CultNEWS101 Articles: 7/31/2025 (Geelong Revival Centre, Australia, Legal, Paranormal Phenomena, Mormonism)

Geelong Revival Centre, Australia, Legal, Paranormal Phenomena, Mormonism

The Guardian: Sunday school teacher jailed for sexually abusing nine children was protected by church leader, Victorian cult inquiry hears

"A Sunday school teacher who was jailed for sexually abusing nine children was protected by the leader of his fundamentalist church, after parents reported the abuse to him instead of police, a Victorian parliamentary inquiry has heard.

Catherine and Ryan Carey, former members of the Geelong Revival Centre (GRC), gave evidence at the first hearing of the parliamentary inquiry into the practices of cults and organised fringe groups on Wednesday.

The inquiry was established in April, after allegations of coercive practices at the GRC, as detailed in LiSTNR's investigative podcast series Secrets We Keep: Pray Harder. The church has not publicly commented on the allegations contained in the podcast.

Led by the legislative assembly's legal and social issues committee, the inquiry is not examining specific religious groups or their beliefs but rather the methods they use to attract and retain members – and whether those practices amount to coercion that should be criminalised.

Ryan told the inquiry the man had a valid working with children check at the time of the offending and described the government's screening process as a "Band-Aid on an amputee".

"He was convicted last year of molesting nine kids in the Geelong community and the parents that found out reported it to the cult leader – and this was in the judgment – instead of going [to] police," he said."

Gallup: Paranormal Phenomena Met With Skepticism in U.S.

Two-thirds of Americans are skeptical of paranormal beliefs; none of eight concepts are believed by a majority.

"Americans are broadly skeptical about each of eight paranormal phenomena tested in a recent Gallup poll. Nearly half of U.S. adults, 48%, believe in psychic or spiritual healing. Slightly fewer, 39%, express a belief in ghosts, while between 24% and 29% say they believe in six other supernatural phenomena, including telepathy, communication with the dead, clairvoyance, astrology, reincarnation and witches.

For each of these paranormal phenomena, respondents were asked whether or not they believe in it or are unsure. Roughly one in five Americans are unsure about each of them, while at least half say they don't believe in clairvoyance (50%), reincarnation (50%), astrology (55%) or witches (60%)."

" ... These findings are based on a Gallup poll conducted May 1-18, 2025.

Americans' levels of belief in five of the eight paranormal phenomena are statistically similar to Gallup's 2001 readings. Gallup has previously asked about various paranormal phenomena in 1990, 1991, 1994, 1996, 2001 and 2005 surveys. Comparisons to some of these past data are complicated by whether the paranormal questions were preceded by questions about religion, which appear to influence the way people think about communicating with the dead and ghosts or spirits.

The 1994, 2001 and 2025 surveys included religion questions. A comparison of the 2025 results with those from 2001 shows that Americans' beliefs in paranormal phenomena are largely unchanged. The exceptions are six-percentage-point declines in belief in psychic or spiritual healing and clairvoyance, and a seven-point drop in belief in telepathy."

RNS: She survived abuse and left her faith. Now, she gives religious trauma survivors a voice on YouTube.

"Shelise Ann Sola grew up in a devout Mormon family in Tremonton, Utah. At 19, after being berated by her local bishop for being sexually active with her boyfriend, she began to question her faith, she told RNS.

Then, when she was 27, after leaving the church and moving to Las Vegas, memories of suffering sexual abuse as a child at the hands of her father resurfaced.

"I would wake up screaming and hyperventilating until I figured out what it was," Sola said.

Sola confronted her father soon after the memories began. He eventually admitted to the abuse when she was 32 — two weeks before her wedding, she said.

"It took five years for him to admit to everything," Sola, now 34, said. "But those are experiences that I can hold compassion for and have a better understanding of how to talk to survivors because of them."

Today, Sola is the host of Cults to Consciousness, a YouTube channel with 326,000 subscribers she runs with her husband and co-producer, Jonathan Rosales. Since the channel's launch in 2022, Sola has interviewed hundreds of survivors who escaped what she often described as "high-control" religious and/or spiritual groups, or more plainly, cults. Guests recount harrowing journeys through systems of manipulation, abuse and control by fear and exclusion in long-form interviews."

The Alchymical Mormonism Of The Widow's Son

​Shawn F. Higgins

Patheos

January 25, 2025

"In the publisher’s office in the town of Batavia, New York, there were fresh proofs of the most recent printing, an exposé on the secret rites and oaths of Freemasonry by William Morgan. The gang of masked men felt vindicated for the severe beating they delivered to the owner of the printing press, and the destruction of his equipment. It was a warning to all. Nine days later the author of the exposé, William Morgan, was himself abducted. Secretly transported to the town of Canandaigua, he was found guilty in a mock trial by members of the Batavian Masonic Lodge. Morgan never returned home. It was alleged that three fanatical Freemasons tossed the weighted body of Morgan over Niagara Falls on the evening of September 11, 1826, but this was never proven. Nevertheless, it was widely believed that Morgan was murdered by a nefarious network of Freemasons. His mysterious disappearance caused a great deal of public protest. Anti-Masonry became a political crusade that swept Western New York and New England. Opponents of Masonry claimed that the Fraternity was a threat to free government; they portrayed Masons as a dangerous cabal intent on infiltrating the inner machinations of the Republic (with aims exerting a secret agenda.) President Andrew Jackson, a high-ranking Mason, added validity to their concerns. Critics of Jackson leaped at this opportunity and created America’s earliest third party, the “Anti-Masonic Party.” By 1830 there were thirty-three Anti-Masons in the New York Assembly and eight in State Senate. In popularity, it was second only to Martin Van Buren’s political machine, 'The Albany Regency.'"


