See Clifton, Her Hidden Children, p. 11 for an estimate of the worldwide number of Pagans. 88. See http://reclaiming.org. 89. Starhawk, The Spiral Dance, p. 233. On Victor Anderson and his relation to Starhawk see Sarah M. Pike, New Age and Neopagan Religions in America (New York: Columbia University Press, 2004), pp. 9–11. Notes 293

90. Starhawk, The Spiral Dance, p. 233. 91. Ibid., p. 234. 92. Starhawk, Truth or Dare: Encounters with Power, Authority, and Mystery (San Francisco, NY: Harper & Row, 1987), p. ix. 93. See Starhawk, The Spiral Dance, p. 265. 94. Ibid., p. 244. 95. Ibid., p. 276. 96. Ibid., p. 27. 97. Ibid., p. 224. 98. Ibid., p. 13. 99. See http://www.wicca-spirituality.com/spiral-dance.html. Accessed July 22, 2013. 100. Starhawk, The Spiral Dance, p. 266. 101. Ibid., pp. 281f. 102. See Starhawk, Truth or Dare, pp. 9–20.

9 A Moorish Koran and a New Age Bible

1. The text is available in several printed versions and also online. I will follow this edition: http://hermetic.com/bey/7koran.html. Accessed July 22, 2013. Hereafter I will refer to the text as the Circle Seven Koran and give chapter and verse references, where available. 2. The Aetherius Society, The Twelve Blessings: The Cosmic Concept for the New Aquarian Age as Given by the Master Jesus in His Overshadowing of George King, rev. ed. (Los Angeles, CA: The Aetherius Press, 1958), p. 8. 3. See Circle Seven Koran, chapter 1. 4. See Circle Seven Koran, chapter 2:8. 5. See Levi Dowling, The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ (Kempton, IL: Adventures Unlimited Press, 1996, originally published in 1907, with an introduction by Eva Dowling in 1911). 6. For a detailed rundown of Drew Ali’s sources, see Michael A. Gomez, Black Crescent: The Experience and Legacy of African Muslims in the Americas (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005), pp. 232–234. 7. See Sri Ramatherio, Unto Thee I Grant (n. p.: Slusser Press, 2011), originally published in San Francisco by the Oriental Literature Syndicate in 1925. I will follow the pagination of the 2011 reprinting. 8. See Edward E. Curtis IV, “Debating the Origins of the Moorish Science Temple: Toward a New Cultural History,” in Curtis and Danielle Brune Sigler, eds., The New Black Gods: Arthur Huff Fauset and the Study of African American Religions (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 2009), pp. 70–90; quotation from p. 76. 9. See Gomez, Black Crescent, pp. 232–233, note 60. 10. Consider, for example, how in Mark 8:34 Jesus tells a crowd “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me” but in Luke 9:23 Jesus says “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me” 294 Notes

(NRSV translation). The addition of “daily,” in Luke’s account can be taken as telling of his overall purposes. 11. Gomez, Black Crescent, p. 232. 12. The New Moorish Literature, #25; available at http://moorishkingdom.tripod.com/id56.html. Accessed July 22, 2013. 13. Ibid. 14. See Herbert Berg, Elijah Muhammad and Islam (New York: New York University Press, 2009), p. 57. For the text itself see The New Moorish Literature, #13. 15. Ibid. 16. Ibid. 17. Ibid. 18. Ibid. 19. Ibid. 20. Ibid. 21. Circle Seven Koran, preface. 22. See Dowling, The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ, p. 11. 23. Sri Ramatherio, Unto Thee I Grant, p. 1. 24. Gomez, Black Crescent, p. 204. 25. Susan Nance, “Mystery of the Moorish Science Temple: Southern Blacks and American Alternative Spirituality in 1920s Chicago,” Religion and American Culture: A Journal of Interpretation 12 (2002): 123–166; quotation from p. 146. 26. See ibid., Curtis, “Debating the Origins,” p. 77. 27. Circle Seven Koran, chapter 48:11. 28. The New Moorish Literature, #12; see #11. 29. See the reproduction of the Moorish Science “passport” in Peter Lamborn Wilson, Sacred Drift: Essays on the Margins of Islam (San Francisco, CA: City Lights Books, 1993), p. 37. 30. The Moorish Sunnah, # 236; available at http://moorishkingdom.tripod. com/id56.html. Accessed July 22, 2013. 31. Ibid., #157. 32. Ibid., #38. 33. Ibid., #42. 34. Berg, Elijah Muhammad and Islam, p. 55. 35. Ibid., p. 56. 36. Laurie F. Maffly-Kipp, “Introduction,” in Maffly-Kipp, ed., American Scriptures: An Anthology of Sacred Writings (New York: Penguin Books, 2010), p. xv. 37. As cited in Berg, Elijah Muhammad and Islam, p. 157, note 19. 38. Circle Seven Koran, chapter 10:13. 39. See Dowling, The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ, section VI, chapter 28:13. 40. The Moorish Sunnah, #153. 41. Ibid., introduction. 42. The 102 Keys, #17, 18; available at http://moorishkingdom.tripod.com/id27. html. Accessed July 22, 2013. Emphasis in the original. That source also includes The 101 Keys, which does not differ on this passages, and which in Notes 295

