A militant Christian fundamentalist movement with a controversial legacy of legal troubles and accusations of abuse.
Religion: Christianity
Denomination: Evangelicalism
Founder: Jim and Lila Green
Founded: 1981
Location: United States (primarily New Mexico)
Size: Small
Other Names: Aggressive Christianity Missions Training Corps, Free Love Ministries, Life Force Team, Holy Tribal Nation, The Foundation
Website: aggressivechristianity.net
Introduction
The Aggressive Christianity Missions Training Corps (ACMTC), also rendered in some sources as the Aggressive Christianity Missionary Training Corps, is a militant Christian fundamentalist organization founded in 1981 in Sacramento, California. Over the course of more than four decades, the group drew widespread scrutiny from law enforcement, journalists, religious scholars, and civil rights organizations for its authoritarian structure, controversial theological teachings, and, ultimately, the criminal convictions of its founders on serious charges of child abuse and sexual misconduct.
Origins and Founders
Who Founded the ACMTC?
The ACMTC was founded by James Green (born 1945 in Kentucky) and his wife Deborah Green, who was born Lila Carter and later adopted the name “Deborah” — a reference to the judge and military leader described in the Book of Judges in the Bible. Before co-founding the group, both had been deeply embedded in 1960s counterculture. The pair became involved with the Bear Tribe, in the foothills of California‘s Sierra Nevada, whose members practiced syncretic versions of Native American spiritual rituals.
In 1971, while living in Montana, the Greens underwent what they described as a joint conversion to Christianity. They relocated to Kentucky, where James spent approximately four years training for a ministerial role under a local pastor. After a missionary journey through Central America, the couple ended up in Miami, Florida, where in the late 1970s they worked at a large Salvation Army center doing inner-city mission work. That experience with the Salvation Army would prove formative: it provided the template for the quasi-military structure the ACMTC would later adopt.
Establishment in Sacramento
In the early 1980s, the Greens moved to Sacramento, California, where they established Free Love Ministries — the organization’s original name — operating out of several adjacent communal houses, some of which were visibly marked with “Barracks” signs. The group attracted followers primarily through radio broadcasts and the distribution of printed Gospel tracts. Members were required to wear military-style uniforms, follow orders, and live communally.
The name “Aggressive Christianity Missions Training Corps” is believed to have been inspired by a sermon titled “Aggressive Christianity” delivered by Catherine Booth, co-founder of the Salvation Army.
Organizational Structure
The ACMTC was organized along explicitly military lines. James and Deborah Green styled themselves the “Generals” — James was called “General James” or simply “Jim,” while Deborah went by “General Deborah.” Followers were assigned ranks, required to wear uniforms, and expected to defer without question to the Generals’ authority.
Deborah Green was widely regarded as the dominant personality within the group. Former members and outside observers consistently described her as more zealous than her husband, and she claimed to receive direct communications from God — a role her followers called the “Oracle of God.” When members questioned her authority, Green would hold internal “trials” against them.
The group also published a substantial volume of printed material — booklets, comics (some drawn by James Green himself), newspapers, and pamphlets — most of which was targeted at troubled teenagers and young adults.
Theology and Beliefs
Religious studies scholars have characterized the ACMTC as practicing an extreme form of Pentecostalism. The group’s formal 1987 statement of faith affirmed mainstream evangelical doctrines such as the divine inspiration of the Bible, the Trinity, the Virgin Birth, and the practice of spiritual gifts including speaking in tongues, healing, and miracles.
However, the group’s theology contained several elements that drew criticism from mainstream Christian organizations and cult-awareness researchers:
- Dominion/Kingdom Now theology: The ACMTC taught that a dedicated group of Christians — called “Overcomers” or “Manifest Sons of God” — would rise to exercise supernatural power over all of God’s enemies, including death itself.
- Tiered Christianity: The group held a three-tier view of Christian spiritual status: “thirtyfold” Christians (merely saved), “sixtyfold” Christians (those with the Baptism of the Holy Spirit), and “hundredfold” Christians (the Overcomers).
