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The extraordinary memoir of a childhood spent in the ‘Children of God’ cult.
Rebel tells the story of Faith, a woman who grew up in the Children of God cult (known latterly as The Family). Now in her forties with two teenage children of her own, Faith’s first-person narrative alternates between her childhood adventures and traumas within the cult and her post-cult life following her escape at the age of 19.
Faith travelled the world as a child with the Children of God – to Argentina, Mexico, Spain, India and Greece. Her story features a supporting cast of multiple siblings, eccentric parents and countless transient friends, spiritual leaders, and abusers. And the story of her life in the cult concludes in London, where she is isolated from her family and used as a domestic slave. Faith shares her post-escape experiences of re-entering education for the first time since she was ten, her self-directed deprogramming, and her quest for justice through campaigning and confrontation.
It’s easy to think of cults as yesterday’s news, and as organisations that operate in other countries, but some of Faith’s most horrible experiences in the cult happened to her in North London. In Rebel, Faith writes about how we need to look and to see what is hiding in plain sight. But more than this, we all need to be wiser to our own vulnerability as adults, our credulity and susceptibility to misinformation and our readiness to take the bait, when it looks like the answer.
(P) 2021 Hodder & Stoughton Ltd
Rebel tells the story of Faith, a woman who grew up in the Children of God cult (known latterly as The Family). Now in her forties with two teenage children of her own, Faith’s first-person narrative alternates between her childhood adventures and traumas within the cult and her post-cult life following her escape at the age of 19.
Faith travelled the world as a child with the Children of God – to Argentina, Mexico, Spain, India and Greece. Her story features a supporting cast of multiple siblings, eccentric parents and countless transient friends, spiritual leaders, and abusers. And the story of her life in the cult concludes in London, where she is isolated from her family and used as a domestic slave. Faith shares her post-escape experiences of re-entering education for the first time since she was ten, her self-directed deprogramming, and her quest for justice through campaigning and confrontation.
It’s easy to think of cults as yesterday’s news, and as organisations that operate in other countries, but some of Faith’s most horrible experiences in the cult happened to her in North London. In Rebel, Faith writes about how we need to look and to see what is hiding in plain sight. But more than this, we all need to be wiser to our own vulnerability as adults, our credulity and susceptibility to misinformation and our readiness to take the bait, when it looks like the answer.
(P) 2021 Hodder & Stoughton Ltd
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