The Cult Dossier · No. 117 · Christian-Derived
Love Israel Family
Church of Jesus Christ at Armageddon
1968 – 2016 · Seattle and Arlington, Washington
XII. THE WIDER FIELD — CONCISE ENTRIES
Fully religious
Who led it
LOVE ISRAEL (born Paul Erdmann, 1940–2016). Members took virtue names — Serious, Strength, Understanding, Honesty.
What it worshipped and taught
A communal Christianity teaching that the members were literally one body and one family. Property held in common; members surrendered names, possessions and children's parentage to the group. Heavy use of cannabis and, in the early years, toluene inhalation, which caused two deaths in 1972.
Who was in it
Love Israel; LOGIC ISRAEL (Brian Allen), the elder who led the opposition in 1983–84; RICHNESS ISRAEL (Daniel Gruener), a former member to whom the family returned 1.6 million dollars and 14 Seattle properties.
How it ended, or where it stands
Dissolved as a commune in 2004 when bankruptcy forced the sale of the Arlington ranch — not, as often stated, on the founder's death in 2016. Small non-communal successor networks persist around Bothell and China Bend, Washington.
The dead
2 (solvent inhalation, 1972)
Of note
A comparatively gentle example, included to show the range within the communal-Christian category.
Its timeline
- OCTOBER 1968 Founded on Queen Anne Hill, Seattle.
- 1972 Two members die inhaling toluene during a ritual.
- 1983–84 An internal revolt and settlements with departing members, including 1.6 million dollars and 14 Seattle properties returned to Richness Israel, cut membership from about 500 to about 100. About 40 move to Arlington and some 30 to Los Angeles.
- 1984–2004 The remnant community farms a 300-ACRE RANCH near Arlington, Washington; the annual Garlic Festival becomes a local institution.
- 2003–2004 BANKRUPTCY in 2003 FORCES THE SALE OF THE RANCH in 2004, twelve years before the leader's death. It goes for 4.2 MILLION DOLLARS to the UNION FOR REFORM JUDAISM, and in 2007 reopens as CAMP KALSMAN, a Jewish summer camp — an unusually complete transfer of a communal religious property from one faith to another.
- 2004–2016 Members disperse rather than regroup. Some move to CHINA BEND on the Columbia River in northeastern Washington and run the China Bend Winery; others buy adjoining houses in BOTHELL, Washington, forming a smaller non-communal network.
- FEBRUARY 2016 Paul Erdmann — Love Israel — dies of cancer, aged 75. The family had already ceased to exist as a commune twelve years earlier.