The Children of God: There Is Life After the Cult
By Faye Thomas, MDiv
Reviewed by Cynthia Kunsman
Houston, TX: Strategic Book Publishing and
Rights. 2013. ISBN-10: 1608605280 ISBN-13:
978-1608605286 (paperback), $16.99 ($15.29,
Amazon.com). 258 pages.
Faye Thomas offers us a glimpse into the stages
of recruitment into the Children of God (CoG)
and the difficulties that she faced during her
recovery process. However, not unlike the
misconception many Evangelical Christians
hold, the author seems to presume that a mature
Christian orthopraxy and sound doctrine make
one impervious to cultic influence.
I found the author to be an endearing character
in the well-written narrative, which depicts the
all-too-familiar experience within a high-
demand group. (A rudimentary knowledge of
Spanish will help the reader because the author
uses simple phrases that are not translated
directly in the text. These phrases add character
to the work, but they can be distracting to those
who are unfamiliar with the language. I didn’t
locate the appendix, which included translations
of the Spanish phrases in the text, until after I
had finished the book.)
Along with stressing the often-denied message
that all young people share a vulnerability to
cults, the author chronicles her transition back
into mainstream life and a return to her religious
roots. She also notes that recovery, which she
processed primarily from a religious standpoint,
proved to be a more difficult process for her than
surviving within the cult itself. The book
chronicles the potential pitfalls when one is
searching for a healthy belief system after
having exited a thought-reform group. One of
those pitfalls can include one’s lack of
objectivity regarding the spiritually abusive
nature of new spiritual transitions and interests.
The Memoir
Faye Thomas provides us with a window into
her world as a college student in the late 1970s
as a business major who receives a scholarship
to complete her junior year in Spain. Schiller
International University’s small Madrid campus
offers American students the benefit of
solidifying their Spanish language skills via
immersion in the culture. In August of 1977, the
20-year-old embarks upon a host of immediate
challenges common to relocating in a foreign
country, including the unanticipated reaction of
the nationals to her appearance. She finds herself
alone as an African American and the Africans
whom she does encounter in Madrid come from
cultures and belief systems that are often equally
foreign to her.
While visiting a cafe that is featuring a group of
singers, she encounters a handsome, English-
speaking, CoG missionary named Daniel. Her
eager new friend quickly develops into her love
interest and when she is pressured to make a
quick decision, she accepts his invitation to join
him at the “Paris colony” for the Christmas
holiday. Although disappointed when he returns
to Spain just after she arrives in Paris, she
decides to enjoy the opportunity of the visit.
Within a few days, she acquiesces to 2 years of
full-time service in the CoG and abandons her
scholarship. Daniel had suggested to her early in
their relationship that her stress was not a
normal response to so many life changes, but
was rather a spiritual sign that God was calling
her to join the group. She also considered that
joining would advance their personal
relationship.
Her colony gives her the new name of Joy as she
completes her indoctrination period in Paris.
When finally permitted to visit Daniel’s colony
in Madrid, she finds him to be distant and
observes him courting another potential convert.
Upon her return to France, an African member
named Eli consoles Joy with earnest romantic
interests, which grow into a marriage proposal.
When Eli asks her to elope to marry, which
would require leaving the group, the devoted Joy
stands on her convictions to remain faithful to
leader Moses David. She continues to follow the
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Mo Letters, the infallible writings of the group’s
prophet that dictate imperatives for members
worldwide, because she believes that she will
eventually be “overtaken” by God’s joy for her
perseverance.
Joy moves from colony to colony in both Europe
and Latin America during her 2 years with the
CoG. The group enlists her to establish a new
colony in Geneva that is solely devoted to Flirty
Fishing (abbreviated FFing)—the sexual
seduction of potential converts as a recruitment
technique. Her moral discomfort with FFing
grows from discussions with Eli in Paris into a
theme that carries throughout her experience in
the group. She notes the cognitive dissonance
arising from the conflict of the Mo Letters with
her prior religious training, observes the marital
strife that FFing causes for several married
couples, and soon is unfit for FFing when she
becomes pregnant. She delivers a healthy son in
July of 1979 and eventually finds a reasonably
good living situation for herself as a single
mother within a colony in Curacao.
As the end of her 2-year commitment to the CoG
approaches, Faye/Joy’s sister locates her after
the untimely death of their brother. Her family
had already been searching for her, fearful that
she may have died in 1978 during the tragedy at
Jim Jones’s compound in Guyana. A potential
recruit, who declines joining the cult, secretly
helps her set up a private post-office box to
maintain family contact. Concurrent with
another death in the author’s family in the
United States, the tone and content of the Mo
Letters become increasingly surreal to her.
When the letters start discussing the benefits of
the sexual fondling of children by adults and of
homosexuality, she decides to leave.
Along with the help of Eli, the former member
of the colony in France who had once proposed
to Joy, her sister plans her escape. In the middle
of the night on the planned date in May 1980,
she collects her babe and the plane ticket that her
sister had sent to her Curacao post-office box.
Within hours, the 22-year old sits with her 10-
month-old child on her lap in a plane bound for
Chicago.
Eli and another former member who becomes
her roommate help her reclaim her critical-
thinking skills as together they examine the false
teachings of the CoG. As also is true of the
narrative of her CoG experience, which
documents the all-too-common elements of life
in a high-demand group, the author chronicles
the painful process of starting over and the deep
grief that accompanies it. She recounts the
collateral damage that both her cult experience
and her recovery process inflict on her
relationships as she builds her new life.
I found the reception and care extended to the
author by loved ones and her religious
community to be very encouraging. (Evangelical
Christians can revictimize former members
because of the negative stigma of cults, but the
author found much support.) She eventually
completes a BA degree in business management
and earns an MDiv degree at Wesley
Theological Seminary. Reverend Faye Thomas
now pastors both Church on the Hill, which she
established in Washington, DC, and her urban
outreach parachurch organization called the
National Network of Christian Men and Women.
Late chapters in the book detail the projects and
the political and social goals of her parachurch
endeavors.
The Message
Midway through the memoir portion of the book
(soon after she is separated from Eli), the author
includes a chapter entitled The Struggle Within,
in which she explains why she believes she
remained in the group. As a reviewer who shares
a religious background that is quite similar to the
author’s, I quickly recognized the concepts and
theology of the Word of Faith (WoF) movement
that she cites in this chapter. WoF deviates from
core, theological Christian orthodoxy and
focuses on positive confession as a means of
achieving perfect, divine health. Pentecostalism,
which is generally accepted as within the pale of
Christian orthodoxy, grew out of late-19th-
century revivalism as something of a theological
innovation or renewal movement among
Evangelical Christians. Pentacostalism is
notably recognized by its practice of speaking in
foreign tongues. Today, the movement also
often is associated with prosperity teachings that
promise adherents monetary wealth.
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