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The Cult Dossier · No. 110 · Christian-Derived

Church of Bible Understanding

Forever Family

1971 – present · Pennsylvania, New York; Haiti

XII. THE WIDER FIELD — CONCISE ENTRIES

Fully religious

Who led it

STEWART TRAILL (died 2018), who began teaching the Bible in Allentown in the early 1970s after a conversion experience and his expulsion from a Pentecostal church.

What it worshipped and taught

Bible teaching centred on Traill. Members lived communally and worked for the group's businesses, above all OLDE GOOD THINGS, an architectural-salvage chain in New York, which sent 6.8 MILLION DOLLARS to the church in 2017 alone, according to its tax filing.

Who was in it

Stewart Traill; the children of the Haitian orphanages the church ran.

How it ended, or where it stands

Active.

The dead

15 (2020 home fire; 13 children and two adults, per the AP)

Of note

The clearest case in this dossier of a wealthy religious organisation whose members lived in poverty and whose beneficiaries died for want of working electricity. The comparison that defines the file: 50 to 100 dollars offered for a dead child, against 8,500 dollars asked for a salvaged mantelpiece in the church's own New York shop. The homes had lost their accreditation more than seven years before the fire and kept operating.

Its timeline

  1. 1971 Founded in Allentown, Pennsylvania, as the FOREVER FAMILY; renamed the Church of Bible Understanding in 1976.
  2. 1970s Peak of about 10,000 members in some 110 communes.
  3. 1970s–present Runs orphanages in Haiti, repeatedly cited for poor conditions.
  4. NOVEMBER 2012 onward Haitian inspectors find the church's homes fail minimum health and safety standards, citing overcrowding, unsanitary conditions and too few trained staff, and STRIP THEM OF ACCREDITATION. They fail again in 2017, and the church hires a lawyer to fight closure. THE HOMES KEEP OPERATING.
  5. 2018 Traill dies; the organisation continues.
  6. NIGHT OF 13–14 FEBRUARY 2020 FIRE AT THE KENSCOFF HOME KILLS 15 PEOPLE. First reports said 15 children; the AP's later count was 13 children aged 3 to 18 and two adults. Sixty-one children were asleep in the two-storey building. It begins around 9 p.m.; the building is being lit by CANDLES because both the generator and the inverter had failed. FIREFIGHTERS TAKE ABOUT 90 MINUTES TO ARRIVE.
  7. APRIL 2020 THE COMPENSATION OFFER. Parents report that the church offered them BETWEEN 50 AND 100 US DOLLARS PER DEAD CHILD, plus about 150 dollars towards funeral costs. The same organisation's Olde Good Things stores were at that time asking 8,500 dollars for a single limestone mantel salvaged from the Waldorf Astoria. HAITIAN PROSECUTORS OPEN A CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION into the church's homes.

Its people

Stewart Traill

—

Founder, Church of Bible Understanding · ? – 2018 · active 1971–2018

Began teaching the Bible in Allentown in the early 1970s after a conversion experience and his expulsion from a Pentecostal church. Members lived communally and worked for the church's businesses, above all Olde Good Things, an architectural-salvage chain that sent 6.8 million dollars to the church in 2017. The church ran orphanages in Haiti repeatedly cited for poor conditions; in 2020 a fire at the Kenscoff home killed 15 people — 13 children and two adults, by the AP's later count — the building lit by candles because the generator and inverter had failed.

Before the law. Never charged.

Where things stand. Deceased 2018. The organisation continues.

  1. 1971 Founds the church in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
  2. 1970s Peak of about 10,000 members in some 110 communes.
  3. 1970s–present Runs Haitian orphanages, repeatedly cited.
  4. 2018 Traill dies.
  5. Night of 13–14 February 2020 FIRE AT THE KENSCOFF HOME KILLS 15 PEOPLE, 13 of them children. The homes had lost accreditation after failed inspections from 2012 and was lit by candles because the generator and inverter had both failed.
  6. April 2020 Parents report being offered 50 to 100 dollars per dead child in compensation, plus about 150 dollars for funeral costs. Haitian prosecutors open a criminal investigation.

Checked 2026-09-16

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