Was I in a Cult?

Dr. James Griffin is the only Black Muslim kid in small town Deposit, New York.

Then one day in eighth grade, the rival basketball team shows up with a whole new roster. Parents in kufis and hijabs. Kids with skin the same color as his. Could it be possible? An entire community of Black Muslims? Right here, in a town where he's always been the only one?

So James does what any kid in his position would do: he walks up and says "as-salamu alaykum."

And gets a look like he just insulted somebody's mother.

They're the Muslims of America, a group that just moved onto a compound down the road, run by a sheikh in Pakistan who, his followers say, speaks directly to God.

At first they become his friends. But being their friend isn't the same as being one of them. And for a kid who's always felt like the outsider, he wants to feel part of. Included. Just like every person does. Until eventually...

...he's at their 30-day summer camp. 4 a.m. Quran. Marching drills. Target practice. And at 15, learning how to sneak up behind a man and slit his throat.

NBD.

Soon, James isn't just hanging around the group. He marries into it, moves onto "the land," hands over ten percent of his paycheck, and builds his whole life around a man he has never actually met.

But here's the thing about cults. This community has a past.

Before it called itself the Muslims of America, it went by Al-Fuqra: a name already tied to bombings, murder, and terrorist plots.

But James knows none of that. At least, not yet...

Because eventually, the community he spends years of his life protecting becomes the exact group he needs protection from.

This is Part One of Dr. James Griffin's story. And it only gets bigger, darker and cultier from here. So be sure to stick around for Part 2 next week.

FOLLOW JAMES

YouTube → @Return2Fitrah YouTube → @Dr.JamesGriffin Book → Behind the Minbar: Confronting Sexual Misconduct in Muslim Institutions Email → [email protected] or [email protected]

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Shira was the youngest of seven, the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, and riddled with guilt. Because growing up Orthodox Jewish in Brooklyn, she wasn't supposed to question the life she'd been given.

But she did.

And the incessant amount of rules didn't help: Cover your knees. Cover your elbows. Don't wear anything too bright. Don't wear pants. Don't eat cheeseburgers. (Burgers are cool, though.) Don't question. Collars buttoned to the top. She even had to wash her strawberries a certain way.

And then the blessings... A blessing the moment you open your eyes. A blessing before every sip of water. Another when you're done. A special cup to wash your hands before bread, no talking until you've blessed it, and a five-minute blessing when you're done eating it. (Pastries get their own blessing, of course.)

But some rules weren't simply arbitrary. And as Shira got older, some rules cut deeper.

Marry within your community. Cover your hair once married. Sit separately from the men. Accept that men mattered more. Their voices counted. Their presence counted. Their authority counted. Women were expected to cover up, quiet down, marry young and have babies.

Shira is a singer, and in her world, women weren't allowed to sing in front of men. Or touch men they wasn't related to. Or even count toward the ten people needed for communal prayer.

And it wasn't dating an outsider that finally broke her free. It was one heartbreaking experience that left her questioning everything she'd ever been told was true.

But it would be almost three decades before that would happen. And along the way, somehow the girl who had spent her childhood wanting out kept trying to make herself fit in.

Because getting away from the community was one thing.

Risking losing the people she loved was something else entirely.

But when your menstrual cycle can end with your underwear in a rabbi's hands…

well, eventually you might find yourself asking:

Wait… was I in a cult?

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When we left Evie, she had just landed in Germany with Mary and Liam on a mission from "the gods" to save the world… only to have her money, passport, ID and credit cards disappear almost immediately.

And then somehow, things manage to only get worse from there.

With Evie now stranded in a foreign country, Mary takes on the role of her self-appointed "manager," setting income demands, controlling her schedule and eventually pushing her to sell her body in more ways than one... all to do what?

Give all her earnings to pay for the group to live, of course. All of it.

So how does one go from small town Texas to eventually asylum housing in Germany?

Listen to find out. This is Part 2 of Evie's wonderfully bizarre, funny, and heartbreaking story. And the moment she finally begins asking the question at the center of this entire show: "Wait, was I in a cult?"

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Evie was only 17 when she met Mary. First, Mary was her friend. Then her girlfriend. Then her friend again. And eventually... her cult leader.

Evie didn't know it then, but apparently there was something about Mary.

Something that got Evie to mess around with pagan rituals like a couple of bored teenagers in Texas... and eventually got Evie to complete missions from "the gods," practice astral projection, and take direction from a water spirit named Flo. All in the name of "saving Texas."

And then somehow...

... got her to QUIT HER JOB, get rid of her WORLDLY POSSESSIONS, and MOVE TO GERMANY to SAVE THE WORLD.

This is Part 1 of 2. And this is only the beginning of where this experience takes our wonderful earnest guest with an infectious laugh, Evie. So be sure to stick around for Part 2 next week.

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FOLLOW USInstagram → @wasiinacult TikTok → @wasiinacult

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By high school, church wasn't just Shannon McElroy's faith, it was her community and her future. She was going to be a Christian counselor.