" ... The people of America were already somewhat familiar with the ideas of Masonry. Among the Masonic works circulating in the new Republic was Thomas Smith Webb’s Freemason’s Monitor. This work had a significant impact on the shaping of the Masonic Ritual in North America, specifically the high degree Masonry of the York Rite. His literature about these Lodges earned him the moniker “Founding Father of the York Rite.” His description of the degree of the “Knights Of The Ninth Arch” even explained the Enochian myth to the rural peoples of the land.


Enoch, the son of Jared, was the sixth son in descent from Adam, and lived in the fear and love of his Maker. Enoch, being inspired by the Most High, and in commemoration of a wonderful vision, built a temple underground, and dedicated the same to God. Methuselah, the son of Enoch, constructed the building, without being acquainted with his father’s motives. This happened in the part of the world, which was afterwards called the land of Canaan, and since known by the name of the Holy Land. Enoch caused a triangular plate of gold to be made, each side of which was a cubit long; he enriched it with the most precious stones, and encrusted the plate upon a stone of agate, of the same form. He then engraved upon it the ineffable characters, and placed it on a triangular pedestal of white marble which he deposited in the deepest arch. When Enoch’s temple was completed, he made a door of stone, and put a ring of iron therein, by which it might be occasionally raised; and placed it over the opening of the arch, that the matters enclosed therein might be preserved from the universal destruction impending. And none but Enoch knew of the treasure which the arches contained. And, behold, the wickedness of mankind increased more, and became grievous in the sight of the Lord, and God threatened to destroy the whole world. Enoch, perceiving that the knowledge of the arts was likely to be lost in the general destruction, and being desirous of preserving the principles of sciences, for the posterity of those whom God should be pleased to spare, built two great pillars on the top of the highest mountain, the one of brass to withstand water, the other of marble, to withstand fire; and he engraved on the pillar of brass the principles of the liberal arts, particularly of masonry.

According to this tradition, after the burial of the plates, many centuries pass until they are re-discovered by Solomon’s Masons while work is being excavated for his Temple to God. Webb states:

The same divine history particularly informs us of the different movements of the Israelites, until they became possessed of the land of promise, and of the succeeding events until the Divine Providence was pleased to give the scepter to David; who, though fully determined to build a temple to the Most High, could never begin it; that honor being reserved for his son. Solomon, being the wisest of princes, had fully in remembrance of his promises of God to Moses, that some of his successors, in fullness of time, should discover his holy name; and his wisdom inspired him to believe, that this could not be accomplished until he erected and consecrated a temple to the living God, in which he might deposit the precious treasures. Accordingly, Solomon began to build, in the fourth year of his reign, agreeably a plan given to him by David his father, upon the ark of alliance. He chose a spot for this purpose, the most beautiful and healthy in all of Jerusalem. The number of the grand and sublime elected , were at first three, and now consisted of five; and continued so until the temple was completed and dedicated; when king Solomon, as a reward for their faithful services, admitted to this degree the twelve grandmasters, who had faithfully presided over the twelve tribes; also one other grand master architect. Nine ancient grand masters, eminent for their virtue, were chosen knights of the royal arch, and shortly afterwards were admitted to the sublime degree of perfection. You have been informed in what manner the number of the grand elect was augmented to twenty-seven, which is the cube of three: they consisted of two kings, three knights of the royal arch, twelve commanders of the twelve tribes, nine elected grandmasters, and one grand master architect. This lodge is closed by the mysterious number.


It was during this public conversation on Masonry that a young man in his early twenties, Joseph Smith, was composing The Book Of Mormon in Western New York. Though born in Vermont, Smith and his family moved to Palmyra, New York, in 1816. At the time there were “wise men” and “cunning persons” engaged in the “supernatural economy” that was popular in that region during this time. Men and women who used divination and occult practices to find lost and stolen objects. The use of seer-stones, scrying for buried treasure, and belief in spirits were commonplace. Among the religious artifacts in the possession of the Smith family were tools to be used in ritual magic acts, like lamens (small, folded parchments used for magical rituals,) a Jupiter talisman, and a dagger ornamented in planetary sigils. The young Joseph Smith was among these practitioners (and something of a treasure seeker.) Smith was reportedly visited by God and Jesus in 1820 and an angel named Moroni in 1823. The latter was a prophet-warrior from an ancient people called the Nephites, a nation that once peopled the Americas according to Moroni. The full history of the Nephites, and other lost stories, were written down on buried Golden Plates. Smith, under the direction of Moroni, retrieved these Golden Plates and, using his seer stones, was able to translate the text into English which he published in 1830 under the title, The Book Of Mormon. The contents of this lost Scripture, if true, revealed (among other things) a history of Jesus in America, and the existence of people known as Nephites and Lamanites (connected to the Lost Tribes of Israel.) This was of particular interest to Americans at the time. As the contemporary chronicler John L. Stephens noted, questions were being asked about the “first peopling of America.” Some said the Native Americans were a separate race, “not descended from the same common father with the rest of mankind.” Others ascribed their origin to “some remnant of the antediluvian inhabitants of the earth who survived the deluge which swept away the greatest part of the human species in the days of Noah.” (In 1807 Alexander Von Humboldt published his theory that South America and Africa were once connected.) Stephens, alluding to Smith, adds: “An enterprising American has turned the tables on the Old World and planted the ark itself within the State of New York.”
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https://www.patheos.com/blogs/marginalia/2025/01/the-alchymical-mormonism-of-the-widows-son/ 

Sexual misconduct allegations lead Arizona ex-gay therapist to surrender his license

Floyd Godfrey, an LDS conversion therapy activist is a major player on the "ex-gay" speaking circuit.

