Trump's SCOTUS front-runner Amy Barrett is in a 'cult' -- according to an ex-member who 'experienced

[octoberlib]

Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The Quarantine Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González, as we continue to look at the background of Judge Amy Coney Barrett, the apparent front-runner to replace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court. President Trump said he’ll announce a nominee on Saturday. Mitch McConnell appears to have the 51 votes he needs in the Senate to force a confirmation vote through before the election.

We’re looking at Amy Barrett’s membership in a secretive Catholic group with rigid gender roles and a lifelong loyalty oath. We’re now joined by a former of People of Praise who’s now speaking out against the group. Coral Anika Theill was a People of Praise member for five years, from 1979 to 1984, after being forced to join the organization by her then-husband. She documented her experience in her memoir titled Bonsheá: Making Light of the Dark.

Coral, thanks so much for joining us from Corvallis, Oregon. Can you describe People of Praise and what happened to you while you lived in the community?

CORAL ANIKA THEILL: Thank you for having me on your show, and I’m a fan of you and your show.

I was a member of the People of Praise — many call it a community, but I describe it as a cult — in Corvallis, Oregon. I experienced abuse and torture by my husband, Marty Warner, Independence, Oregon, and the cult leaders, as well as shunning, shaming and a smear campaign against me when I escaped and left. For safety, I legally changed my name, and I’ve lived under a state address protection program from my ex-husband for the past 20 years.

Even though I left the People of Praise cult, I didn’t have any rights, due to being married to my husband, who was a cult member. I was under the authority of my husband and his authoritarian head, Ed Brown. Under their authority, I was forced to attend meetings, but because I had defied leadership and their authority, I was forced to sit on the floor outside of their meetings in the hallway at the St. Mary’s Catholic Church. There’s dozens of witnesses that have seen how I was treated. What I would ask listeners to consider, even though they say this is a healthy group, to consider how I was treated and if this would be correct for Amy Barrett to be treated.

One time I had a miscarriage in 1984, and I had to have a D&C surgery. After I returned from the hospital, I was forced to attend a People of Praise women’s meeting, or handmaidens’ meetings. I had a head that was also woman, besides my husband. They wanted to go shopping, and I couldn’t, due to returning from surgery and feeling weak. I left the meeting to go home and rest, as my doctor had ordered. I was met by my husband and forced into the car, kidnapped against my will, where I was driven to the cult leader’s home. I was interrogated until wee hours of the morning and psychologically abused. The next morning, the community was informed to shun me. I would never allow anyone to treat me this way today, and it traumatizes me to admit this was my life at that time.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, Coral, I wanted to ask you — in terms of some of the hair-raising descriptions in your memoir of what happened to you, I wanted to ask you if you could talk about some of those. You talk about the situation where the head, that was assigned to you and your husband, wanted to see the family budget, that he told you how many hours per day you could spend on particular chores, including two to four loads of laundry a day, this meddling directly in the day-to-day — in your day-to-day life and affairs with you and your family, and that you also mention that once you decided that you wanted to leave, that they threatened to try to have you committed to a mental institution?

CORAL ANIKA THEILL: They would call me mentally ill. And there was a time they had me under special counseling, under Father Charles Harris, who was the head leader of the Corvallis People of Praise branch. He was from South Bend.

But basically, there was just cruelty and bullying, and it was not much difference than the Jim Jones cult. I shared with Heidi that my story is very much like The Handmaid’s Tale series and the Netflix series 10-part documentary The Keepers.


Other things, yeah, there was always a list on my wall, a schedule, and men from the community would come unannounced to check on me to make sure I was on schedule and had done my chores. There was basically no privacy. And all of your personal — anything personal was given to your husband’s head also. I wasn’t allowed contraceptives and was supposed to have all the children God intended for me, no matter what my health was. I had had eight children and three miscarriages and D&C, often when my health was failing.

https://www.rawstory.com/2020/09/trumps-scotus-front-runner-amy-barrett-is-in-a-cult-according-to-an-ex-member-who-experienced-abuse-and-torture/

[BlueTsunami2018]

1. All religions are cults.

And they all seem to have have cults within the chosen cult. They get nuttier as you get deeper.

