Neighbors claim longtime suspicion of New York church after teen dies

Many mainstream newspapers last week ran a story involving a small church in rural upstate New York where congregants allegedly beat to death one young man and left another in critical condition, with their parents’ help. Reporters and people commenting on social media suggested the tragedy said something important about church life in America—but the story is really a tale of cults and apathy.

Police in the small town of Chadwicks, 50 miles east of Syracuse, charged Debra and Bruce Leonard with assault and manslaughterin the Oct. 11 beatings of their 17- and 19- year-old sons Christopher and Lucas. Four others also face assault charges. What started as an intervention to prevent the older son from leaving the church turned violent as the accused allegedly punched and kicked the boys for hours. Lucas died. His brother remains in the hospital.

“If you get into a very conservative group where there is only one way and God’s wrath is about to be unleashed on humanity and we’re the faithful remnant, then leaving the group is a very serious condition from the point of view of members,” said David Bromley, a religion professor at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Shocked neighbors created a Facebook page—“Shut down Word of Life Church in Chadwicks, NY”—that now has more than 500 members and 1,350 likes. They also started an online petition.

But this is not the first time Word of Life has come under suspicion. When a fire broke out at the church in 2012, members extinguished it themselves and only reluctantly let in firefighters. Neighborhood residents had heard chanting and drumming coming from the building at night, and noticed fires had been set on the roof. Others observed blocked windows and a locked fence.

Police Chief Michael Inserra said members often waited for leaders to tell them what to do, and local residents claimed they always had suspicions.

“Everybody in the whole town always said there’s something strange going on there; everybody felt that way,” Connie Toukately, who lives across the street from Word of Life, told The New York Times. Neighbor Eva Monaghan said, “Around town, it’s considered a cult.”

Churches and cults are two different types of groups. Churches include individuals voluntarily and openly loving God and loving others. Cults coerce members to join, retain them by fear, and often degenerate into destructive behavior demanded by an authoritarian leader.

Six Word of God members appeared in court last Friday and entered not guilty pleas.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.