52 International Journal of Cultic Studies ■ Vol. 3, 2012
restricted-access research collection on
alternative religions within the University of
Alberta libraries. While filing documents, I
would discover items pertinent to child sexual
abuse, which I would then set aside and process
separately from the main collection. Moreover,
for nearly forty years, I have been buying
academic and popular-press books on religions
and have acquired a considerable number that
discuss various types of abuse within sects,
cults, and alternative religious groups. Several
years ago, I read through my separated
collection of relevant media articles, other print
sources, and books, and generated the eight
religious justifications for child sexual abuse
that shape my presentation here (see Bryman,
2004, p. 389).
Throughout this study, I define pedophiles as
age-inappropriate persons who engage in sexual
activity with prepubescent children and
ephebophiles as age-inappropriate individuals
who engage in sexual activity with adolescents
(see American Psychiatric Association, 2000,
Section 302.2 Pedophilia Jenkins, 1996, pp. 78–
79). In most circumstances, it is impossible to
determine whether the perpetrators were inspired
to commit child sexual abuse by the contents of
the doctrines (as I suspect was often the case
with Children of God members), or whether they
were existing pedophiles or ephebophiles who
adopted particular ideologies or doctrines to
sanctify their predilections or prior behaviours
(as I suspect was the case with Charles
Leadbeater and Benjamin Purnell). In any case,
by situating abuse within theologically based
justifications and excuses that are readily
available in one or more religions, we gain
insight into how sexual exploitation becomes
legitimized within societal subgroups. Under
leaders’ directions, these subgroups receive
theologies that make forms of child sexual abuse
seem normative because they have divine
justification or support.
Western Scriptural Patriarchalism
Religious doctrine—the statements of faith upon
which believers base their practices and
rituals—often are a combination of history,
mythology, fantasy, and unverifiable
ruminations. As a shared characteristic,
however, of the religious doctrine of all major
religions, patriarchalism—defined here as
males’ social, political, economic, and sexual
domination over females—cuts across faiths by
providing religious sanctifications to most, if not
all, major religions for the subservience of
women of all ages. Arguably, the patriarchalism
in the world’s basic scriptures and doctrines
reflects, in varying degrees, social conditions at
the time of the composition of these resources.
Nevertheless, they infuse the contemporary
world with images of male domination that
occasionally catch the attention of pedophiles or
ephebophiles.
Wilbert Thomas Sr. and the Christian
Alliance Holiness Church
A dramatic example exists of an African-
American preacher who used religiously cloaked
patriarchalism and his pastoral position to
sexually exploit his female congregants,
including teenaged girls. In 1983, the Mercer
County Prosecutor’s Office in New Jersey
indicted Reverend (sometimes called Bishop)
Wilbert Thomas, Sr. (b. 1929), along with 12
church members (including his wife) for having
participated “‘in sexual assaults, coercion,
aggravated and atrocious assault and battery and
criminal restraint’” (Indictment, in Pasternack &
Torok, 1983).
Thomas had begun his ministry in 1969, and
“[h]e attracted followers with his oratorical
ability, his talent as a musician and his teachings
of togetherness” (Hoffman, 1983, p. 4B). In
1978 or 1979, however, Thomas’s church made
a fateful turn inward as he separated members
from outsiders increased discipline gained
control over people’s marital, financial, and
personal decisions (Haferd &Outlaw, 1993, p.
6) and began demanding that members praise
him rather than God. Along with preaching
racial hatred that included calls for members to
arm themselves against whites, Thomas’s
services included many comments about sexual
topics (which, according to a former member,
included how “the women of the congregation
[were to] sway their hips when they walked so
they would be more alluring” [Hoffman, 1983,
p. 4B]).
restricted-access research collection on
alternative religions within the University of
Alberta libraries. While filing documents, I
would discover items pertinent to child sexual
abuse, which I would then set aside and process
separately from the main collection. Moreover,
for nearly forty years, I have been buying
academic and popular-press books on religions
and have acquired a considerable number that
discuss various types of abuse within sects,
cults, and alternative religious groups. Several
years ago, I read through my separated
collection of relevant media articles, other print
sources, and books, and generated the eight
religious justifications for child sexual abuse
that shape my presentation here (see Bryman,
2004, p. 389).
Throughout this study, I define pedophiles as
age-inappropriate persons who engage in sexual
activity with prepubescent children and
ephebophiles as age-inappropriate individuals
who engage in sexual activity with adolescents
(see American Psychiatric Association, 2000,
Section 302.2 Pedophilia Jenkins, 1996, pp. 78–
79). In most circumstances, it is impossible to
determine whether the perpetrators were inspired
to commit child sexual abuse by the contents of
the doctrines (as I suspect was often the case
with Children of God members), or whether they
were existing pedophiles or ephebophiles who
adopted particular ideologies or doctrines to
sanctify their predilections or prior behaviours
(as I suspect was the case with Charles
Leadbeater and Benjamin Purnell). In any case,
by situating abuse within theologically based
justifications and excuses that are readily
available in one or more religions, we gain
insight into how sexual exploitation becomes
legitimized within societal subgroups. Under
leaders’ directions, these subgroups receive
theologies that make forms of child sexual abuse
seem normative because they have divine
justification or support.
Western Scriptural Patriarchalism
Religious doctrine—the statements of faith upon
which believers base their practices and
rituals—often are a combination of history,
mythology, fantasy, and unverifiable
ruminations. As a shared characteristic,
however, of the religious doctrine of all major
religions, patriarchalism—defined here as
males’ social, political, economic, and sexual
domination over females—cuts across faiths by
providing religious sanctifications to most, if not
all, major religions for the subservience of
women of all ages. Arguably, the patriarchalism
in the world’s basic scriptures and doctrines
reflects, in varying degrees, social conditions at
the time of the composition of these resources.
Nevertheless, they infuse the contemporary
world with images of male domination that
occasionally catch the attention of pedophiles or
ephebophiles.
Wilbert Thomas Sr. and the Christian
Alliance Holiness Church
A dramatic example exists of an African-
American preacher who used religiously cloaked
patriarchalism and his pastoral position to
sexually exploit his female congregants,
including teenaged girls. In 1983, the Mercer
County Prosecutor’s Office in New Jersey
indicted Reverend (sometimes called Bishop)
Wilbert Thomas, Sr. (b. 1929), along with 12
church members (including his wife) for having
participated “‘in sexual assaults, coercion,
aggravated and atrocious assault and battery and
criminal restraint’” (Indictment, in Pasternack &
Torok, 1983).
Thomas had begun his ministry in 1969, and
“[h]e attracted followers with his oratorical
ability, his talent as a musician and his teachings
of togetherness” (Hoffman, 1983, p. 4B). In
1978 or 1979, however, Thomas’s church made
a fateful turn inward as he separated members
from outsiders increased discipline gained
control over people’s marital, financial, and
personal decisions (Haferd &Outlaw, 1993, p.
6) and began demanding that members praise
him rather than God. Along with preaching
racial hatred that included calls for members to
arm themselves against whites, Thomas’s
services included many comments about sexual
topics (which, according to a former member,
included how “the women of the congregation
[were to] sway their hips when they walked so
they would be more alluring” [Hoffman, 1983,
p. 4B]).
