So it was a Christian religious comunity.
excerpt:
Thanks to the mix of communalism and capitalism, Padanaram was able to purchase nearby farms and build new lodges they nicknamed “Parthenon” and “High Lodge,” including a bachelor’s dormitory. They purchased trucks and equipment — and eventually installed flush toilets.
A controversial patriarch
Padanaram’s center of gravity was Daniel Wright, known for his distinctive brimmed hat and overalls.
Often miscast as being Amish or a Quaker, Wright adhered to homegrown religious practice rooted in the Bible that he later called “Kingdomism,” which imagined a global system of communes known as "kinglets" led by patriarchs. He preached a handful of guiding principles: “One that won't work, shall not eat,” “As one would others do, do unto them,” “Hold all things in common, count nothing one’s own,” and, “Of one who has much, much is required.”
Pitzer said Wright was purported to be a “kind of seer” who could predict weather and births.
“He had a lot of sayings, like ‘Wisdom is our leader, truth is our guide.’ He would say that inequity wasn’t right, that ‘If we have money for steak, we all eat steak. If not, we all eat hamburger,’ ” Pitzer said.
At unplanned Sunday night worship services, “at a certain time you’d show up, sit in squares. You didn’t know when it would begin, how or when or when it might end — it might be 40 minutes or four hours of testimonies, reflections or songs,” Rosenthal said.
Focusing on the golden rule, Aram Wright said, “eliminated the need for a lot of laws and rules.” In 1985, Daniel Wright told a reporter that his was “the only city in America where there is no crime, no unemployment, no rich and no poor,” though that wasn’t always true.
A young boy swung upside down on a rope swing at Padanaram/God's Valley, while others waited their turn, during a picnic at the community. June 25, 2016.
