im still listening to That Podcast and this is the thing keeps jumping out at me HeY yALL We R THe GaThERerSsSss -- in context, super creepy. i'm personally super triggered by all that because in my own experience with (FundyEV) all this kind of End Times talk has been heavily promoted for 40 years, and back when i was throoughly immersed, i would have felt really excited and validated and special to be considered a part of a Holy & G*d-Ordained Movement such as theirs! the more i dig into Lori's background (via personal stories on SM that cant be discussed here, unfortunately), the more i evolve away from my earlier views that she has always been a bad seed/sociopath. really starting to feel that she actually was not always this horrible person she's become on this *journey she's undertaken* (to paraphrase something from the podcast) but has always been a vulnerable and perhaps highly impressionable person with a deep rooted and unhealthy NEED to Matter, to Be Relevant, Important, Special, perhaps even Powerful. Something about Chad's books really spoke to her psyche. perhaps the original intent behind meeting the Author was innocent enough but when he evidently responded in kind (because similar dynamic on his own part?), combined with a surrounding extremist/fundamentalist religious subculture in which they were both immersed, well i can uncomfortably envision how a perfect storm of apocalyptic proportions seemingly blew up out of nowhere.
all that said, i am still deeply troubled by how contagious this environment seems to be... we have Melani, we have Alex (who someone observed did not seem particularly religious?), we have assorted other key players in That Community of end-times apologists and self-described *prophets*, we have exceedingly odd behavior from assorted extended family members (much of which we cant openly discuss in this forum but is being talked about in Reddit and FB groups for example)...
i keep coming back to the same underlying Question: HOW BIG IS THIS THING? i know perhaps this is not the forum for such conjecture, at least at this time... but, as someone who has personally embraced and later rejected some very cultish beliefs in my life... i feel in my gut this is a very important thought to hold onto. this particular string of suspicious deaths and disappearances may conceivably be only the oozing pimple on top of a festering boil. G*d forbid and i so hope i am wrong wrong wrong
anyone else on WS w background involvement in a cult or cultish branch of a church, PLEASE weigh in on these thoughts...