[octoberlib]

2. Well, this one is definitely one of the nuttier ones. We're screwed.

[AnotherMother4Peace]

15. This is a lie. All religions are not cults. People of Praise have cult like practices. nt

[NameAlreadyTaken]

31. I disagree. All religions are cults.

It is the foundation of religion.

[FreeState]

39. I disagree - Cults have trademark control methods that are not in other faith organizations

I disagree - Cults have trademark control methods that are not in other faith organizations.

The Bite Model: https://freedomofmind.com/bite-model/

Many people think of mind control as an ambiguous, mystical process that cannot be defined in concrete terms. In reality, mind control refers to a specific set of methods and techniques, such as hypnosis or thought-stopping, that influence how a person thinks, feels, and acts.

Based on research and theory by Robert Jay Lifton, Margaret Singer, Edgar Schein, Louis Jolyon West, and others who studied brainwashing in Maoist China as well as cognitive dissonance theory by Leon Festinger, Steven Hassan developed the BITE Model to describe the specific methods that cults use to recruit and maintain control over people. “BITE” stands for Behavior, Information, Thought, and Emotional control.

Behavior Control
Information Control
Thought Control
Emotional Control

[panader0]

49. Religion is the opiate of the masses--Marx

There are more than 1000 religions and a person in one considers all the rest to be infidels.
The history of war is the same as religion.

[Loki Liesmith]

3. This approach achieves nothing

[Rule of Claw]

4. What approach?

[Drunken Irishman]

7. Focusing on her faith - calling it a cult.

They're already setting up the narrative that the Democrats are attacking her Catholic faith. That's not needed.

[octoberlib]

10. I'm Catholic and this is most definitely a fucking cult! It's disgusting. The Handmaid's Tale

was based on this. It needs exposure.

[Drunken Irishman]

12. This is a losing issue...

Frankly, I sometimes wonder if liberals have any optics sense whatsoever or if they're just purposely dumb when it comes to shit like this.

The last thing we want is this debate to be about her religion. Not only is it not going to matter in the long run, it will seriously impact Biden's hopes in November.

[octoberlib]

16. Lol, Biden's Catholic and I can guarantee you he and Jill find this nutjob

group repugnant and an insult to the Catholic church. This is a post on a Democratic forum. I really doubt Senate members will be questioning her about it.

[Drunken Irishman]

18. That's fine. Catholic or not, Democrats need em to win.

Especially in the states Trump won in 2016 that Obama carried in 2012. If you feel this is a winning issue, fine. But don't get upset when you start seeing people question whether the Democratic are going after her Catholic faith.

[FBaggins]

13. The Handmaid's Tale link turns out to be false

It was a different group.

[Drahthaardogs]

25. Most Catholics view the Charismatic movements as craY

[Drunken Irishman]

27. Do they? Do you have polling on that?

[FBaggins]

33. I think it depend on who you ask

The Catholic World Report in 2013 reported that 160 million Catholics were part of the movement (not this group... charismatic renewal in general)
https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2013/05/18/the-charismatic-renewal-and-the-catholic-church/

That's somewhere in the 10-15% of Catholics range (likely most outside the US - but that's just my guess).

I'd say that most Catholics would find the worship style to be odd... but most protestants would also be uncomfortable in a pentacostal service. "Crazy" is probably a stretch. "Cult" certainly is.

There's also a pretty wide range in the spectrum of "charismatic" throughout and within various denominations that ranges from not much more than "raise their hands during worship" to "rolling around the floor and oinking like pigs". I haven't seen anything giving specifics of this group (or even if it's consistent from one location to another).

[FBaggins]

5. Probably worse than nothing

Questioning on her religion three years ago appeared to backfire.

