Raising Children in Utopian Communes of the Nineteenth Century

By the nineteenth century, parental regard for children was taken as normative; thus, controversial religious communities were harshly criticized for experimenting with parental roles. Outsiders viewed communal raising of children as the sign of a lack of parental affection. A few well-known examples inform our understanding of the ways and scope that new views on childhood and child-rearing challenged their contemporary society’s assumptions. Moreover, the response from society impacted the existence and practices of the communes. The innovative patterns concerning children and childhood, as well as the emergence of new religious movements, are themselves the result of opposition toward contemporary society. This resistance often includes new beliefs, new ways of life, innovative social organization, sexual experimentation, and rejection of and, to some extent, isolation from society. The very existence of some groups depended upon their oppositional ideas. The Bishop Hill Colony in Illinois (1846–1862), The Oneida Community in New York (1848–1898), and Brook Farm in Massachusetts (1841–1846) are all examples of utopian communes that defied contemporary communities’ way of life, understanding of faith, and the societal norms of their time. The construction of childhood, the practical upbringing of children, and the experiences of these children also questioned the contemporary society. There is comprehensive data on these communes, and they operated under the same period in a time of immigration and expansion in the United States (Reference DelanoDelano, 2004; Reference LewisLewis, 2005; Reference FerraraFerrara, 2019).

The Bishop Hill Colony was a utopian religious commune that operated in Illinois between 1846 and 1862. It was founded by the Swedish pietist Erik Janson (1808–1850) who had emigrated from the Swedish village of Biskopskulla (Bishop Hill) situated outside of Uppsala. In Sweden, Janson had become increasingly radicalized, and his preaching had taken on a negative stance against the Swedish Lutheran Church. As a consequence, Janson and his followers were subjected to persecution and left Sweden for America in search of a place to preach and practice in peace. Janson’s main theological deviation was his understanding of human beings as sinless, an interpretation rejected by the Swedish Lutheran Church. The so-called Jansonists made up a considerable number – 1400 members followed Janson to Illinois in America to build “The New Jerusalem.” The commune persisted for sixteen years. The first child born in the colony was Mary Malmgren (1846–1938). During shorter periods of the commune’s existence, especially in times of poverty, celibacy was mandatory. However, after only one year of existence, a school opened in the commune that taught about thirty-five children (Reference MikelsenMikelsen, 1892, p. 31). A museum exists on the geographical spot where the group settled (Reference FerraraFerrara, 2019). When the colony – which was more like a small town, including a church, school, hotel, hospital, and successful enterprise – dissolved in 1862, the property was divided between all members over the age of thirty-five. This included men and women alike, something highly unusual at the time (Reference MikelsenMikelsen, 1892, p. 67).

The Oneida Community of New York, sometimes referred to as The Oneida Perfectionists, was founded by John Humphrey Noyes (1811–1886) in 1848, and is one of the most researched utopian communes from the nineteenth century. The Oneida community was notorious for Noyes’s theology of sexuality, which he called complex marriage – a practice of nonmonogamous relations between adults in the community. Noyes’s ideas centered on the communal raising of children, and children had their own living quarters, being cared for by various community members rather than by their biological parents. In this respect, the children’s roles in the community were both innovative and provocative for the surrounding society, especially as Noyes himself came to father nine children out of a total of fifty-eight born into the community. A handbook from the community first published in 1867 details the lives of the children, and there are several personal accounts published on the experiences of children in autobiographical form (see, for instance, Reference NoyesNoyes, 1937 and Reference Noyes1958, and Reference RobertsonRobertson, 1981). These show the variety of experiences of growing up in the Oneida community.

The Brook Farm community was founded by Unitarians George (1802–1880) and Sophia (1803–1861) Ripley in Massachusetts in 1841 and existed until 1846. Unlike the other communes, Brook Farm was heavily inspired by American Transcendentalism, a mix of philosophical and religious ideas propagated by Ralph Waldo Emerson (1808–1892). Sophia Ripley managed the community school, which was one of the main sources of income for the community. The school’s reputation attracted students from faraway places such as Haiti and the Philippines (Reference PackerPacker, 2007). Its educational system spanned preschool programs to adult education. The pedagogy was progressive in style. Women of the community managed life for the children, although they were not necessarily the biological mothers. This child-centered perspective on education reflects the community’s view on childhood, a rather open-minded view at the time.

Experimental aspects of sexual practices and child-rearing are also present in several contemporary new religious movements. Views about children are closely linked to perceptions of womanhood. In some contemporary new religious movements, women are held in high esteem. Consider for instance the Raelian UFO movement that states that women have greater power because they are seen as being more like the Elohim, the extraterrestrial species believed by members to control humanity. An article by Palmer problematizes the role of women in the movement; however, pointing to the myth of creation and the male gender bias in the language of the theology where the father figures repeatedly while the mother is given less attention (Reference PalmerPalmer, 1995). Members are mostly discouraged from having children. Should they decide to go ahead anyway, a maximum of two children is recommended, due to the overpopulation of the planet (Reference PalmerPalmer, 2004). Another group that holds women in high regard is the Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh movement, also known as the Osho movement. In that group, women were also discouraged from having children as the movement’s leader, Osho, stated that children were an obstacle in the way of women’s spirituality (Reference GuestGuest, 2005). Children were given a high degree of self-determination. One of the consequences of this outlook is that attendance in boarding schools was voluntary (Reference PuttickPuttick, 1999, p. 92).

Contemporary groups that reject parenthood altogether are also still around. One such example is The Church of Euthanasia on the internet, headed by Rev. Chris Corda. The only commandment of the group is: Thou shalt not procreate. The reason is that overpopulation of the planet hinders humankind from living compassionate and sustainable lives. The group further espouses birth control and abortion, and while not condoning suicide, they don’t condemn it, seeing it as a successful way of saving the planet.

