TRICKS

of the

Sword of the Spirit

What you should know before you join the Sword of the Spirit Covenant
Communities.

John Flaherty, May 29, 2011 Grand Island, NE

 Chapter 1: Leadership Recruitment
Synopsis: It appears that Sword of the Spirit (SOS) leaders obtain new communities by first “capturing” the
leadership of these communities.

Recently I was contacted by a person who had discovered documents about the SOS that
I had posted at scribd.com/bluaquarius. These documents primarily focus around the Servants of
Christ the King, a branch of the SOS that operated in Steubenville, OH until Catholic Bishop
Albert Ottenweller ordered Servants to sever all ties1 with the SOS.

This person explained how her community had become a member of the SOS:

“Our community applied to be a member of the Sword of the Spirit through the
recommendations of our leaders. Because of our trust in them, we did not even
question what this Sword of the Spirit is, because they also mentioned that with
this membership we also will be a member of Christ the King Association, which
is the catholic wing of the Sword of the Spirit.”2

It was the leaders of the community who came to the membership and recommended
participation in the SOS. The members -who knew, loved and trusted their leaders- went along
with the decision not fully aware of the changes that would come about because of their decision.
However, not even leadership would know all the changes that would develop because of their
decision to follow “God” into the Sword of the Spirit.

Later on they discovered they would have to participate in practices with which they were
not agreeable. They did not know about these practices when they gave their consent to the
leadership. However, these were practices the Sword of the Spirit insisted on as part of their
“way of life.” When the person challenged this practice:

“Let me just give you the bottomline. My husband was relieved of his being a
leader and we were placed on an indefinite leave of absence. He was told he is
unfit to lead, because he refused to follow the way of life of our community which
is based on the way of life of Sword of the Spirit.”3

And so, people who were following God in their Charismatic Covenant Community
before they followed their leadership into the SOS were “trimmed” away from their community
by the Sword of the Spirit. They were placed on indefinite leave of absence. They were not
asked… they were told. Their leaders –who prior to their SOS allegiance had been loyal to the
members of the Community- were now loyal to the Sword of the Spirit. The member had
become “expendable” in the name of the “way of life” or the “mission” of the SOS.

1
http://www.scribd.com/doc/19099693
2
Actual quotes used with permission, 2011.
3
Ibid
 One last point: a primary recruitment feature that was important to prospective members
was participation in the Catholic expression of the SOS, Christ the King Association.4 This
association was used to both entice and re-assure prospective members about participation in the
Sword of the Spirit.

This story was familiar to me. It sounded familiar because the Servants of Christ the
King was recruited into the SOS in much the same way: capturing the minds and loyalty of the
leaders of the Community. With the leaders in tow the general community followed with
minimal complaint.

In 1977 Servants was still known as The Community of God’s Love.5 The community
had two men as its primary leaders: Mr. Thomas Kneier6 (one of the founding members of the
Charismatic Prayer meeting that met on Thursday nights in the chapel of The College of
Steubenville) and Fr Michael Scanlan, TOR7 Chancellor of Franciscan University of
Steubenville, a graduate of the Harvard School of Law and a member of the New York Bar
Association.

Later in 1977, Fr Scanlan would prophesy8 that God wanted the small community he had
been asked to lead to “come under” the Word of God Covenant Community in Ann Arbor. In
the prophesy he uttered, members were instructed by “god” to not worry about the details but to
comply to the request because the need was urgent. The community –myself included- did
exactly that. Without any forethought or investigation we, “followed God” via Fr Scanlan’s
voice and became a community in formation under the Word of God, which later changed its
name to The Sword of the Spirit.

What we did not know at that time is the power and influence certain members of the
SOS had gained over our leader, Fr Scanlan. Beginning in 1971 –six years before the founding
of our Covenant Community- Fr Scanlan had been participating in meetings with leaders of the
Word of God (WOG).9 He had become associated with Ralph Martin10 who, along with his
cohort Steven B Clark11, had founded the WOG. He had also been participating in Leadership
Conferences with Protestant Charismatic leaders out of Ft. Lauderdale as well as “secret”
meetings with the same leadership “Council,” of which Clark and Martin were members.12

