Julia's Reviews > The World in Flames: A Black Boyhood in a White Supremacist Doomsday Cult

Before I picked up this memoir of the author’s boyhood in the Worldwide Church of Christ, I had never heard of the cult. Like Seventh Day Adventists, they celebrate the Sabbath on Saturday. The founder was a racist; Herbert W. Armstrong developed his cult in conservative Oregon in the 1920’s.

“Our only hope is to trust that God knew what he was doing when he ordained not only segregation but also white supremacy, a point we were to deduce from the fact that whites inherited the race of Jesus. But for being the descendents of slaves, Mr. Armstrong added, blacks have made out pretty well.” (58) I could only wish that this was a creative memoir, or a novel from the point of view of one of the author’s older siblings, or someone a slightly older or more aware than the narrator. I don’t understand what drew the author’s parents to the church, or why some of his siblings kept their ties to the cult. Perhaps other readers of nonfiction and fiction about LDS, Scientology and other cults may like this.

I received this an ARC from Library Thing rec 8.12.16, in return for a fair review.