Customer Reviews

Crazy for God

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As an ex-cult member, I have to say that this book by Christopher Edwards was instrumental in helping me to leave the group I was with. Though we were not moonies (we were oneness pentecostals, United Pentecostals) there were enough similarities in the thought control process between the two groups that it shook me up and started me thinking about what I was involved with. A great book, a must read.

Christopher Edwards gives an excellent, riveting story of his experience in the Unification Church and how he got lured into this cult and how his whole life was controlled by the Moonies. It also shows how he eventually was deprogrammed from them. A must read for ex members of any dangerous religious group, parents of current members, and even current members themselves.

The book is over twenty years old.However,the material is ageless. As long as there are radical cults in this world, there will be a need for a book like this. The book takes you through the initial idealism of joining a radical group to the subsequent dissolutionment that follows when one realizes how he/she could have been involved in such a group. I challenge you not to feel that dissolution at the end of the book.

Good book. Easy read. Very much to the point.

However, it does not cover the essentials of teachings. With the Moonies, they clearly drifted away from the original intentions of the biblical teachings. What if you feel you really hit the truth (like many Christians do)? Is it allowed to not totally give a newcomer the full scope? But 'introduce' him with the good looking aspects? We do the same in a way with children, e.g. not showing pictures of dead people, simply because they are not ready for that part which embodies the life they will live. So Christians that 'know' they hold the truth may also feel that they are allowed to hide children of faith from the harder aspects of God untill they are more spiritually grown, and ready for it. Still not sure where I stand on this one, and the book doesn't get into that. I think the decision is not so important as the reason behind it: greed (personal desires and fears) or love.

Still, a very clear good introduction of what teaching methods can/should be used and avoided in life.