- Anti-ecclesiastical stance: ACMTC taught that any Christian who supported a centralized church government or denomination was affiliated with the Antichrist, and that true salvation could only be found outside institutional church systems.
- Deliverance ministry: The group practiced an extensive “deliverance ministry” based on the belief that both objects and people could be inhabited by demons.
Hate Group Designation
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) listed the ACMTC as a hate group, a designation it held from at least 2011 through 2017, citing the group’s publications and online material promoting virulent anti-Muslim and anti-LGBTQ+ views. The group’s literature described homosexuality as “an abomination,” declared that homosexuals who died without repenting would be condemned, and denounced Islam, referring to the Prophet Muhammad as a “false prophet.” The ACMTC’s pamphlets openly acknowledged that their content was not “politically correct.”
The group also drew scrutiny from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), whose Center on Extremism noted that the ACMTC’s militaristic and apocalyptic rhetoric — particularly around “spiritual warfare” — was highly unusual even in the context of fringe Christian movements.
Geography and Name Changes
The ACMTC operated under several names over the years, including:
- Free Love Ministries (the original name, 1981)
- The Foundation
- Holy Tribal Nation
- Life Force Team
- Aggressive Christianity Missions Training Corps (the name by which it became widely known from the 1990s onward)
After its legal troubles in California (see below), the group fled the state and relocated through Oregon and Texas before eventually settling east of Fence Lake, a rural town in Cibola County, New Mexico, approximately 60 miles south of Gallup. The remote compound allowed the group to operate with minimal oversight from local authorities for years.
Legal History and Controversies
The 1988 Civil Lawsuit
The ACMTC’s first major legal crisis came in 1988, when former member Maura Schmierer filed a lawsuit against the group, alleging that she had been locked in a shed without toilet facilities and had been coerced into relinquishing legal custody of four of her children. The Greens defaulted by failing to appear in court, and in March 1989, a California judge entered a default judgment of approximately $1 million against them. As a result of the ruling, the group’s Sacramento properties were seized by the court. Rather than comply, the ACMTC destroyed the buildings and fled California. Decades of legal pursuit by Schmierer continued, with interest on the original judgment reportedly growing the total owed to more than $4.7 million by the time of later court proceedings.
The 2017 Arrests
In August 2017, following a two-year investigation by the Cibola County Sheriff’s Department, authorities raided the ACMTC’s Fence Lake compound during Sunday services. Deborah Green was arrested and charged with failure to report a birth, child abuse, and sexual penetration of a minor. Her son-in-law, Peter Green, a manager at the compound, was charged with 100 counts of criminal sexual penetration of a child, with allegations involving a girl from the time she was seven years old.
Arrest warrants described a compound where children held the military rank of “Private,” births were not reported to authorities, members were trained to hide when police appeared, and medical care was routinely denied to residents. One particularly disturbing allegation involved a girl allegedly brought from Uganda, who was reported to have been treated as a personal slave and subjected to severe physical abuse.
Criminal Convictions (2018)
In September 2018, Deborah Green was sentenced to 72 years in prison following her jury trial conviction on charges of child rape, kidnapping, and child abuse. On the same day, she also received a separate sentence of 18 years in prison under a no-contest plea to a charge of reckless child abuse resulting in great bodily harm — related to the 2014 death of a boy on the compound who was denied medical care — along with two counts of evidence tampering. Victims testified at sentencing about the lasting physical and psychological harm they had suffered.
In December 2018, James Green pleaded no contest to child abuse and related charges and received a 10-year prison sentence.
Deborah Green’s Release and Subsequent Proceedings
The 72-year conviction was set aside in 2020 after a court determined that prosecutors had withheld evidence from the defense; the state later dropped those charges when key witnesses became unavailable for a retrial. Separately, Green challenged her 18-year sentence by filing a petition for writ of habeas corpus, asserting actual innocence of the child abuse charge related to the boy’s death. In January 2022, a district court granted the habeas petition, set aside her no-contest plea, dismissed the child abuse charge, and ordered her release.