general only differs slightly, omitting #60 from The 102 Keys and changing the answers to #58 and #59 of The 102 Keys. 43. Circle Seven Koran, chapter 45:1. 44. Ibid., chapter 47:14. 45. The Moorish Sunnah, #75. 46. Circle Seven Koran, chapter 48:10. 47. Ibid., chapter 47:1. 48. Ibid., chapter 47:10. 49. See ibid., chapter 47:9. 50. Curtis, “Debating the Origins,” p. 73. 51. See Act 6 of The Divine Constitution and by Laws; available at http: //hermetic.com/moorish/constitution.html. Accessed July 22, 2013. 52. The Moorish Sunnah, #108. 53. Ibid., #201. 54. Berg, Elijah Muhammad and Islam, p. 57. 55. Arthur Huff Fauset, Black Gods of the Metropolis: New Religious Cults of the Urban North (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1944, rpr. 2001), p. 49. 56. Act 2 of The Divine Constitution and by Laws. 57. The Moorish Sunnah, #1. 58. Ibid., #262; the original is printed in capital letters and bold font; see # 169. 59. See The New Moorish Literature, 5, 19. 60. See Gomez, Black Crescent, pp. 229f. 61. The New Moorish Literature, 16. 62. George King, with Richard Lawrence, Contacts with the Gods from Space: Pathway to the New Millennium (Los Angeles, CA: The Aetherius Press, 1996), p. 93. 63. The Twelve Blessings: The Cosmic Concept as Given by the Master Jesus (Los Angeles, CA: The Aetherius Press, 1958), p. 9. 64. Ibid., p. 10. 65. Ibid. 66. Ibid., p. 14. 67. Ibid., p. 10. 68. See ibid., p. 7. 69. Ibid., p. 11. 70. Ibid. 71. Ibid., p. 12. 72. Mikael Rothstein comments on how this text links King to Christianity in Rothstein, “Hagiography and Text in the Aetherius Society,” in Diane G. Tumminia, Alien Worlds: Social and Religious Dimensions of Extraterrestrial Contact (Syracuse, NA: Syracuse University Press, 2007), pp. 3–24, esp. 12–13. 73. In his preface to The Twelve Blessings George Lawrence notes that there are messages from four separate Cosmic Masters in the text. They are Aetherius, Saint Goo-Ling, who is a member of the Great White Brotherhood on Earth, Jesus, and Mars Sector 6. Other Masters are the sources of some of King’s other transmissions. 296 Notes

