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SECTION: News; Pg. 30

December 08, 1996, Sunday

LENGTH: 6 ! 1 words

HEADLINE: CLEANERS HANDLE RUGS AND RELIGION SHAGGING SOULS A LA TXPS SEINFELD

BYLINE: By LINDA YGLESIAS

BODY:

Christian Brothers Cleaning Co. will clean your rug and cleanse your soul for a tidy sum.

Like the "Soup Nazi," based on Al Yeganeh's Soup Kitchen International in midtown, the carpet cleaners are an instance of sitcorn art imitating life.

A version of the rug proselytizers surfaced recently on "Seinfeld," also home of the angry soup chef.

"We are Christian carpet cleaners. We believe in Jesus, we believe in the Bible," said a job-slotter at Christian Brothers on W. 46th St. "We developed the business to support our missionary work and our church, the Church of Bible Understanding."

In the "Seinfeld" episode, Jerry's cheapskate pal George Costanza hires a carpet-cleaning cult to freshen his rugs. Ceaselessly seeking the biggest bang for his buck, he figures he'll get his soul cleansed, too.

After the cleaners fail to pitch the washing of his spirit, an irked, passed-over George keeps baiting, "Are you sure there isn't anything else?"

In the Christian Brothers offices, rug swatches and sludge-sucking machines nest amid "You are going to hell unless you repent" and "All the little sheepics" wall hangings. Though acknowledging they are Church of Bible Understanding (COBU) members, none of the cleaners would talk to the Daily News.

'But former COBU carpet cleaner Peter Jaquay who, blocks away, three years ago launched Popular Carpets with former COBU pal Jim LaRue recalled his days with the sect, founded in the 1970s by a former vacuum cleaner salesman.

"I once cleaned Mick Jaggers carpets in a Central Park West hotel," Jaquay said. "Mick made out a check and asked, 'Is this a religious organization?' I tried to spray him with a little religion, but he didn't pray on the carpet. So I splashed and dashed, cleaned his rug with a dab of preaching on the side."

"You'd stop your steaming and start talking to your client, very friendly," said LaRue. "We really weren't out to trick anybody. We really did want to tell about God."

"But when you're working 16-hour days, getting a $ 30 to $ 40-a-week allowance," he said, "you couldn't help but wonder, 'With all this money coming in, how come I'm living in squalor?'"

Cult watchdogs wondered, too. "I saw 'Seinfeld,' and I said, 'Oh, my God,'" said Arnold Markowitz, who heads a cult hotline and clinic for the Jewish Board of Family and. Children's Services.

State and local probers say the "church" which lists a second Manhattan address and three in Brooklyn in the past recruited teens as young as 14, many of them runaways, to clean for the glory of COBU coffers.

"Members... worked for cult businesses and lived in the most tragically impoverished and almost inhumane conditions," said Markowitz, who has tracked the sect for 15 years. "If you were recruited and had a job on the outside, you had to tithe 90%."

The setup got the attention of the state attorney general's office in 1985 when it ordered COBU to quit taking in teens to live and labor.

The attorney general's office says COBU has no pending complaints.

Former members still in covert touch with congregants say the sect has dwindled from its heyday 1980s, when 2,500 core believers deployed 300 carpet cleaners. Today, they reportedly number fewer than 200 locals. "The early teens are pushing 40," said LaRue.

It's sad, Jaquay said, that his successors won't get to bask in their 30 minutes of fame.

"They won't even know 'Seinfeld' did them," he said. "They don't watch television."

But back on W. 46th St. last week, the rug-cleaning business was booming. "We were in 'Seinfeld'? You gotta be kidding," a carpet cleaner said as he left on a job.

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April 20, 1995, Thursday

SECTION: Section B; Page 1, Colurn 2

LENGTH: 50 words

IIEADLINE: POLICE RAID SOUTHWEST PHII.ADELPHIA CULT BYLINE: BY MICHAEL SOKOLOVE and DANIEL KErBIN JOURNAL-CODE: PHI ABSTRACT:

Philadelphia police raid headquarters of Church of Bible Understanding, looking for runaways, after receiving complaint from 16-year-old Brooklyn girl who said she had been held there against her will; Stewart Traill is head of religious cult; photo; map (M)

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August 3, 1985, Saturday, Late City Final Edition

SECTION: Section 1; Page 28, Column 5; Metropolitan Desk ,

LENGTH: 189 words

ItEADLINE: THE CITY;
Housing of Youths By Church Barred

BODY:
The Church of Bible Understanding, a religious group that operates a carpet-cleaning business to support itself, was ordered yesterday to stop housing runaways and other unaccompanied children in its buildings in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Justice Michael J. Domfin of State Supreme Court in Manhattan said the group could not operate residential-care centers for children because it had not obtained a license from the State Department of Social Services.

Last May, officials of the State Attorney General's office went to church buildings at 515 West 47th Street in Manhattan and 162 Woodruff Avenue in Brooklyn. They said they had found runaway children living in squalid conditions and removed several of them. Yesterday's order by Justice Dontzin makes permanent a temporary restraining order issued at that time.

The order instructs the church to send any children living at the two buildings back to their parents or to licensed facilities. The order also bars the church from soliciting children at such places as the Port Authority Bus Terminal and from transporting children to church facilities outside New York City.

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June 9, 1985, Sunday, Late City Final Edition

SECTION: Section 1; Part 1, Page 41, Column 1; Metropolitan Desk LENGTH: 635 words

[lEADLINE: SECT ORDERED TO STOP SHELTERING TEEN-AGERS

BYLINE: By JOSEPH BERGER

BODY:
A self-styled Christian sect that operates a carpet-cleaning service from residences on the West Side of Manhattan and in Brooklyn has been ordered to stop taking any more teen-agers into the homes, authorities said yesterday.

