Fortney Road: Life, Death, and Deception in a Christian Cult, by Jeff C. Stevenson
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Fortney Road: Life, Death, and Deception in a Christian Cult, by Jeff C. Stevenson
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"A fascinating and disturbing look into the world of vicious cults and the psychological damage they inflict." -Jonathan Kellerman
Fortney Road is a disturbing account of calculated mental, physical, and sexual abuse in an evangelical Christian cult. Drawing on seven years of research including interviews with seventeen survivors, it tells the story of the rise and fall of the Church of the Risen Christ, its sadistic leader the Reverend Larry Hill, and its outreach tool The All Saved Freak Band, one of the earliest religious rock groups borne out of the Jesus Movement. Unfolding against the backdrop of the 1960s and early '70s, Fortney Road is also the story of one brilliant musician who fell victim to a charismatic, cruel zealot. While other cult leaders such as David Koresh and Jim Jones have become infamous, Larry Hill and his followers on Fortney Road have flown largely under the radar-until now. Illustrated with over 50 photographs and images.
ADVANCE PRAISE FOR FORTNEY ROAD"A riveting portrait of the rise and fall of the Church of the Risen Christ ... A sad, sordid story of sex, mind control, and rock 'n' roll." -Arthur Goldwag, author of Cults, Conspiracies & Secret Societies
"An amazing story that needs to be told!" -Mark Allan Powell, Trinity Lutheran Seminary
"A timely warning about charismatic leaders that take advantage of well-intended followers under the guise of religious devotion." -John Styll, co-founder of CCM Magazine
"With alarming detail and gripping first-person accounts, Stevenson's well-researched book educates readers about the dilemmas and the dangers of blind faith." Janja Lalich, author of Take Back Your Life and Bounded Choice
"An incredible book that is hard to put down. Absolutely fascinating!" -Don Cusic, author of Saved By Song
"A fine book ... The difficult lessons learned by the followers of Reverend Hill at Fortney Road can inform, educate and serve as an important warning to people today." -Rick Ross, author of Cults Inside Out
"A fascinating yet disturbing account of religious zeal gone haywire ... so weird it almost seems like fiction."-Dave Hollandsworth, founder One Way Jesus Music site
"Masterfully documented ... captures the zeitgeist of that era." -Mark N. Jones, musician and artist
"Reveals how fundamentalist religion can become a tool to manipulate and abuse people." -Brian Quincy Newcomb, veteran music critic
"The incredible story of the Church of the Risen Christ community ... the survivors are finally able to tell their story." David Di Sabatino, documentary filmmaker of Fallen Angel and Frisbee
"A fascinating story of one church's descent into depravity and the music it created." -Bob Gersztyn, author of Jesus Rocks The World.
"Masterful ... an eye-opening, cautionary tale that informs and forewarns." -Jim Siegelman, co-author with Flo Conway of Snapping: America's Epidemic of Sudden Personality Change
"An in-depth look at the horrific history of one of the dark, hidden corners of the Jesus People movement." -Larry Eskridge, author of God's Forever Family
"A haunting masterpiece ... Fortney Road is not just a book. It's a warning."-Bo Lane, author of Why Pastors Quit
"This is a great book!" Bob Kilpatrick, musician, author of The Art of Being You
"Stevenson has masterfully documented Glenn Schwartz' troubled journey and captured the zeitgeist of that era." -Mark N. Jones, musician and artist
Fortney Road: Life, Death, and Deception in a Christian Cult, by Jeff C. Stevenson - Amazon Sales Rank: #363829 in Books
- Published on: 2015-06-02
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.02" h x .65" w x 5.98" l, .92 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 308 pages
Fortney Road: Life, Death, and Deception in a Christian Cult, by Jeff C. Stevenson Review Enhanced with more than fifty photographs and images, Fortney Road: Life, Death, and Deception in a Christian Cult is an inherently fascinating and fully informed read from beginning to end. A heretofore untold story of religious fanaticism in the United States, Fortney Road is strongly recommended for both community and academic library collections. Exceptionally well written, organized and presented, Fortney Road is also available for personal reading lists in a Kindle edition. --The Midwest Book ReviewAn unexpectedly entertaining, phenomenally well-researched and thoughtfully organized account of religion gone horribly awry. In it, journalist Jeff C. Stevenson exposes much more than the odd happenings that took place on a fringe religious group's isolated farm. By lifting the veil on tactics and techniques that even mainstream religions use to unduly influence their followers, Stevenson exposes the essential truth that underlies cult-leader Larry Hill's chilling statement: "Our group was no more a cult than the Baptist church is." --M. Dolon Hickmon, Patheos.comFortney Road is a journalistic enterprise spanning seven years and many states looking for the untold whole story of Larry Hill's Church of the Risen Christ, a Christian cult that was horrifically skewed, and for all its investigative foray, this book belongs on shelves nation-wide. --Caitlin Schesser, Jesusfreakhideout.com
About the Author Jeff C. Stevenson works as a freelance copywriter for various New York advertising agencies. He is also a writer, photographer, and film publicist and producer. His work has appeared in PRISM magazine, where his article "Bury Me Standing" was awarded the editor's choice, and he has contributed entertainment items to the New York Post's Page Six. He spent seven years researching and writing Fortney Road. Jeff lives in New York City.
