The Community of Jesus was founded in 1970 by two housewives, Cay Anderson and Judy Sorensen. They told members they were "God's anointed" with a direct line to God. Any authority figure they appointed carried that same divine authority. Members were taught to obey without questioning the leadership’s authority. I spoke with former member and award-nominated writer Ewan Whyte. His fifth book, Mothers of Invention: Essays on the Community of Jesus and Grenville Christian College, details life inside this cult and its affiliated boarding school in Canada. Ewan was raised in the group from childhood. He knows this organization from the inside, and what he shares deserves your full attention. The Community of Jesus is one of three surviving original covenant communities founded in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The other two are the Word of God, founded in 1967 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and People of Praise 1972, - founded around the same time and known today as the community Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett is closely associated with. Of the three, the Community of Jesus has been, as Ewan argues, is historically, the most politically influential in shaping American evangelical culture of today. Here is something that stops most people cold: the most important best-selling book of Christian nationalism, The Light and the Glory, was secretly written inside this cult. As Ewan documents in his book, this revisionist version of American history, which argues that God intended the founding the United States to be a Christian nation, was produced by Community of Jesus members David Manuel and Peter Marshall Jr. Their work became a cornerstone text for the Christian nationalist movement and has shaped the beliefs of millions of Americans. Come listen to this enlightening interview. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices