Love Family

Members of the Love Family perform at the 65th Anniversary Celebration of Pike Place Market, 1972. From left to right, Strength Israel, Zeal Israel, Courage Israel, Reality Israel, Integrity Israel, and Encouragement Israel.

The Love Family, or the Church of Jesus Christ at Armageddon, was a U.S. communal religious movement led by Paul Erdman, who named himself Love Israel. The Love Family began in 1968 as one small communal household on Seattle's Queen Anne Hill, and within the first ten years expanded to a network of communal homes and businesses. As more people arrived and settled in the surrounding neighborhood, Erdman, as the leader, continued to inherit land and homes (from those who joined, primarily) in other, more rural areas of Washington, Alaska and Hawaii. Most of the property is no longer under the control of Erdman, having been sold or returned to the original owners via litigation.

In 1984* the community ended, the original group's mostly leaving. Presently, a small remnant of the Love Family lives in Brackett's Landing, a suburban residential community northeast of Seattle in Bothell, Washington. There is still interaction between the community and the smaller remaining group. The complex family relationships in the younger generations (dozens of half brothers and sisters, etc.) have survived the transition and have become the glue that continues to bond the original larger community and the group that continues their belief in Erdman.

It seems that differing sources of information on the Love Family's duration exist; whereas some sources claim that after 1984, only a small fraction of the community remained in existence in a small location in suburban Bothell, Washington, according to the Seattle Times newspaper and an article written by Serious Israel, the Love Family continued after a fractious conflict in 1984, living on their 300-acre (1.2 km²) property in Arlington, Washington. It was on this commune that the Love Family continued to flourish from 1984 until 2004, when, according to the Seattle Times, families finally left for other, smaller, properties.^[1] The Arlington commune supported both a local organic restaurant and an annual festival open to the public called the Garlic Festival, which drew healthy crowds to the property.

Note- The Bothell property did not come into play until after foreclosure and bankruptcy forced the Family from the Arlington Ranch in 2004. The Ranch became the primary community after the Family was forced out of the Queen Anne Hill properties in 1984. Contributed by Hezekiah, one -time member in early 80's

Spiritual foundations

"Love Israel" is a play on one of the fundamental affirmations of the group;, "Love is real". Equally important to the remaining members are three other commonly used affirmations: "We are one", "Love is the answer", and "Now is the time". These statements reflect three of the most widely experienced catch-phrases of the 1960s and were the foundation stones of the earlier Love Family culture, even after the bulk of the group had moved on. These three 'fallback' statements were often used to stave deeper curiosity and were blanket responses employed to imprint the listener rather than answer a question in common social terms. Remaining family members still maintain that they were called together to help each other cultivate love, oneness and the presence of God in everyday family life. Very little is spoken about the continuing belief that Erdman is a leader chosen by God to have authority over them in their lives. They also believe that their gathering has Biblical roots and that their purpose is to help fulfill Old Testament prophecy and the promises of Jesus.

The current group still claim to view themselves as both the spiritual tribe of Israel and the Church of Jesus Christ at Armageddon, where Armageddon means the time and place of the gathering of God's family. A few family members continue to be re-named (and newborns named) to remind all that each person's character is gifted with a predominant attribute such as Charity, Honesty or Contentment, that may someday be attained.

History

The pioneers of the family came together gathered by vision and aggressive recruiting in Seattle's hippie community. Erdman was a salesman with a vision; charismatic and well spoken. Members came to hold him as better than themselves over time, working hard to make sure there was as seamless a hierarchy as possible. The small remaining core of Erdman's community continues to this day.

"When I was there, traveling through, in 1981, the Love Family was well known throughout the hippie world as a place to find a bed and be fed. In fact, there were bins of produce on the sidewalk in front of one of the residences, where anyone who wished could take what they needed. I showed up, was indeed fed, deloused and given a small room in which I slept for three nights. I was taught to spray the toilet seat after I used it with an iodine spray provided in each bathroom. I had fallen, and had a sore (but not seriously injured) shoulder, and someone was sent to treat me with a hanging crystal and light massage. I was impressed by their kindness and generosity, but knew that if I had been a troubled person or young, there would have been an attempt made to win me over to their religious position and, of course, have me turn over my worldly possessions. I was there long enough to learn that they had enormous wealth, many properties on Queene Ann Hill, a reputed fleet of trucks bartered for some of the finest ----- stored in enormous glass (mayonaise?) jars. In return for one's joining and submitting, the family was known to provide for all of their members' needs – dental care, from a van with a dentist who drove around to the various work sites, new shoes or eyeglasses or other necessities as required. I was told they were under contract to the city of Seattle to do landscaping of municipal areas, parks, etc. In the morning, all the elders came to breakfast dressed in long white robes, and as they ate and read newspapers, notably the Wall St. Journal, women sat behind them brushing out their long, Jesus-like hair."

Current status

The Love Family evolved from being a highly concentrated communal society with a shared economy, to what some non-members call a cult with their own laws and ways. The greater community in time became a social network of autonomous households that interact through a shared culture that they have continued to create together, without the robes and peer-enforced order. Presently, those that continue to claim membership in what remains of the Family are concentrated in two locations; around a communal center in a residential neighborhood of Bothell, Washington and a few homes and lots on the shore of the Columbia River (Lake Roosevelt), just below Canada, where a number of ex-members have property.

In film

A film It Takes A Cult, about the Love Israel Family, director Eric Johannsen who grew up as part of it, was shown at the 2009 Seattle International Film Festival.^[2][3]

References

1. ^ Controversial, colorful Israel family moves to more open spaces, Seattle Times, April 19, 2004, http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=20040419&slug=loveisrael19m, retrieved September 6, 2011 
2. ^ It Takes A Cult at SIFF
3. ^ It Takes a Cult at the Internet Movie Database

External links

• Love Israel Family Official Website
• Bringing The Vision Down To Earth by Serious Israel