Geraldine Smith - Jon Ronson TV - Culthelp online - CNN online -
Led by Dave and Cherry Mckay a movement mostly based in Australia but with significant global outreach. This movement derives its guiding ethos from a very particular reading of The Bible that prioritises the teachings of Jesus as an apocalyptic figure. Geraldine Smith, The Millenialists Project, 2017
This seemed like it was going to be a sweet story about Christians saving lives but along the way it became a chaos of accusations and anger … Jon Ronson, Kidneys for Jesus, Channel 4 2003
Could these Jesus Christians really put people under their spell? ibid.
Almost all of them have decided to donate their kidneys to strangers. ibid.
Founded in Australia in 1982 by David McKay, a native of Rochester, New York, and his wife Cherry, the Jesus Christians have attracted criticism since their inception …
In media reports the Jesus Christians have often been identified as an offshoot of the Children of God, a claim McKay disputes …
Only thirty members strong, the Jesus Christians live in nomadic communities of five to ten people spread out between Australia, England, Kenya and, until recently, Los Angeles. Culthelp online article
BALTIMORE, Maryland (CNN) – Barry Mendez gave one of his kidneys to a stranger – a good-natured act that has stirred concern among medical ethicists.
It is not unusual for doctors to get organs from corpses or from people who know the recipient. In 2005, for example, about 6,900 transplants involved living donors, nearly all of whom were relatives or friends of the recipient.
By contrast, Mendez is one of only about 400 people nationwide who are known to have ever donated to a stranger.
Mendez is a member of the Jesus Christians, a group that calls itself a ‘live-by-faith, work-for-God-not-money Christian community’. There are 28 Jesus Christians worldwide and 15 have given kidneys.
In Australia, where the group was founded, the government for the state of Victoria is suspicious of the Jesus Christians and has banned its members from donating to strangers.
The Australian press has alleged that leader David McKay has coerced members into donating. McKay says the Jesus Christians are not a cult and he has never coerced any of them into donating a kidney.
Mendez said he gave his kidney willingly.
‘I have done something to help someone,’ Mendez told CNN after his surgery last year at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. ‘And that is the message of love basically, from my understanding, what Jesus was trying to teach us.’
Many European countries ban so-called good Samaritan donors or make it difficult for them to donate. As a result, some like the Jesus Christians come to the United States. CNN online article 5 June 2006, ‘Would you give your kidney to a stranger?’