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Philadelphia three local churches eagerly tuned in to the message, and members started selling their possessions. Before May was out, about ten church members joined Stair at his commune, turning all their money over to him in exchange for living quarters in his commune. Obviously the economy didn't collapse, Reagan finished his term, and doomsday never came. Despite the failures, many of Stair's new converts stayed with him, accepting his explanation that God had changed His mind.

But one couple that exited, months after joining, left deeply wounded. The wife had joined Stair's commune while she was well along in her pregnancy, and Stair had discouraged the use of medicine and modern doctors. As a result the couple's ten-pound, twelve-ounce baby boy was born dead in Stair's commune on July 6 at the hands of unlicensed midwives - sect members. The next day Colleton County Coroner Bob Bryan investigated the death and ruled the baby dies of "anoxia," or an absence of oxygen caused by a prolonged delivery. Though no criminal charges were filed, he ruled the death could have been prevented.

My wife and I covered the unfolding story of this cult for the Delaware County Daily Times, in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania; we wrote more than thirty stories on Stair and the local doomsday cults seeking to join him. Two things became very clear as we researched the stories: It was Stair's message of fear that seemed to draw his followers, and he reinforced that fear through his monthly newsletters. Among the fantastic stories it contained were:

no comets hit the earth and the only houses riffled or wemen ravished was at the farm where Stair bring thes things to pass by the prophesying in baal.(read jer:23)

Jesus is coming (only the pure in heart shall see)

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