How the Sharon Orphanage Shaped a Movement  🔗 **Source:** [How the Sharon Orphanage Shaped a Movement](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqklaQxktn0) [00:00:00] why I'm here is to basically just you know get it out there and get the get the story and get the conversation going because you know even if an unhealthy group gets a little bit healthier as the result of some of these conversations, I'll call that a win, you know. You know and and ultimately a lot of this stuff is just my opinion. I think it's you know well founded and it's you know a very you know got good research and there's good facts behind why I have the positions that I have but ultimately I think if there's someone who's still a part of the Global Missions or still like reveres that history, I think at least if we give them something to think about and it you know improves their lives then I'm happy with [00:00:42] that outcome as well. >> Absolutely. So the first part I wanted to talk about is deep into the history. Some of this you may not even be familiar with but I have been a lot of people don't know this. I don't know if I told you this even. I have been somewhat often on connecting with a person who's really high up in Global Missions and have asked some questions, some of which I'll talk about with you but for obvious reasons I'm not going to give this person's name. However, they are now aware of some of the critical history yet at the same time they aren't yet fully aware at how deep it runs. And by [00:01:26] this I mean so when this thing was conceived this Global Missions share an orphanage etc. From its inception there was a lot going on that even I myself you can't dig into and find. There's some mystery as to how this thing really formed. And there's one really vague article where it shows that Aimee Semple McPherson is funding this operation that's happening right there with I think it's Harriet Cottrell Percy Hunt one of the two. And so she's funding this thing. The Sharon Orphanage begins to grow and in the newspapers they advertise we're funded by some big organization in the United States and that's all that's really said. You don't know much about [00:02:09] this. >> [clears throat] >> And then Branhamism sweeps through Canada and this becomes literally the backbone to funding and creating the healing atmosphere, the hype I guess you would say around Branhamism. And yet at the same time many people who are in global missions aren't yet aware of how deeply that thread runs. So one of the questions that one of my partners actually asked this one. He was asking about global missions today. How do they view these these figures in the history, I guess you'd call it the prophetic history of of global missions like Eric Holt and George George Warnock, Percy Hunt. How do you view these figures from your [00:02:53] perspective in this in this movement? >> Yeah, it's a great question and it it the more that I thought about what all I had heard growing up it just actually brought out more questions. So I'll give you an example of that. So um there was there was a brother one of the minis ministers who I actually traveled with as a kid with my dad when he was doing missions work and he was you know one of the leaders of our group and we would go to the Caribbean and we went to different places in the states and we would operate these satellite camps, satellite kind of summer week long camps and we traveled a lot together. And then one day there was a [00:03:39] post in our or I guess it wasn't a post, it was an article in the Sharon Star our publication that basically you know right at the end of the Sharon Star there was kind of like a little like updates and happenings thing. They were like, you know, "Brother James is no longer associated with our movement and our organization." And it was it was difficult because he had also written and and publicized quite a few articles for the Sharing Star over the years and was, you know, one of all the young people's like favorite speakers. He was a a talented, you know, speaker and the brethren were very tight-lipped about the reason that he, you know, was kind of let go. [00:04:24] And I really had to like pry and you know, I still don't really know the reason, but I I think it's because he started preaching maybe privately, you know, basically a uh >> [snorts] >> John, you're going to have to help me. What's it called when it's like a prosperity gospel? He started preaching a prosperity doctrine. I think that's what it was and so I you know, the brethren, I think correctly, you know, disciplined him and then eventually had to let him go. The problem with that is is that he was an apostolic, he was apostolically set by the laying on of the hands of the presbytery and and all these things that are supposed to indicate that someone is kind of [00:05:06] they have a special anointing and a special mantle on their life for ministry. So, I don't know how you, you know, you take that back, right? Like the only example of somebody losing that in the scriptures, from what I understand, is like, you know, Judas, right? Where he was, um, you know, it was that kind of level of of betrayal of the church. Um, so uh similarly with these um more ancient figures, they were you know, when it when they were spoken of in the context of them founding the church, they were like it was basically mythology, right? They were mythologized characters. They were beyond reproach. Um, I even remember my mom saying that um, you know, some people got sick and [00:05:51] some people there there was negative consequences because they were critical of these figures, people like Percy Hunt, George Hawtin, um, Pearry R. Holt. Um, and even to the point where um, my dad growing up wasn't supposed to have comic books, right? And and his brothers and he he had, you know, there were six boys and a girl in his family. So, there's lots of uh, you know, lots of reasons for them to want comic books and and read those kinds of things, but you know, Pearry R. Holt's son was caught with a comic book and so that suddenly meant that everyone could read comic books. So, if you do a little bit of um, you know, uh, mental math, you can figure out that well, these people are [00:06:36] really setting the tone for the entire organization. They are um, you know, their their actions, their beliefs, their private practices are actually setting the public policy for our church. So, you know, they're not just founders, they were the you know, our culture and belief systems were based on the actions of these men. >> With that, there's several questions that I've thought through since you and I last spoke. There is a article out there. I don't know if you've come across this or not, but there are multiple numerous weird cults that spun out of this movement from its early inception. One of them is called the Assembly of the Body of Christ and there are some articles out there where I think it's the son of the [00:07:20] uh, the central figure of that cult that's writing, but he's talking about whenever the movement [clears throat] came into the Sharon orphanage and there were a group of men who were just fascinated with Branhamism and Branham was coming in teaching them things like how to move things with your mind, metaphysics, basically. And so, the group I I'm trying [laughter and clears throat] to picture this in a Christian setting. Now it's so odd to me. Back when I first came out of the cult, it wasn't that odd, which is weird. But you think you look at it now and you're like, well this sounds more like a Stephen King book than Christianity. >> [music], How the Sharon Orphanage Shaped a Movement, Leaving the Message, 01m3qec3q7f4m41zq3t50k7d3w.