User:ZoeTheWobbly/Sandbox

ZoeTheWobbly's sandbox for new article ideas.

Ecclesia Athletic Association (outline)
The Ecclesia Athletic Association was a children's organization-turned-cult run by Holiness/Pentecostal minister and one-time basketball player Eldridge "El" Broussard Jr.(19??-1991). Initially based in Los Angeles, California as an arm of the Watts Christian Center, the EAA's claimed purpose was to uplift poor, mostly Black children from the Watts neighborhood of LA and surrounding areas, with extreme physical discipline, athletic programs, education in nutrition and physiology,[The Oregonian] and a "message that street gangs and drugs and poverty were powerless against their own [Christian] faith."[LA Times] Eventually, the EAA would eclipse the church it came from, become a cult of personality for Broussard, and move most of its members and operations to an agricultural commune in rural Oregon in 1987, at which the EAA would draw the overdue scrutiny of child welfare amid investigations into the death of Broussard's 8-year-old daughter, Danya.

Religion in the EAA
Everything he do now, I made him do. While determinations of Broussard's personal religiosity by those who knew him were divided by the emergence of his cult of personality, understanding his religious background helps explain the treatment and abuse of the children in his care through Ecclesia. His father, Eldridge Broussard Sr., was himself a minister of the Church of God in Christ,[LA Times] a prominent Pentecostal denomination that has mostly Black adherents in the US. In a 1988 LA Times interview, Broussard Sr. describes, in detail, how he wanted his children to be fearful, instilling that fear with harsh, sometimes public, spankings and thrashings.[LA Times] The rationale Broussard Sr. used--dissuading his kids from everything from misbehavior at school to gang membership--would be echoed by Broussard Jr. when using physical punishments in EAA.[LA Times] Anyone over the age of 5 in the programs, especially in Oregon, could be subject to at least 100 and as many as 800 lashes at a time with a paddle or an electrical cord.[The Oregonian]

People of Praise (outline)
People of Praise is a North American organization comprised of intentional Christian (mainly Catholic) communities, founded in 1971 by Kevin Ranaghan (1940-) and Paul DeCelles in South Bend, Indiana. It has its spiritual roots in the and the Jesus movement. Despite these origins and a mostly-Catholic membership to this day, any Christian who is baptized, accepts the Nicene Creed, and agrees to the organization's covenant may join. Its most notable member is perhaps U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett.

Definitely not a church
The group is officially a "parachurch" or "apostolate" organization, meaning it exists to spread the message of a church but isn't a church in itself, presumably so members can stay connected to Catholic parishes. However, communities act a lot like churches. Members attend weekly religious meetings on Sunday afternoons for sermons, scriptural study, "witnessing," (read: evangelizing and holy rolling) and prayer. Some attend additional meetings for potlucks or small group study.

That being said, members aren't bound by a particular denominational doctrine. They instead agree to the People of Praise covenant, as follows: "Therefore, we covenant ourselves to live our lives together in Christ, our Lord, by the power of his spirit. We agree to be a basic Christian community, to find within our fellowship the essential core of our life in the spirit, in worship and the sacraments, spiritual and moral guidance, service and apostolic activity. We accept the order of this community, which the Lord is establishing with all the ministry gifts of the Holy Spirit, especially with the foundational ministry gifts of apostles, pastors, prophets, teachers and evangelists. We agree to obey the direction of the Holy Spirit manifested in and through these ministries in full harmony with the Church. We recognize in the covenant a unique relationship one to another and between the individual and the community. We accept the responsibility for mutual care, concern, and ministry among ourselves. We will serve one another and the community as a whole in all needs: spiritual, material, financial. We agree that the weekly meeting of the community is primary among our commitments, and that we will not be absent except for a serious reason."

Note that the weekly Sunday afternoon meeting is listed as members' primary commitment, not going to church.

Membership
As of 2022, People of Praise claims "about 1,700 members" organized into 22 branches "across the US, Canada, and the Caribbean." U.S. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett may be their most famous member, though the organization itself hasn't confirmed or denied her membership to the public since she was nominated for the Court.

Associated Groups

 * Campus Division, their postsecondary student wing.
 * Action Division,
 * , three Christian secondary schools founded by People of Praise. They're ecumenical and teach evolution, but also segregate students by sex in most classes, take an abstinence-only approach to sex education, and teach that same-sex marriage is a sin.
 * Brotherhood of the People of Praise, for men who want to become priests.