Process Church
From Free net encyclopedia
Template:Unreferenced The Process Church of the Final Judgement was a religious cult that flourished in the 1960s and '70s, founded by the Englishman Robert de Grimston (originally, Robert Moore) and MaryAnne MacLean. It originally developed as a splinter client cult group from Scientology, so that they were declared "suppressive persons" by L. Ron Hubbard in December 1965. In 1966 the members of the group underwent a social implosion and moved to Xtul on Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, where they developed Processean theology. They later established a base of operations in the United States.
They were often viewed as Satanic on the grounds that they worshipped both Christ and Satan; however they believed that Satan would become reconciled to Christ, and that they were coming at the end of the world to judge humanity, Christ to judge and Satan to execute judgment. They are comparable to the Yezidis, both in their worship of a being generally considered evil but which they believed had become good, and in the impression this created of them being Satanists. The prosecutor of the Charles Manson Family trial comments in his book that there may be evidence Manson borrowed philosophically from the Process Church, and that representatives of the Church visited him after his arrest in jail. According to one of these representatives, the purpose of the visit was to interview Manson about whether he had ever had any contact with Church members or ever received any literature about the Church. Subsequently, the publisher of Ed Sander's book The Family agreed to remove the chapter about the Process from this book.
In April, 1974 Robert de Grimston was removed by the Council of Masters as Teacher. They renounced The Unity, his exposition of the above-noted doctrines, and most of his other teachings. After this the group fell apart; the Council went on to form the Foundation Church of the Millennium, later called the Foundation Faith of God. This group moved further away from the original Processean beliefs, and increasingly resembled a traditional Christian denomination. Eventually religion was dropped altogether by The Foundation and they went on to become The Best Friends Animal Sanctuary near Kanab, Utah, where some of the original Process members can be found even today (such as Faith Maloney, a.k.a. Mother Hathor) caring for some 1500+ cats, dogs and other abandoned animals. De Grimston attempted to restart the Process Church several times, but he could never replace his original following. He then went on and eventually settled down and was last known to be holding a high position with one of America's leading telecommunications companies.
A detailed account of the history of and life within Process Church at told by a participant-observer is contained in William S. Bainbridge's book Satan's Power. (Note he employed a pseudonym to stand in for the name of the group, referring to it as "The Power". He would disguise the name of individual people involved with it in order to hide their identities, possibly in an effort to reduce potential lawsuits.)
As of September 2003, an internet-based effort to form a new group following the original The Process teachings was underway.
People claiming to be part of the Process Church are still around. The first was the ‘Four-P Movement.’ Author Michael Newton wrote that the cult, “is also deeply involved in white slavery, child pornography and the international narcotics trade.”
However, the members of the original group who remained together became The Foundation Church of the Millennium, The Foundation Faith of God and then Best Friends Animal Sanctuary. Today it is known as The Best Friends Animal Society and is located in Kanab, Utah. Gone are the days when Process members journeyed to San Quentin to interview Manson. Gone too are all references to Satan and doomsday. Some members now softpedal their involvement in the Process Church of the Final Judgement citing juvenile misguidance. The goal of the group now is to save animals. The large compound in southern Utah is their testament to this end. And the animal sanctuary is a huge cash cow. In 2003 the Society raised more than $20 million. Robert currently works in New York City as a business consultant.
Processean theology
The term "Processean Theology" distinguishes these ideas from the process theology derived from the thoughts of Alfred North Whitehead.
At Xtul was the first 'channeling' of GOD. After Xtul, Jehovah was the only recognised God. Later, with Jehovah, Lucifer and Satan were recognised as "The Three Great Gods of the Universe" and Christ as the Emissary to the Gods. The Three Great Gods represent three basic human patterns of reality:
- Jehovah, the wrathful God of vengeance and retribution, demands discipline, courage and ruthlessness, and a single-minded dedication to duty, purity and self-denial.
- Lucifer, the Light Bearer, urges us to enjoy life to the full, to value success in human terms, to be gentle and kind and loving, and to live in peace and harmony with one another. Man's apparent inability to value success without descending into greed, jealousy and an exaggerated sense of his own importance, has brought the God Lucifer into disrepute. He has become mistakenly identified with Satan.
- Satan, the receiver of transcendent souls and corrupted bodies, instills in us two directly opposite qualities; at one end an urge to rise above all human and physical needs and appetites, to become all soul and no body, all spirit and no mind, and at the other end a desire to sink beneath all human codes of behavior, and to wallow in a morass of violence, lunacy and excessive physical indulgence. But it is the lower end of Satan's nature that men fear, which is why Satan, by whatever name, is seen as the Adversary.
And in between these Three Great Gods and man, is an entire Hierarchy of Gods and Beings and Superbeings and Angels and Archangels and Demons and Archdemons, and Elementals and Guides and Fallen Angels and Watchers.
There is all this and more too, in Heaven and in Hell and on earth.
The Process believes that, to varying degrees, these "God-patterns" exist within all of us. The main doctrine of The Process is The Unity of Christ and Satan, who exist as opposites. Jehovah and Lucifer exist as opposites and when Christ and Satan are united this will unite Jehovah and Lucifer.
(The descriptions of the Gods comes from a Process Teaching called "The Hierarchy" published in December 1967, as a part of "The Tide of the End".)