Commentary by Wayne Besen
LGBTQ Nation
March 8, 2024

An exclusive report by Truth Wins Out revealed today that in May 2023, Floyd Godfrey, an infamous conversion therapist, who once compared homosexuality to cannibalism, was forced to surrender his license to practice therapy in Arizona.

An investigation by the Arizona Board of Behavioral Health Examiners concluded that Godfrey had made “sexual advances” against two of his employees and included “an additional allegation that Respondent (Godfrey) asked to get naked in front of him.”

Leading “ex-gay” conversion therapist has a disturbing history of domestic abuse
“Godfrey is a fraud who secured his income by claiming to cure LGBTQ people, but never changed his own sexual orientation,” said Truth Wins Out Executive Director Wayne Besen. “This latest scandal proves conversion therapy is a dangerous front for con artists who use the practice to conceal their moral depravity and disturbing penchant to engage in sexual impropriety.”

One of the whistleblowers “provided screenshots of written correspondence to corroborate this allegation.” Truth Wins Out, working with anti-conversion therapy advocates Matt Ashcroft and Stevie Inghram, found that the Arizona Board of Behavioral Health Examiners:

In 03/23…received four separate complaints against Respondent [Godfrey] alleging unwanted sexual in nature advances.

[The Board] voted to offer the Respondent an interim consent agreement that would prohibit him the ability to see client’s directly or provide clinical supervision. Additionally, at the Board meeting, the members issued an Order for a psychosexual evaluation to be completed within 60 days for the Board’s review and consideration.

After this Board meeting, prior to Board staff’s formal investigative interview with Respondent, and without completing the psychosexual evaluation, Respondent contacted Board staff requesting to voluntarily surrender his license.

Based upon the foregoing Findings of Fact and Conclusion of Law, the parties agree to the provision and penalties imposed as follows: 1. Respondent’s license, LPC-10466, shall be surrendered to the Board. 2. The surrender shall be considered a revocation of Respondent’s license.

Respondent’s agreement not to provide direct client services or provide clinical supervision will be considered an active restriction of their license.

His scandal is a severe blow to the “ex-gay” industry. Godfrey, an LDS counselor, is tied to the notorious Brother’s Road organization. He is also an author and a popular speaker on the conversion therapy circuit. Godfrey was on the board of People Can Change, spoke at the now disbanded LDS Evergreen International and the Alliance for Therapeutic Choice and Scientific Integrity (formerly NARTH).

In 2013, Godfrey was an anti-LGBTQ presenter at the United Nations. In 2017, he gave a seminar, “Homosexuality and Etiological Concerns,” for St. Lucia’s Governmental Affairs agency. His most recent seminar was in 2023 at the AACC Global Summit, where he spoke on, “Program Development for Adolescent Males with Compulsive Pornography Problems.”

Godfrey still serves on “the Executive Team at Family Strategies Counseling Center in Mesa, Arizona as an advisor and consultant.” He “supervises other therapists who work in the field of sexual addictions, reparative therapy and other mental health issues.”

“What kind of counseling agency would allow such a troubled individual and certified charlatan to supervise therapists?” asked Matt Ashcroft, a conversion therapy survivor and an activist who played a key role in banning conversion therapy in Canada. “Conversion therapy is a harmful practice that attracts dishonorable hucksters who manipulate clients and abuse their power.”

The website for Family Strategies Counseling Center used to be HealingHomosexuality.com but has since been changed to the more nebulous FamilyStrategies.org, likely as an attempt to avoid controversy at a time when conversion therapy is considered toxic and politically unpalatable.

Despite his recent scandal, Godfrey still appears to practice conversion therapy, hawking “ex-gay” snake oil on his personal website, where he offers private online sessions for “Identity/Gender Confusion” and ‘Unwanted Same Sex Attraction”.

“Should an unethical, disgraced therapist who unceremoniously lost his license for sexual impropriety be offering counseling to anyone, no less vulnerable LGBTQ youth?” asked Stevie Inghram, who studies and researches conversion therapy. “What we see here is a recipe for abusive behavior. Godfrey should take down his deceptive website and find a new field of work.”

Godfrey made news when he appeared on right-wing commentator Linda Harvey’s show in 2012 and metaphorically compared homosexuality to cannibalism. Addressing a question by Mission America’s Harvey, Godfrey said:

Dr. Elizabeth Moberly had talked about homosexuality like cannibalism because we’re so hungry. And that is what it feels like to those who struggle with homosexual feelings, they’re so hungry they just want to eat it up, they want to assimilate, they want to eat what they don’t feel like they have. If you look at cannibals they would eat the leaders of the tribe, they would eat those that have the qualities they so admired. A young man with homosexual attractions is so envious, he’s jealous of other boys, he puts them on a pedestal, he might idolize them, he’s jealous of them, so he’s trying to assimilate what he feels like he doesn’t have. So that’s where that metaphor comes from.

Godfrey has always been at war with his nature. According to his testimony, he married a woman in 1992 and had three children. However, from the beginning, his marriage was no honeymoon:

“Unfortunately, during my first year of marriage I became overconfident and neglected some of the things that had been essential in my process in therapy…I made some wrong decisions that resulted to have sexual relations with another man for first time in my life. I felt so bad and so devastated! I had to constantly feed my masculinity and participate in activities with men.”