Then her youth group took her to something called "Acquire the Fire": a massive Christian youth conference that was part rock concert, part revival, and for Shannon, one hell of a spiritual high.

Before long, she'd be leaving college to join Teen Mania's Honor Academy. A year-long "internship" in rural Texas that promised purpose, ministry, and a chance to change the world. All she had to do was pay hundreds of dollars a month for the privilege of working for them... for free.

All she had to do was pay hundreds of dollars a month for the privilege of working for them... for free.

As you can imagine, what Shannon thought she'd signed up for was not exactly what she got.

Like the retreat where they simulated a prison and made her do wall sits. For Jesus.

And that was just one of their so-called "Life Transforming Events."

Now, to be fair, they did transform her. Just not the way it said in the brochure.

Twenty-five years later, Shannon, now a professor, therapist and social worker, still finds herself untangling from what one very intense year at Teen Mania instilled in her.

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FOLLOW SHANNONWebsite → mendedbeing.com Instagram → @mendedbeingcounselingllc Facebook → Mended Being

More Teen Mania stories → Recovering Alumni

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Daniella Mestyanek Young was born three generations deep into the Children of God and today, she finally gets out.

At 15-years-old, she lands in Texas with no real education, no money and no friggin' idea how life on the outside works.

But true to form, she badasses her way through it. And excels.

Somehow, the girl who escaped one extreme, hierarchical world becomes an intelligence officer in the U.S. Army, deploys to Afghanistan, and helps make history for women in combat.

But on her very first day of basic training she thinks:

"Oh... I've joined another cult."

Part Two of Daniella's incredible story is about what happens after you escape.

Because getting out of a cult is one thing.

Figuring out who the hell you are once you're free is another.

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FOLLOW DANIELLAHer website → Knitting Cult Lady Instagram → @daniellamyoung_ YouTube → @KnittingCultLady Her books, Uncultured and The Culting of America → here

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Daniella Mestyanek Young was born three generations deep into the Children of God, yet somehow, that was only the beginning.

She would go on to become a US Army intelligence officer, help make history for women in combat, become Harvard educated in organizational psychology, and write two books.

But first, she had to survive her childhood.

In Part One, Daniella takes us inside the Children of God world she was born into: child labor, child performers, massive communes, David Berg's increasingly deranged teachings, and a family history so complicated Daniella has a name for it... sex cult math.

And one rainy day at 12 years old, one casual comment from her mother about glasses changed what Daniella thought she knew about her own family forever.

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FOLLOW DANIELLAHer website → Knitting Cult Lady Instagram → @daniellamyoung_ YouTube → @KnittingCultLady Her books, Uncultured and The Culting of America → here

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At 21, Stephanie Vaughn wanted to make some extra money. Then she won a "raffle" at her gym for a free case of energy drinks.

Lucky her, that free case won her entry into one of the biggest and most influential MLMs in the world...

AMWAY.

And the Amway lead her to the LTD, the Amway-affiliated training organization Stephanie says would eventually take over nearly every part of her life.

For nine years, Stephanie chased the promise of becoming a "Diamond": financial freedom, early retirement, and the life she was told was waiting for her if she just worked hard enough.

Instead she endured control on every level, including how much she slept, when she could visit family and even... who she was allowed to love.

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Instagram: @steph.vaughan

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Every cult calls itself a family. Audrey's actually was one. For Audrey, there was no guru, no religious doctrine, and the only members were her ten other siblings. And the leader? Her parents, particularly her mother. But from the outside, they looked pretty "normal": a big family living in an ordinary Idaho subdivision, houses close together, neighbors on all sides. Except not one of them was ever allowed to have a friend. And eventually, they weren't allowed to have interactions with anyone outside the family. As the isolation tightened, Audrey got older and increasingly aware that the outside world looked nothing like the one she'd been taught to fear. At 18, she finally made it to community college, where little tastes of independence began to crack open everything she'd been raised to believe. And eventually, one small act of defiance would force her to make an enormous choice: follow her parents rules, or lose her family.

When Audrey finally left in 2020, she thought the separation from her siblings would be temporary. Six years later, nine of them are still living in the family home, cut off from their big sister.

So now Audrey has stopped waiting.

She's taking matters into her own hands, finding increasingly creative, and at times risky, ways to remind her siblings that she's still out there... that there is life beyond the front door.

A big, messy, beautiful world they've barely been allowed to see. And when they're ready to walk into it, their big sis will be there, waiting with open arms.

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FOLLOW AUDREY Follow her story as it unfolds → TikTok @audreyinreallife

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**NOTE: This episode originally aired in 2024, but a LOT has happened inside this cult since then. None of it surprising, all of it sick, and we'll fill you in on all of it. Jason Christian was born into Gloriavale — a self-proclaimed utopic Christian community of more than 500 people on the West Coast of New Zealand's South Island. His grandfather, Hopeful Christian, was the leader. Shut out from the outside world and forced to work on the farm at the age of six, Jason was primed to live a life without actual freedom, as this group of true believers was all he knew. But when it was time for him to marry a woman in the community that was chosen for him, Jason made a different choice. ____________________________

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