The rapture didn’t arrive in September, as some TikTokers predicted. Nor did arrive in 1979, the year cult leader John Robert Stevens had promised his followers a great tribulation. Society would be reborn in his image, centered out of a compound in southeast Iowa called Shiloh. The prophecy failed, but Shiloh lasted another four decades as the Living Word Fellowship’s new Eden — a weird compound/farm hawking “natural” health supplements and administering deadly tests of faith. In this issue, the scammy side of the Shiloh cult that ended in a (literal) blaze.
Also inside: LV News Director Paul Brennan interviews Art Cullen on his new book, the roots of Iowa’s ruin and why the acclaimed curmudgeon still has hope for the future. Plus: Iowa beer picks for your Halloween party, whether you’re going as a witch, ghost or antifa hellion; and Prairie Pop columnist Kembrew McLeod reminisces with Jonathan Richman, punk legend and Velvet Underground’s “protege.” And, of course, Dear Kiki, album reviews, book reviews and more.