So it was that for many years our leaders had been rubbing elbows with Steven Clark,
Ralph Martin and their Protestant counterparts in Charismatic Renewal. When it came time for
4
http://www.rc.net/org/cka/
5
http://www.scribd.com/doc/38693970
6
http://www.scribd.com/doc/19695258/Doomed-from-the-Start-Tom-Kneier-re-The-Sword-of-the-Spirit
7
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eec741O6GkY
8
http://www.scribd.com/doc/20484406
9
Let the Fire Fall, 1986, Michael Scanlan, TOR page 111, Servant Publications.
10
http://www.renewalministries.net/?module=Home
11
http://www.scribd.com/doc/55907854
12
The Shepherding Movement 2003, S David Moore, T&T Clark International, page 116
our community to “come under” the WOG, no one but our leaders really understood what that
would mean. In the end run they used the Charismatic gift of Prophecy to sweep us into the
WOG/SOS, telling us to not worry about the details and to “trust God.”13

What followed were 12 years under the heavy hand14 of the Sword of the Spirit during
which time many members either voluntarily or involuntarily left the Community because, “they
couldn’t live the life.” Furthermore, one could not just “leave” the community; you had to have
the permission of the leaders. Realistically, the leaders had no power to control these
Charismatic Catholics. But believing the Community to be a) sanctioned by the Catholic Church
and b) in the authenticity of a “statement of intent” that SOS leaders labeled a “Covenant,” many
members’ forfeited powers and rights to their SOS leaders that the SOS had no spiritual or
ecclesiastical right to claim.

Exiting members were told: “If you speak well of us, we will speak well of you.” If you
had genuinely submitted your life to these leaders -believing they were Holy Men and sanctioned
by the Catholic Church to bring about Christian growth and change in your life- you had told
them about the areas of sin and weakness in your life that you would not ordinarily share with
anyone outside your most trusted confidants. Understanding that they were aware of your life to
this depth and detail gave the aforementioned statement an ominous, even threatening power.

If this writer could make investigation into the histories of most Sword of the Spirit
communities a paying occupation he might have time to document more stories. No such luxury
exists at this writing. But further investigation has yielded one more story.

The Servants of God15 in Ottawa Canada no longer maintain an active website. It is

unclear what has happened to this SOS Community. However there is an archived copy of their
website.

This Community posted the history of their beginnings and recruitment into the Sword of
the Spirit on the internet sometime ago. Here is the section of the Community’s history that
describes the Sword of the Spirit’s pattern of “capturing” the leadership:

In 1977 the leaders of St. Joseph's Prayer Group were encouraged by Father
McDonald to visit an ecumenical community known as the Word of God at Ann
Arbour, Michigan. The leaders were so inspired from their visit that they decided
to a make covenant to one another to live out the early Christian life as described
in the book of Acts 2:42-43.

The history goes on to describe the entire community making a trip to the WOG where
they were taught by a man named Dick Herman. Mr. Herman was a leader of the Bread of Life,

13
http://www.scribd.com/doc/20484406
14
http://www.scribd.com/doc/55661455
15
http://www.oocities.org/athens/acropolis/3172/files/hist2.html
a Covenant Community in Akron OH that was affiliated with the WOG/SOS. In 1985, Catholic
Bishop Gilbert Sheldon would investigate Mr. Herman’s community and issue specific demands
for change if they intended to keep their affiliation with the Catholic Church. Mr. Herman would
initially accept these demands – but after consultation with Sword of the Spirit leaders would
rescind his acceptance and separate his Charismatic Catholic Community from the Catholic
Church.

In summary, the Sword of the Spirit appears to engage in a recruitment process that
focuses on “capturing” the leadership of prospective communities. Once the leaders are
convinced that they are called to support the Mission and Life of the Sword of the Spirit, they go
back to their home communities and announce what they feel is “God” giving them direction.
Members who have “raised up” these leaders from among themselves are then in a bind: they can
follow these leaders into the SOS with minimal information about what that means or disagree
and bring division to their community. But by the time things get to this point the issue is moot.
Those who believe the Sword of the Spirit is the right way to go are going to leave, regardless of
what they know or don’t know.

They then implement the “common lifestyle” of the SOS which members are not aware
of when they give consent to come “underway” in the SOS.

Once your community has decided to pursue membership in the SOS your leaders are no
longer your own: they belong to the Sword of the Spirit. And you as a member are expendable if
you are unwilling to “live the life” by going along with the mission and mind of the SOS.

Coming Next

Chapter Two: Use of the term “Covenant”

Chapter Three: Obfuscation of Relationships