Tag: cults

not a book, streaming

Not a Book: Shiny Happy People season 2

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It’s been a couple of years since the first series of Shiny Happy People, which was about the Duggar family and the IBLP, and now there is a second series this time not focusing on the Duggars but on Teen Mania, an evangelical group for teenagers which gained popularity across the US in the early 90s.

This is a three part series that shows how a group that initially presents as a evangelical pep rally for teens that also offers mission trips evolved into a militaristic group of young people being groomed to lay down their lives for Jesus. Yes, you read that right, these teenagers ended up doing military-inspired survival missions and expecting do die in the name of their faith.

And I’m not going to lie, I wasn’t expecting this to get quite so dark when it started with giant stadium rallies for teens with Christian rock music and a pastor riding in on a motorcycle. I’ve watched a lot of documentaries about various Christian movements (and written about them here*) and I thought I knew what I was expecting – but this is something else. This one is less sexual abuse and predation, more straight up abuse and fraud with added fascism and indoctrination. If you remember Generation Joshua from series one, this is like the military wing of that. It’s quite shocking.

But as we seem to be seeing increasing Christian nationalism happening in the USA, this is a really interesting look at how something that starts off seemingly healthy – I can’t imagine many parents objecting to their teens going to a Christian event with their youth group (as opposed say to going to a rock concert on their own), and a mission trip abroad where they’re raising their own money to go might seem like a good opportunity too – can end up in people being dumped a state over from the college they’re at, with no money and no food and told to get back to campus with their giant wooden cross.

This is a three part series – and I watched it back to back one Saturday afternoon while I was doing the ironing. It’s a really well put together watch, with great voices talking about their experiences and solid talking heads.

Shiny Happy People is on Amazon Prime.

*Other religious or religion adjacent documentaries as well as Shiny Happy People series one, the duo of Hillsong documentaries, the two Twin Flames docs, Keep Sweet, Murder Among the Mormons, Unfinished: Short Creek, LulaRich and more tangentially Scamanda who partly used her church for her scam.

streaming

Not a Book: Duelling Docs about the Twin Flames Universe

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I was somewhat surprised that I had missed the furore about the Twin Flames Universe until a month or so ago when I started seeing articles about two documentaries coming along the track. And as you all know American Religion and Cults are one thing that will get me watching a documentary – or two – so of course I’ve watch the Amazon Prime and Netflix docs *and* I’ve listened to the Wondery Podcast series, and now I’m here to report back to you.

So lets start and in case you also haven’t encountered The Twin Flames Universe, the very basic summary is that it’s a cult run by a husband and wife, based on the idea that everyone has a “twin flame” soulmate and that they can find yours for you, if you just pay them enough money for classes and instruction…

Both the documentaries explain the early lives of Jeff and Shaleia and how they met and started making their own self help videos on YouTube and evolved into relationship coaches and then… well. It’s as lot and some of the allegations are pretty awful. And the two documentaries cover a lot of the same ground in many ways, but I would say that the Netflix doc is much, much bleaker. It gets to the grimmer end of the allegations much quicker than the Amazon one, which for two thirds of the time seems like it’s creepy rather than actively sinister. The Netflix one has more of a true crime feel from the start.

There is some crossover between the two documentaries – with some of the same former Twin Flames Universe members featuring in both, but there are different talking heads and experts. I’m glad I watched both because I think they both offer different things – the Amazon one is easier to see how people get hooked in to the content, the Netflix one goes deeper on the most serious allegations. And what makes these documentaries off from a lot of others is that the TFU operates by video conferencing and over Zoom – and they have recordings of Jeff and Shaleia’s sessions so you can see their coaching and what they’re doing rather than just being told about it over long shots of a house or blurry anonymised people recreating things. And it does make quite a difference.

Neither of them quite hit the bleakness of Keep Sweet – the documentary about Warren Jeffs and his Fundamentalist Mormon Church, but it’s still pretty grim. So maybe wait to watch until you’re in a good resilient frame of mind.

You obviously need a couple of subscriptions to be able to watch these – and for that I apologise, but they are worth a look the next time you have the appropriate subscription active.

Have a good week everyone.