Celibacy and abstaining from sexual relations are the more common practice in the beginning of some movements’ life cycle. Those that initially promote celibacy for all are confronted with the reality of having children anyway. Hence, they frequently reevaluate the doctrine of celibacy, transforming it to a practice for only a few selected members, such as Roman Catholic monks and nuns, or Hindu renunciates. A historical example can be found in the Shaker movement of the nineteenth century, which rejected sexual relations even within the frames of (Christian) marriage. In the case of the Shakers, children were either born by recently converted mothers, who had been pregnant upon admission, or came into the community via adoption. In some cases, newborns were left anonymously at the doorstep of the main house and were subsequently raised as members of the commune (Reference Sobo and BellSobo & Bell, 2001). A recent example is found in the Hare Krishna movement, where the initial intention of founding a community of monks and nuns in celibacy in 1966 gradually developed into a predominantly householder community made up of nuclear families who took on the mission to provide for the small number of monks and nuns who served full time in the temples. However, due to the belief that abstinence from sexual relations is one of the most important principles (procreation is only for giving birth to Krishna-conscious children), there is still a hierarchical understanding of (male) celibacy, which is favored to the life of a householder (Reference RochfordRochford, 2007).

Holy and Not-So-Holy Kids

Many parents, both members of new religions and those who are not, expect that their children will follow in the footsteps of their parents. This is not always something thought about, at least not until the terrain of the familiar is challenged by new experiences that are incongruent with former experiences. In the religious life world into which children in new religious movements are born, there are sometimes expectations for the children to be exceptionally spiritually developed. This seems to be connected to a belief that the new generation will be the one to bring about religious change, whatever it may be. For example, in the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, known widely as the Unification Church, children were conceived in marriages typically arranged between a male and a female from different nations. The founder of the movement, Rev. Sun Myung Moon (1920–2012), was committed to uniting all Family Federation members (Reference MicklerMickler, 2022), and the chief way to accomplish this was to arrange large-scale weddings. The marriages have changed over time – going from the process where the leader would simply match the members, to most young adults now choosing whom to marry. Nevertheless, the strong emphasis on family and tradition means that many young members still turn to their parents to discuss marriage before making a decision. The strong emphasis on the nuclear family in Unificationism has its roots in a paradoxical aspect of the movement’s main teachings. On the one hand, once the marriage is confirmed, the children born into that marriage are called “blessed children.” These children are seen as the perfect manifestation of the cleansing of the bloodline that would ultimately lead to the coming unity of all the world’s nations, under the leadership of Rev. Moon, who was believed to be the Messiah. On the other hand, some of the members came to the movement with children who had no way to become blessed with the pure bloodline. These children were typically seen as less spiritual, and the divide led some to feel less valuable to the movement (Reference Åkerbäck, Frisk, Nilsson and Åkerbäck (eds.)Åkerbäck, 2018).

The division between blessed and non-blessed children is found in several forms in other new religious movements. In COG/TFI, children were given the roles as the “Endtime” children and teens who would make up Jesus’s army in the battle of Armageddon (Reference BorowikBorowik, 2023). The Family was founded in 1968 by David Berg, a Christian preacher who started his movement by picking up lost teenagers and persuading them to reject drugs and accept Jesus instead. Initially, Berg preached celibacy for all, but as the movement grew, he received new prophecies that pointed toward a more liberal view on sexuality. Berg opposed the use of contraceptives, and as the movement grew, he increased his attacks against the shackles of nuclear family life. These teachings culminated in the doctrine of the Law of Love, a theological belief that justified sexual relations outside of the confines of marriage (Reference BorowikBorowik, 2023, p. 24). Members could choose to have (heterosexual) sex with any member of the group who consented. Berg contended that the nuclear family was a threat to community and saw spousal monogamy as a form of societal greed. Because sex and sexuality were seen as holy, and sexual activity was increasing, so also was the population of children being born into the movement. Children were reared communally and generally, though not always, moved with their parents according to the dictates of leaders, and because of perceived and actual persecution. In the beginning, children were seen as pure and crucial to the battle of Armageddon. It was only when the second generation became teenagers that some started questioning the life that they had, up until then, considered their only world. The youth of the movement were divided into what Amanda van Eck Duymaer van Twist calls “goodies and baddies.” The goodies were the ones who followed the rules and did not question the hierarchy or orders of the leaders, while the baddies were those who did, and who eventually left the movement (Reference Van Eck Duymaer van Twistvan Eck Duymaer van Twist, 2015).

The differentiation between goodies and baddies or blessed and non-blessed children is closely linked to the understanding of purity in new religious movements. However, the sacred/profane polarity should not be understood as monolithic but rather as complex (Reference PadenPaden, 1994). Within the system, several contrasting forms of the sacred can appear. In other words, the sacred may be relative within a religious community; moreover, religious worlds do not only vary between each other but can also vary within. Time as well as location are important factors in considering religious systems. What is deemed impure at a given point in history at a given place can be deemed pure or sacred at another point in history and in another place. The social boundaries of the religious world of the child in new religious movements is best understood by analyzing the presence of, and the interpretation and practical manifestation of, systems of purity. The key concept of purity is often an integral part of the life world of children (and adults) in new religions.

Building on the work of anthropologist Mary Douglas (1921–2007) in her classic Purity and Danger (Reference Douglas2003), historian of religions William Paden suggests that religious systems deal with problems and negativity in three ways. A dualistic view of the world is significant for some new religious movements that divide the world into negative and positive realms. This dualism is prevalent in groups where strict social boundaries are employed, such as within the first decades of COG/TFI as well as the other new religions described in this Element. Paden asserts that the word “purity” is value-free, claiming that it merely denotes something that is “free from mixture or contact with that which weakens, impairs, or pollutes: containing no foreign or vitiating material” (Reference PadenPaden, 1994, p. 142). Every religious system has rules that separate the pure from the impure in the sense that certain actions lead to certain desirable goals, while others do not; some even lead to secular or supernatural punishment. Because of this separation of pure and impure and the very broad dictionary understanding of purity, it is usable in studies of new religious movements since it has a wide variety of applications to various levels of religious experience. The call for purity can encompass, for instance, dietary or cleanliness rules, but can also encompass inner personal forms of purity, such as self-renunciation or moral perfection according to the moral compass of the specific religious system (Reference PadenPaden, 1994).

