Five takeaways: Star investigation into alleged Southern Arizona 'cult'

An Arizona Daily Star investigation found that a Southern Arizona religious group is making millions per year from its hospice in Tucson and Tubac, while former members complain the group forces members to work for free, including at that hospice.

Former members interviewed described the Global Community Communications Alliance as a "cult," and court filings call it a high-control religious group with a closed campus. 

Here are five takeaways from the investigation: 

1. Former members allege 'forced labor'

In lawsuits and interviews, former members of the Global Community Communications Alliance said they were forced to work long, unpaid days for years as a condition of being members of the religious group, founded in Sedona in 1989. In exchange, they got room, board and to be part of a mission-driven religious community based near Tumacacori. 

The two women who filed separate lawsuits, calling themselves Jane M. Doe and Jane S. Doe, said children were forced to work in the community from a young age.

"Children's primary role at GCCA was forced labor," Jane M. Doe's lawsuit, filed in December, alleges. "Children at GCCA served the labor needs of the community and their business ventures. GCCA claimed to provide schooling, but in reality, schooling was minimal and sporadic, and when it did occur, consisted primarily of indoctrination into GCCA doctrine. Children spent the majority of their time performing cleaning, cooking, gardening, childcare, animal care, and other forced labor."

The GCCA denied this and other wrongdoing and noted in a written statement that adults who join the group do so voluntarily after a six-month trial period. 

"Members of this community contribute their skills and labor to enterprises that sustain the community they have freely chosen."

2. Hospice makes big profits

Soulistic Hospice, which is run by the Global Community Communications Alliance, began in 2008. It has grown to become a relatively large Tucson hospice, with about $12 million in revenue per year, almost all of it from Medicare, from 2021 through 2024, according to tax filings.

Each year the hospice gives million-dollar grants to the GCCA, the largest being $5.3 million in 2022. From 2010 through 2024, the hospice granted GCCA almost $35 million total, which amounts to an approximately 34 percent profit margin over that period.

As of 2023, the national average margin for all hospices was 8%, and for nonprofit hospices like Soulistic was negative: -1.3%. 

Some former members attribute that profitability in part to the fact that around one third of the hospice's employees have been GCCA members, who are unpaid. 

3. Members give up possessions, connections

The terms of joining the group, originally called the Aquarian Concepts Community, changed in the mid-1990s, former members said. That's when it became a requirement of joining the group that members give up all their possessions and money.

Former member Dan Lilly said he and his family were already living in the community when the change happened. They sold a Wyoming property worth $150,000 at that time and donated the proceeds to the group. 

“To become a full member, you donated everything," Lilly said — even his monthly Social Security payment. “Any monies I ever made went straight into the community. I had cut myself loose from any concern about remuneration.”

4. Sex abuse unreported, lawsuits say

Between the two lawsuits, the plaintiffs allege that three different group members sexually assaulted them, that higher-ups were aware, and that they didn't report the assaults to authorities. 

In a separate court filing, part of a divorce case involving one GCCA member, court-appointed advisor Lauri Owen said she had interviewed victims of sexual abuse from the community. 

"Every victim who disclosed sexual assault while still living in the GCCA compound said that the counselor told them the sexual assault was their fault," Owen's report says. "They each said that they were told that they had been rebellious in a former life and this assault was foreseen and deserved punishment for that rebellion."

A GCCA representative noted that they reported a group member, different from those accused in the lawsuits, who was convicted in 2019 and sentenced to prison. 

5. Group defends itself

A GCCA representative, in emails, defended the group's practices and said the outside world should not impose a secular perspective on them. 

"Religious communities have embraced vows of poverty and communal living since the dawn of organized faith. Benedictine monks, Franciscan friars, Catholic sisters, and countless other religious communities require members to surrender personal assets and devote their labor to the community as an expression of their calling."

"Global Community Communications Alliance categorically denies all allegations of abuse, misconduct, and unlawful labor practices. GCCA is a voluntary spiritual community whose members freely choose a committed, communal life in accordance with their beliefs. The organization and its affiliates operate in full compliance with state and federal law and remain committed to their spiritual, charitable, and community service missions."