By Frank Trippett, Alan Ota and John Snell/Portlan - Time.com

Launched last year on a farm in Clackamas County, Ore., the Ecclesia Athletic Association camp professed a wholesome purpose. Founder Eldridge J. Broussard Jr., once a basketball star at Pacific University, said Ecclesia, an outgrowth of the Watts Christian Center in Los Angeles, would bring ghetto children into the clean rural setting and train them through a disciplined program of athletics.

In time, however, neighbors noticed that the children, as one observer said, were "like zombies, never talking, never laughing." The neighbors asked the Oregon children's services division to investigate, but to no avail. Last week four adults came to the Clackamas County firehouse with the body of an eight- year-old girl who had died from multiple injuries to the head, chest and limbs. She was Broussard's eight-year-old daughter Dayna.

Chastened authorities who inspected the two-story, four-bedroom Ecclesia house discovered 53 other children, ages three months to 16 years, living in Dickensian horror. Behind the building's curtain covered windows, the children were kept in rooms strewn with sleeping bags but no beds. There was only one working toilet, no refrigerator, and the only food was some tomatoes and a head of lettuce. The youngsters were malnourished, and most had bruises, welts and wounds. "It was Lisa Steinberg times 50," said Bart Wilson, a manager of the Oregon children's services division, alluding to the six-year-old New York City girl beaten to death last year.

According to Donald Welch, director of the Clackamas County juvenile - department, floggings were "systematic." Adult staff members, he said, would deal out up to 800 blows with "paddle, electrical cord or similar device," while other children looked on. Four adults, including two who delivered the dead girl to the firehouse, were charged with first-degree manslaughter and held in lieu of $250,000 bail. The children were placed in the protective custody of juvenile authorities.

Broussard, 35, was in Los Angeles at the time but returned to Oregon last week. After first refusing to comment on the case, he later made a bizarre appearance on the nationally televised Oprah Winfrey Show. Grinning and smiling, smirking and haranguing, Broussard evaded all direct questions while blaming the death of his daughter on "the media." His only display of emotion came when he broke into tears as he complained about the media's treatment of him. His program has been unfairly likened to a cult, he said, and he has been called, in his own phrase, a "new Jim Jones." Broussard denied that children in the house were beaten. They were merely "spanked," he said.

When members of the Ecclesia Athletic Association first moved to a farmhouse near here in the summer of 1987, a neighbor, Kenneth Teuscher, did what he could to assist them in setting up their retreat for ghetto youngsters. He helped them plant a garden and build a fence, even letting them use some of the land on his cattle ranch for tents.

But, Mr. Teuscher recalled in an interview today, he grew suspicious of the group when he saw pit bulls patrolling their 18 acres next to his ranch and found that the boys and girls would never speak unless spoken to.

Now, in the wake of revelations of ritualistic beatings, sparse food and a fatal flogging of an 8-year-old girl inside the Ecclesia farmhouse, Mr. Teuscher is questioning why he never acted on his suspicions. 'I Wish We'd Done Something'

''Right at first people around here were all pretty open-minded about them but as time went on, we got suspicious,'' Mr. Teuscher said. ''Now I wish we'd done something about it.''

On Friday, four adults from the farmhouse brought the body of the dead girl, Dayna Lorae Broussard, to a Clackamas County firehouse. Sheriff's officers arrested the four that night and charged them with manslaughter and then went out to the farmhouse, where they found 53 children who, they said, had been malnourished and beaten. The children slept on the floor of the four-bedroom house, which had no furniture and a single toilet, the deputies said in their report.

Little is known about the Ecclesia association, which was an outgrowth of the Watts Christian Center in Los Angeles that was founded in 1978. What is known is that both groups were founded and led by Eldridge Broussard Jr., the dead girl's father, and that the Oregon commune was billed as an athletic camp for ghetto youngsters.

In interviews today, some people in the area, about 30 miles east of Portland, said the discoveries at the farm have shaken their belief in tolerance and in minding their own business. Others Have Settled in Oregon

The Ecclesia group is not the first to set up a commune in Oregon.

In the early 1980's, the followers of Indian guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh took over the Oregon desert town of Antelope and named the community Rajneeshpurum. They disbanded in 1985 after the Federal Government accused their leaders of crimes ranging from attempted murder to fraud and immigration violations.

Last spring, followers of the Indian guru, Sant Thakar Singh, announced plans to set up a commune and school in the Umpqua River Valley in southern Oregon. The plan has yet to win full local government approval.

Although Mr. Broussard has strenuously denied that his group is a cult, some of the residents here now say that papers filed by the Ecclesia organization with Clackamas County in the summer of 1987 should have tipped off authorities about the nature of the group.

Included in the papers was an application form for prospective members of the group. On it, an applicant promises to ''put all of my ambitions, desires, past and future commitments, relations, expectation, gifts, and assets under the total control of Eldridge Broussard Jr.'' Strict Scrutiny Permitted

The applicant also signs a statement certifying that ''all of my decisions -financial, social, recreational, educational, dietary and any not mentioned above - must pass his scrutiny and obtain his approval.''

''Coming on the heels of Rajneeshpurum, a lot of families were concerned with this group,'' said Dominic Mancini, Clackamas County planning director. ''But you can't deny somebody a land use permit just because they're out of the mainstream. I guess Oregonians have always felt somewhat independent and open to groups on the fringe.''

Those who have lived near the group's headquarters in Watts spoke of initial concerns about the group but said these were soon calmed. 'Kept to Themselves'

''They kept to themselves, but they always said hello, were very friendly and the children always seemed very well behaved and well kept,'' said Bonnie Bailey, a saleswoman at Bailey Realty next door to the Ecclesia center.

Estelle Van Meter, the founder of Concerned Citizens for Better Community, a senior citizens social service center located a block from the Ecclesia building, said she was concerned about the association's strong desire for privacy. But she said that was put to rest by an open house and yard sale the group sponsored.

Ecclesia seemed to move out of Oregon in the late summer of 1987. It withdrew its application for a summer youth camp and most of the kids left. Mr. Broussard remained on the property with a few other adults and two of his pit bulls, Mr. Teuscher said. The farmhouse was empty until recently. Then neighbors began to notice late night activity on the property, although they never saw the children doing any athletic routines.

The police and child welfare officials say they did not know the property had been reopened until they were alerted to the death of the girl on Friday.

Capt. Pat Detloff, chief of detectives for Clackamas County, said that he thought law enforcement officials dealing with Rajneeshpurum had left a clear message that cults that engage in criminal acts would not be tolerated in Oregon.

''This makes me wonder,'' he said.

The victim