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children were routinely tied up for minor transgressions such as talking back to adults and
taking candy without permission.
The Edgars founded the now defunct God’s Creation Outreach Ministry, in Kansas City,
and married when she was 15 and he 17. She is reputed to have been a charismatic leader.
Both she and Boyd, along with five other women, still face child abuse charges dating to
their time in God‘s Creation Outreach Ministry.
Neil Edgar defended himself saying he left discipline to his wife and that he would have
stopped her from going as far as she allegedly did if he had seen what was happening.
The defense spoke of how Christy Edgar was considered a prophet, and manipulated Boyd,
a church member since the age of eight, into ―believing she was doing what God Almighty
wanted.‖ Boyd‘s lawyer described her as a 20-year old woman who functions like a 12-year-
old. A former church member said Christy Edgar told them that the idea of binding as
punishment had come to her from God. It was, the lawyer said, a ―classic situation of
brainwashing.‖
Prosecutors did not allege that Brian was intentionally killed, but that the defendants were
guilty of first degree murder because the child died during an act of child abuse. The
prosecution wanted the jury to consider a charge for less serious crimes, but the judge
refused. (Tony Rizzo, Kansas City Star, Internet, 9/19 and 9/26/03)
House of Prayer
Leader Arrested
House of Prayer leader the Rev. Arthur Allen, Jr., convicted of child cruelty, has been
sentenced to two years in prison for violating his earlier probation sentence. Allen was
recently arrested after eluding authorities for five months following his failure to attend a
hearing to determine if his probation should have been revoked.
Allen and two other church members were convicted last year of cruelty to children in the
beatings of two young boys in the congregation. He was sentenced to 90-days in jail and 10
years‘ probation but refused to attend anger management counseling and objected to a
court order to stop whipping children with a belt. [Allen says that the harsh discipline he
metes out is biblically sanctioned.] (Saeed Ahmed, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Internet,
8/19/03 AP, Internet, 8/25/03)
Kabbalah Centre
Called Authoritarian
The Kabbalah Centre, which popularizes the Jewish mystical discipline of kabbalah, and
includes among its adepts a number of well-known entertainers and Hollywood
personalities, is being accused by critics of high-pressure solicitations, ostracizing members
who fall out of favor, and even undermining personal relationships.
The singer Madonna says that kabbalah — which purports to teach anyone how the spiritual
and physical laws of the universe work so that ―you will achieve greater harmony and
balance, and ultimately gain more control over what happens to you — is ―very punk rock.
It teaches that you are responsible for everything.‖
Marsha Tantros, 60, a retired mortgage broker from Media, PA, tells how she meditated on
the names of God in kabbalah's mystical book, the Zohar, for insight into her bad feelings
about an acquaintance. ―I was able to be detached,‖ she said, ―and get an ‗aha‘ moment,
and release [the feelings]. I really feel that the [Hebrew] letters [in the Zohar] are alive.‖
Another student told how her business improved when she took a Centre course on
―increasing prosperity.‖ Berg claims that kabbalah study can ensure good health.

Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 2, No. 3, 2003, Page 49
The latest book by Rabbi Yehuda Berg, who leads the worldwide operation with his two
sons, is titled, The 72 names of God: Technology for the Soul. Joel Hecker, a professor of
mysticism at a Jewish college, observes that scanning and meditating on God‘s names have
precedents in classic kabbalah practice, but he finds the Centre‘s self-empowerment
approach ―utilitarian‖ and ―troubling.‖ ―There were many checks and balances in the classic
[kabbalah] system to prevent one from thinking you could manipulate divine energies to do
your bidding,‖ said Hecker.
Former practitioner Gary Wilson, of Mount Airy, PA, who like Tantros attended the Ardmore
Centre in suburban Philadelphia, said that he was shunned, like others he knows, when he
criticized the ―autocratic style‖ of the local leader. And Rick Ross, of the Institute for the
Study of Destructive Cults, in New Jersey, says that some Kabbalah Centre staffers had
advised students to leave a spouse or partner who resists its teachings, counseling that the
critic is ―a negative spiritual influence.‖ A rabbi for Jews for Judaism, which monitors
missionary groups and cults, said he had received complaints about the Centre‘s ―high-
pressure fundraising tactics,‖ in which people are told ―good things only come to them if
money goes to the Centre.‖ (Jim Remsen, Philadelphia Inquirer, Internet, 7/31/03)
Kids of North Jersey Inc.
Cult Environment Alleged
The approach of Kids of New Jersey rehabilitation center head Miller Newton was not,
according to prosecuting attorney Philip Elberg, about ―tough love‖ but about ―destroying
families as they existed and creating a new family with Miller Newton as the father and Ruth
Ann Newton as the mother.‖
Dozens of teenagers with behavior problems who went through the center — which has now
been closed following suits for Medicaid over-billing — have described the experience as a
living hell. Elberg, who won a $4.5 million settlement for one of the teenagers in 1999,
alleges now that Newton, a 63-year-old rehabilitation guru, violated client Lulu Corter‘s civil
rights, provided treatment that deviated from standard care, and caused her emotional,
physical, and psychological damage. A Utah prosecutor called the program Newton operated
in his state ―a sort of private jail, using techniques such as torture.‖
Witnesses have supported the allegation that Lulu, who entered the facility with an eating
disorder and compulsive behavior, was ―brainwashed.‖ They said that Miller routinely
required patients to shun their families and families to shun children who left the program
before graduating. Lulu, whose parents signed her into the program in 1984, when she was
13, and who ran from it in 1997, said that Newton discouraged her and her mother from
attending her older sister‘s wedding because the sister had left the program too soon.
Former patients who took the stand spoke of the center‘s rules and regulations. Initially,
they had to sit ramrod straight for 12 hours of group therapy daily. They were prohibited
from writing, making telephone calls, or going to the bathroom alone. Graduates were
coerced to remain as staff members. Patients were returned to the earliest, harsh stage of
treatment for the slightest infraction.
Lulu said that she, like others, made up stories during therapy — saying she had sex with a
dog and that her uncle had molested her — in order to advance toward release through the
stages of the program without falling back. Staff psychiatrists say in their depositions that
they rarely saw patients. Attorney Elberg says Newton ―rented licenses‖ and that peer
counselors used rubber stamps to sign psychiatrists‘ names to reports in order to collect
private and Medicaid insurance.
Newton has a 1981 Ph.D. in public administration and urban anthropology from The Union
Institute, in Cincinnati, which calls itself an ―alternative learner-directed‖ school without