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful. Review - Fortney Road: Life, Death, and Deception in a Christian Cult By Caitlin Schesser Original review posted here: http://jesusfreakhideout.com/books/FortneyRoad.asp As a writer, reader, and reviewer, I must sometimes choose carefully that which I write, read, or review due to time (or a lack thereof). Nonfiction is a field in which I have sometimes dabbled, but not so far as I have with fiction, making it more of an area I hesitate to touch. And no, readers, this time (miraculously) I do not refer to the world of Christian nonfiction, which encompasses all spiritual self-help and books I generally tend to stay well away from except for this site's reviewing. I refer to the actual and sometimes-journalistic field of nonfiction as an entity in and of itself. Jeff C. Stevenson's Fortney Road: Life, Death, and Deception in a Christian Cult is a journalistic enterprise spanning seven years and many states looking for the untold whole story of Larry Hill's Church of the Risen Christ, a Christian cult that was horrifically skewed, and for all its investigative foray, this book belongs on shelves nation-wide. Fortney Road covers the gut-wrenching story of Larry Hill's cult in Windsor Ohio: the Church of the Risen Christ living in a commune on Fortney Road. What first prodded author Stevenson into further investigation was curiosity into the All Saved Freak Band, a pioneer Jesus Music effort by Larry Hill and members of his cult. Some people Stevenson talked to about the band reported a "weird vibe" around Larry Hill and some of the music and album liner notes. What Stevenson uncovered was a story covering nearly two decades and tale after tale of enchantment, brainwashing, submission, tragedy, and inhumane abuse. Larry Hill had dubbed himself a prophet of sorts, and alongside his message of fire and brimstone, hell and damnation, troubled young people in the mid- to late-60s heard the message and took away Christ first and foremost. Converts to Hill's ministry later learned that the Gospel according to Larry did not exactly line up with the Gospel according to Christ; brainwashed and literally beaten into submission as they eventually were, however, it would be years before any of the members snapped out of the trance and walked away from the commune on Fortney Road. Once Hill saw that without fear his converts freely took flight, he hardly had a foothold in making them stay--or return. One can hardly blame them for all the physical, mental, emotional, verbal and sexual abuse they encountered in the Church of the Risen Christ. As any worthwhile journalist should, Stevenson compiles and corroborates source after source after source to make sure every single facet of his story is the "best obtainable version of the truth," something Carl Bernstein, who worked on uncovering the Watergate scandal, would applaud. At the end of the book, Stevenson explains how he sewed together the entire story from threads handed him at different turns in the path: one interview, outside book and newspaper, correction, and clarification at a time. The effort shows, as each bit of information he gives not only leaves readers wanting to bite the next piece of bait, but proves to fill an important hole in the entirety of the puzzle. This would ordinarily be a no-duh situation, especially when it comes to presenting a difficult story, but nonfiction has a trend to present the facts and nothing but; Stevenson presents the facts and leaves the reader feeling as if the true story just heard must somehow be fiction, the nonfiction here being equally engaging. Upon observance, this would seem like an odd thing to say about a nonfiction work. However, upon further observance, the crafty methodology Stevenson engages here makes it run like a nonfiction novel. He first presents the story of Larry Hill and how the "prophet" got his start, and this intertwines later with the story of one who would be with Hill's cult for 16 years: Joe Markko. Amidst this careful weaving, Glenn Schwarz, a famous blues guitarist who experiences conversion with a street preacher, is introduced and followed until he too joins the Church of the Risen Christ. Every integral person to the story and every "narrator," if you will, is carefully inserted into the timeline so that every little introduction somehow makes sense, despite the large cast of "characters." Each voice and personality is distinct, and each tragedy that strikes is equally hard-hitting. How Stevenson managed to weave this sort of storytelling into a nonfiction work is a little beyond me, but the success is applaudable. One other stickler note I made was the grammar here. Unlike the vast majority of Indie and small-house authors I see thrust their selves into the published world, Stevenson manages to maintain a death-grip on correct grammar and readability, something over which I rejoiced heartily. Despite the occasional typo or misplaced comma, which can be attributed to normal misses in proofreading (even big-house novels have these), Stevenson's grammar is spot-on. I cannot describe to you how happily my