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.
Founder
Paul Erdmann aka Love Israel
Regions with significant populations
United States
Religions
Christianity

The Love Family, or the Church of Jesus Christ at Armageddon, was a U.S. communal religious movement formed in 1968 and led by Paul Erdmann, who renamed himself Love Israel.

After a fractious conflict in 1984, the community was reduced to a small fraction residing on their 300-acre (1.2 km2) property in Arlington, Washington. The Love Family flourished on that acreage from 1984 until 2004, when they were forced to sell the properties due to bankruptcy.[1][2]

Beliefs and practices

The group practiced meditation (often with the use of hallucinogenics) and believed that life was eternal and all people were one.[3] Because life was 'eternal', the group did not observe birthdays or perform marriages.[4] They placed personal revelation above traditional doctrine.[3] The group was committed to living in the present – "Now is the time" was one of their mottoes – to the point that they avoided making appointments or incurring debt.[5]

Additional prohibitions including smoking, eating meat, owning clocks, mirrors, or watches, and reading books or magazines other than the Bible.[6] The group did not use driver's licenses.[6]

The group had a vegetarian diet that they sustained in part through gardening and gleaning.[5]

"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".[3][5] These three 'fundamental belief' statements were used to stave off deeper curiosity and invoke a deeper discussion into the role of humanity on this earth.

Relationships

The community practised group marriage, although Love Israel was the only husband.[2] Unauthorized sexual relationships were not allowed, nor was birth control.[1][6]

Women

The group supposedly "eliminated the need for women's liberation by being righteous with each other".[6] Women were expected to do housekeeping and cooking, serving the men first at meals.[6] They were supposed to bow when entering a room occupied by a man and were not allowed to speak unless spoken to.[6]

Children

Children were raised communally with strict discipline.[7]

History

Paul Erdmann, a former television salesman from California, moved to Seattle in 1968.[8] The Love Family began in October 1968 as a communal household on Queen Anne Hill, Seattle, with their charter being written in 1971.[3][9] Shortly after its founding, Erdmann renamed himself Love Israel; many of his followers adopted the "Israel" surname and biblical or virtue first names.[3]

Within the first ten years, the community expanded to a network of about twelve communal homes and businesses.[3] As more people arrived and settled in the surrounding neighborhood, Erdmann, as the leader, continued to inherit land and homes (primarily from those who joined) in other, more rural areas of Washington, Alaska, and Hawaii.[5]

In 1972, two members of the family died after ritually breathing toluene fumes out of a plastic bag.[2][6]

In 1974, plenty of Love Israel Family members danced and sang on stage at the World’s Fair in Spokane, Washington.[9]

By 1979, the group had about 300 members.[6]

In 1983, a conflict emerged within the family, led by members such as Logic Israel (Brian Allen), one of the principal elders in the family.[3] This culminated in 1984, when the family returned $1.6 million and 14 Seattle properties to former member Daniel Gruener (Richness Israel) as part of an out-of-court settlement.[9][10] Membership dwindled from 500 to 100 as the group was forced to give back assets and money to disenchanted members.[3]

After the conflict, about 40 remaining members moved to properties in Arlington, and around 30 moved to Los Angeles.[1][9] The Arlington commune supported both a local organic restaurant and an annual festival open to the public called the Garlic Festival, which drew crowds to the property.

In early 2004, the family sold their Arlington properties to the Union for Reform Judaism due to bankruptcy.[1][2][8] In 2007, the former Arlington family grounds became Camp Kalsman, a Jewish summer camp.[11] The remaining members moved to China Bend, a property along the Columbia River, in April 2004, and later to a property in Bothell, Washington.[1][8][9]

In January 2016, it was reported that Love Israel was battling stage 4 cancer.[12] He died on February 1.[2] Gruener died in 2019.[13]

Current status

The small remaining core of Erdmann's community continues to this day.[14]

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 became a social network of autonomous households that interacted through a shared culture 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 homes and lots on the shore of the Columbia River (Lake Roosevelt), where they own the China Bend Winery, just south of Canada.

Remaining family members still maintain 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 Love Israel is a leader directed through his vision from God. They also believe that their gathering has Biblical roots and that their purpose is to help fulfill directed prophecies to benefit man and the promises of Jesus.

The current members 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 renamed (and newborns named) to remind all that each person's character is gifted with a predominant attribute such as Charity, Honor, Honesty or Contentment, that may already be who they are or part of where they need to be.

In media

A film It Takes A Cult, about the Love Israel Family (directed by Eric Johannsen, who grew up as part of the Love Family), was shown at the 2009 Seattle International Film Festival.[4][15][16]

Rachel Israel, who spent 8 years of her childhood as part of the family, published a memoir on her experiences in 2018, called Counterculture Crossover: Growing up in the Love Family.[7]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Controversial, colorful Israel family moves to more open spaces, Seattle Times, April 19, 2004, retrieved September 6, 2011
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 "Love Israel, founder of troubled Seattle commune, dies at 75". March 30, 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 LeWarne, Charles Pierce (2009). The Love Israel Family : urban commune, rural commune. University of Washington Press. pp. 3, 20, 25–27. ISBN 978-0-295-99756-8. OCLC 947838037.
  4. 1 2 "It Takes A Cult at SIFF". Archived from the original on May 28, 2009.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Israel, Serious (1983). "Bringing The Vision Down To Earth". Context Institute. Archived from the original on March 9, 2016. Retrieved December 29, 2022.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 McCall, Cheryl (April 2, 1979). "Steve Allen's Son Brian Saw God on An Acid Trip: It Turned Him into Logic Israel : People.com". People. Archived from the original on March 17, 2016. Retrieved December 29, 2022.
  7. 1 2 Powell, Steve (October 18, 2018). "Rachel's book tells her history with Israel commune". Arlington Times. Retrieved December 30, 2022.
  8. 1 2 3 "Catching up with the Love Family". HeraldNet.com. January 13, 2007. Retrieved December 29, 2022.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 "Love Israel Family – WRSP". Retrieved September 22, 2022.
  10. ↑ 'Love Family' broke, Ellensburg Daily Record, May 20, 1984, retrieved February 3, 2016
  11. ↑ Teens spend summer in Love family's footsteps at Camp Kalsman near Arlington, Everettt Herald, August 2, 2008, retrieved December 27, 2011
  12. ↑ Counterculture icon Love Israel near death, King 5, January 29, 2016, archived from the original on January 31, 2016, retrieved January 31, 2016
  13. ↑ Daniel Gruener Obituary, StatesmanExaminer.com, April 1, 2019, retrieved December 15, 2022
  14. ↑ "Love Israel Family". www.historylink.org. Retrieved December 4, 2021.
  15. ↑ It Takes a Cult at IMDb
  16. ↑ Miller, Brian (May 19, 2009). "SIFF: Children of the Revolution: Two New Docs Wrestle With the Old Hippie Idealism". Seattle Weekly. Retrieved December 30, 2022.
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