Christ Community Church
An American church that took over the local government and established strict laws, including a ban on doctors and the mandatory teaching of flat-earth cosmology
1896 - present
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Photograph of a church service
Christ Community Church was a Christian commune led by two very eccentric leaders. The first leader, John Alexander Dowie, gained a large following, which laid a foundation for the later Pentecostal movement and is remembered for his strong stance against doctors and medicine. After his death, the second leader, Wilbur Glenn Voliva, resolved several conflicts in the church and became very authoritarian. Voliva became a strong proponent of flat-earth cosmology, gained control of the local government, instituted strict religious rules for the city, and engaged in a well-publicized prayer battle with a rival religious leader.
The community almost fully dissolved in 1942, but this movement still has thousands of supporters today.
Religion: Christianity
Denomination: Evangelicalism (precursor to Pentecostalism)
Founder: John Alexander Dowie
Founded: 1896
Location: Zion, Illinois, United States
Size: up to 20,000 (3,000 as of 2008)
Also called: Christian Catholic Church; Christian Catholic Apostolic Church; Zionites
Early members were told to abstain from doctors and medicine (source)
Doctor's offices and drug stores were forbidden in the community (source)
Taught that illness was the result of personal sin, and it was possible to be physically healed through Jesus (source)
Founder Dowie was sued for practicing medicine without a license (due to his faith healing), although the charges were dropped (source)
Lived together in a society established on the principles of the Kingdom of God (source)
Believed in the flat earth conspiracy and offered a $5,000 challenge to anyone who could disprove it (source, source)
Voliva, the second leader, denied the existence of gravity (source)
Voliva declared science “is nothing but a lot of rot—the inventions of men inspired by the devil!” and condemned evolution, geology, astronomy, and textual criticism of the Bible (source)
Believed that the city that they settled in would be the Zion in the book of Revelation (source)
Voliva (the second leader) started the Theocratic Party, a political party that intended to take over the bankrupt city through election fraud, perjury, intimidation, and violence (source)
After Voliva's men gained control over the local government, they set up a strict police force and banned movie theaters and smoking, even stopping passing trains to arrest passengers who were smoking (source)
Voliva successfully closed the existing public school and established a new school that taught his anti-science beliefs (source)
Voliva took ownership over the local parks and banned anyone who disagreed with his teachings (source)
Dowie instituted strict rules that the entire city was bound to, regardless of if they were church members or not. This included a "ban on profanity, pork, oysters, alcohol, doctors, drug stores, unions, and secret societies. Women were forbidden to cut their hair, expose their necks, or straddle a horse. Men were not allowed to spit in the streets or wear tan shoes" (source)
To ensure compliance, Zion citizens were encouraged to spy on each other (source)
Mollie Steele Voliva, the wife of the second leader, died after her husband refused to let her be treated by a physician (source)
Dance halls and theatres were forbidden in the community (source)
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Dowie and Voliva both lived luxurious lifestyles off church funds (source)
Dowie had a widely publicized "prayer duel" against a Muslim, in which they both called on God to punish and expose the other person (source)
Had a police force that wore a Bible and a club on their belts and would arrest members for doing illegal activities, such as whistling on Sunday (source)
Voliva called the local church a "monkey house" and a "spiritual whorehouse" and called the pastor "Jackass Dake." He also called a splinter church the "goathouse" and called the pastor "little Grinny Granny Goodwin," "little pimp," and "pukescooper" (source)
After Voliva publicly humiliated a woman during a sermon, her teenage son set the tabernacle on fire (source)
"Voliva continued Dowie’s ban on profanity, pork, oysters, alcohol, doctors, drug stores, unions, and secret societies. Women were forbidden to cut their hair, expose their necks, or straddle a horse. Men were not allowed to spit in the streets or wear tan shoes. To ensure compliance, Zion citizens were encouraged to spy on each other. The laws, of course, applied to Independents [non-members] as well as church members." (source)
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