[octoberlib]

8. What on earth are you talking about? I don't work for Biden's campaign and I'm not in

the Senate. Neither does Amy Goodman. This isn't an "approach". Americans are entitled to know the background of the nutjobs being put forth for the Supreme Court. Should we all stick our heads in the sand and be quiet about it?

[RANDYWILDMAN]

6. knew it !!

The repubs will still confirm her...cause they are nuts and one of their nuts is better then a sane rational thoughtful person from our side.

[VarryOn]

9. As a person of faith...

Being called a cult member might not be the worst designation in the world, but I still don’t like it. Lots of good Democrats are religious, with Catholicism probably the most popular (admittedly a guess on my part).

I’m biased on this topic and most my friends are religious, with not all being hardcore Democrats. I don’t relish the certain anti-Catholic rhetoric we will hear if the nominee is ACB or BL. It will not appeal to many, especially independents.

And Trump supports will ride our supposed anti-religious rhetoric like a dime store pony. Trump knows that many on our side won’t be able to help themselves.

[Rule of Claw]

11. To be fair

People of Praise is charismatic, a whole other level of "dedicated."

But ya, if she is actively subverting her own agency to her husband, that is as Joe would say, a BFD.

And it all comes out, we don't have to say anything.

[octoberlib]

14. This isn't anti-religious rhetoric. It's anti-cult rhetoric. I was raised Catholic also and

experienced nothing like this. In fact, this cult is an insult to the Catholic church.

[FBaggins]

17. There are plenty of bigots who consider Catholicism a cult too

If you watch the interview, you'll note that she speaks of being under her husband's control for the entire 20-year marriage (when they were only in the group for five years). Given the blowback on prior attempts to make a big deal of her Catholicism... we would need something much closer to her own experience (not someone in another state from when she was 12(?).

[octoberlib]

21. I'm not saying we should use it but people should be aware of her background.

I believe I read that the majority of Justices on the Supreme Court are Catholic. That's not an issue . This is a deeply misogynistic, abusive cult.

[FBaggins]

26. I think the point is that this doesn't give us much on her background

It's really another woman's experience from decades ago. It really isn't evidence for "her background" even if it were true (which we can't know).

Similar stories of abuse exist for mainstream churches... for kids who grew up homeschooled... etc. etc. - but that's a far shot from being able to use their experiences as evidence for treatment of others.

[VarryOn]

20. It was the 'all religions are cults' comment...

That needed addressing.

Certainly, there are cult...probably in every religion.

For the next few weeks, though, if we want to win, we need to ix-nay the atholic-Cay ashing-bay.

And no, I’m not Catholic.

[octoberlib]

22. I get it. I 'm sure the prominent Dems that get media coverage won't be talking about this

issue.

[VarryOn]

29. It's not the occasional tv appearance that concerns me...

It’s the Democratic Senators at the confirmation hearings that concern me. Few Senators on either side come across looking very well, and invariably an all-day affair can be boiled down to about one minute of sound bites. And nothing is learned, and no minds are changes. The best we can hope for is the nominee slips up and admits what they really think. Things are too scripted to reveal anything of value. I’m almost of the opinion they shouldn’t happen.

[AnotherMother4Peace]

19. Scientology would be proud w/all these "do not attack religion" replies.

It's a frugging cult disguised as a religion, just like People of Praise. The GOP is really laying the groundwork to defend this candidate's "religion".

[Drahthaardogs]

23. Catholics are forbidden from taking lifetime loyalty oaths

Especially to a lay group

[FBaggins]

28. The host described a "lifetime loyalty oath"

Their site explicitly denies that an oath (let alone a lifetime loyalty oath) is involved.

[Drahthaardogs]

41. They probably denied kidnapping and interrogating

That woman too. Doesn’t mean it didn’t happen

[FBaggins]

44. It also doesn't mean that it did happen

If she was kidnapped she would have a legal claim against them. Did I miss the arrests in the article?

[Drahthaardogs]

46. You like these folks, huh?

Babbling incoherent bullshit calling it “tongues” when Catholicism teaches a very different meaning to the gift of tongues.

