Editing Jesus Christians (section)

====Bobby Kelly Controversy====
On 14 July 2000 the group was splashed across the front page of the British tabloid [[Daily Express]], which declared that members Susan and Roland Gianstefani had [[kidnap]]ped a 16-year-old boy, Bobby Kelly.<ref name="guardian.co.uk" /> Bobby had picked up a Jesus Christians cartoon book called ''The Liberator'' in Romford High Street, [[Essex]] near the end of June 2000,<ref name="The Daily Telegraph">{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1350630/Police-find-sect-boy-at-woodland-camp.html|title=Police Find Sect Boy at Woodland Camp|last1=Pook|first1=Sally|date=28 July 2000|accessdate=12 December 2017|publisher=The Daily Telegraph|quote=A teenager who vanished a month ago with a religious sect was found yesterday with two of its members in a tent in Hampshire.}}</ref> and gone home to tell his grandmother about the Christian man he met. Bobby went out again that afternoon and returned to tell his grandmother he wanted to join the Jesus Christians. A few days later, "an Australian couple with their young son, a German, and two English men" from the group visited and met Bobby's grandmother.<ref name="Cult Kidnaps Boy Aged 16">{{cite news|last1=Hendry|first1=Alex|title=Cult Kidnaps Boy Aged 16|url=http://www.culthelp.info/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=464&Itemid=8|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150523125908/http://www.culthelp.info/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=464&Itemid=8|url-status=dead|accessdate=15 December 2017|publisher=Express Newspaper|date=July 14, 2000|archivedate=23 May 2015}}</ref> In the first two weeks of July, while Bobby was with the group and before the scandal had hit the headlines, Bobby visited his youth worker from St. Peters Anglican Church in [[Harold Wood]]. He had previously attended that church. The youth worker, David Whitehouse, told the press a week later, "The group has a veneer of respectability, but there is something very disturbing about them. When I saw Bobby a week ago, he was with three of them, and he seemed very scared, which was unlike him".<ref>{{cite news|last1=Hendry|first1=Alex|title=Cult Kidnaps Boy Aged 16|url=http://www.culthelp.info/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=464&Itemid=8|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150523125908/http://www.culthelp.info/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=464&Itemid=8|url-status=dead|accessdate=15 December 2017|publisher=Express Newspaper|date=July 14, 2000|archivedate=23 May 2015|quote=David Whitehouse, a youth worker at St Peter's Church in Harold Wood, Essex, which Bobby attended, said: "He is a typical cheeky teenager and will talk to anybody and that's what happened here. This group has a veneer of respectability but there is something very disturbing about them. When I saw Bobby a week ago he was with three of them and he seemed very scared, which was unlike him."}}</ref>