The first way, avoidance of impurity, can be manifested in various prohibitions, stemming from organizational or hierarchical religious decrees; or it can be linked to personal efforts to avoid pollution, shame, or dishonor. The religious system can set up injunctions that are reinforced by threats of, for instance, supernatural punishment in this life or the next. Avoidance then stems from the fear of the consequences of mixing with the impure. A strikingly obvious example is the Jehovah’s Witnesses avoidance of blood transfusion. George Chryssides observes that God’s command to Noah that humans should eat meat but not if it contained blood (Genesis 1:30; 9:3–5) was first understood to refer to dietary uses only. It was after World War II that the interpretation of the passage to include blood banks circulated widely in the movement, since blood banks were rare before the 1940s (Reference ChryssidesChryssides, 2019). The question of blood transfusions in relation to children is often resolved by social authorities temporarily assuming the welfare of the child, to release the burden of the decision for the parents and to assure the child a blood transfusion if needed. However, various nations have their own rules regarding this. In Sweden, for instance, state authorities can assume temporary decision-making responsibility for the child if the parents refuse to cooperate with medical or other authorities; in other places, it remains the decision of the parents. Legal authority to consent or refuse treatment in the case of adolescents, sometimes leading to their death, has been granted, for example, in the State of New York. Over the years, the question of blood transfusions has led Jehovah’s Witnesses to develop tools to make avoiding blood easier. In one case, specific blood parts are identified so that each type of blood or organ can be detailed on a donor card. Where members would normally carry a card stating that they refuse blood transfusion (including whole blood, red cells, white cells, platelets, and plasma) a No Blood app is now available for smartphones in case of emergency, for instance in case of accidents (https://apkpure.com/no-blood/com.csssounds.noblood).

A second category, according to Paden, deals with the response to impurity when it has already taken place. Cleansing an impure person or erasing guilt over a deed can be done in a variety of ways. Paden gives the following examples: punishment, banishment, shunning, use of scapegoats, exorcism, ritual combat, excommunication, required penance, imprisonment, pronounced forgiveness and pardon, and rehabilitation (Reference PadenPaden, 1994, pp. 154–5). The subject in need of purification may confess to his or her sins and try to make amends by way of fasting, prayer, or soul-searching. Sometimes certain natural elements conceived of as sacred – such as water, sun, rain, and so on – may play a role in the purification process. While the method of purification can be taken on by the individual, Paden stresses that there is always a system that specifies and promotes certain forms of purification for certain deeds. However, within the religious worlds of new religious movements, this is not always the case.

Knutby Filadelfia, a charismatic Christian new religious movement in Sweden, began in 1921 as a Christian Pentecostal congregation consisting of fewer than one hundred members. It only came to fit the description of new religious movements in the 1990s when, influenced by the Word of Life, the teachings turned increasingly charismatic. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, a prominent leader in the congregation identified the female charismatic leader of the congregation, Åsa Waldau, as the human incarnation of the Bride of Christ. These teachings were, however, only known to a small group within the congregation’s inner core group.

The group became publicly known both nationally and internationally in January 2004 when a tragedy occurred. A member, Sara Svensson, shot and killed another member of the congregation, Alexandra Fossmo. Alexandra was the current wife of Pastor Helge Fossmo and the younger sister of Pastor Åsa Waldau. Another young member of the congregation was also shot by Svensson but survived.

Prior to the murder, Svensson had been engaged in a sexual relationship with Pastor Fossmo. Svensson had been banished from the congregation only three months prior to the attack. The police investigation soon showed that the murder had been ordered by text message from a source that Svensson thought was God but was identified to be Pastor Fossmo himself. The subsequent court case and sentencing of both Fossmo and Svensson showed some interesting details regarding Svensson’s relation to Åsa Waldau and her position in the group at the time of the murder. Svensson had been shunned by Waldau some months prior to the murder, which meant that although she was physically still in the movement, no one but Helge Fossmo was allowed to talk to her.

In my thesis on the group’s children and youth, I developed the term spiritual shunning to designate the spiritual component of social exclusion in the group (Reference NilssonNilsson, 2019). This concept differs from the usual use of the concept of shunning within movements such as the Bruderhof (discussed in the following) or the Jehovah’s Witnesses, where shunning (or disfellowshipping in their terms) means physically leaving the community. Svensson was shunned because she was deemed spiritually impure, and the fear that she might contaminate the charismatic leader was given as a cause. Although Svensson was ultimately ordered to leave the congregation, most cases of shunning took place within the active congregation. However, when I interviewed children and youth in the movement between 2014 and 2018 (the congregation officially broke up in 2018), it became clear that social exclusion was less predictable than Paden suggested in his theory.

The reasons for spiritual shunning in this case were closely connected to the charismatic leaders. By the time of my research in 2011, a pastor named Urban Fält had filled Fossmo’s place and acted as Waldau’s primary confidante. In the movement’s lingo, members had to “stand right” with both Waldau and Fält. The definition of standing right, however, was far from clear. In several cases, Waldau would expect a particular member to behave in a certain way on a certain day but would not disclose to the member what the proper action for the day was. Additionally, members primarily of the inner circle close to the leadership could find themselves in social exclusion without knowing either what had caused it or how to redeem themselves. Similarly, sometimes the shunning would suddenly stop without any reason given. Consequently, many of the members of the leadership cadre were on a constant watch out for inner and/or outer impure behavior, trying to prevent the shunning.

Approximately fifteen teenagers and young adults (aged twelve to twenty-five) came to make up a youth group, modeled largely on the inner circle of the adults. The members of the youth group were held in quite high esteem and had access to the charismatic leaders in a way that most congregational members did not, regardless of age. They developed a similar structure, including spiritual shunning as a disciplining method when any of the youth had (or were believed to have) behaved in profane ways. Interestingly, members of the youth group could unknowingly impact the spiritual shunning of adult members. A stray accusation or critique from one of the youths could have serious consequences. One such example was when an adult member of the inner core group was ordered away from his family to live for months in a shack because one of the teens had mentioned suspicions in passing that he was unfaithful to his spouse. The teen was unaware of the consequences until the congregation broke up. In another case, a mother was shunned for several years while her children, who belonged to the youth group, were sneered at by their peers for having such an impure parent. This, of course, created a power imbalance between the mother and her children, in which the children felt embarrassed by the transgressions of the parent, while the parent had not even been given an explanation for the shunning in the first place (Reference NilssonNilsson, 2019).

Another example of a movement dealing with systems of purity is the Bruderhof, an Anabaptist-inspired group of pietist communities living in their own villages. Founded in the 1920s in Germany, the community spread to parts of the English-speaking world fleeing World War II. A schism occurred in the 1960s (referred to as The Great Crisis within the movement), when the community was divided into those who favored isolation and becoming self-sustaining, and those who sought working relations with the surrounding society. Several adult members were expelled from the group favoring more engagement with the world because they criticized the turn of the group from pietistic to merely communal. Although the parents were (temporarily) banished, the children were invited to stay on the basis of being so-called sabra youth. Children in the Bruderhof are referred to as sabras or sabra youth, denoting their purity as children having been born into a peaceful community. The children are seen as so special that they need to be kept from the potentially polluting influences from mainstream society. The remaining adults effectively became a rather closed community. The ousted members were eventually let back in, but the schism led many to leave the communities (Reference Van Eck Duymaer van Twistvan Eck Duymaer van Twist, 2015).

