Doomsday cult worries Kenyan leaders (nuts aplenty!)

Christian leaders in Kenya are expressing concern about a cult that claims the modern world will end on September 12, with a nuclear war beginning in the Middle East.

About 200 members of a cult known as the House of Yahweh, which has its roots in Texas, have formed a community in central Kenya to prepare for the disaster which they consider imminent. The cult began to establish a presence in Kenya in the 1980s, and now is said to have as many as 10,000 members there. Members of the House of Yahweh are reportedly selling property, stocking dry food and water, and building mud bunkers to prepare for a global war. The cult says that the nuclear holocaust will be triggered by a conflict involving China, the US, North Korea, Sudan, India, and Pakistan.

Government officials in Kenya have joined Church leaders in voicing concern about the doomsday cult. African leaders have been troubled by religious cult activities, particularly in the wake of the massive murder-suicide incident involving the cult known as the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments. That group, led by an excommunicated Catholic priest Yozefu Kibweteere, had forecast the end of the world in 2000. Shortly after the date of the predicted apocalypse passed, more than 1,000 members of the cult were found dead at the cult headquarters in Uganda.

House of Yahweh member responds
The Abilene Reporter-News
By Jody Beard

I am writing this letter in response to the article on the House of Yahweh which appeared on the front page of the Sunday, April 14, edition of the Abilene Reporter-News.

Being from out of town, when I first picked up your paper, I noticed the quote you apply to yourselves, "We sketch your world exactly as it goes." But as I read the article against the House of Yahweh, my disappointment about this quote grew to shock. This article paints nothing but one unproven allegation after another.

How can I say this with such conviction? I have been a member, along with my wife and family, of the House of Yahweh for six years and have served as an elder for the past two years. My wife and I are also kin to Kay Jordan, whom you quote in this article, Kay being married to my wife's brother for the past 10 years. Having knowledge of both the teachings and the workings of the House of Yahweh and the past dealings of Kay Jordan, I can tell you that the pertinent facts about her story do not appear in this article.

Speaking as an elder in the House of Yahweh, I tell you the House of Yahweh has never accepted food stamps or any other form of government assistance as tithes. My own family struggled financially at times and we received food stamps, but we never gave food stamps as tithes.

Despite what Anah Jeffries (whose real name is Carol; you should get your facts before publishing an article like this) quoted to your staff writers, Yisrayl Hawkins, or any other elder, never advised, never even suggested that we pay tithes with food stamps, nor even that we go on food stamps.

Furthermore, there are no offering plates passed around in the House of Yahweh. Tithing is purely voluntary and we only teach what the Bible says about it, as all churches do.

The House of Yahweh teaches ALL, whether rich or poor, to be honest in all their dealings. We teach complete Law-keeping, not only the Laws of the Bible but the laws of man's governments as well, just as the Savior and Apostles did. I personally help out in the House of Yahweh prison ministry and many of the chaplains at the prison we visit tell me that the prisoners who convert to our teachings become model prisoners.

Having known Kay Jordan for 10 years, my wife and I both know that her troubles with the welfare system began long before she came to the House of Yahweh. The pending charges against her in Mississippi are the result of her own negligence in filing the proper information. In fact, she boasted to both my wife and myself that she had gotten one over on the "beastly system," as she called it.

I guarantee that she did not learn this behavior at the House of Yahweh, and in fact would have been ashamed to admit to the elders what she was doing concerning her dealings with government assistance.

Furthermore, Kay Jordan was never a steady, stable member of the House of Yahweh, and certainly cannot be considered a representative of those who are. On more than one occasion she left the House of Yahweh, only to return, and we always welcomed her back after she supposedly repented. She was never a regular tithe payer and, in fact, paid very little tithes to the House of Yahweh. Her accusations about the House of Yahweh are completely fictitious. For instance, wine, although permitted for the Savior's Last Supper, as in most churches, is NOT sold by the House of Yahweh.

Kay Jordan insinuated that she was concerned about her personal safety. It's not only against the laws of this country but it's against the Laws of our Heavenly Father to commit murder. No one loyal to the teachings of the House of Yahweh would ever commit this heinous sin or even consider threatening bodily harm to another human being.