On April 21, 2025, the New Mexico Supreme Court unanimously reinstated Deborah Green’s child abuse conviction, ruling that the district court’s finding of actual innocence was not supported by substantial evidence and that the evidence directly implicated her in the commission of the crime. As of the time of writing, a warrant remains active for her arrest; her whereabouts are unknown.
Sale of the Compound
In proceedings related to the long-running Schmierer civil judgment, the ACMTC’s Fence Lake compound was ordered sold for approximately $2.8 million, with proceeds directed toward satisfying the outstanding judgment.
Media Coverage and Cultural Impact
The ACMTC attracted media attention at multiple points in its history:
- 1989: KOVR-TV (CBS, Sacramento) ran extensive reports on the group.
- 1999: KRQE (CBS, Albuquerque) investigated the group following its relocation to New Mexico.
- 2012: The National Geographic Channel featured accounts from former member Maura Schmierer and her daughter.
- 2017: NBC News, Vice, and numerous outlets covered the 2017 arrests extensively.
- 2025–2026: The group was the subject of the book The Oracle’s Daughter by journalist Harrison Hill, which chronicles the experience of Sarah Green, the founders’ daughter, who escaped the organization.
The ACMTC’s story is notable in the academic study of new religious movements as an example of how a group rooted in countercultural Christianity can evolve into an isolationist, high-control community marked by authoritarianism and documented abuse.
Current Status
As of the time of writing, the ACMTC’s compound has been sold, its founders convicted of serious crimes, and its organizational presence significantly diminished. The group at one point rebranded itself under the name “Shim Ra Na” and described itself on its website as “an intentional, international Spirit community.” The full extent of any remaining membership or operations is unclear.
Relevant Sources
Academic and Scholarly Sources
- Chesnut, R. A. (Professor of Religious Studies, Virginia Commonwealth University). Quoted in CBS Sacramento, August 2017. Identified the ACMTC as practicing an extreme form of Pentecostalism.
- Enroth, Ronald M. (1992). Churches That Abuse. Zondervan. (Broader academic context on high-control Christian groups.)
Encyclopedic and Reference Sources
- Walker, James K. Concise Guide to Today’s Religions and Spirituality. Harvest House Publishers. (Describes ACMTC as anti-ecclesiastical and theocratic.)
Journalism and Investigative Sources
- Associated Press. (September 26, 2018). Judge sentences leader of religious sect to 72 years.
- Harris, C. (August 24, 2017). Leader of military-style Christian sect in New Mexico accused of sexually abusing young girl. People Magazine.
- Hesse, J. (July 23, 2017). Cops accuse Christian commune of abusing and raping children. Vice.
- Hill, Harrison. (2021). The Oracle’s Daughter: Sarah Green escaped her mother’s cult 22 years ago. She still thinks about those she left behind. The Cut / New York Media.
- Hill, Harrison. (2025–2026). The Oracle’s Daughter: The Rise and Fall of An American Cult. (Book.)
- Kent, Jackie. (September 26, 2018). ‘Aggressive Christianity’ cult leader gets 72 years in prison. KRQE News 13.
- NBC News. (August 28, 2017). Ex-Members Describe Military-Style Christian Sect Now Accused of Child Abuse. nbcnews.com.
- New Mexico Supreme Court. (April 21, 2025). State v. Green, No. S-1-SC-39283. (Reinstating child abuse conviction of Deborah Green.)
- Williams, D. (June 25, 1995). “Soldiers of God” have New Mexico town abuzz. El Paso Times.
Civil Rights and Watchdog Organizations
- Apologetics Index. Aggressive Christianity Missions Training Corps. apologeticsindex.org (updated July 2024).
- Cult Education Institute / Cult Education Forum. culteducation.com.
- Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). Anti-LGBTQ Group’s Compound Ordered Sold for $2.8 Million. splcenter.org (December 2024).
This article is intended for informational and educational purposes. All facts have been verified against multiple primary and secondary sources. Readers seeking the most current legal status of individuals named in this article should consult official court records.
image via NBC News