Godfrey’s depressing life-story represents classic conversion therapy’s prosaic “cause and effect” model. In a video testimony on Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays (PFOX) website, Godfrey claims he felt rejected by his male peers. He said he felt like he was “always the last one picked for a team” and that his “longings to fit in” led him to “be constantly tortured by that desire to be one of the guys.”

Godfrey had the requisite difficult relationship with his father who was hyper-religious and “very legalistic and very demeaning, very critical, it was very hard to please him.” He said that due to the ill treatment by his father he “felt less and less of a man less and less masculine.”

His family’s conservative religious practices made it difficult for Godfrey to accept that he was gay. “The whole time trying hard to reconcile with my faith that that’s just not who I was.”

Conversion therapy attracts clients by creating a false model that deliberately confuses stereotypes with science. The discredited practice often ensnares LGBTQ people who identify with experiences such as Godfrey’s, creating a cause and effect where none exists.

Most despicably, Godfrey offers the canard that homosexuality is caused by being molested as a child, although there is no evidence to back this assertion. “I’d also had friends who had been sexually molested and said that contributed to some of their problems and their attractions,” he claims without evidence.

The false conversion therapy model flies in the face of reality. LGBTQ people come from every imaginable background and family dynamic. There are gay professional athletes! Some LGBTQ people are sexually abused, as are countess heterosexuals. Godfrey’s male rejection didn’t lead him to “sexualize” his feelings toward men, as he claims.

Instead, he is a victim of misguided ideas, fueled by guilt, shame, stigma, and religious conditioning, which, tragically, led him to illegitimately “medicalize” his natural sexual orientation, against the advice of every respected medical and mental health association in the world.

The result of suppressing his true self finally burst out in the open, with the now-disgraced therapist acting out in unhealthy, humiliating ways that led to unethical decisions that undermined his career.

In his video testimony, Godfrey claimed, “My wife and I have a wonderful marriage and have a wonderful life. At this point, I don’t feel like I’m repressing who I am.”

Godfrey’s dishonorable actions and career collapse belie his sugarcoated words and carefully curated life story. When it comes to “ex-gay” leaders, their ignoble actions always speak louder than their slippery words. Just like recently scandalized conversion therapists Christopher Doyle and Jayson Graves, Floyd Godfrey is a two-bit charlatan who unscrupulously peddles “ex-gay” poison to clients, even though his magic cure clearly didn’t work for himself.


https://www.lgbtqnation.com/channel/queer-state-of-the-union/

Author shares journey of escaping cult leader's grip, finding healing and forgiveness through faith

Leah MarieAnn Klett Assistant Editor

The Christian Post 

February 18, 2024

Growing up, Carrie Sheffield witnessed firsthand how religion can be used to justify evil. 

Her father, a Mormon cult leader, believed he was a prophet destined to become president, and, after being excommunicated from the LDS church, continuously moved his wife and eight children around the country to avoid both religious and state authorities. 

Sheffield’s early life was spent on the move, living in various motorhomes, sheds and tents with her large family, attending 17 public schools and being homeschooled at times.

It was, according to Sheffield, a childhood marked by extreme instability, abuse and spiritual manipulation.

“There was constant abuse by my father, telling us we're not worthy, telling us that we're evil, telling us also that he's a prophet and he's basically bringing salvation to America and saving our country from destruction,” she told The Christian Post. 

“We were on welfare. At one point, we actually had no food and were boiling water with grass from the city park and eating this grass broth. It was all done in the name of God, is what my father said. Eventually, two of my older brothers developed schizophrenia. When I was 17, the older of those two tried to rape me, he groped me, and it was just incredibly scary and psychologically damaging to me. And at that point, I knew I had to make a decision.”

After making the difficult decision to walk away from her past, Sheffield embarked on an exploration of personal growth. She threw off all notions of religion — “the heart position for me was hostile; I didn’t know if there was a God, but if there was, He probably hated me and I felt the same way,” she said — and threw herself into work and schooling. She earned a full tuition scholarship to Harvard University for a master's degree in public policy and worked as an analyst for major Wall Street firms. 

“I was making a ton of money compared to the nothing I had living in a motorhome,” she said. 

Eventually, Sheffield launched a successful career in political journalism at outlets like Politico and The Hill, where she advocated for conservative values. Yet, despite her success, she was deeply unhappy and unfulfilled, struggling with suicide ideation, episodic depression and health issues that left her hospitalized on several occasions. 

And then, in 2016, the entire trajectory of Sheffield’s life shifted due to two unlikely forces: Donald Trump and science. A dedicated conservative, she found herself reevaluating her beliefs amid the political upheaval surrounding Trump's rise to presidency.

"I just could not process that because, I said, I'm not worshiping this guy. I cannot. I can't worship somebody who says terrible things about women, who donated to his Democratic opponent, who has no track record of conservative policy," Sheffield recalled. “I cannot have that be the ultimate purpose in my life. I can't have that be my reason for living.”

This political dissonance catalyzed her quest for something more enduring, steering her toward a church — specifically, Redeemer Church in New York City, led by Tim Keller — and ultimately igniting her interest in Christianity.

It was Keller's work, particularly his book Counterfeit Gods, that provided Sheffield with a framework to understand the emptiness of idolizing temporal aspects of life — in her case, money, power and political ideologies. 

"The reason why we worship them is because they're good. … But once you move into that posture where it becomes your God and your religion, then it becomes toxic," she said. 