The article stated that Yisrayl Hawkins has not responded to repeated requests for interviews. If the Abilene Reporter-News would truly "sketch our world exactly as it goes," you would not even go so far as printing only one side of the story. If you would quit twisting and distorting statements and agree to print the truth, then Yisrayl Hawkins would grant you an interview.

We challenge the Abilene Reporter-News to rise above the hatred being displayed by the former members of the House of Yahweh, whose only stated desire is to ruin an innocent man, and return to the principles of responsible journalism that you claim to follow. All we have seen printed so far is merely allegation and lies concerning the House of Yahweh and Yisrayl Hawkins. I am only stating these things because I know my sister-in-law, Kay Jordan, and I know Carol Jeffries; the facts are, they both lie to cover their own sins. The only reason that they have to hate Yisrayl Hawkins is because he scolded them continually for the many sins they practice.

(Jody Beard is a member of the House of Yahweh in Tylertown, Miss. His remarks, signed and notarized, were delivered by hand to the Reporter-News.)

Daughter of Yisrayl Hawkins responds to food stamp issue
Abilene Reporter-News
By Richard Horn and Loretta Fulton

A daughter of Yisrayl Hawkins, whom he excommunicated from his religious sect, claims she routinely received members' food stamps as tithes while she and her husband were employed at the compound.

Margo Corneillie made a number of accusations against her father in response to a guest column, signed by sect member Jodie Beard, published last week in the Reporter-News.

In his notarized letter, Beard stated the sect "never" accepted food stamps for tithes. But Corneillie claims she received members' food stamps as tithes while she and her husband were employed at the compound.

"We often received tithes in the form of food stamps and we were told to write 'other' on the receipts rather than 'cash' or 'check,'" she said.

The food stamps were then given to Yisrayl Hawkins, she said.

"He never once turned them down or instructed us not to accept them," Corneillie said.

She and her husband worked in the sect's mail room for 2-1/2 years and dealt directly with funds that were mailed in, including food stamps, she said.

Corneillie also claimed that her father taught people how to get on welfare and instructed new mothers to write "father unknown" on their birth certificates, so the child could take the name "Hawkins" and so the mother could get a larger welfare check, one-third of which was tithed to the House of Yahweh.

On Tuesday the Reporter-News again requested an interview with Yisrayl Hawkins through a spokesman at the sect's headquarters on T&P Lane in Abilene. The spokesman said he would forward the request, the latest of many, to the sect's board of elders.

Officials who oversee welfare programs, including food stamps before they were replaced with the Lone Star Card, say it is illegal to use the stamps for anything other than the purchase of food.
Her accusations against her father are similar to ones made by other ex-members. They include the selling of wine at the compound without a license and operating a restaurant during feasts without a health permit. The food at the restaurant and stores was purchased with food stamps, she said, and sold for cash.

Following the publication of Beard's letter, several other ex-members came forward to say they, too, gave food stamps as tithes and were encouraged to do so by elders. They declined to let their names be used because they feared either prosecution by the state or reprisals from the sect.

One man provided a tape recording he'd made of a meeting with elders who chastised him from falling away from the House of Yahweh and called him a "thief" because he didn't pay tithes.
"I have to give you all my damn food stamps?" the man complains on the tape.

"You don't have to give it all," the elder says, "you just have to give 10 percent for Yahweh."
When the man protested it was illegal, the elder said he could convert the food stamps to food and give that as part of his tithe.

Although Corneillie's claims against her father are the same as those told by others, her story is more poignant.

"I used to call him 'Dad,'" she said.

That was before she noticed that her father's teachings began to change dramatically. When she and her husband started pointing out things they disagreed with, both were ex-communicated by form letter.

"When you question it, you're labeled as a rebel," she said.

She said originally her father's teachings were pure. But something happened and he grew paranoid, corrupt and power hungry, she said.

"When Yisrayl started hungering for the power, the focus was taken off the Kingdom and placed on the man," Corneillie said. "His goal is to become a god."

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