expulsion or eternal damnation. Pastor X
progressively became fearful of moral
contamination through contact with outsiders,
whom he scornfully described as “pagans” or
“swine.” He forbade BCW members from
having any contact whatsoever with the outside
world, except for proselytizing activities. The
social isolation of the church grew, members
were nearly always amongst themselves, and,
apart from their work, they were involved only
in church activities. Although each family still
resided in the larger community, the pastor
forbade all contact with nonchurch members,
including neighbors, friends, and family. At that
point in their lives, Pastor X played a decisive
role in the way church members led their lives,
worked, parented, and educated their children.
No aspect of their existence escaped the vigilant
scrutiny of their pastor, who seemed to exercise
much control over them.
During this period, the pastor’s fundamentalism
became stricter. Rules of conduct became
harsher, making them all the more difficult to
respect, especially for the children who, as a
result, were treated with more severity and
received much more frequent corporal
punishments, according to our analysis of the
data. Amongst the new rules, the pastor decreed
that spanking had to be administered with an
object. Showing slides to illustrate the correct
way of administering corporal punishment, he
advised that five lashes to the bared buttocks
with a wooden stick should henceforth constitute
the basic punishment for any deviant behavior or
attitude.
BCW School and Day-Care Facility
In 1981, the pastor decided to remove the
children from their regular schools, which he
described as being integral parts of the
corrupting influence of the outside world. He
then instituted both a mandatory school and a
day-care facility in accordance with his views.
He explained to BCW members that these new
institutions were necessary to protect the
children from contaminating influences. Pastor
X decreed that all the BCW children, even the
newborns, should attend either the day-care
facility or the school. He appointed the teachers
and the day-care staff from amongst members of
the congregation. The institutionalization of a
school and of a day-care facility appears as a
turning point in the trajectories of the pastor and
of the BCW—first, because it imposed a definite
break from the social environment and second,
because it created a coercive environment
wherein both the children and the parents were
entirely subjected to his views on corporal
punishment.
Behaviors and attitudes typical of children,
which would have been deemed normal in other
environments, became the object of much
scrutiny by the pastor and his lieutenants.
Moreover, the breaches observed in the context
of these two new institutions offered him much
sought-for “evidence” of the presence of evil in
the soul of the group’s children. Corporal
punishment became the means recommended to
free a child’s soul of the presence of Satan, who
was deemed responsible for negativity,
disobedience, or defiance in children. Normal
developmental phases and basic psychological
principles were ignored or overruled when it
came to church leaders and parishoners
understanding what caused a child to act as a
child. Indeed, behaviors such as crying
experiencing difficulty mastering toilet training
showing autonomy—“I can do it myself!” or
acting according to normal developmental
phases, such as a 2-year-old child saying, “No!,”
were deemed punishable offenses. Corporal
punishment was administered more and more
frequently, since the constant surveillance of the
children led to misinterpretation of their
behaviors and attitudes as willful defiance and
disobedience.
The pastor was clear in his wish to make the
children into models of perfection however, this
expectation stripped them of many of their
childlike features. He repeated, in a great many
of his sermons, his view concerning the perfect
child—that is, one who had renounced his
perverse nature. He pressed the congregation to
pursue that very aim in their dealings with all of
the BCW’s children, being explicit about the
need to use corporal punishment. Thus any
failure on the part of a child, be it academic,
attitudinal, or behavioral, was perceived as a
sign of impurity and of perversity. This meant
that Satan had a hold over the child’s soul,
International Journal of Cultic Studies ■ Vol. 6, 2015 87
progressively became fearful of moral
contamination through contact with outsiders,
whom he scornfully described as “pagans” or
“swine.” He forbade BCW members from
having any contact whatsoever with the outside
world, except for proselytizing activities. The
social isolation of the church grew, members
were nearly always amongst themselves, and,
apart from their work, they were involved only
in church activities. Although each family still
resided in the larger community, the pastor
forbade all contact with nonchurch members,
including neighbors, friends, and family. At that
point in their lives, Pastor X played a decisive
role in the way church members led their lives,
worked, parented, and educated their children.
No aspect of their existence escaped the vigilant
scrutiny of their pastor, who seemed to exercise
much control over them.
During this period, the pastor’s fundamentalism
became stricter. Rules of conduct became
harsher, making them all the more difficult to
respect, especially for the children who, as a
result, were treated with more severity and
received much more frequent corporal
punishments, according to our analysis of the
data. Amongst the new rules, the pastor decreed
that spanking had to be administered with an
object. Showing slides to illustrate the correct
way of administering corporal punishment, he
advised that five lashes to the bared buttocks
with a wooden stick should henceforth constitute
the basic punishment for any deviant behavior or
attitude.
BCW School and Day-Care Facility
In 1981, the pastor decided to remove the
children from their regular schools, which he
described as being integral parts of the
corrupting influence of the outside world. He
then instituted both a mandatory school and a
day-care facility in accordance with his views.
He explained to BCW members that these new
institutions were necessary to protect the
children from contaminating influences. Pastor
X decreed that all the BCW children, even the
newborns, should attend either the day-care
facility or the school. He appointed the teachers
and the day-care staff from amongst members of
the congregation. The institutionalization of a
school and of a day-care facility appears as a
turning point in the trajectories of the pastor and
of the BCW—first, because it imposed a definite
break from the social environment and second,
because it created a coercive environment
wherein both the children and the parents were
entirely subjected to his views on corporal
punishment.
Behaviors and attitudes typical of children,
which would have been deemed normal in other
environments, became the object of much
scrutiny by the pastor and his lieutenants.
Moreover, the breaches observed in the context
of these two new institutions offered him much
sought-for “evidence” of the presence of evil in
the soul of the group’s children. Corporal
punishment became the means recommended to
free a child’s soul of the presence of Satan, who
was deemed responsible for negativity,
disobedience, or defiance in children. Normal
developmental phases and basic psychological
principles were ignored or overruled when it
came to church leaders and parishoners
understanding what caused a child to act as a
child. Indeed, behaviors such as crying
experiencing difficulty mastering toilet training
showing autonomy—“I can do it myself!” or
acting according to normal developmental
phases, such as a 2-year-old child saying, “No!,”
were deemed punishable offenses. Corporal
punishment was administered more and more
frequently, since the constant surveillance of the
children led to misinterpretation of their
behaviors and attitudes as willful defiance and
disobedience.
The pastor was clear in his wish to make the
children into models of perfection however, this
expectation stripped them of many of their
childlike features. He repeated, in a great many
of his sermons, his view concerning the perfect
child—that is, one who had renounced his
perverse nature. He pressed the congregation to
pursue that very aim in their dealings with all of
the BCW’s children, being explicit about the
need to use corporal punishment. Thus any
failure on the part of a child, be it academic,
attitudinal, or behavioral, was perceived as a
sign of impurity and of perversity. This meant
that Satan had a hold over the child’s soul,
International Journal of Cultic Studies ■ Vol. 6, 2015 87