The pursuit of a deeper understanding of the world and her place within it led Sheffield to explore the scientific underpinnings of creation, marking the second major influence on her conversion. Studying metaphysics and the improbability of Earth's existence by chance alone, she said, prompted a profound sense of wonder in her, challenging her previously held beliefs anchored in human intellect alone.

“I had also worshiped at the altar of the human intellect, going to Harvard where I'm surrounded by agnostics and atheists, people who had never actually really grappled with faith just completely dismissed it outright, she said. “And that's where I was. I just dismissed it outright. But when I was just stopped in my tracks … it was almost like an investigative journalism project, and I love the book The Case for Christ, where [author Lee Strobel] does just that.”

Sheffield, who documents her transformative story in her book, Motorhome Prophecies: A Journey of Healing and Forgiveness, shared how her conversion to Christianity marked a turning point in her relationship with her father and her outlook on life. 

"It started with my Christian walk," Sheffield said, detailing how her faith journey led her to reconsider her stance on forgiveness.

Inspired by the teachings of Billy Graham on honoring one's parents without necessarily obeying them when it contradicts God's will, Sheffield embarked on a process of reconciliation and forgiveness, despite the deep wounds of the past.

“I knew that to be angry at him ... that was not something that was bringing him honor," she said. 

A significant influence on Sheffield's journey was Anthony Thompson, a pastor who experienced unimaginable loss when his wife was murdered in the 2015 Charleston church shooting. 

Thompson's story of forgiveness toward the shooter and his book, Called to Forgive, she said, helped her understand forgiveness on a deeper level. 

"He helped me to go through that process," she said, emphasizing the impact of Thompson's forgiveness on her own path to healing.

Still, Sheffield is the first to admit the journey to healing hasn’t always been easy; even after getting baptized, she struggled with feelings of unworthiness and PTSD stemming from her childhood trauma. 

And though in a place of “peace” today, she continues the work of changing negative patterns of thought and behavior through a “combination of prayer and therapy.” She attends a Bible-believing, nondenominational church in the Washington, D.C., area, where she said she’s found a supportive community that shares her values and beliefs and continues to work as a policy analyst.

“It’s like a family here; I have a very full life,” she said. “I love what I do. I love being able to advocate for policies that I believe in. I love my church. Life's not perfect and it's a journey. But I would say overall, being able to share the love of God and letting people know that even if you've gone through hell, you can come through and be with God and He loves you.”

She voiced her concern over the growing secularization in society, particularly among younger generations, noting increasing suicide rates and mental health issues among young people. By sharing her story, Sheffield said, she wants to encourage the next generation that healing is possible — and faith is transformative. 

“The science is there, that people who go to church and regularly engage in religious practice … there are fewer suicides, fewer alcoholic deaths, fewer drug overdoses for those who are engaged in these spiritual practices,” she said. “God saves, and my life is a testament to that.

Leah M. Klett is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: leah.klett@christianpost.com

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The founder of Auntie Anne's Pretzel company says the principles of leadership that catapulted her business from a single pretzel stand in Pennsylvania in 1988 to an iconic franchise located in malls and airports nationwide emerged from faith and suffering.

Anne Beiler published an op-ed last week in The Christian Post laying out her principles of leadership from her 2021 book Overcome and Lead, which she said came in part from her faith-based upbringing on a farm with seven siblings in the Amish-Mennonite community of Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

"My mom and dad were great parents," she told CP in a recent interview, noting that they provided her a "safe and secure lifestyle."

"They taught us about God, and going to church and sitting around the table three times a day for meals was just our culture," she said. "And so, in that setting, I felt like they gave me a really good foundation to weather the storms of life."

Even so, Beiler said she couldn't have anticipated the storms that would come her way, which she recounted in her 2019 book The Secret Lies Within.

Tragedy struck Beiler's family in 1975 when her 19-month-old daughter, Angela, was killed in a farming accident, an event she said would lead her through a dark spiritual valley that would ultimately transform her view of God's grace.

"As Angie made her ascent into Heaven that day, I began my slow and gradual descent into a world of emotional pain and spiritual confusion," Beiler said. "Because I'd been a good girl, the question became, 'Why?'"

Beiler said her pain compounded when a pastor she went to for counseling took advantage of her physically and pulled her into a secretive, abusive relationship that lingered for nearly seven years.

"That became worse than losing our daughter," she said. "Because as I left his office, I didn't understand anything about abuse, abuse of spiritual power, sexual abuse. I was not familiar with that world at all."

"But when I left his office, I made a choice," she continued. "And I decided I would never tell anyone what he did to me. But that one choice I made kept me in a life of secrets for almost seven years; a life of secrets and abuse during that whole time, without me telling anyone or anyone knowing anything about it."

Beiler said keeping the abusive relationship a secret led her to feel like she was "dying inside." It dragged her into a deep spiritual depression and to the brink of suicide.

"I went from being kind of the life of the party and always having something to do or say, enjoying life, to isolation and despair," she said. "At one point, I thought I had only one option: that would be to take my life because I knew and I believed for sure I'd gone from being a good girl to a very bad girl."

Amid the abuse and shame, she came to believe that she was irreparably broken.

"I didn't understand that it really wasn't my fault," she said. "I know a whole lot more about it today than I did back then and I understand it better. But at that time, it just felt like life was over. I knew that I was unlovable, I knew I was unforgivable, and I knew I was unchangeable, and there was really no hope for me."

Beiler said she believed during her Amish-Mennonite upbringing she could maintain God's favor as long as she was a good person, and that "life is good, and God is harsh." God used the darkest experiences of her life to bring her to an understanding that the inverse is true.

