Reading Time: 3 minutes Scientologist Brent A Jones, above centre, who serves as a Republican member of the Nevada Assembly, has a nice little scam going on the side, selling Real Water® to gullible fools. But his Las Vegas company, Real Alkalized Water, is getting some unwelcome attention, thanks to a lawsuit filed by one Grecia Echevarria-Hernandez. According to this […]
Cults
Posted inNews
Scientology head threatens lawsuit over his father's book
Reading Time: 2 minutes Lawyers acting for the Church of Scientology’s head honcho David Miscavige’s have threatened to file a lawsuit against Miscavige’s father Ron, who has written a ‘tell all’ book about the cult. According to this report, London-based publisher Silvertail Books has received a letter from Johnsons Solicitors, a law firm that specialises in high-profile defamation cases. The threat […]
Posted inNews
JW chef tells customer: 'Thou shalt not have black pudding'
Reading Time: 2 minutes Lunacy reached new heights when a chef working for Sainsbury’s refused to serve a customer with black pudding in the store’s café. According to this report, Alan MacKay has received an apology from the supermarket giant which confirmed that the chef, employed at its Nottingham café, was a Jehovah’s Witness who would not serve black […]
Posted inReligion
Jesus, Jesus, Everywhere, and Not a Drop to Drink.
Reading Time: 9 minutes One of the most startling things to happen after I deconverted was the foretold coming together of the Jesus of the East and the Jesus of the West. Oh, did you not hear about that? Well, listen on, and you shall hear the tale.
Posted inReligion
Liars for Jesus and the truth that wasn’t ever there
Reading Time: 11 minutes I have a real fascination with stories of liars who get found out. Today I want to talk about why these denouements are important to tell. Before we start, though, I want you to picture in your mind these things: Chances are, whatever you’re picturing wasn’t much like the reality, is it? Most of us […]
Posted inReligion
Sometimes I Feel Like I Dodged a Hail of Bullets.
Reading Time: 9 minutes I’m reading this piece about IHOP and feeling a shiver go down my spine every few paragraphs. I want to share how it feels to be an ex-fundamentalist reading about a fundamentalist cult gone horribly wrong. IHOP in this context means “International House of Prayer,” and I wish I could still be so innocent as […]
Posted inReligion
Logical Christians.
Reading Time: 11 minutes I hope your holidays are going well so far! Welcome back. I realized not long ago that I’ve made references to “logical Christians” a couple of times here, and I wanted to talk about that idea a little bit now. I truly believe that “logical Christians” are about the very worst of the worst of […]
Posted inReligion
Fruitarians and Fundamentalists: How Learning About a Fringe Diet Helped Me Break Free.
Reading Time: 9 minutes ZOMG two posts in one day? I’m spoiling y’all! But this was on my mind. There’s a Connie Willis short story called “Even the Queen” wherein a group of women in the not-so-distant-future discuss menstruation at a ladies’ lunch. I ran into it when I was just out of college and in the process of […]
Posted inReligion
The cloud has moved: How I almost joined a cult
Reading Time: 8 minutes Communities get these ideas sometimes to live together and re-enact their ideals. It’s part of being human. But things can go hideously wrong in authoritarian groups, and I’ll show you how today.
Posted inReligion
My Boyfriend Gets Exorcised.
Reading Time: 7 minutes Now that I wasn’t involved in weird evangelical churches anymore, I blossomed at last in the late 80s. I discovered the Drama Club at school, slowly made normal friends, and tried to fit in. I got involved with a historical re-enactment group called the Society for Creative Anachronism and found my niche at last in […]