Ronald Enroth - JPUSA Controversy

JPUSA Controversy

In 1993, Enroth's book Recovering from Churches That Abuse set off a "firestorm of debate among religious scholars," centered around a chapter on the group Jesus People USA which included several stories of alleged abuse within the group.

James Richardson, former president of the Association for the Sociology of Religion and currently Professor of Sociology and Judicial Studies (University of Nevada, Reno), criticized Enroth's book and research methods in an issue of JPUSA's Cornerstone magazine, writing in part:

"Enroth's book can be viewed as another in a long line of popular books that teach people how to become good victims by reinterpreting their past. Ironically, this thoroughly non-sociological book makes use of a sociological truth--that people are constantly reinterpreting their past to make their view of that past more functional for their present--as he delivers the message that people's problems are not really their fault. Someone else is always to blame. This line of thought is controversial from several perspectives, of course, including the theological and the therapeutic. ... Enroth reminds the reader several times that he is a sociologist, thus implying that he is doing sociology in the book, but this slim volume is not sociological. There is no attempt to sample properly, or to limit generalizations in any explicit way. There is no effort to discuss the issue of self-serving accounts that plague all such books of this 'anticult' bent, and there is a glossing over of the writer's own particular religious persuasion. Furthermore, there is virtually no recognition of the considerable scholarly research that might be used to counter the apparent thesis of Enroth, who seems to believe that religious groups that require heavy discipline and commitment should be avoided in favor of less demanding mainstream groups."

JPUSA elders, who attempted to convince Enroth to remove the chapter prior to the release of the book, referred to the chapter as "poison in the well." Ruth Tucker, a professor at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School also defended JPUSA saying Enroth was "sadly misdirected and his research methods seriously flawed."

In defense of Enroth's work, Paul R. Martin, the director of Wellspring Retreat and Resource Center, one of the few residential treatment centers in the world for former members of cults and "abusive groups," supported Enroth's findings, saying that his facility had seen a flood of requests for help from former members and that JPUSA "displays virtually every sign that I watch for in overly authoritarian and totalistic groups."

Ronald Enroth himself responded to the controversy (some of which had occurred prior to the release of the book) in the book itself, in part with:

"There has been much correspondence between leaders of the Covenant Church and JPUSA and me since I began to do the research for this book. They have questioned the integrity of my reports, the reliability of my respondents, and my sociological methodology, but I have conducted more than seventy hours of in-depth interviews and telephone conversations with more than forty former members of JPUSA. They have also largely discounted the reports of abusive conditions past and present in the JPUSA community. ... Unwilling to admit serious deficiencies and insensitivity in their pastoral style, the leaders of JPUSA have instead sought to discredit the former members who have cooperated with my research efforts."

As a result of the book's chapter on JPUSA, according to a later newspaper article, "scores" of members read it and decided to leave the group.