- DENVER (Reuters) - Relatives have been searching for as many as 60 members
of a cult who disappeared more than two weeks ago with a leader who prophesied
Denver would be destroyed, a member of a cult monitoring group said Wednesday.
Members of Denver-based Concerned Christians disappeared more than two
weeks ago, abandoning homes and jobs to follow their charismatic leader,
Monte Kim Miller, 44, said Hal Mansfield, director of the Religious Movement
Resource Center. ``Family members have been calling, worried and have not
heard from their missing relatives,'' said Mansfield, head of the Fort
Collins, Colorado-based group that monitors cults.
Miller, who founded Concerned Christians, is suspected of leading the
group to either Jerusalem or Mexico. Relatives of members of the group
said the members were fleeing Denver because Miller prophesied the city
would be ground zero for an apocalyptic disaster last Saturday. Miller,
a former marketing manager, claims to be the last prophet on Earth, according
to Bill Honsberger, who also monitors cult groups. The Colorado native
has foretold his own death on the streets of Jerusalem sometime during
1999. He has reassured his faithful that he will reappear in three days.
Mansfield, who has been monitoring the group for two years, said the disappearance
was well planned and orchestrated. ''Follow the money,'' he said. ``I don't
think that he's dangerous,'' said Carol Giambalvo, a former cult member
and consultant to American Family Foundation, an anti-cult organization.
``I think he had financial problems and needed a reason to move out of
Denver, so he made this little prophecy,'' she said. Miller's empty home
in southeast Denver is for sale. According to court records, Miller and
his wife, Marcia, declared bankruptcy a year ago, owing more than $600,000,
published reports said.
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