I read the the first article and I was struck with just how similar they were to Amy Coney Barrett’s cult. Some of the names did seem familiar.
people of praise
I found this site getreligion.org, while reading more about the charismatic Catholic movement. they are Christians that think that secular news is unfair to Christians and such Christian persecution complex makes me wary, but the site also seems to take journalism about Christianity seriously.
For example, I think they are too generous with Barrett’s group saying that associations with handmaid’s tale is unwarranted.
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Do read the whole of it, because it explains how several publications made stupid mistakes when covering the People of Praise/People of Hope mixup.
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Like it wasn’t just similarities in names. People of Praise is another of these mostly Catholic fundamentalist group cults formed in the seventies. Barrett’s cult wasn’t the direct inspiration for Handmaids, but it’s almost exactly the same sort of group. People of Hope was founded later than PoP around 1980, but it’s still a charismatic Catholic group.
Frankly, the dude who started it was almost certainly aware of WoG or PoP, so i it’s not like Barrett’s group isn’t connected.
And
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These places really existed because I lived in one. Called Bethlehem Community, it was a group of charismatic American Baptists in Portland, Ore. I was part of it from 1979-1981. One reason why I can’t understand why people assume Barrett’s membership in a community means that she’s some sort of automaton is that I was working as a police reporter for a small newspaper the entire time I lived in community households. I had to submit everything I did at home to the leaders, but the reporters I worked with never knew that.
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Anyway, there are links to news stories about the groups,, but apparently People of Praise and WoG came out of the same Catholic renewal movement and it seems to me that PoP is just more controlling and maybe better at it.
After the 1990 meeting and WoG started failing, PoP survived because it was more closed off and controlling.
Amy Coney Barrett, Stephen B. Clark and the Origins of “Covenant Communities” | Billy Kangas
This article on Patheos also discusses their similarities.