Heading down the rabbit hole! The Sports Illust articles are very long, and very informative so far, but I have to get back to work so couldn't read it all!
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video of "Pastor Muir"
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Ministry website:
StraitwayTruth - Truth, Healing and Deliverance Ministry of the Most High YAHStraitway with Pastor Dowell - 2024
Indiana:
Pastor Daniel Muir
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In the second chapter of our Serial Longform series, we take an unprecedented look at the controversial ministry he is now a part of, and why so many who were once close to KGB want him to get out.
www.si.com
(very long Sports Illustrated article)
Some claim to have found peace and meaning with the Straitway Truth Ministry, a group that former Packers star Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila joined after denouncing Christianity. KGB and other ex-NFL players who are now in Straitway give glowing testimonials about Straitway’s leader, Pastor Charles Dowell.
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traitway members acknowledge that many believe they are a cult, whether it’s YouTube testimonials that address then dismiss the perception, or when KGB, in his interview with
Sports Illustrated, called attention to his shirt, emblazoned with the word CULTURE—the CULT offset—across the front. Whether you call it a church, an extremist group or flat-out a cult, this is where Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila has pledged his faith and dedicated his life.
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KGB says, as a former football player, the structure and order of Straitway is one thing that drew him in. And when he joined, Dowell saw a new avenue for recruitment opening up. He says he prayed for NFL players to find their way to Straitway. “These people are lost, and they need help.”
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Along with Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila, at least two other ex-NFL players have joined Straitway, the controversial ministry that many consider to be a cult. Plus, KGB’s bizarre courthouse interactions that ended with him being tasered in court.
www.si.com
Along with Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila, at least two other ex-NFL players have joined Straitway, the controversial ministry that many consider to be a cult.
(Robert Mathias also was a Colts player )
That January, after the Colts’ season wrapped up, a former teammate reached out. Daniel Muir wanted to know whether Mathis would be interested in partnering with him in the training business; Mathis invited him to his house to talk about it.
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By then, Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila had already been to Tennessee to visit the headquarters of the Straitway Truth Ministry, a controversial group that, due to some extreme religious beliefs, the controlling behavior of its leadership and its devotion to ideas often associated with sovereign citizenry,
is considered by many to be a cult.
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Former Colts chaplain Ken Johnson sends a scripture text every morning to a group of around 100 former Colts players. Mathis and Muir are still part of that group, though it’s been a few months since either has responded to him. Until
Sports Illustrated informed him, Johnson had no idea the two had become so immersed in a Hebrew Israelite group. “Are you kidding me?” he said. “No! No way. Wow. … Part of me wants to call [them] and be like, Dude, what are y’all doing?”
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But Johnson isn’t completely surprised. During nearly 30 seasons as the Colts’ chaplain, he saw this pattern among retired players. When the structure, guidance and purpose that comes with life as an NFL player disappears, it’s often jarring and sometimes followed by a search for identity. “It’s like they begin this quest for knowledge, and they forget relationship capacity [with their families],” Johnson says. The shift to Hebrew Israelism is new to him—in the past, the postretirement shift led some Black players to join the Nation of Islam, an Islamic and Black nationalist movement that has been criticized for anti-LGBTQ views and prejudice against Jewish people.
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Muir now heads up the Indianapolis chapter of Straitway. His wife, Kristin, and their three sons followed him. Kristin stopped wearing makeup, began wearing a head covering and sold her Louis Vuitton and Gucci purses and wallets on Facebook, part of Straitway’s teachings to live simply, save money and share everything with the ministry.
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Malone says a handful of NFL chaplains told him they have been cut off by former players who have embraced Hebrew Israelism and rejected Christianity, and they worry about the impact on players’ mental health and their families.
Muir is an exception in that his wife and sons joined Straitway with him. Mathis’s family situation more closely resembles KGB’s. A source in the Indianapolis community says that Mathis and his wife, Brandi, no longer live together, and that Mathis moved out sometime in 2019. The source says he is no longer involved in his children’s lives. When asked directly whether his wife and five children—two girls (one from a previous relationship of Brandi’s) and three boys—are following him to Straitway, Mathis said, “Yeah, the family is intact.” After a couple more follow-up questions about his wife and children, Mathis excused himself from the interview. There are no court records indicating the couple is legally divorced, but Brandi’s social media accounts are scrubbed of photos of Robert, or any mention of the last name Mathis. She posts photos of her kids celebrating Christmas and birthdays, holidays that Straitway adherents don’t recognize, and she is not wearing a head covering in her photos. In an October 2019 YouTube Q and A, Mathis was asked about the transition for Brandi and their children. He answered, “Tough, I’ll leave it at that.” Brandi Mathis declined to comment for this story.
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When Mathis joined, that made at least three ex-NFL players in Straitway: KGB, Muir and Mathis. The players insist that Dowell has never asked them for money, though their fame and reach as former NFL players is an obvious benefit for Straitway. And their wealth helps the ministry in other ways. For instance, in March, Muir paid $450,000 for a house and 59 acres of land in Logansport, Indiana, 75 miles north of Indianapolis, to build an independent community. Muir would not say whether Mathis lives with him on the land, though Muir has posted several group photos of the Indianapolis community families to his personal Facebook page. Muir’s wife and sons are pictured, and so is Mathis, but Brandi and their children are not.