It's part 2 of our discussion of Heaven's Gate: The Cult of Cults on Hulu. Let's talk about Heaven's Gate and Star Trek!

Links:

Interview with director Clay Tweel: https://www.increativecompany.com/watch/v/z75zx742kghz982dff7nndjp5435xz

The Author Clock https://www.authorclock.com/

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Production assistance from the Department of Religious

What if Heaven's Gate wasn't as weird as it appears at first glance? And how do we make the strange more familiar?

Links:

Mark Muesse "Religious Studies and 'Heaven's Gate'" https://www.chronicle.com/article/religious-studies-andheavens-gate/

Our Cult Favorites:

Mike: Druid City Brewing Company https://www.instagram.com/druidcitybrewingco/?hl=en

Merinda: Sleater-Kinney album "Little Rope" https://sleaterkinney.bandcamp.com/album/little-rope

and diagraming sentences https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sentence_diagram

Follow us on Instagram, TikTok, and X at @cultfavoritepod.

Production assistance from the Department of Religious

In June, Netflix released Dancing for the Devil: The 7M TikTok Cult and in this episode Mike and Merinda talk about the role of performance in social media and cult documentaries. What makes something "real" or "genuine"? Why would a cult recruit TikTok dancers? What sort of stories do we tell about families and cult members?

Content warning: this episode includes discussions of sexual

Links:

The Cut article about Wilkings and 7m: https://www.thecut.com/2024/06/wilking-sisters-7m-allegations.html

Our Cult Favorites:

Mike: Stoic., a journaling app https://www.getstoic.com/

Merinda: Art Monsters: Unruly Bodies in Feminist Art by Lauren Elkin https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374105952/artmonsters

Follow us on Instagram, TikTok, and X at @cultfavoritepod.

Production assistance from the Department of Religious

The second half of The Secrets of Hillsong explores the dark past of Hillsong’s early history and the eventual downfall of the global church. It details Frank Houston’s repeated sexual abuse of children and Brian Houston’s sexual harassment allegations and financial abuses. Mike and Merinda discuss these stories but also what these stories tell us about the structures that make a megachurch like Hillsong possible.

Content warning: this episode includes discussions of child sexual abuse.

Links:

Blessed: A History of the American Prosperity Gospel by Kate Bowler

Australian Royal Commission report on child sexual abuse

Compromising Positions: Sex Scandals, Politics, and American Christianity by Leslie Dorrough Smith

Our Cult Favorites:

• Mike: Dead Space (2023)

• Merinda: The Birmingham Bevy

Follow us on Instagram and X at @cultfavoritepod.

Production assistance from the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Alabama.

Theme music produced with Udio.

In our first episode we discuss the first two episodes of the FX/Hulu docu-series The Secrets of Hillsong about the rise and fall of one of the world's most famous megachurches. What is unique about Hillsong? What makes a celebrity pastor famous? And why can't American evangelicalism understand and deal with desire?

Show notes:

The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill

Janice Lagata's open letter

Our Cult Favorites:

Follow us on Instagram and X at @cultfavoritepod.

Production assistance from the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Alabama.

Theme music produced with Udio.