LETTERS PAGE

ISN'T IT TIME TO REPEL THIS 'ARMY'?

Source : 01/09/1988 Northampton Chronicle and Echo

After nationwide recruiting campaigns, the sadly misled ranks of the Bugbrooke Jesus Army returned to their base in Northampton last week, in a further attempt to lure the vulnerable and emotionally disturbed into a cult from which escape is beyond the capability of most, without help.

Many Chronicle and Echo readers (August 24.) found the pictures of the Jesus People very frightening, and few who saw the recent BBC Newsnight feature about them or the Channel 4 Network 7 report would be queuing up to join.

The current massive media investigation and concern underlines the fact that this is considered to be one of the most dangerous cults in the country. Hopefully this may, at last, attract the attention of the Northampton Council and local authorities, who continue to aid and abet the Jesus People by allowing them to use public areas, the Town Hall, Derngate and Nene College for meetings and recruiting purposes.

In a free society, everyone should be allowed to express their beliefs, however controversial, but it is debatable whether Jesus People should be at liberty to coerce with vulnerable people, some as young as 16, into making a lifetime commitment in the space of a few days or weeks, and at a time when they are in no fit state of mind to do so.