74. See Roy Wallis, “The Aetherius Society: A Case Study in the Formation of a Mystagogic Congregation,” Sociological Review 22 (1974): 31. 75. King and Lawrence, Contacts with the Gods from Space, p. 48. 76. Ibid., p. 50. The crucial role played by that Indian master of yoga in vali- dating King’s mission, and King’s frequent references to the Great White Brotherhood of earthly masters, clearly show the influence of Theosophy on the Aetherius Society. On that influence see Simon G. Smith, “Opening a Channel to the Stars: The Origins and Development of the Aetherius Society,” in Christopher Partridge, ed., UFO Religions (London: Routledge, 2003), pp. 84–102; John A. Saliba, “The Earth is a Dangerous Place—The World View of the Aetherius Society,” Marburg Journal of Religion 4 (1999); available at www.uni-marburg.de/religionswissenschaft/journal/ mjr/saliba_main.html; and Wallis, “The Aetherius Society.” 77. King and Lawrence, Contacts with the Gods from Space, p. 51. 78. Brian C. Keneipp, Operation Earth Light: A Glimpse into the World of the Ascended Masters (Hollywood, CA: The Aetherius Press, 2000), p. 19. 79. “Dr. George King: A Short Biography”; available at www.aetherius.org. Accessed July 22, 2013. 80. As cited in Wallis, “The Aetherius Society,” p. 32. 81. Rothstein, “Hagiography and Text in the Aetherius Society,” p. 13. 82. King and Lawrence, Contacts with the Gods from Space, pp. 77–78. 83. Keneipp, Operation Earth Light, p. 2. 84. Ibid., p. 23. 85. The Twelve Blessings, p. 13. 86. Ibid. 87. Ibid. 88. Blessings 2, 8, and 9 are missing the formal prayers that conclude the other nine blessings. 89. The Twelve Blessings, p. 13. 90. See George King, The Nine Freedoms, rev. ed. (Los Angeles: The Aetherius Press, 2000), pp. 18, 54. 91. See The Twelve Blessings, p. 36. 92. King, The Nine Freedoms, p. 111. 93. See The Twelve Blessings, p. 38. 94. “Service”; available at www.aetherius.org. Accessed July 22, 2013. 95. On that role see King and Lawrence, Contacts with the Gods from Space, pp.137, 138, 91. 96. The Twelve Blessings, p. 60. 97. Ibid. 98. See ibid., p. 61. 99. Ibid., p. 17. 100. Ibid., p. 54. 101. George King, The Nine Freedoms, p. 179. 102. Ibid., p. 180. 103. Ibid., p. 182. 104. Ibid., p. 199. 105. Ibid. Notes 297

106. Ibid. 107. Ibid., p. 200. 108. Ibid. 109. See King and Lawrence, Contacts with the Gods from Space, pp. 35–36. 110. Aetherius Society, The Aetherius Society: A Guide to Its Cosmic Teachings and Missions (Los Angeles: The Aetherius Society, n. d.), not paginated. 111. Keneipp, Operation Earth Light, p. 11. 112. “Why the Aetherius Society”; available at www.aetherius.org. Accessed July 22, 2013. 113. “Heal the World”; available at www.aetheriussociety.org. Accessed July 22, 2013. 114. “The Twelve Blessings”; available at www.aetheriussociety.org. Accessed July 22, 2013.

10 It’s All in the Mind: Christian Science and A Course in Miracles

1. See Gillian Gill, Mary Baker Eddy (Reading, MA: Perseus Books, 1998), pp. 367–368. 2. As quoted in Gill, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 365. 3. See Manager of Christian Science Committees on Publication, ed., Christian Science: A Sourcebook of Contemporary Materials (Boston, MA: The Christian Science Publishing Society, 1990), pp. 39, 57. 4. Mary Baker Eddy, Retrospection and Introspection (Boston, MA: Trustees under the Will of Mary Baker G. Eddy, 1891), p. 37; available at www. mbeinstitute.org/Prose_Works/RetroIntro.html. References are to the page numbers of the original. Accessed July 22, 2013. 5. A Course in Miracles, Volume One: Text, p. 3 and A Course in Miracles, Volume Two: Workbook for Students (Tiburon, CA: Foundation for Inner Peace, 1975), p. 197. Hereafter ACIM Text and ACIM Workbook, respectively. 6. ACIM Text,“Introduction,” n. p. 7. ACIM Workbook, p. 1. 8. ACIM Text, p. 581. 9. Ibid., p. 376. 10. Ibid., p. 477. 11. Ibid. 12. Eddy, Retrospection and Introspection, p. 65. 13. See, for example, Allen Watson, Seeing the Bible Differently: How a Course in Miracles Views the Bible (Sedona, AZ: The Circle of Atonement Teaching and Healing Center, 1997), p. 9. 14. Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (Boston, MA: The First Church of Christ, Scientist, 1994), p. 107. 15. Eddy, Retrospection and Introspection, p. 24. 16. Ibid., pp. 24, 23, respectively. 17. Ibid., pp. 24–25. 298 Notes

