Westfield Man Who Escaped Christian Cult Tells His Story In New Memoir

WESTFIELD, NJ — Since escaping from a Christian cult in Berkeley Heights more than 40 years ago, Justin Fahey is finally ready to tell his story.

The Westfield resident recently released his memoir "COMMUNITY: Living in a Christian Cult and Dying to Get Out" this past July. The book follows Fahey's journey as a fun-loving teenager who was thrown into a covenant community called The People of Hope — an organization that has operated in Union County since the 1980s.

"The People of Hope was covered extensively in the '80s and '90s for its 'cult-like' behavior and rift with the Catholic Church," Fahey told Patch. "While many have seen these groups from the outside, I can offer a look at the inside abuses."

According to a story in NJ.com, The People of Hope was founded in Berkeley Heights by a Queens transplant named Bob Gallic and a Catholic priest named Rev. James Ferry.

The formation of the group followed a conflict among Catholics in the surrounding area. This caused people to move into Union County in large numbers, and some local parishioners felt as if the newcomers were trying to seize control, according to NJ.com.

A People of Hope spokesperson told NJ.com that the group differs from other Catholics in the sense that they are a "charismatic group" and hold prayer meetings during which there is "raising of hands, singing and speaking in tongues."

Fahey was one of seven children who grew up in a traditional Catholic household in Montclair. His mother connected with The People of Hope after Fahey's father died when he was six years old.

Fahey said it was his mother's decision to move out to Berkeley Heights and put Fahey in The People of Hope's school.

According to Fahey's book, the school was a way for the community to indoctrinate young students, during daytime classes and other activities at night, all while cutting off contact with the outside world.

Fahey said he was told that the "outside world" was made up of "a bunch of sinners" and that they wouldn't help him go to heaven.

But while he was in The People of Hope school, he said he knew something was wrong. Fahey said his siblings were not part of the group and were already off on their own when People of Hope came around. Because of that, Fahey knew there was a world outside the community.

"Back then I didn't have any problem with Jesus or Catholicism," Fahey said. "The real issue for me was these things that they would make you do, like speaking in tongues, or raising your hands when you pray."

If you refused to pray in tongues, Fahey said you would get in trouble. He said the prayer became "not about Jesus at all" but "nonsensical stuff."

There are even rumors that The People of Hope inspired author Margaret Atwood to write the famous novel "The Handmaid's Tale," which is also now a hit Hulu series.

In Atwood's research files, according to The New Yorker, there was an article from the Associated Press that talked about a "Catholic congregation in New Jersey being taken over by a fundamentalist sect in which wives were called 'handmaidens' — a word that Atwood had underlined."

But according to NJ.com, the Jersey conflict that caught Atwood's attention was not published by the AP until Oct. 1985, and by then Atwood's book had already been published.

Regardless, Fahey said there are certainly some similarities between how The People of Hope treated women and Atwood's story.

"You would have the guys who were leaders and then their wives would be 'handmaids,'" Fahey said. "They called them handmaidens. The role of women was to have babies... and they had to cook and clean. They were domestic [and] they were not encouraged to go to college."

Fahey said he knew a few girls who got married when they were 19 years old.

Dating was also highly monitored by the group. Fahey said people were only allowed to go out with someone three times before deciding whether or not they would marry them.

If you did not want to marry the person, you were forced to move on, Fahey said.

Fahey also talks about a strict dress code for women in the book. At the school, called Koinonia, girls wore blue ankle-length cotton skirts and after school they would change into ankle-length denim skirts.

Fahey added that The People of Hope is similar to the People of Praise, which Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett is a member of.

Once he finished high school, Fahey was able to leave The People of Hope. He said the leaders told them they could leave at any time, but that it was "difficult to live a Christian life in the world" because of all the temptation.

"It was that kind of manipulation where technically you could leave but 'we're going to guilt you'" Fahey said. "And there was a lot of fear I think of going to hell ... It was a community, so if you left it, nobody kept in touch with you. You were more shunned than anything."

Fahey said the process of writing the book was a difficult and painful process, as he had to relive a lot of the moments he suffered through during his teen years.

"It took me a long time to actually finish [the book] and publish it," he said. "It's still a lot of pain, you know, a lot of hurt and a lot of pain."

He said there's a lot of shame he has felt about telling the story, as well as fear he will get retaliated against.

Through a lot of therapy, Fahey said he has been able to unlearn a lot of the things he was taught by The People of Hope. He said it took him a long time to even use the world "cult" and recognize that he was part of one.

In terms of the impact he hopes the book will have, Fahey said he wants the leaders of the community to know that "they were wrong."

"Nothing they did was right," Fahey said. "They said 'love Jesus,' but it was really 'love Jesus or you go to hell.'"

He also hopes that people who were in the community know that they are "good" and that they were victims in this situation.

The People of Hope is now based in Plainfield and is still running today.

Their website claims that The People of Hope is "a Catholic community of lay and religious men and women who have experienced the power of the Holy Spirit and a call to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ through prayer, the renewal of family life, and works of evangelization."

You can order a copy of Fahey's book on Amazon in either paperback, hardcover or Kindle.

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