Paden’s third and final category describes the strategy that some groups employ in response to impurity: transcending the pure/impure dichotomy. Paden suggests that within some religious systems, efforts are made to transcend the division of good and evil, which is significant for a large portion of the religious world. This can be done by accepting an impure part, or by trying to invest it with purity. An example given is of the left-hand path of Tantric yoga, which emphasizes participation in acts that are, within Tantrism, otherwise seen as unclean, such as eating meat or drinking alcohol (Reference PadenPaden, 1994, p. 157). Another example in which impurity becomes irrelevant is the bhakti yoga tradition practiced through hugs within the Mata Amritanandamayi Math, a movement surrounding female guru Sri Mata Amritanandamamayi Devi (known as Amma). Devotees of Amma presumably keep their original faith but add elements from Amma’s teachings. Tøllefsen and Giudice describe the personal embraces that form the core of the practice, in which the guru transcends the opposition of pure and impure (Reference Tøllefsen and GiudiceTøllefsen & Giudice, 2017).

There can also be a view of purity that is enhanced in relation to the profane world. Hence, within some religious systems, a person can live within the profane world while staying pure on the inside. This is illustrated by the words of Titus in the New Testament (Titus 1:15, KJV), “Unto the pure all things are pure.” Verse 9.30 in the Bhagavad Gita says something similar: “Even if one commits the most abominable action, if he is engaged in devotional service, he is to be considered saintly because he is properly situated in his determination” (Reference BhaktivedantaBhaktivedanta, 2006). The idea that certain godly persons (mostly men) can transcend the impurity of this world while remaining in it has sometimes been used as an argument to justify unlawful treatment of children in some new religious movements. We will revisit this subject in Section 6.

The pure/impure division is sometimes detectable in societal and/or communal views about children. Child studies scholar Chris Jenks uses two mythological – that is, metaphorical – images, Apollonian and Dionysian, to conceptualize contrasting views of children and childhood (Reference JenksJenks, 2005). The image of childhood through the Dionysian lens sees the child as intrinsically chaotic and potentially evil. Dionysus is the uncontrolled, emotional son of Zeus who engages in ecstatic dancing while intoxicated by excessive wine drinking. When applied to childhood, the assumption is that such a child must be constrained and controlled; otherwise, it will inevitably end up in bad company and develop demonic traits that could hurt the whole community. The child is susceptible to all kinds of immoral behavior, and this has, through the history of childhood, seemed to require or promote such practices as swaddling and corporal punishment. This view of children can be linked to a Christian perspective where the concept of original sin gave rise to a system of raising children in the spirit of absolute obedience. Jenks points to the fact that this image of childhood is present in the most influential theory of childhood used in the Western world today, namely Freud’s notion of the id (Reference JenksJenks, 2005, p. 64). The Dionysian child is visible in social structures that favor uniformity over individualism. Transgressions are punished and Jenks writes that: “Real children in such a society sacrifice their childhood to the cause of the collective adult good. As a result of such control the growing individual learns a respect for society through the experience of shame” (Reference JenksJenks, 2005, p. 70).

The Apollonian image of childhood, on the other hand, is guided by reason and dreams. The Apollonian child stands for a romanticized innocence, an intrinsic purity paired with altruistic goodness; the child becomes the vessel for parental idolization and almost worship. Jenks sees this view of childhood as dominant in our contemporary Western world, where childhood is a desirable dream state surrounded by nostalgic radiance. In this view, children are distinctively different from adults and are treated as individuals in their own right. Jenks further relates the historical transition from a Dionysian to an Apollonian view of childhood through mythical images to Foucault’s notions of changes in discipline – from punishment to treatment. According to Jenks, this in turn coincides with other changes in society at the same time (the mid-eighteenth century) in such social institutions as schools and hospitals (Reference JenksJenks, 2005, p. 66). There is, in Foucault’s analysis, a spatial and temporal strategy of control that situates, in this case, the child’s body in a specific location and divides its day into certain activities. Childhood occurs in a series of stages culminating in adulthood and emerging out of “patterns of constraint” dictated by the community (Reference JenksJenks, 2005, p. 68). The contemporary child is Apollonian, growing up in a social structure signified by panopticism, which insinuates subtle forms of control and an increasing individualization. Though this shift from Dionysian to Apollonian might seem simplistic, it does mirror changes in the overall societal structure. While Jenks cautions us not to understand the two concepts as stemming from cultural regimes such as religions only, as they are no longer relevant, he does point to the fact that they are at times enforced by religions and political ideologies.

Everybody’s Children, Nobody’s Parents? Communal Socialization

The socialization of children in new religions takes on a variety of forms. Some groups advocate communal fostering of all children, some leave the socialization to the parents (typically within nuclear family units), and still others reject having children altogether. Additionally, as frequent change is common within these groups, norms may vary over time. With roots in utopian communes, however, child-rearing in new religious movements has tended to be experimental. Some groups start out with the idea of celibacy for all its members or accept reproduction only with the intent to bear children, while others maintain that childbearing is a hindrance to spiritual development. The latter idea can be found in some of the utopian communes of the nineteenth century, such as the Oneida Perfectionists discussed earlier.

The separation of children and parents has been, and is still to some extent, present in several new religions. The reasons vary, but every so often parents needed in the work for the movement are deemed unfit or as a threat to the child’s spiritual growth and purity, or both (Reference Lalich and McLarenLalich & McLaren, 2018). As noted, children are frequently perceived as being spiritually purer than their parents, especially if they are born into the group. Communal raising of children was more accepted by the mainstream during the 1960s and 1970s, however, as it followed a general development in society. Subsequently, the process of individualization of society in the 1980s led to a more child-centered paradigm focused on the nuclear family as the economic unit; previous communal arrangements were criticized. One might say that new religious movements followed that development to some extent, but with a general delay of ten to twenty years.

