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Followers of Christ (c. 1880)
The Followers of Christ is a small independent Christian denomination with congregations in Oklahoma, Oregon, Idaho, and Alberta. The church was founded in Chanute, Kansas, around 1880 by Marion Reece, emerging from the Holiness Pentecostal tradition, emphasizing a literal interpretation of the Bible. Leadership later passed to Elder John Marshall Morris and his son, Marion… Continue reading
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Fishdom (2019)
Fishdom is a mobile game developed by Playrix and released in 2008. It is primarily known as a tile-matching game in which players earn points to decorate virtual aquariums. More than a decade after its release, the game’s online presence expanded beyond gameplay when a dedicated subreddit was created on March 9, 2019. Founded by… Continue reading
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First Satanic Church (1999)
The First Satanic Church is a Satanist organization founded by Karla LaVey on Halloween 1999 in San Francisco. The group is dedicated to the philosophy codified by Karla’s father, Anton LaVey, in his 1969 publication The Satanic Bible. Although the organization was established in 1999, its official documentation claims a founding date of 1966, presenting… Continue reading
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First Family Church (1996)
First Family Church was a Southern Baptist megachurch established in Overland Park, Kansas, in 1996 when its founder and senior pastor, Jerry Johnston, liquidated nearly $200,000 in assets from his debt-free organization, Jerry Johnston Ministries, to launch the new church. During its early years, the congregation operated out of 11 different rental facilities, including local… Continue reading
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Fire This Time (2003)
The Fire This Time Movement for Social Justice, usually referred to simply as “Fire This Time,” is a left-wing organization that some critics say acts as a political cult. It emerged in British Columbia, Canada, in the early 2000s as a revolutionary socialist organization. Fire This Time presents itself as an internationalist action organization, arguing… Continue reading
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Findhorn Foundation (1962)
The Findhorn Foundation, a spiritual community and ecovillage in Moray, Scotland, originated from a small group of spiritual seekers in the mid-20th century. In the late 1940s, Sheena Govan began acting as an informal spiritual teacher to a circle that included her husband, Peter Caddy, and Dorothy Maclean. Eileen Caddy, trained in the “quiet times”… Continue reading
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Final Fantasy VII House (2002)
The Final Fantasy VII House was a communal living arrangement that former members and observers described as operating as a psychological and financial cult. Founded and led by Jennifer Cornet, known online as Jen or Joanna, the group drew heavily on the lore of the popular 1997 Japanese role-playing game to recruit and control vulnerable… Continue reading
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Fiat Lux (1980)
Fiat Lux is a small UFO religion based primarily in the Black Forest region of southwestern Germany. Founded in 1980 by Swiss-born Erika Hedwig Bertschinger-Eicke, who adopted the spiritual name “Uriella,” the movement combined traditional Christian eschatology with extraterrestrial mythology. Despite its relatively small membership, Fiat Lux became widely known in German-speaking Europe through media… Continue reading
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Feri Tradition (c. 1955)
The Feri Tradition is an initiatory Neopagan witchcraft lineage that emerged on the West Coast of the United States between the 1950s and 1960s. Founded by Cora and Victor Henry Anderson, it differs from many contemporary fertility-based Wiccan paths through its emphasis on ecstatic and shamanic experience. Its practices place particular focus on sensual awareness… Continue reading
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Feraferia (1967)
Feraferia is a Neopagan religion that originated in Southern California and later expanded across the United States and into parts of Europe. Formally incorporated as a nonprofit church in California on August 2, 1967, it is one of the oldest Modern Pagan organizations in the U.S. The tradition is centered on Hellenic-inspired Goddess worship, the… Continue reading
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Fellowship of the Martyrs (2004)
Doug Perry was born in Missouri in 1967 and spent part of his childhood in Mexico in a missionary family. He later returned to Missouri, earned a master’s degree in education, and built a business in Kansas City. On November 23, 2004, he described a turning point in which he prayed to oppose Satan regardless… Continue reading
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Fellowship of Isis (1976)
The Fellowship of Isis is an international, multi-faith spiritual organization dedicated to honoring the Goddess Isis and promoting awareness of the Divine Feminine. It was formally founded on the vernal equinox of 1976 at Clonegal Castle in County Carlow, Ireland. The founders were Olivia Robertson, her brother Lawrence Durdin-Robertson, and his wife Pamela Durdin-Robertson. The… Continue reading
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Fellowship of Friends (1970)