18. Ibid., p. 25. 19. Ibid., p. 27. 20. Gill, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 209. 21. As quoted in Stephen Gottschalk, The Emergence of Christian Science in American Religious Life (Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1973), p. 36. 22. Eddy, Retrospection and Introspection, p. 84. 23. Eddy, Science and Health, p. 147. 24. Wilfred Cantwell Smith, What is Scripture? A Comparative Approach (Philadelphia, PA: Fortress Press, 1993), p. 36. 25. On the Quimby-Eddy relationship see Gottschalk, The Emergence of Christian Science, pp. 129–138 and Gill, Mary Baker Eddy, pp. 128–146. 26. Eddy, Science and Health, p. 55. 27. Eddy, Retrospection and Introspection, p. 57. 28. Ibid., p. 30. 29. Ibid., p. 70. 30. Eddy, Science and Health, p. 560. 31. Ibid., p. 561. 32. As quoted in Gill, Mary Baker Eddy, p. 414. 33. Eddy, Science and Health, p. 110. 34. Ibid., p. 483. 35. Ibid., p. 146. 36. Eddy, Science and Health, p. 547. 37. Ibid., p. 24. 38. Ibid., pp. 16–17. 39. Ibid., p. viii. 40. Ibid., p. 422. 41. For the date of the revision, see Christian Science: A Sourcebook, p. 53. 42. Eddy, Science and Health, p. 642. 43. Ibid., p. 686. 44. Ibid., pp. 622–623. 45. See http://christianscience.com/prayer-and-health/firsthand-experiences-of- healing. Accessed July 22, 2013. 46. Eddy, Science and Health, p. 607. 47. Eddy, Retrospection and Introspection, p. 24. 48. Kenneth Wapnick, Absence from Felicity: The Story of Helen Shucman and Her Scribing of A Course in Miracles (Roscoe, NY: Foundation for A Course in Miracles, 1991), p. 13, note 3. 49. Ibid., p. 3. 50. Ibid. 51. See ibid., pp. 31–32. 52. See ibid., pp. 33–34. 53. Ibid., p. 425. 54. See ibid., pp. 29, 37, 43. 55. See ibid., pp. 52, 56. 56. See ibid., p. 52. 57. Ibid., p. 54. Notes 299

58. Ibid., p. 201. 59. Ibid., p. 173. 60. Ibid., p. 69. 61. Ibid. 62. Ibid., p. 70. 63. Ibid., p. 72. 64. Ibid., p. 73. 65. Ibid., p. 75. 66. See Robert Skutch, Journey without Distance: The Story of A Course in Miracles (Mill Valley, CA: The Foundation for Inner Peace, 1996, first published in 1984), p. 2. 67. Wapnick, Absence from Felicity, p. 93. 68. Ibid., p. 94. 69. Ibid., p. 95. 70. Ibid., p. 112. 71. Ibid. 72. Skutch, Journey without Distance, p.107. 73. See Wapnick, Absence from Felicity, pp. 200, 215. 74. Ibid., p. 361. 75. Ibid., p. 234. 76. Ibid., p. 406. 77. Skutch, Journey without Distance, p. 89. 78. Ibid. 79. ACIM Text, p. 132. 80. Ibid., p. 426. 81. Ibid., p. 545. 82. A Course in Miracles, Volume Three: Manual for Teachers (Tiburon, CA: Foundation for Inner Peace, 1975), p. 58. Hereafter ACIM Manual. 83. ACIM Text, p. 3. 84. Ibid., pp. 4, 2, respectively. 85. Ibid., p. 602. 86. For an extensive insider’s investigation of the similarities between the teachings of the Course and ancient forms of Gnosticism see Kenneth Wapnick, Love Does Not Condemn: The World, the Flesh, and the Devil According to Platonism, Christianity, Gnosticism, and A Course in Miracles (Roscoe, NY: Foundation for A Course in Miracles, 1989). 87. ACIM Workbook, p. 62. 88. ACIM Manual, p. 38. 89. For courses offered by Kenneth and Gloria Wapnick’s Foundation for A Course in Miracles, see http://www.facim.org/; the website for The Foundation for Inner Peace, which notes that it is the only authorized source for the texts of the Course and any translations of them, lists worldwide study groups at http://acim.org/Resources/study_groups.html. See also http://allen-watson.com/index.html. Accessed July 22, 2013. 90. ACIM Manual, p. 85. 91. For a specific example of such correction, see Wapnick, Absence from Felicity, p. 253. 300 Notes

