A new book published this week in Denmark, “Barn af Faderhuset,” carries the account of 22-year-old Noah Rosendal, who describes a childhood of violence and demon expulsions inside the Christian congregation Faderhuset.
DR reported on August 25 that Rosendal fled Faderhuset at the age of 17 and now, five years later, is speaking publicly. The book is written together with journalist Kristian Corfixen, who works for Politiken.
According to DR, the book describes an episode in which adults in the congregation believed a six-year-old boy was possessed by a demon. The boy was turned upside down and shaken, then thrown into a pool and held under water several times until he broke down. Rosendal says the members afterward cheered as if they had won a football match.
Faderhuset and its leader, Ruth Evensen, became widely known in 2001, when the congregation bought Ungdomshuset on Jagtvej in Copenhagen. The Ministry of Education withdrew support from its private school, Samuelskolen, in 2006, and the group moved its activities to Bandholm on Lolland, where it bought the local hotel.
Faderhuset formally dissolved itself in 2013, but Evensen, who changed her surname to Kristiansen in 2014, continued to lead the milieu with her husband, Lars Kristiansen. In 2016, after several child welfare cases and reports of violence and neglect, the children vanished from Bandholm. Corfixen tells DR that around 25 children are believed to have left Denmark, with the trail leading to the Czech Republic and South Africa.
DR reports that Lolland Municipality received its first notification about Rosendal when he was four years old. Further notifications about him and other children followed, including from the organization Børns Vilkår, but none led to forced removals. Rosendal says the children were trained to appear happy and polite when municipal caseworkers visited.
Lolland Municipality told DR that it cannot comment on individual cases. The municipality stated that unannounced supervisory visits are not a standard response to a notification, and that each case receives a social and legal assessment.
Corfixen says it remains unclear where Ruth Kristiansen is today. She still posts videos on YouTube, but identifying details such as road signs are masked. He says much points to the Czech Republic, and that a specific farm with members has been located in South Africa.
Book launch drives the coverage
Folketidende reported that the book was released by Politikens Forlag on Monday, August 24. Politiken covered the account on August 22, focusing on criticism that authorities overlooked children in Christian sects.
Avisen.dk noted that the public has until now known little about what happened to the children who left Bandholm. TV 2 featured Rosendal in a Go’ aften Live segment on August 21.
Rosendal left the group from the Czech Republic in 2021, after also spending time in a small town in Greenland. DR put his statements to Ruth Kristiansen, Lars Kristiansen and his mother. None of them responded.