Sometime before July 14, David Whitehouse, "the family friend who helped set up the rescue effort", and "who suspected that something was wrong, and did something to try to save him" had been in contact with anti-cult "exit-counseller" [[Graham Baldwin]], described in the media as Whitehouse's friend.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Hendry |first1=Alex |title=Cult Leader Defies Bid To Track Down Bobby |url=https://culteducation.com/group/1001-the-jesus-christians/10715-cult-leader-defies-bid-to-track-down-bobby-.html |publisher=The Daily Express |access-date=25 February 2025 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140712152610/https://culteducation.com/group/1001-the-jesus-christians/10715-cult-leader-defies-bid-to-track-down-bobby-.html |archive-date=12 July 2014 |date=15 July 2000 |quote=David Whitehouse, the family friend who helped set up the rescue effort}}</ref><ref name="Cult Kidnaps Boy Aged 16" /><ref name="Whitehouse Baldwin Kirby">{{cite news |last1=Mullins |first1=Andrew |title=Police find boy hiding with sect in forest |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/police-find-boy-hiding-with-sectin-forest-707063.html |access-date=25 February 2025 |work=The Independent |date=28 July 2000 |quote=Mrs Kelly was advised by David Whitehouse, a pastor at St Peter's Church in Romford where the Kellys live... Mr Whitehouse is a friend of Graham Baldwin, of Catalyst, a charity that counsels people who have left cults. They put the pastor in contact with solicitors Kirby & Co of Wimbledon, who began moves to have Bobby made a ward of court.}}</ref> Baldwin formed and directs the charity Catalyst, which helps families of people involved in groups labelled as "cults". Baldwin put Whitehouse in contact with Clare Kirby, a [[solicitor]] who "specialises in cases against cults", and who has worked with Baldwin in other cases.<ref name="Cult Kidnaps Boy Aged 16" /><ref>{{cite web |last1=Kirby |first1=Clare |title=Notable Reported Cases and Media |url=https://www.peacock-law.co.uk/team/clare-kirby/ |website=Peacock & Co Solicitors |access-date=25 February 2025}}</ref> They then began moves to advise Bobby Kelly's grandmother to have Bobby made a [[Ward (law)|ward of the court]].<ref name="Whitehouse Baldwin Kirby" /> Graham Baldwin also advised David Whitehouse to give Bobby Kelly the impression that everything was normal until the solicitor succeeded in getting the emergency High Court action to try to "rescue the schoolboy".<ref name="Whitehouse Secrecy">{{cite news |title=Cult link youth may be abroad |url=https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12184037.cult-link-youth-may-be-abroad/ |access-date=25 February 2025 |work=The Herald Scotland |date=14 July 2000 |quote=I had been in contact with a group which helps those taken in by cults before the meeting and been advised to keep things as normal as possible. Until Bobby had been made a ward of court, it was important to keep in contact as this group has a record for just going underground.}}</ref><ref name="Cult Kidnaps Boy Aged 16"/> Neither Bobby Kelly's grandmother nor any other relative or friend told him to come back home nor that there was an issue with him being with the Jesus Christians "until it was all in the newspapers".<ref>{{cite news |author1=Jon Ronson |title=I wasn't Brainwashed but Enlightened |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/726967526/ |access-date=25 February 2025 |work=Evening Standard |agency=Newspapers.com |date=13 October 2000 |page=116 |quote=My nan didn't tell me she wanted me back until it was all in the newspapers}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Exclusive Bobby Kelly Interview |url=https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xd6izd?start=389 |website=Dailymotion |access-date=25 February 2025 |date=4 May 2010 |format=Video |quote=At not one point did she or anyone, absolutely anyone, no family member or her or anyone or even a friend, suggest to me that I needed to come back or said 'we want you to come home' or 'we're scared that you're spending time with a religious cult'... if someone had told me that there was an issue or suggested that I come home, I would have come home.}}</ref> 

The front page newspaper report in ''The Express'' was published two weeks after Bobby first met the Jesus Christians with the story that Bobby had "disappeared" after he met the group: "Within hours Bobby had forsaken his possessions and moved in with the group. The police were called and the airports and docks were put on the highest alert".<ref>{{cite book|last1=Ronson|first1=Jon|title=Lost at Sea, The Jon Ronson Mysteries|date=2013|publisher=Pan Macmillan|location=Part Five, Blood Sacrifice|isbn=9781447246039|page=313|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DDlEpTj8iNIC&q=cult+kidnaps+boy+age+16+Jesus+Christians+bobby+kelly&pg=PA313|accessdate=7 December 2017}}</ref> After ''The Express'' broke the story, instead of handing the boy over to the police, the Jesus Christians with Bobby "in tow", panicked and went "on the run".<ref>{{cite book |author1=Jon Ronson |title=Lost at sea: the Jon Ronson mysteries. |date=2012 |publisher=Picador |isbn=978-1-4472-6471-2 |page=335 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cBjYCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA335 |quote=There was an emergency High Court action to 'rescue' the boy, which led to Bobby's photo being circulated. That's when the Jesus Christians panicked and went on the run, with Bobby in tow.}}</ref> The UK Jesus Christians became fugitives for two weeks.

When the Jesus Christians could not be found in the nationwide search, and when Bobby started doing telephone interviews with the media declaring that he had not been kidnapped,<ref>{{cite news|title=Boy speaks out for sect|url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/852109.stm|publisher=BBC News|access-date=18 May 2013|date=26 July 2000}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=BBC Radio Interview with Bobby Kelly |url=https://jesuschristians.com/media-section/controversies/cult-kidnap-boy/television-and-radio-clips/614-bbc-radio-interview-with-bobby-kelly |website=Jesus Christians |access-date=11 May 2023}}</ref> an emergency court ruling was made banning the broadcast of interviews with Bobby or the group, which the BBC successfully challenged, considering it to be a case of "extreme censorship".<ref>{{cite news|title=BBC barred over cult boy footage|url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/838861.stm|publisher=BBC News | date=18 July 2000}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |author1=Rod Liddle |title=Free to report |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2000/jul/31/broadcasting.mondaymediasection1 |work=The Guardian |date=31 July 2000 |quote=This was, in our view, an extreme case of censorship. While Jesus Christians were allegedly in contempt of court for not having disclosed the whereabouts of Bobby Kelly, the organisation was not illegal nor a force for evil deserving a restriction of its members' civil rights. Why should they be deprived of free speech?}}</ref> 

