This week’s documentary tracks a religious leader who separated followers from their families, made them take vows not to critique authority, engaged in shady financial misdeeds, strictly controlled access to information, launched attacks on defectors, and suggested that a critique of him was an attack on the church itself. But there is no “cult” talk! How come? We give our media kaleidoscope a turn and look into Marcial Maciel: The Wolf of God (HBO Max, 2025), noticing what a lack of “cult” rhetoric refracts and obscures when presented with the image of the Catholic church. Maciel formed the Legion of Christ congregation in the early 1940s. Over the next 50+ years, he would become an ally in Pope John Paull II’s fight against communism, he would bring in hundreds of millions of dollars to the church, and he would sexually abuse more than 60 children. When do we find the term “cult” to be a reasonable label, when do we not, and why? It’s the ol’ tree-falling-in-a-forest-with-no-one-around-to-hear-it question...sorta: If a group is exploited and no one’s around to call them a cult, what kind of documentary do we get? Come hang, and let’s find out! #cultdocumentary #cultfavorite #studyreligion

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Production assistance from the Department of ReligiousStudies at the University of Alabama.

Theme music produced with Udio.