Robert Earl Burton was born in Mineral, Arkansas, and graduated from San Jose State University in 1963. He taught school in California before experiencing what he would call a spiritual awakening in 1967. By 1970, while living in a Volkswagen bus in Berkeley, he had gathered a small group of followers who believed he possessed… Continue reading
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George Feigley/Neo American Church (1971)
George Feigley was born in 1940 and established the Neo American Church in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in 1971. He taught that sexuality was a direct expression of divinity and that sexual activity was the highest human act. Law enforcement later concluded that these teachings were used to justify and enable the sexual abuse of children. Feigley… Continue reading
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Father Divine (c. 1907)
Father Divine’s origins remain uncertain. He was born around 1876, though the exact date and place are disputed, as he would intentionally obscure details about his early life. He declined offers to document his biography, stating that the history of God would not be useful in human terms. A woman named Eliza Mayfield claimed to… Continue reading
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Munib Farhat (c. 2005)
Munib Farhat headed a small cult in northern Israel for several years starting around 2005. For about a decade, Farhat built a community that eventually incorporated six families, comprising 11 parents and 25 children, from in and around the town of Majd al-Krum. He referred to himself using the Muslim title “Khalifa,” or caliph, although… Continue reading
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Family Radio (1958)
Harold Camping was born on July 19, 1921, in Boulder, Colorado, and was raised in the Christian Reformed Church. He earned a degree in civil engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1942, and worked as an engineer for a government contractor for the duration of World War II. After the war, he established… Continue reading
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The Family/Anne Hamilton Byrne (1964)
The Family, also known as the Santiniketan Park Association or the Great White Brotherhood, was an Australian New Age group that emerged in the mid-1960s. It was formed and led by Anne Hamilton-Byrne and combined elements of Eastern and Western religious traditions. At its peak, the group had approximately 500 followers, largely from middle-class and… Continue reading
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Falun Gong (1992)
Falun Gong, also referred to as Falun Dafa, is a spiritual movement that emerged in China in the early 1990s. It was founded by Li Hongzhi and combines meditation, physical exercises, and a moral philosophy rooted in traditional Chinese concepts. Over time, the movement developed from a widely practiced health activity into an international diaspora,… Continue reading
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Fall River Cult (1979)
Three homicides involving young women that took place in Fall River, Massachusetts, between October 1979 and February 1980 have been attributed to a Satanic cult that may not have actually existed. The events occurred during the period often referred to as the “Satanic Panic,” which involved widespread public concern about alleged clandestine groups engaged in… Continue reading
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Faithful Word Baptist Church (2005)
The Faithful Word Baptist Church was founded on Christmas Day 2005 by Steven Lee Anderson. The church identifies as an independent, literalist church that exclusively uses the King James Version of the Bible. It initially operated from an office space in a strip mall that also housed Anderson’s fire alarm installation business. By 2015, the… Continue reading
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Faith Temple Church of the Apostolic Faith (c. 2000)
The Faith Temple Church of the Apostolic Faith was founded in a Milwaukee strip mall by David Hemphill with a focus on the belief that behavioral challenges and developmental disorders are due to demonic possession. It conducted deliverance and spiritual healing ceremonies intended to cast out demons, drawing on biblical passages such as Matthew 12:43.… Continue reading
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Faith Tabernacle Congregation (1897)
The Faith Tabernacle Congregation is a fundamentalist Christian sect founded in Philadelphia around the turn of the 20th century. In its early years, the church’s rejection of modern medicine was viewed by some observers as a practical response to the economic realities faced by working-class families. Early church publications, including “Sword of the Spirit,” featured… Continue reading
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Faith Christian Church (1990)
Faith Christian Church (FCC) is a religious organization founded in 1990 in Tucson, Arizona, that has been described as a cult. The church emerged following the collapse of the Tucson chapter of Maranatha Christian Church, a campus ministry network that disbanded amid allegations of authoritarian practices and institutional misconduct. Since its founding, FCC has been… Continue reading
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Exodus International (1976)
Exodus International was a Christian organization founded in 1976 that became the leading organization within the “ex-gay” movement. Exodus maintained that through prayer, pastoral counseling, and reparative therapy, individuals could change or suppress their sexual orientation. By 2006, the organization served as an administrative network for more than 250 local ministries across the United States… Continue reading