The Endtime Family: Children of God [Paperback]

William Sims Bainbridge (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 2002

A groundbreaking study of the controversial religious group the Children of God.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

This groundbreaking analysis of the controversial religious group, The Family, or The Children of God, uses interviews, observational techniques, and a comprehensive questionnaire completed by more than a thousand Family members. William Sims Bainbridge explores how Family members infuse spirituality with sexuality, channel messages that they believe emanate from beyond life, and await the final Endtime. He also examines attempts by anti-cultists and the state to deprogram members of the group, including children, by forcibly seizing them. The book's blending of theoretical analysis with vivid accounts of this remarkable counterculture poses a fascinating question for social scientists and society-how is it that The Children of God both differ from the general public and, in other ways, are so surprisingly similar to it? --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

About the Author

William Sims Bainbridge is Staff Associate for the Management and Planning Division of Social and Economic Sciences at the National Science Foundation. He is the author of many books, including The Sociology of Religious Movements and Goals in Space: American Values and the Future of Technology, also from SUNY Press. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 204 pages
• Publisher: State Univ of New York Pr (February 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0791452646
• ISBN-13: 978-0791452646
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,280,076 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a Daughter's Story - Hard to write, October 21, 2009

By 

S. Stafford - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Endtime Family: Children of God (Paperback)

I imagine it was hard to write this book being a daughter of David Berg and all he proclaimed. It is hard to believe
that people are so vulnerable to believing such things in the name go God, but it seems to go on all the time. There
is quite a bit of philosophy trying to explain the reasoning of why people believe these cults.

16 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not What I was Hoping!, August 31, 2002

By 

Samuel V. Ajemian (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Endtime Family: Children of God (Paperback)

Bainbridge's book is divided in two parts. The larger part is a boring and rather meaningless comparisson of all kinds of superficial common points that could possibly be found between members of the cult and the US population. The shorter and more interesting section deals in part with the history of the "persecution" of the Family in Argentina. Clair Borrowick, high profile PR person in the United States who was imprisoned in Argentina for about 100 days is presented as somewhat of a missionary hero. I have read carefully what Bainbridge writes about the issue of sexual child abuse in the group and I coudn't find any clear evidence that he believes that such a problem existed. I had hoped that this last book by Bainbridge might had been a move in the same direction towards honesty and openness about their past. Respectfully, Dr. Samuel Ajemian

13 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ONE OF THE BEST AND MOST ACCURATE BOOKS ABOUT "THE FAMILY", September 12, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Endtime Family: Children of God (Paperback)

This is the most honest and accurate book about "The Family", an international Christian humanitarian movement that follows the principles of Christ to "forsake all and follow Jesus". They live together communally as the early Christians lived in Acts 2:44 and put God's Love into action in preaching and PRACTICING the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As foretold in the Bible that "all that live Godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution" this is what happened to them especially in the past, too, because there are folks that don't like unorthodox Christian groups that mean business and are not part of the big traditional and often corrupt Church System. I CAN HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS FANTASTIC BOOK!