92. Watson, Seeing the Bible Differently, p. 9. 93. Ibid., p. 48. 94. See ibid., p. 58. 95. Skutch, Journey without Distance, p. 58. 96. Ibid., p. 108. 97. Willis Hartman, “Foreword,” in Skutch, Journey without Distance, n.p. 98. D. Patrick Miller, Understanding A Course in Miracles: The History, Message, and Legacy of a Spiritual Path for Today (Berkeley, CA: Celestial Arts, 1997), pp. 100, 102, respectively. 99. Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of a Course in Miracles (New York: HarperCollins, 1992), p. 18. 100. For a sample see http://www.facimoutreach.org/qa/indextoquestions.htm. Accessed July 22, 2013. 101. See Wapnick, Absence from Felicity, p. 394, where he uses the term “canon- ical” to distinguish the Course from other messages that Helen received.

Conclusion: New Religions, New Bibles

1. See Max Weber, “The Sociology of Charismatic Authority” and “The Nature of Charismatic Authority and Its Routinization,” in S. N. Eisenstadt, ed., Max Weber on Charisma and Institution Building (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1968), pp. 24, 51, respectively. See also chapter 3, pp. 64, 79. 2. For an historical account of the contemporary anti-cult movement see Gordon Melton, “Critiquing Cults: An Historical Perspective,” in Eugene V. Gallagher and W. Michael Ashcraft, eds., Introduction to New and Alternative Religions in the United States, vol. I, (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2006), pp. 126–142. On the term “cult,” see James T. Richardson, “Definitions of Cult: From Sociological-Technical to Popular- Negative,” in Lorne L. Dawson, ed., Cults in Context: Readings in the Study of New Religious Movements (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 1998), pp. 29–38. 3. Margaret Thaler Singer, with Janja Lalich, Cults in Our Midst: The Hidden Menace in Our Everyday Lives (San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass, 1995), p. 11. 4. For full-length treatments of the anti-cult movement, see Anson D. Shupe and David G. Bromley, The New Vigilantes: Deprogrammers, Anti- Cultists and the New Religions (Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 1980) and Anson D. Shupe and Susan E. Darnell, Agents of Discord: Deprogramming, Pseudo-Science, and the American Anticult Movement (Piscataway, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2006). 5. Singer, Cults in Our Midst, p. 15. 6. On Christian counter-cult figures and groups, see Douglas Cowan, Bearing False Witness: An Introduction to the Christian Countercult (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2003); a good history of Jewish counter-cult efforts remains to be written. Notes 301

7. Laurie F. Maffly-Kipp, “Introduction,” in American Scriptures: An Anthology of Sacred Writings (New York: Penguin, 2010), p. x. 8. Jonathan Z. Smith, “Sacred Persistence: Toward a Redescription of Canon,” in Imagining Religion: From Babylon to Jonestown (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982), p. 43. 9. For a definitive analysis of this issue, see Eileen Barker, The Making of a Moonie: Brainwashing or Choice (London: Blackwell, 1984). 10. Christopher Partridge, The Re-Enchantment of the West, Volume I: Alternative Spiritualities, Sacralization, Popular Culture, and Occulture (London: T & T Clark, 2004), p. 85. 11. Ibid., p. 68. Emphasis in the original. 12. For the concept of the “cultic milieu,” see Colin Campbell, “The Cult, The Cultic Milieu, and Secularization,” in Jeffrey Kaplan and Heléne Lööw, eds., The Cultic Milieu: Oppositional Subcultures in an Age of Globalization (Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press, 2002), pp. 12–25, (originally published in 1972). 13. See A Course in Miracles, Volume One: Text (Tiburon, CA: Foundation for Inner Peace, 1975), p. 326. 14. For an example of this type of analysis applied to The Satanic Bible, see Eugene V. Gallagher, “Sources, Sects, and Scripture: The ‘Book of Satan’ in The Satanic Bible,” in Jesper Aagaard Petersen and Per Faxnald, eds., The Devil’s Party: Satanism in Modernity (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), pp. 103–122. Index