Bobby was eventually located hiding out with two Jesus Christian men, including Reinhard Zeuner, in a [[Hampshire]] forest,<ref>{{cite news|last1=Pook|first1=Sally|title=Police Find Sect Boy at Woodland Camp|url=http://www.culthelp.info/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=467&Itemid=8|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111107120255/http://www.culthelp.info/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=467&Itemid=8|url-status=dead|archive-date=7 November 2011|accessdate=12 December 2017|publisher=The Daily Telegraph|date=28 July 2000|quote=A teenager who vanished a month ago with a religious sect was found yesterday with two of its members in a tent in Hampshire. The threesome had earlier spent 10 days staying on an official camp site at the Basingstoke Canal Visitors' Centre. The man who booked in said he was Reinhardt Zenner.}}</ref> and placed in a [[Foster care|foster home]]. No members of the Jesus Christians were charged with kidnapping but a charge of [[contempt of court]] (for failing to answer questions from the High Court judge) resulted in six-month sentences for Susan and Roland Gianstefani. The solicitor for the Gianstefani's told the court that the Gianstefani's feared Bobby might be subjected to the [[deprogramming]] of his religious beliefs if they had revealed his whereabouts.<ref>{{cite web|title=Cult Pair Freed after Bobby Plea|url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/853876.stm|website=BBC World Services|publisher=BBC|access-date=17 December 2017|date=27 July 2000|quote=Mr Bain told the judge that Mr and Mrs Gianstefani feared Bobby might be subjected to the deprogramming of his religious beliefs if they had revealed his whereabouts.}}</ref> Minutes before the Gianstefanis were due to be sentenced, Bobby, who was kept in a separate room at the High Court, sent a note to the judge through the representative of the Official Solicitor saying that the Gianstefani's had acted nobly and they feared he (Bobby) might be subjected to the deprogramming of his religious beliefs if they had revealed his whereabouts.<ref>{{cite web|title=Cult Pair Freed after Bobby Plea|url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/853876.stm|website=BBC World Services|publisher=BBC|access-date=17 December 2017|date=27 July 2000|quote=In his statement the teenager said the couple were acting "nobly" because they did not want a cult [[Deprogramming|deprogrammer]] to "get his hands on me"}}</ref> Bobby said: "I hope they don't get into trouble. They were willing to go to prison for me".<ref name="The Daily Telegraph"/> The Gianstefanis' sentences were suspended after Bobby had pleaded with the judge in their defence.<ref>{{cite news|title=Cult pair freed after Bobby plea|url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/853876.stm|publisher=BBC News|access-date=18 May 2013|date=27 July 2000}}</ref>

In 2003, [[Jon Ronson]], briefly interviewed Bobby Kelly about his alleged abduction, in his [[Channel 4]] documentary ''Kidneys for Jesus''.<ref name=":0">{{cite web |title=Kidney's for Jesus |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0989014/ |website=imdb |publisher=World of Wonder Productions |access-date=11 May 2023}}</ref> Bobby clearly states, "I definitely wasn't kidnapped..." and that media coverage about the alleged kidnapping was "absolutely stupid, and silly, and just, over the top big time".<ref name=":0" />

In May 2010, the Jesus Christians interviewed Bobby Kelly personally. Bobby explains in detail what happened while he was visiting with the Jesus Christians, the lies that were told to his grandmother to convince her to sign over her guardianship for him to become a ward of court, and the effect the lies, and living with a foster family with restricted access to his grandmother, had on his life over the next years.<ref>{{cite web |title=Exclusive Bobby Kelly Interview |url=https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xd6izd |website=Dailymotion |date=4 May 2010 |access-date=11 May 2023}}</ref>

In October 2017 Roland and Susan Gianstefani had a live radio interview with Bobby Kelly on a Welsh radio station where they discussed their life and the controversies they were involved in when they were a part of the Jesus Christians community.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://radiobronglais.cymru/en/interviews/interview-with-activists-roland-and-sue-gianstefani/|title=Interview with activists Roland and Sue Gianstefani (32:10)|publisher=RBFM live|accessdate=17 December 2017}}</ref>