Jesus People USA

Template:Short description Template:About Template:Multiple issues Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox organization Jesus People USA (JPUSA) is a Christian intentional community.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> JPUSA self-described in 2012 as having emerged in 1972<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> from Jesus People Milwaukee;<ref name="Hippies-and-Beyond"/> JPUSA had "around 450 members plus other residents" in 1999.<ref name="Hippies-and-Beyond"/>

Background

Jesus People USA was described in 1999 as being "one of the largest single-site communes in the United States"<ref name="Hippies-and-Beyond">Template:Cite news</ref> and is one of only a few communes with—as of a 2005 description—an eclectic cultural mix of hippies, punks, "crusties" and other members from various subcultures.<ref>Template:Cite bookTemplate:Page needed</ref>Template:Page needed

JPUSA's social significance has been described as stemming from the group's continued presence in Chicago and its historic roots in the 1960s, according to sociologist Shawn David Young, and as one of the most significant of contemporary groups from the Jesus movement era:

Founded in 1972, this community is one of the most significant surviving expressions of the original Jesus Movement of the sixties and seventies and represents a radical expression of contemporary countercultural evangelicalism. JPUSA's blend of Christian Socialism, theological orthodoxy, postmodern theory and ethos of edgy artistic expression (as demonstrated at their annual music festival) prove what some scholars have longed suspected: evangelicalism is a diverse, complex movement, which simply does not yield to any attempt at categorization.<ref name="Christian Radicalism in Chicago">

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The JPUSA community produced Cornerstone magazine.Template:WhenTemplate:Cn

Controversy

Enroth controversy

Template:One source As described by the Chicago Tribune in a 2001 longform article, JPUSA elders learned that Ronald Enroth was researching a sequel to his book Churches That Abuse, which was said to mention issues of abuse within JPUSA.<ref name="CommuneIronGrip"/> Despite efforts of elders to convince Enroth to edit JPUSA out of the book, it was published in 1994 and included a full chapter of accounts of alleged abuse within the group.<ref name="CommuneIronGrip"/>

As the Tribune reports, the release of the book

set off a firestorm of debate among religious scholars. Dozens, like Ruth Tucker, a professor at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, would defend [JPUSA] vehemently, saying Enroth was "sadly misdirected and his research methods seriously flawed." Others, like Paul Martin, the director of Wellspring Retreat and Resource Center, one of the few residential treatment centers in the world for former members of "abusive groups," would support Enroth's findings, saying that his facility had been getting a flood of requests for help from former members and that the commune "displays virtually every sign that I watch for in overly authoritarian and totalistic groups."<ref name="CommuneIronGrip">Template:Cite news</ref>

Ronald Enroth responded to JPUSA's attempt, through their earlier correspondence, to influence his work, stating in the book:

There has been much correspondence between leaders of the Covenant Church and JPUSA and me since I began to do the research for this book. They have questioned the integrity of my reports, the reliability of my respondents, and my sociological methodology, but I have conducted more than seventy hours of in-depth interviews and telephone conversations with more than forty former members of JPUSA. They have also largely discounted the reports of abusive conditions past and present in the JPUSA community. ... Unwilling to admit serious deficiencies and insensitivity in their pastoral style, the leaders of JPUSA have instead sought to discredit the former members who have cooperated with my research efforts.<ref name="Enroth 1994">Template:Cite bookTemplate:Page needed</ref>Template:Page needed

As the Chicago Tribune notes in the same article, the leaders of JPUSA "would come to believe the book was 'poison in the well.'"<ref name="CommuneIronGrip"/> In the second part of the Tribune series on the group, Kirsten Scharnberg reports that as a result of the book's description of JPUSA, "scores" of members decided to leave the group.<ref name="CommuneIronGrip2">Template:Cite news</ref>

Chicago Tribune criticism

In 2001, the Chicago Tribune published a two-part article primarily critical of the movement, with quotes from several ex-members accusing the group of authoritarian practices.<ref name="CommuneIronGrip"/><ref name="CommuneIronGrip2"/> One of the JPUSA activities criticized in the article includes "adult spankings," employed after charismatic leader Jack Winters introduced it as a means to heal the "inner child." The practice, which lasted approximately four years in the mid-1970s, was abandoned by the group, with leaders citing it as reflective of how "spiritually immature" the group was at the time.<ref name="CommuneIronGrip"/>

JPUSA issued a response to the two-part article, found on their website, which accuses the article of "anti-religious bias and cultural intolerance."<ref name="Thor 2007">Template:Cite web</ref>

Accusations of sexual abuse

A lawsuit was filed in January 2014 against JPUSA and its parent denomination, the Evangelical Covenant Church, claiming that children were sexually abused by members of JPUSA and its leadership covered it up for years.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> No Place to Call Home is a documentary that shares the stories of former children of JPUSA members who allegedly were sexually abused.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> As of March 3, 2015, the case had been dismissed for want of prosecution.Template:What<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

External links

• Religious Movements profile of JPUSA (hosted by the University of Virginia)
• Christianity Today's coverage of JPUSA and controversies
• The Apologetics Index's profile of JPUSA (critical, links to many Enroth saga documents)
• A journalist living at JPUSA discusses the Enroth saga
• My Year At JPUSA (An anthropology student's report)
• Christian Radicalism in Chicago’s Inner-City (Academic article on JPUSA)
• A 1990 MA Thesis on JPUSA