The active presence of parents or primary caretakers tends to result in successful socialization, while their absence tends to leave the child with a feeling of rootlessness. Regarding the separation of children and parents in new religious movements, Siskind found that when parents were required to work for the organization, it sometimes resulted in a feeling of loss for the child (Reference Siskind, Zablocki and RobbinsSiskind, 2001). I discovered in my study of the Knutby Filadelfia movement that children were sometimes placed with other families. The reasons given were that the parents were needed in the community work, or they had prominent positions taking care of the charismatic leader. In a few cases, parents (especially mothers) were deemed a bad influence on the child, and therefore raised by another female member. Reflecting in hindsight, parents said they had limited contact with their children, being unable to see them grow up; at the same time, the arrangement had felt safe since it meant that the child was secure and well taken care of by someone whose primary purpose was not to serve the leader (Reference NilssonNilsson, 2019). To entrust a child into the care of boarding schools of religions has several times proven harmful, both within the realm of new religions and outside of it, as we can see in the history of abuse in the Roman Catholic boarding schools for indigenous children. Yet, communal socialization can be very beneficial for the child if (s)he develops close bonds to other adults within the movement. It may present a refuge of safety for a child whose parents are in some sense not stable or adequately performing their parental roles.

Socialization encompasses the transmission of rules, values, norms, and regulations. Younger children have a higher need for predictability through recurring routines and foreseeable outcomes of certain behavior. There may be rules regarding how to dress, what to eat, and how to speak that provide behavioral cues (Reference Grusec, Davidov., Grusec and HastingsGrusec & Davidov, 2007, p. 299). Most of the children I have met, observed, and interviewed state that they had not questioned their parents’ request that they attend regular religious gatherings until they became teenagers, and some never did at all (Reference NilssonNilsson, 2019). It was just understood as a part of life, as recurring and regulated as breakfast, sleeping time, or taking a shower. Parents often try to connect the gatherings with something that the children will feel is fun. It may be the sheer fact of meeting friends within the group, but it may also be special activities directed at the children while simultaneously transmitting the values of the faith of the group. For the children of Knutby Filadelfia, regular summer camps were arranged by the youth of the congregation for the younger children. Involving them in role-play to illustrate proper behavior and challenges directed at increasing their theological knowledge constituted secondary socialization. The importance of peer socialization is sometimes lost in the debates over religious socialization. Studies show that as children grow, the secondary socialization provided by school, teachers, and peers exceeds that of their parents (Reference ArnettArnett, 2007). Children brought up in the Unification Church, for example, described the year they spent in South Korea, which is common among youth within the group, as especially valuable to their religious socialization.

Some young adults who grow up in new religious movements express gratitude for having been socialized into a sense of belonging and into a meaningful life in regard to their faith. They feel that their identities were based on clear and solid role models, distinct rules governing behavior, and that they feel chosen for important work through the beliefs of the group. Others recount their identity building period within the group as restraining, inflexible, and surrounded by rules that, when broken, left them feeling worthless and doubting themselves. Identity is built on role models and imitation processes are an important part of socialization. When the role models seem to be unattainable, the expectations can be experienced as too heavy. Often, role models are not solely parents or religious leaders but older peers within the movement and other adult members. Some of the children and youth that I have met throughout my studies have explained that while they may not be forbidden (in the strict sense of the word) to socialize with peers from school, they choose to spend their time with friends and family within the movement, because they identify with them more. They don’t feel the need to explain themselves and the way they live, dress, eat, and talk. I have, however, met youth that were disappointed because they were discouraged from participating in after-school activities as they had wished because their parents, and sometimes leaders, considered the activities to be too worldly or the mixing with outsiders to have negative impacts in the youths’ identities (Reference NilssonNilsson, 2019).

Boarding Schools

Boarding schools of all sorts may have problems maintaining safety and security for all children while their parents are not present, yet there are examples of religiously based boarding schools that function very well. When it comes to the schools run by new religious movements, however, one of their key features is that they tend to experiment with norms and to create their own traditions. In some cases, these experiments have backfired in a way that has had consequences for children of several generations. Consider, for instance, the gurukulas (boarding schools) of the Hare Krishna movement which were founded on the idea that the emotional attachment to parents could jeopardize the child’s spiritual development (Reference RochfordRochford, 2007; Reference BurtBurt, 2023). Divided most commonly into boys and girls schools, the first gurukula was started in Dallas, Texas in 1971 (Reference Wolf, Bryant and EkstrandWolf, 2004, p. 322) The gurukula was a school where children aged five and older lived with their teacher/s and other children. There were several reasons for the foundation of gurukulas in the West. On the one hand, it is a common system in India, and on the other hand, there was an idea from the founder, A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada (1896–1977), that parents should leave their children so that children could be trained in Krishna consciousness without being disturbed by their parents’ attachment, which they were told were “ropes of attachment” (Reference Van Eck Duymaer van Twistvan Eck Duymaer van Twist, 2015, pp. 54–5). Another aspect that ISKCON – the International Society of Krishna Consciousness, the institutional branch of the Hare Krishnas – shares with many missionary religious movements is the understanding that parents need to be relieved from their parental responsibility so that they can travel on missions, working for the movement. There was also an understanding that the children were “Krishna’s children,” thus children of the movement rather than children of the biological parents.

Former gurukulis – adults who attended gurukula as children and/or teenagers – argue that when the children became everyone’s children, they at the same time became nobody’s children in terms of individual responsibility. Although many parents believed that the gurukula system was the best option for their children, some felt pressured to sign their children into the system against their will; some were even threatened with expulsion from the temple by religious officials if they refused. Many parents were encouraged to send their sons to movement schools in India, usually at a young age. A Swedish case where a young boy was sent to a school in India by himself is documented in Daniel Lutz’s autobiographical book My Karma, My Fault (Reference Lutz2010). Rochford and Heinlein write that because the children were seen as an obstacle to the parents’ ability to make money for the movement, a well-known expression regarding the children as obstacles was “dump the load and hit the road.” The vast majority who were assigned to teach in the movement’s schools were members who were not considered “good enough” to preach and/or make money and were often completely uneducated. The schools of the movement therefore became institutions characterized by isolation and marginalization (Reference Rochford and HeinleinRochford with Heinlein, 1998, p. 53).