"And what I know today, through over seven decades of life's experiences, is that life is hard, and God is good," she said. "And I'm not confused about that anymore."

Beiler said she began to find healing after applying a principle in James 5:16, which exhorts believers to "confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed."

"I know it's so compact. It seems so simple," Beiler said of the biblical command. "But I can tell you, it's the most difficult thing anyone does if they've been caught in the dark world and they can hardly find their way out. But it's really the only way out."

At first, she finally confessed her yearslong situation to her husband Jonas, and the two began their journey toward reconciliation. When she later sought counseling with Emerge Counseling Ministries, founded by the Rev. Richard Dobbins, she said she was urged to probe the anger she might be harboring.

When she told Dobbins her story, she said he told her that what she suffered was not her fault.

"Nobody had said that to me, and that was almost 15 years after the fact," she said. "And I carried the belief that it was all my fault — the guilt and the shame of it were all my fault."

Such a revelation caused something inside of her to "come to life," and she ultimately realized it was true. At first, she did not believe she was angry, but as she explored her feelings, she understood she was suffering from anger toward her abuser, her husband, God and ultimately herself.

"As long as you blame, there's no healing for you," she said. "And so the anger that I felt inside, I honestly had it buried so deep that I didn't even understand that I was angry."

She eventually realized that neither God nor her husband was worthy of anger, but she still struggled with forgiving herself.

"I turned, I still turn, the anger inward toward myself," she said. "I still carried the guilt and the shame of what I had done to my husband, what I'd done to my family, my two beautiful daughters. And even after all of that, I still felt the burden of that."

Overcoming such deep and painful emotions was a complex process, she said. But as she began telling her story at first to friends and later to the public, her "anger began to subside."

In 2003, as she felt herself begin to slip again into depression, she said she cried out to God, whose grace she came to realize was sufficient.

"He spoke to me in that moment," she said. "It was not an audible voice, but it was directly from Heaven. It was a huge interruption. And he said to me, 'Anne, I have done everything there is to do for you.'"

Overcome with the power of Jesus Christ's life, death and resurrection, Beiler said she felt that God was calling her to forgive herself.

"I had never heard of self-forgiveness," she said. "I didn't even know I needed to forgive myself. But it was so powerful and so strong that all I could do was respond and say yes."

Even though she still struggles with lingering memories of her past and her shortcomings, she said she no longer feels the guilt or shame she did because she came to realize Jesus took it on Himself.

"I was carrying the shame because I could not forgive myself," she said. "Somebody had to pay, and I was paying through carrying shame."

Although she once felt "dead on the inside" because of her shame, she says, "Today I'm alive."

"I love my life," she said. "I love my Savior. I love the redemption. I love my family. I'm walking in the light. Is life easy? No, you still live life, but you're in a whole other world. And it's amazing to me how Jesus has redeemed every part of me."

Beiler has written three books about her spiritual journey and founded Broken Silence in 2018 to teach and equip women about living a lifestyle of confession.

https://www.christianpost.com/books/author-shares-journey-of-escaping-cult-leaders-grip-to-faith.html

Angelic and demonic visitors are just part of what it means to be a Latter-day Saint

"The Devil Sat on My Bed: Encounters With the Spirit World in Mormon Utah" tells stories of disembodied whispers, scary interactions, even comforting texts from a deceased mother.

Tamarra Kemsley

Salt Lake Tribune
January 1, 2024

Growing up in Cache Valley, Erin Stiles was no stranger to the devil — or at least stories about him.

She remembers a number of occasions when one of her friends, all Latter-day Saints, would pipe up to inform the rest of the group that Lucifer had recently paid a visit, perching himself on the bed.

For years, Stiles, raised Episcopalian, filed away these memories as mere extensions of imaginative play.

"Growing up, [I] just knew that Mormons played the piano and had spirits come to them," she said. Whereas, Episcopalians "drove Vanagons and my mom didn't wear makeup. That was how I divided the world."

It wasn't until years later, when she was rifling around in archives at Utah State University, that the anthropologist of religion began to see these childhood recollections for what they are — examples of the rich lore regarding the spirit world that is central to "everyday Mormonism" in northern Utah.

In her new book, "The Devil Sat on My Bed: Encounters With the Spirit World in Mormon Utah," Stiles, who teaches at the University of Nevada, Reno, returns to these stories and the valley that raised her. In doing so, she comes to better understand how common these encounters are among members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints living there (and, to a lesser extent, in Utah generally), and the myriad ways locals share and understand them.

Her findings underscore, she said, a particularly Utah — and even Cache Valley — strain of the region's dominant faith, that of an "enchanted way of being in the world," where benevolent and evil spirits alike can appear at any time.
Missionaries and malevolent spirits

In her book, Stiles divides the types of spiritual encounters into benevolent and malevolent. The former, she said, are almost always kin — be it unborn future children or departed loved ones — and recognizable.

"The good spirits, you can always tell" who it is, she said. "They're not just gendered, but named, like 'That was Grandma' or 'I'm your future daughter.'"

Not so for the bad ones.

Latter-day Saint theology describes a war in heaven before the creation of the world. During it, Satan swayed a third of God's spirit children. Those who followed him, so the belief goes, were banned from ever being born and receiving bodies. Bitter and envious of the living, these spirits roam the planet looking to sabotage the righteous and torment the wayward.

It's within this framing that Stiles' interviewees viewed their encounters with malevolent spirits, she said, noting that the church's flagship Missionary Training Center, in Provo, and missions in general were especially fertile ground for run-ins with demons.