A Course in Miracles, 10, 183, 185, Bonnie Lu Nettles (“Ti”), 166 231–51, 256, 259, 260 The Book of Coming Forth by Acts of the Apostles, 30 Night, 75–8, 80, 81, 83, 88 2:4, 43 Book of Jeraneck, 16, 36–9, 51, 83, 256 3:22–23, 29 Book of Mormon, 4, 6, 16, 20–3, 9:1–19, 28 25, 26, 30, 32–5, 39, 41, 51, 22, 28 60, 77, 79, 83, 103, 112, 130, 26, 28 136, 181, 255 Acts of Thomas, 142 The Book of Opening the Way, Adventists, 42, 43, 45, 49, 59, 159 80–3, 182 Aetherius Society, 9, 183, 209, Branch Davidians, 46, 50–8, 71, 218–28, 229 157, 182, 256 Afro-Athlican Constructive Church, Bridge to Freedom, 147 8, 114–15, 121, 260 Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Ali, Noble Drew, 9, 183, 209–18, Firearms (BATF), 44, 157 225, 226, 263 Amos, 254 Caddy, Eileen, 9, 184, 188–98 3:7, 46 Caddy, Peter, 188–94 9:11, 14–15, 60 canon, 1–11, 20, 37, 103, 124, 154, apologia, 20, 25, 28 182, 204, 240, 250, 253–5 Applewhite, Marshall Herff (“Do”), charisma, 17, 18, 23, 31, 35, 39, 46, 157, 166–75 58, 64, 79, 93, 138, 194, 203, The Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the 231, 253 Christ, 210 Chen, Hon-Ming, 160–6 Aquino, Michael, 16, 70, 71–83 Chen Tao, 8, 89, 160–6 Ascended Masters, 147, 150, 152, “Children of Ethiopia,” 88, 113, 153, 154, 255 115, 116, 120–2 Athanasius of Alexandria, 1, 2, “Chosen Vessel,” The, 16, 51–61, 9, 134 81, 181, 256 Avraam, Renos, 52 Christian Science, 151, 231, 233–40, 243, 244 Ballard, Guy, 147 Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Barrett, Ronald Keith, 80–1, 83, Saints, 11, 16, 19–32, 87, 182, 88, 182 205, 258 304 Index

Church of Satan, 6, 16, 61–77, 80, Ezekiel, 57, 58, 60, 96, 98 83, 87, 125 2:8–3:4, 56, 94 Church Universal and Triumphant, 8, 89, 136, 147–54 Fagan, Livingstone, 49–51, 59 Circle Seven Koran, 9, 209–18, 225, Federal Bureau of Investigation 228, 251, 256 (FBI), 47, 48, 60, 257 Completed Testament, 103, 112, 182 Findhorn Community, 9, 184, Contact Commission, 138 188–90, 196, 197, 204, 207 conversion, 19, 21, 28, 31, 78, 105, 108, 258 Gardner, Gerald, 198, 201 I Corinthians Garvey, Marcus, 116, 120, 217 3:10, 43 Genesis, 7, 88, 91–112, 251, 260 7:29, 31, 158 1:28, 106 13:12, 191 6, 161 II Corinthians Gill, Matthew Philip, 16, 35–8 12:1–4, 48, 153, 254 Gilmore, Peter, 83 Cosmic Masters, 9, 209, 220, God Spoke to Me, 184, 195–7, 204 221, 223 God’s Descending on Clouds Cowdery, Oliver, 22, 23, 31, 32, 39 (Flying Saucers) to Save People, Crowley, Aleister, 76 160–5 “cults,” 11, 70, 103, 144, 257–61 The Gospel of Thomas, 134 Govan, Sheena, 188–90, 197 Daniel 7:9, 13, 22, 237 Hale, Matthew F., 113 The Devil’s Notebook, 64 Hale-Bopp comet, 168, 176 The Diabolicon, 72–4, 75, 80, 82 The Hamatic Church Hymn Book, The Divine Constitution and By 114 Laws, 217 heavenly book, 100 Divine Principle, 4, 7, 103–10, 112, Heaven’s Gate, 8, 89, 159, 166–75, 182, 256, 259 176, 256 Douglas (angel), 114, 118, 131 The Holy Koran of the Moorish Durkheim, Emile, 128 Science Temple, 183, 209–18 The Holy Piby, 8, 88, 113–23, 127, Eddy, Mary Baker, 4, 10, 151, 183, 129, 146, 214, 256 231–40, 250, 256, 259 Houteff, Florence, 45 “Elohim,” 89, 92, 93, 94, 96, 100, Houteff, Victor, 42, 44, 51, 87 111, 182 Howell, Leonard, 115 Ephesians 6:10, 43 “I AM” Activity, 147 Ethiopianism, 116 The Infancy Gospel of Thomas, 133 The Evolutionary Level Above Intelligent Design: Message From Human (TELAH), 1, 171, 175, the Designers, 7, 92–102 157, 168, 170 Isaiah, 30, 32, 60, 117 Exodus, 117, 147 6:8, 117, 254 20, 121 11, 29 Index 305

