ARTICLE on and FILM by 2ND Gen. Jesus People USA ex-member-aug 2015
JAMIE PRATER grew up in the community-church of Jesus People USA, Chicago. After leaving he embarked on a journey to reconstruct himself and his own past. And as he started contact with former members a much greater and darker picture emerged, revealing the extensive enabling and cover up of child sexual abuse by the leadership of JPUSA. The Twelve Tribes early history is woven with that of the very influencial Jesus People.
go to:FULL ARTICLE PUBLISHED BY THE BUZZ FEED NEWS ON 28 AUGUST 2015
go to: TRAILER OF FILM PRODUCED BY JAIME PRATER: “NO PLACE TO CALL HOME”released in February 2014
Bringing down one of America’s happiest christian cult
Photo of Jamie with large caption: “THEY ARE NOT GOING TO SHUT ME UP WITH MONEY”
Usually, Jaime Prater felt excited on the first day of school. He’d get up early, put on the outfit he’d laid out the night before — he liked bow ties and sweater-vests — and hurry down the hall with the other kids in his building. But this morning in September 1989 felt different. This morning he was starting the eighth grade, and he felt something closer to dread.
For as long as he could remember, Prater had lived here among the Jesus People, about two blocks from the “L” train in Uptown Chicago. At first he had loved it, but things had changed since he turned 10. Lately he would lie awake at night, his window open to the muggy summer air, listening to the rattle of the train, and dream of escape.
Or he’d try to imagine the commune’s early years, back when they caravanned across the Midwest in an old school bus, the word “Jesus” painted in big, loopy letters on the side, winning souls for Christ. He loved hearing the stories from that time: the mass baptisms in the woods, the early members tracting at O’Hare among the Hare Krishnas, everyone strumming their guitars and singing early Christian rock back on the bus, enraptured with the glow of the Holy Spirit.
By the time Prater was born, the Jesus People had stopped touring and had transformed a dilapidated apartment building on Chicago’s North Side into the Friendly Towers, where all 400 of them lived in communal bliss, sharing meals, clothes, and pretty much everything else. They were God’s forever family, just like the Bible taught.
Friendly Towers in Chicago
Prater’s dad had an Afro back then, and his mom spoke of Jesus, peace, and love to whoever would listen; they had been legit hippies, Prater liked to think. But now they were different, stooped and beaten down by middle age, resigned to their middling status in the commune’s rigid hierarchy: His mom taught in the Jesus People school, and his dad worked as a mechanic. Prater hoped for some other kind of job when he grew up — maybe helping with the Cornerstone Festival — but that wasn’t up to him. The nine-person leadership council, half of them blood-related, decided everything — even whom he’d marry.
He wanted to believe the council spoke for God, but already he had his doubts. He’d heard dark and ugly rumors about their founder, a bearded Messiah-like figure, and he’d heard stories that horrified him about the Farm, a remote and secluded resort in the Missouri woods. But he knew better than to ask about any of that.
And yet, for as much as he tried to keep his troubles to himself, something was amiss. For weeks, he’d caught his parents whispering about him. He figured it had something to do with the day one of the men in the commune touched him. Prater had tried to forget that moment, the feeling of terror that washed over him, the searing shame when it was over, but he couldn’t move past it. Since then, he had been acting out in strange ways, desires he couldn’t control aroused inside him. Eventually he told the council, and now he wished he’d never said anything at all.
go to:FULL ARTICLE PUBLISHED BY THE BUZZ FEED NEWS ON 28 AUGUST 2015
go to: TRAILER OF FILM PRODUCED BY JAIME PRATER: “NO PLACE TO CALL HOME”
Following are links to other articles about Jamie Prater and his film and about JPUSA
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/slowchurch/2014/03/01/jpusa-a-tragic-history-of-sexual-abuse/
http://culteducation.com/group/1264-jesus-people-usa/10737-jesus-people-usa-visitor-comments.html
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2014-02-27/news/chi-abuse-allegations-aimed-at-jesus-people-20140227_1_commune-alleged-abuse-legal-action
http://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20140226/uptown/jesus-people-usa-hid-child-sexual-abuse-lawsuit-documentary-claim
http://www.christianitytoday.com/gleanings/2014/february/dozens-of-children-abused-at-evangelical-jpusa-jesus-people.html