For his book Hare Krishna Transformed (Reference Rochford2007), Rochford interviewed second-generation members about sexual exploitation, corporal punishment, poor healthcare, and mental abuse in the movement’s gurukulas. It seems to have been worse in the movement’s schools in India, where the culture of abuse was taken over by the children, and older boys exploited younger ones. Rochford’s research suggests that as many as 20 percent of all children who participated in the gurukula system may have been abused, with up to almost 75 percent of all boys who attended the gurukula in Vrindavan, India (Reference RochfordRochford, 2007, p. 75). In the 1980s, a two-year-old boy died after being subjected to physical punishment in the movement’s gurukula in New Vrindavan, West Virginia, where two small boys also died after being left in a freezer. It was discovered that two gurus, Kirtanananda and Bhavananda, had sexually abused children in New Vrindavan (Reference Van Eck Duymaer van TwistVan Eck Duymaer Van Twist, 2015, p. 56). In 1984, child abuse was also discovered in the movement’s gurukula in Los Angeles. By 1986, most ashram-based schools were closed except for schools in India (Reference Rochford and HeinleinRochford with Heinlein, 1998, pp. 46–7). Despite indications that physical and sexual abuse of children occurred, the shortcomings of the gurukula system did not become public knowledge until former students began to speak openly in the 1990s about their experiences with gurukulas.

In June 2000, forty-four former students sued ISKCON for $400 million for physical, emotional, and sexual abuse within the gurukula in the high-profile Windle Turley case. By May 2003, the number of complainants had risen to ninety-one. The lawsuit resulted in a financial settlement because the organization applied for bankruptcy, which nullified the possibility of legal action. The damages, totaling $9.5 million, were distributed among 535 former gurukula students to compensate for their suffering. ISKCON also promised to contact all former students who went to gurukulas and published an apology to them (Reference BurtBurt, 2023, pp. 54–5). The former students organized themselves during the 1990s through recurring meetings where several complained that without a trial, they felt “bought off” rather than compensated. Their complaints were met with some criticism from the organization. In his “Letter of Me,” Anuttama Dasa, who was then the organization’s chief spokesperson and later served as education manager, acknowledged that abuse had taken place, but that he opposed the continued criticism. He said that ISKCON had taken measures to prevent future abuse and that the abuse had been committed by individuals who did not follow the religious principles of Swami Prabhupada and the movement (Reference Van Eck Duymaer van Twistvan Eck Duymaer van Twist, 2015, p. 57).

Pointing out individual perpetrators rather than seeing the structural problems did not appease the previous students. Former gurukuli Raghunatha Anudasa responded to Anuttama Dasa’s statement that the measures taken were only superficial and did not in any way acknowledge the seriousness of what they had been subjected to. He further claimed that a large part of the financial resources allocated to the work with child safety went to administrative costs and that his generation was never allowed to comment on the person responsible, the Minister for Youth within ISKCON, whom he considered “useless” (Reference Van Eck Duymaer van Twistvan Eck Duymaer van Twist, 2015, p. 58). Many former gurukulis, like Raghunatha Anudasa, felt abandoned by the leadership’s way of sweeping the problems under the rug, as they saw it, which led to many second-generation members leaving the organization. Although the Windle Turley case led to the establishment of a child protection institution, the movement still had its battles with accusations of abuse in the gurukulas located in India and Russia. In response to this, the Child Protection Office (CPO) was established in 1990. (See Section 6 for ISKCON’s response to charges of abuse.)

Some movements develop a pedagogy that may initially receive criticism but which, after some time, spreads to schools not closely affiliated with the movement. The Waldorf schools build upon on the pedagogy of Rudolf Steiner (1861–1925), a Theosophist who, discontented with the development of Theosophy, founded his own movement in 1912: the Anthroposophical Society. The first Waldorf school was established in 1919 and since then, they have spread all over the globe, with approximately 900 schools worldwide in 2023. The Waldorf pedagogy developed by Steiner was based on his anthroposophical ideas, which include a theory of children’s development as occurring in three phases. In each seven-year phase, the child is receptive to certain types of knowledge and instruction, according to their age. Between the ages of birth to seven, the child’s development centers around curiosity; between seven and fourteen, the willingness to learn; and between fourteen and twenty-one the exploration and understanding of moral divisions between right and wrong. In the second phase, seven to fourteen, it is imperative that the teacher act as a role model and authority for the child. Because of this, the Steiner schools tend to have a single teacher follow the child throughout the second phase, and only take in other teachers when needed for a specific subject (Reference Frisk, Frisk, Nilsson and ÅkerbäckFrisk, 2018b; Reference SwartzSwartz, 2022).

Waldorf schools differ somewhat in terms of how closely Steiner’s teachings are followed, but tend to emphasize ecology and farming, as they are closely linked to the ideas of Steiner regarding agriculture. Most schools have a Steiner seminar where teachers read and discuss Steiner’s texts on pedagogy, which are full of references to spiritual knowledge and development. Steiner initially insisted that children be taught religion class according to the faith of their parents; however, the educational curricula in some countries require that all children learn about all religions. Steiner’s approach to Christianity differs from the mainstream, but the stories in the Bible do play an important role in his educational program. Waldorf schools typically use what is called “morning speech,” which is a sort of poem written by Steiner, illustrating the virtues considered important:

Additionally, there are a few festivals throughout the year that are usually held in the Waldorf schools. There is Michaelmas in the autumn, which celebrates the archangel, Michael. If the school has its own garden or farmland, harvest is celebrated. Handicraft is another important part of the education since Steiner emphasizes the cognitive connection between the movements of the hands and learning. Waldorf schools are open to all children, and sometimes attract pupils from new religions, such as the Hare Krishnas and other new spiritual practitioners because it serves mainly vegetarian, environmentally sound food, and propagates and teaches thoughtful responses to climate change and values education outdoors (Reference NilssonNilsson, 2010). The schools have been met with criticism, as their curricula’s focus on handicraft leave less time for subjects that are favored by mainstream public schools, such as mathematics and reading. It has similarly been criticized for its religious content and its emphasis on spirituality (Reference StehlikStehlik, 2019).

Another pedagogy that has received similar criticism is the “study tech” of Applied Scholastics, originally developed by the founder of the Church of Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard (1911–1986). Hubbard viewed children as adults in small bodies, with a firm belief in the child’s right to self-determination based on the philosophy of Dianetics, which teaches that humans are thetans (souls) imprisoned in human bodies (Reference WestbrookWestbrook, 2022). Learning is a way of understanding one’s true identity. The foundation of Hubbard’s theory is that learning is a process that should be gradual. He pointed to three barriers to learning. The first is the absence of mass. This means that if there is no physical representation of what is being learned, it will be harder to understand. The second barrier is a steep study gradient, which means that one or more steps in the learning process were skipped. Lastly, misunderstanding words may disrupt the educational process. Some words have different meaning according to context, or the student simply does not know the meaning of the word and should therefore stop to look up the proper definition in a dictionary. A misunderstood word is most often the problem when a student pauses in his or her reading. While the Church of Scientology asserts that Applied Scholastics is a nonreligious method, it has been criticized for being a cover for indoctrination into Scientology (or rather Dianetics) of children without their parents’ consent.

