May 23, 2023

CultNEWS101 Articles: 5/23/2023 (Event, Quiet Time program, Transcendental Meditation, Legal, Hillsong)

Event, Quiet Time program, Transcendental Meditation, Legal, Hillsong

"At this event, Gillie will give a brief overview of her experience of joining, life in, leaving and recovering from a British coercively controlling cult – 'The Community'. She will explain some of her journey to becoming a psychotherapist and trainer specialising in supporting others who have left similar groups and/or relationships. She will then introduce you to her ideas about the recovery journey by introducing her Workbook, newly published by Routledge: 'Walking Free from the Trauma of Coercive, Cultic and Spiritual Abuse: A Workbook for Recovery and Growth'. There will be time for Q&A."

Date: 30th May
Location: Online, Zoom
Doors open: 6.30pm
Event begins: 7pm

" ... Court … [concludes that] there is a dispute of material fact and a reasonable jury could—but is not guaranteed to—find that Quiet Time violated the 1st Amendment."

" ... Williams testified that he experienced mental health challenges and suicidal thoughts prior to participating in the Quiet Time program, but that Transcendental Meditation made his struggles worse. When asked to explain how his condition worsened, Williams stated that "not many know about it, but like I killed a couple animals, I was getting in trouble for starting fires in people's garages, trash every in the alley on fire[.]" He then appeared to clarify that he was referring to animals he had harmed before he learned Transcendental Meditation, but viewing this testimony in Williams's favor as the non-movant, the Court concludes that Williams has described his emotional distress injury in "reasonable detail." Furthermore, if a jury concludes that Transcendental Meditation was a religious practice and that Williams was coerced into learning it, that jury could also reasonably conclude that the experience would be "inherently degrading or humiliating" and accept Williams's more conclusory statements as proof of his emotional distress injury..."

NY Times: How a Hip Megachurch Became Entangled in Scandal
"The global megachurch Hillsong was known for its hipster trappings, celebrity congregants and wildly popular worship music in the 2010s, but in recent years it has been more closely tied to a series of scandals, including the firing of its charismatic celebrity pastor, Carl Lentz, for "moral failures."

A four-part documentary series, "The Secrets of Hillsong," premieres on FX on Friday and delves into the turmoil. The series, which is based on a 2021 article in Vanity Fair magazine, features the first interview with Mr. Lentz since he was fired in 2020."

 

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