13:5, 99 Koresh, David (Vernon Howell), 6, 16, 29:12, 13, 23, 27 18, 41, 44–51, 54–5, 57, 59–61, 45:1, 49 65, 71, 87, 94, 164, 169, 256 53:5, 57 57:16–18, 57 Lamb of God, 34, 46–51, 87, 201 Latter Day Church of Jesus Christ, James, Epistle of 36, 61 1:5, 26, 33 LaVey, Anton Szandor, 6, 16, 5:7, 43 63–71, 74, 79, 181, 255, 261 James, William, 144 The Life of Saint Issa, 136, 148 Jeremiah, 60, 118 Lincoln, Bruce, 15, 16, 22, 39, 69, 31:33, 152–3 78, 181 Jesus, 7, 8, 11, 16, 19, 42, 45, 46, The Little White Book, 49, 55, 56, 57, 58, 69, 79, 88, 124, 127, 132 89, 95–7, 105–11, 117, 121, Lord’s Prayer, 69, 122, 141, 145, 122, 133–55, 157, 160, 163, 146, 192, 226, 227, 237, 238, 168, 170–5, 183, 191, 192, 259 199, 203, 210–28, 235–40, The Lost Teachings of Jesus, 148, 151 248, 253, 254, 258 Luciferians, 173 Joel Luke, Gospel according to, 68, 122, 2:15–16, 60 133, 163 2:28–29, 30 3:4, 5, 55 John, Gospel according to, 133, 191 3:22, 48 1:1–3, 111 4:1–13, 144 1:14, 139 11:2–4, 145 6:44, 171 14:26, 175 12:25, 175 14:6, 192 MacLean, Dorothy, 188, 190, 14:16, 235 204, 205 15:1–3, 45 Malachi, 29 John the Baptist/Baptizer, 32, 36, 3:6, 57 39, 41, 54, 57, 107 Marcion, 163 Jonestown, 257 Mark, Gospel according to, 133, Joseph Smith—History, 20–32 140, 210 Joshua, 23, 46 1:7, 55 10:13, 99 1:12–13, 144 Jude, Epistle of 1:15, 158 22, 153 6:9–13, 145 10:38, 235 King, George, 9, 209, 218–28, 256 13:6, 164 King James Bible, 29, 32, 115, 152 Matthew, Gospel according to, 60, II Kings 68, 122, 133, 163, 210, 226, 2:9, 55 256, 261 Klassen, Ben, 8, 88, 113, 123–30, 3:3, 55 181, 255 5: 226 306 Index