Children of Scientologists attend nonconfessional private or independent schools that use the Applied Scholastics program (for instance, Delphi Schools) or ordinary schools. For children whose parents are members of the SeaOrg inner group, there were so-called Cadet Schools, boarding schools operating between the early 1970s and 2000. The SeaOrg generally comprises prominent members of the Church of Scientology; but when they have children, they have to put their position at the SeaOrg on hold. Like the SeaOrg, members of the CadetOrg lived communally. If a child left the CadetOrg, the parent became disqualified as a member of the SeaOrg (Reference Van Eck Duymaer van Twistvan Eck Duymaer van Twist, 2015, 157).

As illustrated by these examples, new religious movements have a variety of ways of educating their children. Some believe that separating the movement’s children from what they perceive to be an impure surrounding society is the best way to guard against defection and minimize the risks of influence from mainstream society. Others urge their young ones to participate in public schooling as it prepares them for interaction with the outside world and sees engagement in public education as a chance for the children to witness other children. Still others may have a preferred way of educating the young but are unable due to national prohibitions regarding homeschooling and/or confessional schools. In many of the groups, the view on ways of educating the movement’s children is subject to continuous change.

The Indigo and Crystal Children

The categories of Indigo Children and Crystal Children come from the New Age environment and identify children with various extraordinary abilities. It is a bit difficult to get a general grasp on this because there is no clearly defined movement, but rather a number of ideas that circulate in certain new religious milieus. The term Indigo Children seems to have first been used by Nancy Ann Tappe (1931–2012), a writer of parapsychology in the 1970s, who developed her thoughts based on colorology, the study of the influence of colors. One of her students, Barbara Bowers, published the widely sold What Color Is Your Aura?: Personality Spectrums for Understanding and Growth (Reference Bowers1989). Both Tappe and Bowers claimed that many children who were born in the 1970s and 1980s were born with an indigo blue aura, which, according to that teaching, had certain characteristics. The concept of Indigo Children was further popularized in the 1990s through several books where these children were sometimes described as the new evolutionary step in human development, sometimes as having certain abilities such as telepathy, but often as being extra empathic and extremely creative. Books regarding the subject include The Indigo Children: The New Kids Have Arrived (Reference Carroll and Tober1998), written by self-help gurus Lee Carroll and Jan Tober, and Steve Rother’s concept of Crystal Children in Re-Member: A Handbook for Human Evolution (Reference Rother2000). Doreen Virtue took this further in The Crystal Children: A Guide to the Newest Generation of Psychic and Sensitive Children (Reference Virtue2003) as did Agneta Strandberg in Children and Spirituality: Guidance Manual for Parents of Children Who See, Hear and Feel Energies from Other Dimensions (Reference Strandberg2017). These publications, along with others, helped popularize and keep the terms topical in new spiritual circles.

Children born between the 1970s and 1990s are sometimes called Indigo Children, while Crystal Children refers to the later generations, born in the 1990s and 2000s. Some believe that the first wave of Indigo Children was actually born in the 1950s, but their attempts at bettering the world were not successful. The common notion for all generations is their intention, and later, capacity, to change the world with love. The generations of the Indigo Children are sometimes called “system breakers” as their endeavor is to change the world (the systems) with love by fighting against any actions and attitudes that are not based in love. These children are described as strong willed and honest (Reference SinglerSingler, 2015). The Crystal Children’s characteristics are that they seek balance between irrationality and intuition and that they have a more healing mission than the Indigo Children. The Crystal Children move between unusually high levels of consciousness and are extremely sensitive to so-called low vibrations. A Crystal Child is part of a generation that promises to intervene in the world through love, peace, and harmony.

Concepts such as high sensitivity people and neuro divergency – attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and attention deficit disorder – have been discussed in the twenty-first century regarding the belief in Indigo and Crystal Children. This is interesting because in many cases it appears to function as an explanatory model for why some children seem unable to conform to the norms and expectations of society. Sarah W. Whedon suggests in her Reference Whedon2009 article “The Wisdom of Indigo Children: An Emphatic Restatement of the Value of American Children” that the social construction of Indigo Children is a response to what she terms a crisis of American childhood in the form of increased youth violence and diagnoses of ADHD. Whedon argues that parents chose to label their children as Indigo Children to provide a new explanation for their children’s improper behavior, which is triggered by the ADHD (Reference WhedonWhedon, 2009). Critics further believe that the idea of specially gifted children might present a way for parents to avoid medications aimed at the symptoms, as these are understood to potentially harm the child’s unique abilities. Autism researcher Mitzi Waltz, who has linked the concept of Crystal Children to the autism spectrum, argues that advocates recategorize autistic symptoms as telepathic powers, and attempt to reconceptualize “the autistic traits associated with them as part of a positive identity” (Reference WaltzWaltz, 2009, p. 124). She believes that there may be dangers to these beliefs, leading parents to deny the existence of impairments, avoid proven treatments, and spend considerable money on unhelpful interventions.

Mental Health

One of the most controversial approaches to healthcare comes from the Church of Scientology, which differs from mainstream Western medicine, not least in the realm of mental illnesses. The foundation of Scientology is the development of Dianetics, a therapeutic model for psychological healing. The religion is based on the belief that each individual is a thetan – the true self, which is considered to be immortal (Reference WestbrookWestbrook, 2022). However, humans are constantly subjected to traumatic events that leave what Scientologists call engrams, negative ripples, or patterns in the mind, which prevent the thetan from fulfilling its full potential. The traumatic events can be anything from simply being born, to injuries, large and small. To erase the tracks of the engrams, Dianetics uses the process called auditing to find and heal the engrams. Auditing is performed with the help of an e-meter, a device like a lie detector but unique to the Church of Scientology. The e-meter finds the engrams and by a method resembling exposure to trauma – as utilized within other therapeutic treatments – the Scientologist retells and relives the trauma until it stops causing traumatic feelings. In the case of Dianetics, the level of feeling is graphically indicated by the e-meter.