Investigators for the State Attorney General's office and other agencies raided a residence at 515 West 47th Street maintained by the sect, the Church of Bible Understanding, on Wednesday and said they found at least 17 teen-agers, many of them runaways, living in filthy conditions.

"It appears that the children do the work in the cleaning business," said David M. Fishlow, deputy press secretary for the Attorney General's office, "and it is alleged by various people that the children receive $10 a week."

Squalid Conditions

The teen-agers, who were 14 years of age and older, were sleeping on foam-rubber mats or on boards resting on milk crates, toilets were not functioning, food was kept on the floor, dirt was everywhere and paint on the walls was peeling, Mr. Fishlow said.

Three teen-agers were taken to city-supervised foster-care agencies, Mr. Fishlow said. A man who identified himself as the supervisor of the residence, Harry Weinbaum, 38, of 531 West 48th Street, was arrested on misdemeanor charges of endangering the welfare of a minor and operating an unlicensed residential care center.

'A Manhattan State Supreme Court Justice, Jawn A. Sandifer, issued a temporary order later Wednesday that barred the group from taking in any other minors and from transporting any teen-agers out of the city. At a second hearing Friday, Justice Michael J. Dontzin of Manhattan extended the order until June 19. Justice Sandifer also required the group to correct fire-code violations and to remove flammable chemicals used in carpet cleaning.

The sect was founded by a Stewart Traill, who authorities described as a former vacuum-cleaner salesman who lives in Princeton, N.J. Little is known about the group's religious beliefs, but for several years they have been raising money by offering inexpensive carpet cleaning, ot~en performed by teen-agers, through a company called the Christian Brothers Cleaners Company that operates out of the West 47th Street residence and a second residence at 162 Woodruff Avenue in Brooklyn.

The group said it has other residences elsewhere in the city and in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Arlington, Va., and Talcoma Park, Md. Mr. Fishlow said, adding that there have been allegations that children are shuttled between cities to work.

The Manhattan residence is a red-brick five-story building between abandoned railroad tracks and a truck garage, in an area of brownstones and warehouses. At the doorstep, Charles Harris, a 19-year-old youth, conceded that the place "is filthy" and "the walls are caving in" but said members of the house were making repairs.

A second young man, who identified himself only as a 23-year-old student at Pace University, said that members were "asked to work, but you don't have to."

A pamphlet tacked onto the residence's front door had a picture of Jesus and a flock of sheep and said in part, 'Wow if you are tired of wandering in the world and realize that you will only get lost in its unfulfilling cycles then we hope you will let us help you find your destination back to sheephood."

Mr. Fishlow said many of the teen-agers in the sect were recruited at the Port Authority Bus Terminal and other places where runaways can be found.,

In May 1984, the church signed a legal stipulation drafted by the Attorney General in which they agreed to stop operating an unlicensed home for minors, Mr. Fishlow said.

Investigators inspected the group's Brooklyn center on Thursday, he said, and found unclean conditions similar to those in Manhattan, but no teen-agers were taken out.

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SECTION: Regional News

May 24, 1983, Tuesday, AM cycle

LENGTH: 492 words

DATELINE: NEW YORK

BODY:
A state judge issued an order Tuesday preventing a Brooklyn-based church from transporting childrer it recruited from a center for runaways and forbid the church from recruiting children without their parents' consent

The injunction by state Supreme Court Justice Stanley Ostrau came after Under 21, a Manhattan "crisis center" for homeless youths and runaways, accused the Church of Bible Understanding of infiltrating its center and convincing members to join the group.

The children were not allowed to leave the church's facility unescorted and forced to work for the church's carpet cleaning business and tithe 90 percent of their earnings to the church.

Diane Pekunda, a spokeswoman for Under 21, said about 100 children, some as young as 11, were livin,: in the Brooklyn facility.

The judge's ruling bars the Church from recruiting any person under the age of 18 without parental consent and says the church cannot hold any person against their will, a spokesman for Ostrau said.

Ms. Pekunda said that on May 18, 10 young adults ranging in age from 18 to 20 entered Under 21's facility at 460 West 41 st St., under the pretense of being homeless.

Shortly after arriving the 10 youths began to distribute religious literature and encourage residents of Under 21 to leave the facility to "receive salvation, jobs, shelter, and food," Ms. Pekunda said.

Within an hour of the youths arrived, 17 children left the facility and boarded vans operated by the
Church of Bible Understanding. The youths were taken to Young Sheep House, at 162 Woodruff Ave., in Brooklyn, Ms. Pekunda said.

The Young Sheep House is owned and operated by the Church of Bible Understanding, the spokeswoman said.

Within four days, seven of the children returned with "horror stories" about the Brooklyn organization. Ms. Pekunda said the youths said they were not allowed to leave the building unesconed, and were forced to work for little or not money.

Under 21 officials learned that five vans would be leaving New York City for Philadelphia on May 20 with the children recruited from their center. At that time the officials decided to take action, the spokeswoman said.

On Under 2 l's request, State Supreme Court Justice Richard Wallach signed a temporary restraining order prohibiting the Church of Bible Understanding from entering Under 21, enticing any residents to leave Under 21, and transporting any children or young adults out of New York City.

The case was scheduled to be heard May 23, but the Church of Bible Understanding asked for a postponement until Tuesday.

Officials of the Church did not return calls made to church offices in Brooklyn and Manhattan.

Under 21 offers food, emergency shelter, health and legal services, and counseling to runaway, homeless, and "exploited" youth.

The Under 21 spokeswoman said the shelter, at 460 W. 41 St., in Manhattan, sheltered 188 youths and provided 690 meals on an average day in 1982.