Bring Them In! (article) by Susan K. Smith on AuthorsDen

College, Churches, Cults. Would-be messiah Bill Renfrew finds naīve college student Samantha Matijevic an easy mark in the uncertain 1970s.

cover by DAVIS Creative

Bring Them In!

This 19th century hymn was written by Alexcenah Thomas with music by William Augustine Ogden.

Check out: Bring Them In

And this old timey hymn is sung in the video below:

https://youtu.be/yKhrtuviWBY?si=o0UMMRZBS07riFUV

Also, this old timey hymn is the theme song of the fictional New Testament Fundamentalist Temple in my latest historical novel in The Sam Matijevic Series.

Bring Them In! : College, Churches, Cults

It’s the 1970s: Vietnam. Watergate. Energy crisis. War in the Middle East. Comet Kohoutek—the Comet of the Century. Doomsday prophets.

During these times, Pastor Bill Renfrew returns to his hometown of Colter, Montana. Fresh from Bible college, he’s confident that he knows more than anyone else, he’s smarter than anyone else, and he’s better than anyone else. And this college town is a target rich recruiting ground to build his Bible believing, Bible preaching, Bible teaching, fundamental, evangelical, pre-millennial, New Testament church.

Bring Them In!

After Samantha Matijevic enters Colter College, Pastor Renfrew snares this disoriented girl from a small town as well as vulnerable and naïve souls. Will Sam wise up and extract herself from this cult of pastor without destroying her faith?

The novel is available at amazon.com as paperback, Kindle, Kindle Unlimited:

Bring Them In! by S. K. Smith

Your readership is most appreciated.

Cheers.

Web Site: smithsk: bti (part 1) - Bring Them In!

Hiraeth- (noun) - a deep, wistful, nostalgic sense of longing for home; a home that is no longer or perhaps never was. A yearning and wistful grief fo

Reviewed by Ronald Hull

Reviewed on July 31, 2025

Congratulations. When I think of all of the mega churches and the way that so many shysters use religion to draw naīve souls into their cults of personality. Houston Baptist University here in Houston just changed its name to Houston Christian University to get more paying students.

I remember visiting New Vrindaban in West Virginia about 1977 and observed young naīve people called into a community of giving up all of their worldly things to the guru from India who benefited while they chanted to Hare Krishna for hours at a time.

They were very proud to point out that they had some young sons and daughters of industrial CEOs. That money came in handy to build a marble temple to their god on earth.

Ron