The horrifying true story of a fatal encounter inside the secluded Word of Life Christian Church, a parish-turned-cult in upstate New York. Teenager Lucas Leonard made shocking admissions in front of the altar–he’d practiced witchcraft and conspired to murder his parents, among other horrific crimes. The confessions earned him a brutal beating by a gang of angry church members, including his … including his parents and sister. Lucas arrived at the hospital dead, awakening the sleepy community of Chadwicks, New York, to the horror that had been lurking next door.
Nine members of Lucas’ church would eventually find themselves facing murder-related charges. But how did they get to that point? And what made Lucas confess? The full story has never been told–until now.
Emmy-nominated journalist Susan Ashline delves deep into the Leonard family history, the darkness within the Word of Life Christian Church, and what led Lucas, his family, and his community to that fateful night.
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A Difficult Read for a Couple of Reasons.
Without a Prayer is a difficult read. I recognize that there are different interpretations of that sentence and at least two of them apply.
First, it’s difficult because it’s disturbing to read about the level of toxicity that existed in the Word of Life Christian Church (WLCC) and the brutal and callous beatings that occurred there. It’s made even more difficult because the story is true, or at least as accurate as a meticulous author reviewing massive amounts of data can make it. The followers were religious, often submissive, and generally at a point in their life when options were limited, e.g., they had been kicked out of their home. So, they fled to the WLCC, only to suffer worse there. The message of the church was that they were surrounded by evil—demons, witchcraft, impure thoughts. Everyday actions were questioned—could two brothers playfully wrestle or was that sexual perversion? No one outside the church could be trusted, but even inside, parents couldn’t trust children, sisters couldn’t trust brothers. Who knew if a spouse was being himself/herself or if a demon was in control? Given such a threatening world, the followers became paralyzed, unable to act until it was sanctioned by the church. It was, simply put, an environment that led a father to participate in a fatal beating of his son because the church called for it.
It is also a difficult book because of the way the author chose to cover the story—as a sequence of incidents reproduced largely as they were reported (with some crosschecking for accuracy) or by providing some organizing structure, e.g., breaking the timeline according to major shifts in church doctrine. The author selected the first, which admittedly removes the abstraction and simplification of an organization. But it also makes it harder on the reader. That’s especially true when many of the incidents are accusations and counter-accusations among dozens of characters or spiritual breakthroughs claimed by a character only to be withdrawn five pages later. By far, the most dog-eared part of my book is the page with the characters’ names and relationships, and the list is not close to being exhaustive. Eventually, cult followers, escapees, and church leadership become clear, but it takes some effort. Otherwise, the primary limitation was the lack of clarification of Tiffany Irwin’s thoughts and beliefs. She was the final pastor of WLCC, led the questioning (the counseling session) before the fatal beatings started, and did nothing to stop them as she watched. But was she intentionally making her followers dependent on her and distrustful of everyone else? Or did she believe there were demons, that she talked to God, and that every male wanted to molest her? She claimed all three. Perhaps, nothing more definitive was learned about her during the investigation and trial, but the book ended up feeling somewhat incomplete.
I was given a free copy of this book. I elected to write this candid review.
This is a true story that is very well written and grabbed my attention with the blurb and the book did not disappoint. This book is a powerful and heartbreaking example of what can happen when an evil man gains control of a congregation and they start to follow his teachings and laws rather than those of God. Sometimes this book is difficult to read, the content is horrific and the fact that it is truly makes it even more horrific. For people who are interested in cults and/or true crime this is a must read.