Religion of Fear: The True Story of the Church of God of the Union Assembly

by David Cady

Religion of Fear reveals the story of how a Pentecostal sect, the Church of God of the Union Assembly, a small splinter group of the holiness Church of God movement, evolved into one of the largest and wealthiest cults in America. At its height in 1995, the Union Assembly included fifty-four churches spread across nineteen states. Spanning nearly a hundred years and three generations of family leadership and relying on hundreds of interviews with members and former members, David Cady’s groundbreaking investigation begins, in 1917, with the Church’s illiterate but magnetic founder, Charlie (C. T.) Pratt, summoning a congregation of resilient followers with little more than a flair for spectacle. As power dynamics stir within the maturing Church, Cady turns to C. T.’s fourth son, Jesse, who conspires to wrest the Union Assembly from his five brothers and dismiss his own parents from the church they had created. Jesse dominated the Church with fear and a demand of total obedience from its nearly 15,000 members until his mysterious death at age fifty-six.

As Cady reveals, this event triggered a succession crisis in the Pratt-family ranks as Jesse’s wife fostered her son Jesse Junior’s rise to power and spurned other heirs presumptive to the Church. Jesse Junior turned out to be a tormented leader who drove his followers to the brink of poverty with an uncompromising demand that they give their all to God—and to him. The church’s fortune squandered and its future under threat, Jesse Junior’s mother was finally forced to have her favored son removed and defrocked. For all its troubling twists and turns, Cady’s chronicle ends with a minor miracle, as Jesse’s younger brother, Charlie T. Pratt III, takes over leadership and manages to expel the oppressive air of authoritarianism from the body of the Church and hold the community together in the process.
 
 

Genres: Nonfiction, History

318 pages, Hardcover

Published May 29, 2019

Reviews

[Jim Young · Rating 5 out of 5]

Growing up in Dalton, Ga., I always heard stories about the Church of God of The Union Assembly. I went to school with many members. Stories would leak about the money collected, and how church leaders acted. Not until David Cady investigated, and wrote Religion of Fear, did I realize what went on. From the start of the book, I couldn’t put down. I remember parts he wrote about, and shocked at other parts. Thank you for taking the time to talk to all parties involved. An absolutely interesting book that reveals the truth of a congregation caught in fear.

[Denise Nutt-Beers · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is meticulously written, well-researched, and solidly presented. I heard the author speak at the Southern Festival of books, where many current and former members were in attendance. His passion for telling the story often-terrifying history of this community is evident in his spoken and written word. It isn’t a casual read, but it is an important study of why people, unchecked, can do in the name of God and the church.

As an aside, I thoroughly appreciated the careful attention to grammar and literary structure in this book. It was quite lovely to read.

[Alexander Brown · Rating 5 out of 5]

So often stories of radicalized churches and cults are either not fully understood or are buried as older cult members die off. As a Dalton, Ga resident, I found these stories and the absolute loyalty of the Church’s followers both frightening and fascinating. I won’t give away the book but it really was a very interesting story that sheds light on what happens when churches dissuade it’s followers from education, science, and isolate themselves from society. This book is a must read and a cautionary tale about what happens in some radicalized communities.

[Ethan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really solid book, and a story that absolutely should be told. It feels as if they only narrowly avoided a Jonestown situation on more than one occasion. That said, there were a few typos and grammatical errors I noticed throughout the book, but I can easily move past that.

[M.C. Webb · Rating 1 out of 5]

Super boring. A falling starts a church, family and church member argue, people get hurt, church changes rules in the 90s and is now “normal.” The end.