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But for a year, Enroth, JPUSA officials, top leaders of the Evangelical Covenant Church denomination, and mutual friends in evangelical countercult ministries have churned out many more pages of furious correspondence as JPUSA has worked to clear its name before publication of the book. Based on 70 hours of interviews with more than 40 former members of JPUSA, Enroth maintains that the community is authoritarian and ostracizes its departing members.

In his book, Enroth praises JPUSA's "wonderful ministry to the margins of society in the inner city of Chicago." He also says JPUSA "has had a positive impact on the Christian world through Cornerstone magazine and REZ band."

"Ironically, though, many of its own members have been marginalized in the interests of 'the ministry' and 'the community,'" Enroth writes. "I have done my homework and am willing to stake my reputation on it," Enroth has assured board members of Evangelical Ministries to New Religions (EMNR), an umbrella organization.

JPUSA has held Enroth to those words, vigorously questioning his reputation and his methodology in a 96-page issue of Cornerstone issued before the book's release.

That issue of Cornerstone has divided EMNR board members, which includes JPUSA member Eric Pement, Elliot Miller of Christian Research Institute, and three other leaders in the countercult movement: James Bjornstad, Gordon Lewis, and Bob Passantino.

"Two board members called me and were upset about [the Cornerstone issue] and felt it was unfair," says Bill Alnor, EMNR executive director. "I called two others, and they felt that way.

"This is not good journalism," says Alnor, who teaches journalism at Temple University. "They're throwing up a smokescreen, and they're not dealing with Dr. Enroth's issues. Why would anyone release such an issue before they've seen [Enroth's] final product?"

Alnor also objected to the more than 40 letters JPUSA sent to journalists and Christian leaders at varying times during the controversy. "I have documents from both sides of this issue," Alnor says. "The documents from JPUSA have been very selective and one-sided."

Questioning Methodology
The latest Cornerstone issue includes a lengthy interview with sociologist Anson Shupe, who sharply criticizes Enroth. "If Ronald Enroth has committed a scholarly sin, it's that he has treated narrative accounts as literal. … as history," Shupe told Cornerstone senior editor Jon Trott. Enroth says Shupe and a few other sociologists like him ultimately function as "cult apologists."

"I think it's probably going to heat up more for Ron Enroth," Trott told Christianity Today. He s going to find, as we have discovered in our investigative reporting, that accountability is a two-edged sword. I think he underestimated the [Evangelical Covenant Church's] integrity, and that the Covenant did a thorough job of looking into our past."

Several JPUSA leaders, in a 19-page "Open Letter to Ronald Enroth" in January, wrote: "Bear in mind that we began as an independent community, and that we voluntarily placed ourselves under the leadership of the Evangelical Covenant Church—an action that would seem incompatible with the premise that our leadership is geared toward ever-increasing control of JPUSA members."

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April (Web-only) 2001, Vol. 45