Her favorite example included two male missionaries serving in England who began hearing a female spirit in their flat.

"The evil spirits are never identified as individuals," Stiles explained, "and aren't always gendered. But this one was a woman's voice, whispering in their ears at night to the point where they were accused of having girls in their flat, which is a big no-no, of course."

Desperate, the missionaries, invoking their priesthood, cast her out through prayer, an event that turned out to be disappointingly mundane.

The man recalling the experience acknowledged he "was hoping it would be more dramatic, like the end of 'Raiders of the Lost Ark,'" Stiles said. Instead, the voice simply stopped.

"He explained that the reason that he thought the spirit was harassing them was because they were really quite successful," Stiles said. "They had a lot of baptisms and in a place where it wasn't easy to get a lot of baptisms."
A text from a deceased mother

In addition to being identifiable, altruistic visitors from beyond are always portrayed as there to help, whether offering comfort, guidance or protection.

A woman Stiles interviewed spoke of a number of encounters with her mother, who died when the girl was 10. Now 53, "Lynn," as Stiles refers to her in the book, told The Salt Lake Tribune that the messages she has received through the years have reassured her that her mother is still aware of, and engaged in, her life, and that there was a greater, self-sacrificial purpose behind her death — one that served to protect the family (like Stiles, The Tribune is not identifying the individual due to the sensitive nature of her story).

"I haven't ever seen her, but that doesn't surprise me," Lynn said, referring to her mother. "When she died, I used to pray that I wouldn't see her because I was afraid it would scare me."

Instead, Lynn explained, she has heard her mom's voice on occasion, and once received a text from her — sent from a friend's number but which her friend has no record or memory of sending.

These experiences have taught Lynn "that there are agreements made prior to this Earth life" and "that loved ones are always doing their best, through love, to help future generations. I would never have thought that."

Stiles said this kind of increased faith in family connections that extend beyond this life and world was a common takeaway among those she interviewed.

"It really confirmed for them the reality of the conception of the eternal family," she said, "a key — if not the key — teaching of the church."
'Cultural kindling'

While researching the book, Stiles never came across a Cache Valley Latter-day Saint who thought her inquiries about spiritual encounters were strange.

"Not one person said, 'Oh, this is crazy' or 'This is silly. Why are you researching this?'" she said. "Everyone was like, 'Oh, yes, these things happen all the time.'"

This free sharing of stories involving interactions with the spirit world among Latter-day Saints in northern Utah — and, to some extent, the Beehive State generally — acts as "cultural kindling" that, she argued, provides the fuel for additional, similar stories.

"Because you know all these stories and you grow up hearing these stories," she said, "you're able to interpret these experiences in a particular way."

The result is a distinct version of the faith in which the dividing line between the physical and spiritual worlds is particularly porous.
A radical faith tradition

Latter-day Saint folklorist Christopher Blythe is less sure that Cache Valley and its environs are all that different when it comes to non-Utah members' reports of interactions with the spirit world.

"I actually think her claims," the Brigham Young University professor said, "are applicable to Mormons widely."

Blythe spoke highly of the book, explaining that the stories Stiles uncovered matter far beyond whether they are true.

"These experiences tell us what Mormonism looks like when you forget about priesthood hierarchies and separating men from women," said the co-host of "Angels and Seerstones: A Latter-day Saint Folklore Podcast." "This is just the raw stuff."

He added: "Interactions with the supernatural, the divine, the angelic — that's what it means to be a Mormon."

Referring to the faith's founder, Joseph Smith, Blythe said that "the idea that you can have an angel appear to a 13-year-old and you can see visions through a rock — it really represents just how radical this faith tradition is."

https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2024/01/01/angels-demons-otherworldly/

Perspective: What happens when the religiously illiterate are asked about Latter-day Saints

Latter-day Saints are among faith groups that ranked negatively in a recent survey. But it’s likely that people are not distinguishing between major faith groups and their controversial offshoots.


Stephen Cranney
Deseret News
February 12, 2023

Several months ago, on the Joe Rogan podcast, comedian Whitney Cummings mentioned a documentary she had seen about child abuse perpetrated by Warren Jeffs, leader of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

In the course of the conversation, she asked why “we’re not all storming Salt Lake City to get these girls out” and wondered whether she was “going to get a dart in the neck (because) there is so much fear around the Mormon Church.”

It was clear she was completely oblivious to the fact that Jeffs’ offshoot, polygamous, fundamentalist sect was completely different from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. (Which also doesn’t use the term “Mormon” anymore.)

Despite this, at no point in the conversation was there any kind of pushback, correction or questioning from the host or on-site producer, who seemed equally oblivious (which isn’t surprising since Rogan also once believed that Jews hold Jesus as a prophet).

The thing is, it’s not just Rogan. A nationally representative survey showed that only one-third of respondents knew that Latter-day Saints can’t have more than one wife, while only about half know that members believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God — despite “Jesus Christ” being part of the church’s name.

And about a quarter believed that Latter-day Saints can’t have blood transfusions. They can — that’s a teaching of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

The lack of knowledge is not just about Latter-day Saints either. Pew found that only about half of Americans could correctly identify Jesus as giving the Sermon on the Mount — even when given four options.

With religious literacy in the United States so abysmal, it’s hard to know what to make of another recent poll that showed that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has one of the lowest favorability ratings of any faith — lower than Wicca and not far ahead of satanism.

One has to wonder, do respondents in that poll even know the difference between Latter-day Saints and the fundamentalist Mormons that get so much airtime in the press?

Given the exchange on “The Joe Rogan Experience,” one of the most listened-to podcasts in the world, I have my doubts.

