Cult in love-bomb storm faces boot from school
Manchester Evening News (UK), 10 October 1996.
By Andrew Edwards
A religious cult in a so-called “love bomb” recruiting storm may be ordered to quit a Manchester school where it holds its meetings.
The Manchester Christian Church hires rooms at Ducie High in Rusholme for mid-week services and get-togethers.
The organisation has been criticised for trying to recruit young and vulnerable disciples with “love-bombing” techniques.
Former members claimed they were seduced into joining after being showered with affection, but then said they became alienated from their families as they were sucked into the organisation.
They said they were also expected to pay “tithes” to the church, which encourages dating only between sect members.
Now a special meeting of the governors at Ducie High tonight will decide if they should stop hiring out rooms to the cult, which has been using the school for more than a year. The Manchester Christian Church, part of the London Church of Chirst movement, is barred from the campus at UMIST, and the group as a whole has been banned from cities in other parts of the country.
Student nurses across Greater Manchester were warned against joining the cult last year after a recruitment drive.
The church has always denied using pressure to gain new members.
Its leader, Malcolm Cox, says the organisation is only “trying to help people to become Christians.”
Today a spokesman for Ducie High said: “A meeting of the general purposes of school governors will discuss the hire of the school by the Manchester Christian Church. We are not prepared to make any comment until after we know the outcome of the meeting.”
