1905
Why Indiana Followers of New Religion Insist on Going to Jail
The "Burning Bush" is the title of a new religion which has reached Muncie, Ind., and since it appeals to the fanatics it seems to be spreading at an alarming rate, says a Muncie correspondent of the Chicago Chronicle. Men, women and girls have been arrested and fined for disturbing the progress of other religious meetings and they insist upon going to jail, claiming that God ordered them to do so.
The efforts of the followers to break up meetings of other denominations have resulted disastrously in several places. In Randolph county the operations of the "Burning Bush" followers have become so bold that they attempted upon various occasions to stop meetings of the Methodist churches. They believe that they are the elect and that all disbelievers will go to eternal punishment.
Miss Bessie Ford, a pretty young woman, is one of the leaders, and she was recently convicted, having been charged with disturbing religious meetings. She, together with Mrs. Mary Painter and a man named Hamilton Pursley, who have been introducing the faith in Randolph county, is being held at Winchester for her actions in various churches where regular services were being held. They all claim that they will go to prison and suffer punishment, since it has been the will of the Lord.
The work of the new religious sect has wrought up many localities, and the promoters have many followers. Not until now have they invaded the churches of the towns, and every effort is being made to confine their work to the rural districts, but this, it seems, is impossible.
Showing posts with label sects. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sects. Show all posts
Thursday, July 12, 2007
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Religious Sect Sought Tranformation to Animals, Birds
1903
A Curious Religious Colony
Queer City Near Headwaters of the Rio Pecos, New Mexico
Of all the queer cities ever built, the queerest was undoubtedly that erected near the headwater of the Rio Pecos, in New Mexico, by Julian Ericson and his followers in the middle of the last century, says the Sioux Falls, S. D., Leader.
Ericson was an American of Norwegian descent, and inherited some money, together with a taste for occult mysticism, from his father, a Swedenborgian carpenter and contractor.
He early came under the influence of Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, but quarreled with his leader and started to found an entirely new sect of his own, the cardinal principle of which was the transmigration of the souls of the faithful while yet on earth. That, is to say, he promised that his disciples should, at an early date, be changed into doves, eagles, lions, or, in fact, into whatever beast or bird they chose.
It seems scarcely credible that such an absurd, not to say nauseous, doctrine, should have succeeded, even for a time, in attracting converts; but there would seem to be no limit to human credulity and gullibility in such matters. Some hundreds of enthusiasts threw in their lot with him, and, following the example of the Mormons, marched westward from the settled states into the great Western wilds.
They finally brought up in what is now San Miguel county, and built a town of frame houses, at the back of each of which was a cage or den suitable to the needs of the particular animal or bird they expected shortly to become.
Of course, the promises of Ericson came to nothing, and in the end he and a number of his disappointed disciples were lulled in battle with Apaches. The others scattered to various parts, the majority going to California to die for gold; and the stronger of the cages, those erected for the would-be tiger men and lion women, were afterward utilized for a brief period as places of confinement for refractory converts.
A Curious Religious Colony
Queer City Near Headwaters of the Rio Pecos, New Mexico
Of all the queer cities ever built, the queerest was undoubtedly that erected near the headwater of the Rio Pecos, in New Mexico, by Julian Ericson and his followers in the middle of the last century, says the Sioux Falls, S. D., Leader.
Ericson was an American of Norwegian descent, and inherited some money, together with a taste for occult mysticism, from his father, a Swedenborgian carpenter and contractor.
He early came under the influence of Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, but quarreled with his leader and started to found an entirely new sect of his own, the cardinal principle of which was the transmigration of the souls of the faithful while yet on earth. That, is to say, he promised that his disciples should, at an early date, be changed into doves, eagles, lions, or, in fact, into whatever beast or bird they chose.
It seems scarcely credible that such an absurd, not to say nauseous, doctrine, should have succeeded, even for a time, in attracting converts; but there would seem to be no limit to human credulity and gullibility in such matters. Some hundreds of enthusiasts threw in their lot with him, and, following the example of the Mormons, marched westward from the settled states into the great Western wilds.
They finally brought up in what is now San Miguel county, and built a town of frame houses, at the back of each of which was a cage or den suitable to the needs of the particular animal or bird they expected shortly to become.
Of course, the promises of Ericson came to nothing, and in the end he and a number of his disappointed disciples were lulled in battle with Apaches. The others scattered to various parts, the majority going to California to die for gold; and the stronger of the cages, those erected for the would-be tiger men and lion women, were afterward utilized for a brief period as places of confinement for refractory converts.
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