Matthew—Continued “Present Truth,” 42–4, 46, 51, 53, 6:10, 192, 227 55, 58, 60 6:13, 69 The Promised Key, 115 16:18, 192 Prophet, Elizabeth Clare, 8, 89, 90, 21:42, 60 136, 147–54, 255 22:1–14, 60, 121 Prophet, Mark L., 8, 147–54 25, 122 prophetic paradigm, 43, 61, 71, 82, millennialism, 29, 46, 55, 58, 89, 94, 119, 253–62 115, 157, 159, 193 The Protoevangelium of James, 134 Miller, William, 42, 47, 51, 158, Psalms 159, 160 2:7, 48 Moon, Rev. Sun Myung, 7, 90, 91, 45, 60 102–10, 159, 164, 181, 182 46:10, 189 Moorish Science Temple, 9, 183, 68:31, 116 209–18, 228 89:50, 57 Moroni (angel), 5, 23, 25, 26, 27, 105:15, 49 29, 30, 31, 36, 41 Moses, 30, 32, 44, 56, 58, 97, Quimby, Phineas Parkhurst, 235 113, 117, 118, 121, 131, 147, 191, 213 Raël (Claude Vorilhon), 65, 89, Mount Carmel Center, 44, 47, 49, 91–102 59, 157, 257 Raelians, 7, 65, 91–102, 200, 256 Muhammad, 48, 96, 183, 203, 209, RAHOWA, 130 211, 213, 216 Raphael (angel), 36, 41 Murray, Margaret, 201 Rastafari, 8, 88, 113–16 Retrospection and Introspection, Nature’s Eternal Religion, 123, 231, 233, 234, 235, 240 124, 125, 127, 132 Revelation, 6, 7, 8, 9, 18, 47, 51, “New Light,” 43–5, 53, 58 52, 53, 59, 97, 157, 161, 162, The New Moorish Literature, 211, 251, 256 213, 218, 228 5:1, 47, 54, 87, 164, 201 The Nine Freedoms, 225–7 5:2, 49 The Ninth Solstice Message, 6:2, 60, 164 74–6, 81 6:9–11, 164 Notovich, Nikolas, 136, 148, 7:4, 42, 55 149, 155 8, 164 9, 164 Obadiah 10:8–10, 54 21, 60 10:11, 55, 56 The Order of the Solar Temple, 157 11:3–4, 55, 56, 168, 169, 175, 176 Paul the apostle, 28–30, 39, 43, 48, 11:7, 56 65, 119, 142, 151, 153, 158, 11:12, 56 163, 253, 254 12, 158, 236 Pearl of Great Price, 20, 24, 205 15, 16, 165 Index 307

19:1–13, 60 Spangler, David, 192, 205 21:1, 106, 109, 158, 193 The Spiral Dance, 9, 184, 187, 21:2, 43, 158 198–207 Roden, Ben, 45, 47, 51, 58, 59, 61 Starhawk (Miriam Simos), 9, 184, Roden, Lois, 52 187, 198–207 Roerich, Nicolas, 149 Romans, Epistle to Temple of Set, 16, 71–84, 87, 182 8:14–15, 153 Ten Commandments, 7, 88, Rogers, Robert Athlyi, 113–23, 113–32, 146, 155 132, 181, 214, 255 I Thessalonians The Royal Parchment Scroll of 4:15, 17, 158 Black Supremacy, 115 Thetford, William, 240, 241, 244, 245, 246, 247, 249 Sadler, William S., 137 True Parents, 109, 110 The Satanic Bible, 6, 16, 18, 63–71, The Twelve Blessings, 9, 185, 209, 81, 83, 87, 100, 199, 209, 256 218–28, 229 Schneider, Steve, 49 Schucman, Helen, 183, 231, Unificationist movement, 4, 7, 88, 240–51, 256, 260 91, 102–12 Science and Health with Key to Unto Thee I Grant, 210, 212 the Scriptures, 4, 10, 183, 184, The Urantia Book, 5, 8, 89, 136–47, 231–40, 245, 248, 250, 256 152, 154, 161, 181, 255, 259 scripture movement, 3–5, 6, 10, 253, 255, 257, 258, 261 Valentinian Gnostics, 101 Sermon on the Mount, 69, 76, 122, 125, 126, 218, 225, 226, 256 Wapnick, Kenneth, 241–50, 261 seven seals, 47–51, 53–7, 59, 60, 84, White, Ellen G., 42–3, 46, 47 89, 164, 166, 172, 175 The White Man’s Bible, 8, 88, 113, sleeping subject, 137, 138 123–32, 146, 256 Smith, David Relfe, 37 Weber, Max, 17, 64, 79, 253 Smith, Jonathan Z., 2, 7, 8, 9, 183, World Church of the Creator, 113, 258, 260 123 Smith, Joseph, 6, 16, 19–39, 41, 44, 48, 51, 56, 58, 60, 71, 77, 81, Xem (khem), 80, 83, 88, 182 87, 94, 104, 119, 164, 181, 214, Xeper (khefer), 77, 80 233, 256 Smith, Wilfred Cantwell, 3, 4, 5, 6, Zechariah 10, 175, 182, 191, 205, 206, 3:8, 45 222, 234, 253, 261 6:12, 45