A popularity contest for religions?

Much of the discussion about the survey naturally went to what could be the reason for the favorability ratings. For instance, one commentator noted, “I’m surprised that Democrats prefer Protestantism to Catholicism.” Another person noted, “Republicans significantly more pro-Jewish (+23) than Democrats (+9).” Brian Clark weighed in, “I’m Episcopalian. Anyone know why we aren’t more liked? Those numbers seem low.”

And on Twitter, Manuel Hernandez quipped that “Scientology ranking worse than Satanism also explains Tom Cruise’s Oscar snub.”

There is a lot that we can speculate on. But in general, the numbers aren’t that surprising for Latter-day Saints, as they track other surveys showing us in the company of other religious minority groups such as Muslims, when it comes to popularity.

For those of us who find solace and sweetness in our faith, the natural assumption is that deeper understanding of the faith will generate more affection — if they knew more about the church, they would love it as we do. But, of course, we also know that some expressing the strongest disapproval of a certain faith do know it well — or at least they think they do.

In the case of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, attitudes toward the faith may have less to do with the same-sex dating policy at religious schools or with theological positioning about the exact nature of Christ’s divinity, and more to do with a Netflix documentary producer’s choice of creepy music.

A peculiar people

There are certainly discussions worth having about what exactly Latter-day Saints do (or don’t do) that invokes such ire in the broader public. But with such widespread ignorance about religion in general, it’s important that we pay attention to not just what we say and do, but how we are perceived.

And clearly, among some people, there is a perception that all faith groups are a societal problem that needs to be confronted. One shocking takeaway was that, to some Democrats, Latter-day Saints were seen as worse than satanists. In view of these results, one man suggested, “Republican religious bigotry toward LDS is the reason we didn’t have two terms of President Mitt Romney.”

And of course, it’s not just bigotry, but ignorance, at play.

It’s also worth noting that the chatterati commenting on the “why” behind these numbers are often people whose knowledge of the faith is limited to game-show tidbits such as the fact that Joseph Smith was a Latter-day Saint.

If people don’t know even the basics of a faith group, is it asking too much for them to differentiate between the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the mainstream Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints?

It seems so. And I suspect that’s one good reason why the two groups are relatively close together in this survey’s rankings.

In a similar vein, one commentator said about the differences in religious favorability, “What is one supposed to do with this? How many respondents have a clue as to the difference between Northern and Southern Baptists or between The Episcopal Church and Presbyterianism?”

Another likewise asked, “Very curious what percentage of respondents thought Christian Scientist meant Scientologist.”

The reality is that the average American probably can’t, religiously speaking, tell the difference between an avocado and a chihuahua. That needs to change — and it needs to be taken into account when speculating about surveys.

Stephen Cranney is a nonresident fellow at Baylor University’s Institute for the Studies of Religion and teaches at Catholic University of America.

https://www.deseret.com/2023/2/12/23590047/latter-day-saints-mormons-religious-literacy-joe-rogan

Latest from Mormon Land: The contrasting views of Joseph Smith's wives about polygamy

David Noyce

Salt Lake Tribune
January 19, 2023

Joseph’s wives sound off on plural marriage

It’s no surprise that the plural wives (and their families) of church founder Joseph Smith had varying views of polygamy.

Scholar Todd Compton, author of “In Sacred Loneliness: The Documents,” noted as much during his appearance on our “Mormon Land” podcast last fall.

But the differences are deep in two reflections he cited in a recent “From the Desk” interview with Kurt Manwaring.

First, from Joseph’s niece Ina Coolbrith, daughter of Agnes Moulton Coolbrith. Agnes had married the Latter-day Saint prophet in 1842:

“Is it right for a girl of 15 and even 16 to marry a man of 50 or 60? Can there be any love there? And has not God willed a woman to love honor and obey her husband? And can it be right thus to pledge false vows at the altar, in perfect mockery of all that is good and pure in God’s most holy laws?” Ina wrote in 1857 (edited here for clarity). “I think I see myself, vowing to love and honor, some old driveling idiot of 60, to be taken into his harem and enjoy the pleasure of being his favorite sultana for an hour, and then thrown aside, whilst my godly husband, is out sparking another girl, in hopes of getting another victim to his despotic power. Pleasant prospect, I must say. And this, Joe, this is of God, is it? No, never, never, never! You may preach, you may talk to me from now to eternity, but you never will make me believe that polygamy is true.”

Compare those words with these, from Eliza Partridge Smith Lyman, who married Joseph in 1843:

“It is now about 31 years since the prophet Joseph Smith taught to me the principles of celestial marriage. I was then married by that order and have raised a family of both sons and daughters in what is called polygamy, and I am not afraid to say that it is one of the most pure and holy principles that has ever been revealed to the Latter-day Saints, and one that is necessary to our exaltation,” she wrote in 1879 (again edited for clarity). “The anti-polygamists say the laws of celestial marriage are a curse to our children. Will they be kind enough to tell us where it is any disadvantage to them? We are not afraid to compare our children with those born and raised in monogamy. Perhaps they do not know that the Lord reserved some of the most noble spirits to come forth in the last days, to perform the great work which he has begun on earth, and which he will consummate in spite of all opposing influences. … Then let us rejoice, my sisters, that we are numbered with the people of God, that we have embraced the celestial order of marriage, and happy shall we be in a coming day if we have never spoken lightly of sacred things.”

Hear our full podcast with Compton and read excerpts from that interview.

https://www.sltrib.com/religion/2023/01/19/latest-mormon-land-contrasting/