90 International Journal of Cultic Studies ■ Vol. 10, 2019
her stronger and helped her deal with problems
in her everyday life. And, she adds, her life in
the Family was an amazing adventure.
Ms. Israel’s decision to reconnect with Family
members was prompted by a desire to learn
about her past. However, she ran into
unexpected resistance. Though 10 years had
elapsed since the breakup, she encountered a
pervasive reluctance to talk about the past,
especially anything negative. Old habits die
hard. It took years before anyone would let her
read the elders’ letter to Love, and longer to gain
access to any of the thousands of photographs
taken during the 1970s and ‘80s. She felt that
her childhood was being “squelched into non-
existence” by collective denial, as secrets from
long ago were still being kept (p. 618).
However, her persistence paid off because her
memoir is packed with information. Although
the book is hardly a sensational exposé, it
apparently has been a bombshell among both
defectors and loyalists.
In this review, I have hit on only some of the
book’s many topics. The book is long (643
pages cover to cover), often redundant, and
frequently goes off on tangents that stray from
the topic at hand. It also could have been
improved by better editing. Most grievously of
all, she misspells Haight-Ashbury three times, a
cardinal sin considering that Haight-Ashbury is
both the birthplace of the hippie counterculture
and the scene of Love Israel’s original
revelation. All this can be forgiven, though,
because the book is loaded with intriguing
details and excellent insights into one of the
most notable social experiments to come out of
the 1960s. Especially for those interested in the
children of radical religions, Ms. Israel’s
memoir will raise questions about the extent to
which parenting in unconventional religions
should be subject to state control, if at all.
Bibliography
Balch, R. W. (1988). “Money and power in utopia: An economic
history of the Love Family.” In J. T. Richardson (Ed.), Money and
Power in the New Religions (pp. 185–222). Lewiston, NY: Edwin
Mellen Press.
Balch, R. W. (1995). “Charisma and corruption in the Love
Family: Toward a theory of corruption in charismatic cults.” In
D. G. Bromley, M. J. Neitz, &M. S. Goldman (Eds.), Religion and
the Social Order (vol. 5, pp. 155–179). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
Balch, R. W. (1998). “The Love Family: Its formative years.” In
W. W. Zellner &M. Petrowsky (Eds.), Sects, Cults, and Spiritual
Communities: A Sociological Analysis (pp. 63–94). Westport, CT:
Praeger.
LeWarne, C. P. (2009). The Love Israel Family: Urban commune,
rural commune. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press.
National Enquirer. (1979, October). “America’s most dangerous
cult—A world of violence, drugs and child abuse.”
Patrick, T. (with Dulack, T.). (1976). Let our children go! New
York: Ballantine.
About the Reviewer
Robert W. Balch, PhD, is a Professor Emeritus,
Sociology, at the University of Montana. He has
done research on various new religious
movements, including Heaven’s Gate, Aryan
Nations, Elohim City, Church Universal and
Triumphant, the Rainbow Family, the Army of
Israel (Christian Identity skinheads), the Twelve
Tribes, and apocalyptic Baha’i sect known as the
Baha’is Under the Provisions of the Covenant,
and a nameless New Age sex cult in Los
Angeles.
her stronger and helped her deal with problems
in her everyday life. And, she adds, her life in
the Family was an amazing adventure.
Ms. Israel’s decision to reconnect with Family
members was prompted by a desire to learn
about her past. However, she ran into
unexpected resistance. Though 10 years had
elapsed since the breakup, she encountered a
pervasive reluctance to talk about the past,
especially anything negative. Old habits die
hard. It took years before anyone would let her
read the elders’ letter to Love, and longer to gain
access to any of the thousands of photographs
taken during the 1970s and ‘80s. She felt that
her childhood was being “squelched into non-
existence” by collective denial, as secrets from
long ago were still being kept (p. 618).
However, her persistence paid off because her
memoir is packed with information. Although
the book is hardly a sensational exposé, it
apparently has been a bombshell among both
defectors and loyalists.
In this review, I have hit on only some of the
book’s many topics. The book is long (643
pages cover to cover), often redundant, and
frequently goes off on tangents that stray from
the topic at hand. It also could have been
improved by better editing. Most grievously of
all, she misspells Haight-Ashbury three times, a
cardinal sin considering that Haight-Ashbury is
both the birthplace of the hippie counterculture
and the scene of Love Israel’s original
revelation. All this can be forgiven, though,
because the book is loaded with intriguing
details and excellent insights into one of the
most notable social experiments to come out of
the 1960s. Especially for those interested in the
children of radical religions, Ms. Israel’s
memoir will raise questions about the extent to
which parenting in unconventional religions
should be subject to state control, if at all.
Bibliography
Balch, R. W. (1988). “Money and power in utopia: An economic
history of the Love Family.” In J. T. Richardson (Ed.), Money and
Power in the New Religions (pp. 185–222). Lewiston, NY: Edwin
Mellen Press.
Balch, R. W. (1995). “Charisma and corruption in the Love
Family: Toward a theory of corruption in charismatic cults.” In
D. G. Bromley, M. J. Neitz, &M. S. Goldman (Eds.), Religion and
the Social Order (vol. 5, pp. 155–179). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
Balch, R. W. (1998). “The Love Family: Its formative years.” In
W. W. Zellner &M. Petrowsky (Eds.), Sects, Cults, and Spiritual
Communities: A Sociological Analysis (pp. 63–94). Westport, CT:
Praeger.
LeWarne, C. P. (2009). The Love Israel Family: Urban commune,
rural commune. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press.
National Enquirer. (1979, October). “America’s most dangerous
cult—A world of violence, drugs and child abuse.”
Patrick, T. (with Dulack, T.). (1976). Let our children go! New
York: Ballantine.
About the Reviewer
Robert W. Balch, PhD, is a Professor Emeritus,
Sociology, at the University of Montana. He has
done research on various new religious
movements, including Heaven’s Gate, Aryan
Nations, Elohim City, Church Universal and
Triumphant, the Rainbow Family, the Army of
Israel (Christian Identity skinheads), the Twelve
Tribes, and apocalyptic Baha’i sect known as the
Baha’is Under the Provisions of the Covenant,
and a nameless New Age sex cult in Los
Angeles.