L. Ron Hubbard stated that at least 70 percent of all diseases are psychosomatic and can thus be cured by auditing. This goes for variations of mental illnesses as well, which has prompted the Church of Scientology to campaign quite vigorously against the use of psychotropic medications. There is no comprehensive comparative study on the usage of psychoactive drugs related to ADHD and autism in children in comparison with children growing up without parents adhering to the beliefs of Scientology. Apart from using the e-meter to come to terms with engrams, Scientologists use what they call “assists” – various techniques to relieve pain or discomfort. Light touch and mind distraction can constitute assists. Vitamins are also an important part of healthcare within Scientology. This is connected to both the Purification Rundown for ordinary Scientologists, and the drug detoxification program practiced at Narconon treatment facilities for drug users (Reference WestbrookWestbrook, 2022). Vitamins combined with exercise and nutritious foods are believed to clear many of the minor discomforts that people, including children, experience. Research with children of Scientologists in Sweden (which was by no means representative due to the small number) revealed that medication was exchanged for assist techniques and a “healthy” lifestyle (Reference Frisk, Nilsson and ÅkerbäckFrisk et al., 2018).

Healthcare and Religious Faith

Sometimes in cases relating to health and medical treatment, the state’s right to protect children is set against parents’ rights of religious freedom. Monica Miller’s article “Parents’ Use of Faith Healing for their Children” (Reference Miller, Richardson and Bellanger2016) addresses the question of how these two rights collide under the American constitution. While the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause declares that the state may not prohibit the free exercise of religion, at the same time exceptions to the US Constitution have been made. According to the Supreme Court, exceptions may include prohibiting child labor and polygamy (Reference Miller, Richardson and BellangerMiller, 2016, p. 228). Christian Science is one new religious movement that has been harshly criticized due to its rejection of conventional medical treatment. It has, instead, practiced faith healing, and in some cases children have died from diseases that the medical community could have, according to current medical practice, cured. These illnesses include meningitis, obstructed bowels, and pneumonia. Although Christian Science practices have been questioned throughout the movement’s history, legal judgments against members have become more frequent since 1980. Convictions involving involuntary manslaughter, felony child abuse, or child endangerment have resulted from the Christian Science belief that illness is the result of lack of faith and can therefore be cured by prayer.

A common feature of many new religious movements is that physical health is dependent on, or at least informed by, the amount of faith of the believer. This could result in members, and even children, blaming themselves for their illness. In my study of the children and youth in the Swedish Knutby Filadelfia congregation, some of those interviewed stated that they had felt personally responsible and criticized by their peers and adult members when they fell ill, as physical illness was definitely a sign of lack of faith or purity. In Daniel Lutz’s autobiography on growing up in ISKCON, the author describes how his behavior as a child – being unable to sit still for long periods of time in class and the inability to concentrate – was attributed to his “bad karma.” As an adult, he recognized the behavior as what would later be diagnosed as ADHD paired with response to trauma.

As we have seen in this section, behavior stemming from health issues is sometimes attributed to lack of faith on an individual level, while the same symptoms (for instance, those of ADHD) can be attributed to the use of psychiatric drugs. Moreover, in yet a third instance, they may indicate a heightened level of spirituality.

The Fundamentalist Church of Latter-Day Saints

Another instance of child abuse claims leading to government action against a new religion occurred in 2008. The Fundamentalist Church of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) community Yearning for Zion ranch in El Dorado, Texas, a community of approximately 800 members, was raided on April 3. The FLDS is a Mormon sect that split from the major church in 1952; in the twenty-first century, members were living in their own communities, practicing polygamy under the charismatic leader Warren Jeffs (b. 1955). What prompted the raid was a phone call to a domestic violence shelter purporting to be from a teenage member who claimed that her much older husband was violently abusing her. Although the girl had given her own name and the name of her husband, the state police were unable to find them in the community. Despite this fact, the Texas Rangers and other officials took 439 children and youth – the entire population of minors – into state custody. No previous custodial detention of this scale had been carried out in the history of the United States. The children were removed from the ranch and the mothers were given the choice of either going to a shelter for domestic violence or returning to the ranch – however, those who chose to return were told they would not be seeing their children again (Reference GoodwinGoodwin, 2018, p. 249).

It was later revealed that the call for rescue had been a prank call by a mentally disturbed thirty-three-year-old woman, previously convicted of similar instances of false calls about sexual abuse (Reference Wright and RichardsonWright & Richardson, 2011). It also turned out that twenty-nine of those taken into custody were adult women who had been mistaken for minors. There was, however, a handful of pubescent girls between the ages of fifteen to seventeen found to have had babies (Reference Richardson, Schreinert, Wright and RichardsonSchreinert & Richardson, 2011, p. 258). Consequently, ten men, including Warren Jeffs, were arrested, tried, and convicted of abusing or facilitating abuse of underage girls (Reference GoodwinGoodwin, 2018, p. 250).

The impact of apostates (former members who publicly denounced the group), anticult activists, and the media in the case of the FLDS is highlighted by Reference Wright, Fagen, Stuart and RichardsonWright and Fagen (2011) in a comparison with the case of the Branch Davidians. The interesting part of their study is that the claims against the groups include – in addition to child abuse and polygamy as well as underage marriage – features such as brainwashing, mass suicide, and “another Jonestown” (Reference Wright, Fagen, Stuart and RichardsonWright & Fagen, 2011, p. 154). The claim that the groups were at risk of becoming another Jonestown is clearly problematic, as in both cases it had a great impact on the development of the raids, which might otherwise have been carried out in a fashion less intimidating, or indeed traumatizing, for the children of the groups.

Reference Richardson, Schreinert, Wright and RichardsonRichardson and Schreinert (2011) compare the intervention by state authorities in this case with the investigations into abuse of children within the Catholic Church. They observe that there are great differences between a SWAT team storming the community of FLDS and the institutional introspection that occurred over a long period of time in the case of abuses reported in the Catholic Church. They argue that the most troubling aspect of the use of government raids to remove children from religious minorities is that this way of handling the potential threats of abuse prevents the possibility for actual abuse victims in the groups to make themselves heard; they are often afraid of the harsh treatment by the authorities. This is further confirmed by defectors of FLDS and other communities with similar experiences (Reference Richardson, Schreinert, Wright and RichardsonRichardson & Shreinert, 2011, pp. 232–5).