This is not Orthodox teaching at all. It is a weird attempt to reconcile Catholicism with the fringe Protestantism. It fails. It is not Sacred Tradition and has no place in the Church.

[Drahthaardogs]

48. Their Website say "Chose to make a Lifetime Covenant "

Do you not know the definition?

Fuck. We are done. It’s right there are you are calling that woman a liar

[gopiscrap]

24. wow that's fucked up

[BlueNProud]

30. The Dems should not touch this...

If this woman is nominated she will be confirmed. All this will do is allow her to be a "victim of religious bigotry". Go after her on her legal record by all means but this avenue is not strategically sound.

[ret5hd]

51. Wow! I'm sure glad you joined today to let us know the mistake we were gonna make!

Whew! Dodged a bullet there!

[niyad]

32. Sickened KNR

[PaulRevere08]

34. If appointed ABC will be the 6th conservative catholic on the SCOTUS.

All have ties to the federalist society and Leonard Leo:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/investigations/leonard-leo-federalists-society-courts/

It's very scary how conservative catholic lawyers have penetrated both the courts and law schools. A noted catholic integralist, who yearns for an authoritarian catholic president for life, is teaching constitutional law at Harvard.

[TheRickles]

47. Also with ties to Opus Dei (at least several of them).

[jorgevlorgan]

35. This is literally the group Atwood based some of the handmaid's tale on.

Before the book made it big, this group literally called a certain group of women in it "handmaids," who were required to follow every demand that the group puts on them -all the way down to their sex lives.

[SayItLoud]

36. Red herring. She is NOT going to be nominated.

tRUMP needs the Latino, Hispanic and older Cubans in Florida. He will select Lagoa of Florida. He only cares about himself and winning Fl. is really REALLY important for him. With her on the SC he can contest the election as rigged in FLorida, he can add votes from those group mentioned above and if he's ever tried for anything he has her on the SC to give him "payback". So. Lagoa will be the nom.

[Chicagogrl1]

38. Yes

Totally agree @ Lagoa, 1000%.

[world wide wally]

37. So, when the right to chose is overturned, and gay rights denied,

what will they turn their attention to?

[TexasBushwhacker]

40. How can you pledge to protect the Constitution as part of your job

and belong to such a group. Furthermore, if the group or her husband demanded that she go against the Constitution, what will she do?

[forthemiddle]

50. Which of her past Judicial decisions

Did either her husband or her Church “demand she go against the Constitution”?

She has a record, go after her on that, not her religion, or marriage. That is a sure fire over!

[SergeStorms]

42. They're like Russian Nesting Dolls....

a cult, within a cult, within a cult, within a cult etc. Whatever happened to logic and critical thinking? Thanks to republicans, their evangelical overlords, corporate lobbyists and the NRA (yes, the NRA) we now have armed "christian" white separatists walking the streets, who are unencumbered by any law enforcement oversight. Now, one of this group of brainwashed miscreants is probably going to be elevated to the highest court in the land, to pass judgement on the majority of Americans who don't believe any of their gun driven, apocalyptic, angry daddy in the sky bullshit?

This country is rapidly swirling into a death spiral on it's way down the drain. What happened to this nation's great experiment of Democracy? Right-wing zealots who want singular thinking and complete control over what you think and do. That's what happened. That's what always happens eventually when these people are allowed to gain a foothold in decent society.

[DeminPennswoods]

43. Word just needs to be put out she's part of a cult

repeated over and over until when most Americans hear her name, they think "cultist". There doesn't have to be any religion attached to that description at all,.

She can explain how it's not a cult and Senators can question her about it. Remember the adage, if you are explaining, you are losing.

[DallasNE]

45. Why Has The Court Become A Catholic Enclave?

Who on the court is not Catholic now that RBG has passed away?

The present day church seems to have a number of offshoots that are extreme, including current court members. Barr is a Catholic member of Mater Dei, another of extremist offshoots. And the Senate confirms them all.