From its shocking opening sentences, Sectarian Song provides a terrifying first-hand look at life inside a cult, in this instance the infamous Nation of Yahweh. Michael Klein (not the author’s real name) joined this offshoot of the Black Hebrew Israelites at the age of eleven, when his mother brought him and his three siblings with her into the group.
For two years, until he left at the age of thirteen, Klein suffered abuse at the hands of the zealot cult members, targeted for being a child of mixed race. Even after he escaped, Klein suffered a psychological toll, bouncing between foster homes and psychiatrists, spending years of his life looking over his shoulder, haunted by fear. Despite its grim, often violent early passages, Klein’s tale becomes one of hope and faith, an uplifting lesson in the power of the human spirit.
Excerpt
Americans tend to watch news stories about religious cults in disbelief, wondering about the people who squirrel themselves away on a remote mountaintop or in a South American jungle. Michael Klein's harrowing story of life in the Nation of Yahweh cult shatters that illusion of distance: the two years he spent as a child at the notorious "Temple of Love" were lived in New York. Brought to the Temple by his mother when he was eleven, the accounts of the abuse and racism he suffered there are hard to stomach. Even after his daring escape, his memories and lingering fear haunted his adolescence and early adulthood, even destroying his marriage. But while Sectarian Song is a story of a lost childhood, it is more importantly a story of hope, faith, and healing, as one man comes to terms with his painful past so that he may fully embrace the future.
The true story of Cheryl Pierson Cuccio who made headlines in 1986 and her husband Rob Cuccio. Cheryl was abused sexually and physically and Rob died for 43 minutes on Cheryl's 43rd birthday.