inner-editor wept over this. Stevenson makes a point at the beginning of the book that made me wonder a little at first--and a whole lot later--why this story had not been fully exposed to the public as of yet. Yes, when one looks at the facets of the situation, the ex-members of the cult obviously would not want to relive those memories. However, from a journalistic standpoint, I wonder how no one came to be as curious as Stevenson and dig into this "weird vibe" and its underlying, percussive story of terrible loss and awe-inspiring redemption. I have mentioned once before and will say again, that this book belongs on shelves everywhere and should--and must--serve as a reminder to Christians and nonbelievers everywhere not only that the devil "prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour" (1 Peter 5:8, NIV) and that he "disguises himself as an angel of light" (2 Cor. 11:14, NIV), but that Jesus plainly stated, "No one can come to the Father except through me" (John 14:6) and for all misled souls, the Psalm 107:2 exhorts, "Tell others he has redeemed you from your enemies." Until the last story of escape is told in Fortney Road, readers will hang on for dear life, marvel at Stevenson's perseverance with such a hard subject, and cry for justice once the last page is turned.
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful. Fortney Road Rocks By Pamela S. Dunn I don’t often read non-fiction that flows like a novel, but this does. It is a gripping read, set in the era and well-researched, that goes over a great deal of painful material with understanding and with compassion for the people involved. To the author and those contributing their stories, you could not have done a better job. Your stories help all of us “flower children,” who saw our friends vanish into cults and were left stricken by our inability to understand our friends’ decisions or to do anything about it. Some made the long journey back and some didn’t. Still we love and remember them.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful. A chilling and horrifying story so well told By Alexandra Amor Jeff Stevenson has done a remarkable job with the book Fortney Road, exploring the rise and fall of a bible-based cult.Fortney Road is the story of the Church of the Risen Christ, started by self-proclaimed prophet Larry Hill in 1960s, and it is so much more than that. The book begins with Larry himself, his history and the circumstances of his life leading up to his emergence as the sole and unchallengeable leader of his bible-based, end times cult.One of the things I found to be so extraordinary about Fortney Road was that the book recounts the group's history from before it existed to the present day. To read the book is to follow the disciples of the Church of the Risen Christ on a walk through the bowels of hell and them emerge with most of them as they are able to escape. As with every organization or group that morphs into an authoritarian hierarchy (a cult) the beginnings are almost benign. And the most heartbreaking part of this, as with any cult story, is that the author shines a light on the genuinely good and honest people who were pulled into Larry Hill's orbit, driven by their desire to do good in the world, and to connect with something greater than themselves.Woven into this fascinating and incredibly well-researched book, is an extraordinary thread that involves music. And not just any music, but the well-received and admired All Saved Freak Band.I was particularly struck with how compassionate and non-judgmental author Jeff Stevenson was in his telling of this story. Cults are a difficult concept to wrap one's head around, and unless you've been in one it's almost impossible to understand why people stay in them. But Stevenson has clearly done his research about high demand groups, and presents the facts of this particular group with such clarity and empathy.It is a chilling, horrifying tale that involves the death of several members of the group (due to sleep deprivation and overwork - twin tactics so often used in cults), child abuse, physical and mental abuse, and sexual predation. In order to tell the full story, Stevenson had to work with a large span of time (several decades), a large cast of characters, details from the music world, and explanation of the experiences in the group. And yet the writing is always deft and clear. We are there every step of the way with Hill and his disciples, watching with shock and disbelief as so many lives are entwined with that of a man seeking power over others, and one who is utterly merciless in his attainment of that goal.Bringing stories like this one to light is so important. Abuses of power like those in the Church of the Risen Christ, and other cults, rely on secrecy in order to survive and thrive. Stevenson has, in my opinion, done the world a great service by shining a spotlight on what happened at Fortney Road. Books like this increase the chances that this type of abuse will not happen again.(I was given a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.)
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