CultNEWS101 Articles: 12/2/2021 (France, Clerical Celibacy, Daddy Girls, Chad Daybell )

France, Clerical Celibacy, Daddy Girls, Chad Daybell 

RFI: Paris archbishop offers to resign after reports on private life emerge

"The Archbishop of Paris, Michel Aupetit, has offered his resignation to Pope Francis due to his "ambiguous behaviour" with a woman, his diocese announced on Friday. Aupetit wrote to the pope this week offering to step down following an investigation by Le Point magazine earlier this month, a diocese spokeswoman said.

"He had ambiguous behaviour with a person he was very close to," the spokeswoman said, adding that it was "not a loving relationship", nor sexual.

The offer to resign was "not a confession of guilt, but a humble gesture, an offer of dialogue," she added.

Clerical Celibacy

Catholic priests are bound to celibacy under church doctrine and are meant to practice sexual abstinence.

The French church is still recovering from the publication in October of a devastating report by the Ciase, an independent commission which estimated that Catholic clergy had abused 216,000 children since 1950.

Dealing with the avalanche of revelations about sexual abuse by priests was one of the biggest challenges that Francis faced when he was elected pope in 2013."

Petty Paige: DADDY'S GIRLS: The Lesbian BBW Cult of TikTok

"So what happens when someone gets drunk with power and influence? They start a CULT.

Today we are going to talk about the lesbian #BBWCult of tiktok #DaddysGirls & even saying that out loud is insane!! Cults on #TikTok aren't the evangelical ones most people are familiar with. Instead, they are open fandoms revolving around a single creator. The biggest difference is that TikTok's cult leaders are not independently famous. They're upstart creators building a fan base on social media. The cults lift up unlikely influencers and allow members to feel complicit in their rise. This type of bond is incredibly powerful."

Arizona: Chandler police release additional info on Lori Vallow case

"... The evidence released by Chandler police in October gave insight into the non-traditional religious beliefs of Lori Vallow and Chad Daybell and those in their inner circle."

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Married church minister 'ran bottom spanking cult'

The Telagraph
September 18, 2015

A church minister used the Bible to justify spanking vulnerable women on their bare bottoms to satisfy his own sexual desires, a court heard today

Howard Curtis, 72, former senior minister of the Coulsdon Christian Fellowship, south London, allegedly ran a "cult" where grown women were persuaded to strip naked so he could spank them over his knee for his own pleasure.

Married Curtis and his "inner circle" used "unorthodox" teachings to instill discipline and drive out evil spirits in both women and children who had come to him for help, it is said.

His abuse of their trust continued as he moved "from one woman to another" and his confidence grew, Croydon Crown Court heard.

File photo: Howard Curtis arrives at Croydon Magistrates Court in Croydon, South London in 2014

File photo: Howard Curtis arrives at Croydon Magistrates Court in Croydon, South London in 2014 Photo: National Pictures

Curtis, who left his role as a senior minister at the independent Baptist church in June 2013, is faces 12 charges involving seven victims.

• Satanic cult claims dismissed by High Court judge

The former leader of the church, a role he left in May 2012, is charged with five counts of cruelty to children under 16 years of age, two counts of indecent assault, and four of sexual assault.

Additionally he faces one count of assault by penetration, while the offences are said to have occurred between January 1969 and July 2013.

"He would put them over his knee and hit them hard until they cried and, in some cases, marks appeared."

Jane Osborne, prosecuting

Jane Osborne, prosecuting, said: "Howard Curtis was the pastor of a religious body, or organisation, called the Coulson Christian Fellowship, and had been in that position for some time.

"The church had a small congregation that followed him. In more recent years he had become more independent of any religious body, and was the church was effectively run by him.

"It was run and administered on a full-time basis by the defendant, his wife Marilyn, as well as his inner circle - part of a close-knit structure.

"In reality he ran this organisation much more like a cult within a church."

Ms Osborne continued: "The background to this case focusses around this defendant, the church he was involved in and the people who attended that church over the years.

"This case is in very broad terms about the abuse by this defendant of the trust placed in him by vulnerable people who attended his church.

"It is also about the abuse of women and children - in the case of the women, abuse that was for his own pleasure.

File photo: Reverend Howard Curtis, at Croydon Magistrates Court in Croydon in 2014

File photo: Reverend Howard Curtis, at Croydon Magistrates Court in Croydon in 2014 Photo: National Pictures

"What you are going to hear is how a number of grown women, already vulnerable when they came to his church from domestic and sexual abuse, financial desperation and depression, came to the defendant for help.

"But when they did so they were taken advantage of by him. When each of those women sought his help, he offered it to them.

"He suggested he would be able to counsel them and they believed he was an experienced and seasoned counsellor.

"What in fact took place was an abuse of the trust they had placed in him.

"He would spank them over their bare bottoms, getting them to strip naked during the counselling under the guise of helping them get over their former abuse."

Jurors heard Curtis would also smack children in his congregation excessively, "but not in a way to warn or chastise them.

"He would put them over his knee and hit them hard until they cried and, in some cases, marks appeared, in what the Crown would say amounted to cruelty", Ms Osborne continued.

"His teachings were unorthodox: there would be Bible studies led by him and he would interpret the wording of the studies to suit his own purposes.

"He would conduct something known as 'deliverance ministry', said to be casting out evil spirits from a person, and he would tell people that discipline needed to be administered to people, in particular to women.

"The defendant effectively moved from one person to the other, taking advantage of them for his own pleasure."

Jane Osborne, prosecuting

"This would be done by striking flesh with a bare hand.

"It was from those teachings that he used to subject those women who had come forward for help to his abuse.

"The defendant effectively moved from one person to the other, taking advantage of them for his own pleasure.

"His confidence and level of abuse grew as he discovered these women were unlikely to complain about what he did."

• 'How I got sucked into a cult’

The court was told Curtis also had a "vision, a message from God" that he would establish a church with 1,000 members in Cane Hill psychiatric hospital in Coulsdon, south London.

Hard-of-hearing Curtis, wore a dark suit and grey tie today and was aided by a pair of headphones, while he was supported by his wife who sat in the public gallery.

Curtis, of Wallington, south London, denies all charges.

The trial continues.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/11875172/Married-church-minister-ran-bottom-spanking-cult.html

An Open Letter to Clergy Regarding Helping Former Members of Abusive Churches or Cults

ICSA Today, Vol. 03, No. 02. 

Carol Giambalvo

ICSA Director of Recovery Programs, ICSA Board of Directors

As both the Director of Recovery Programs for the International Cultic Studies Association (ICSA) and a cofounder of reFOCUS, a support and referral network for former members of closed, intense organizations or relationships, I’ve had inquiries from clergy about how to help former members when they come to them. I’ve also had remarks from former members that clergy don’t seem to know how to help them. As a former member myself, I’ve had my own personal struggles addressing spiritual and religious issues. Hopefully I can give you some useful information and suggestions.

First, some background information. People don’t join cults. They are deceived and purposefully recruited. The majority are in some sort of normal human transition stage in life, such as leaving high school for college, leaving college for the “real world,” experiencing the breakup of a relationship or marriage, losing a job, moving to a new location, retiring. And along comes a group of what seem like the most wonderful people from the most wonderful group with the most wonderful goals who show them love, acceptance, and a “higher purpose.” Many people have the mistaken idea that only troubled people from troubled families get involved in these groups. Cults don’t want troubled people. They want bright, dedicated, idealistic, energetic people to raise money, do the work of the group, and recruit new people.

So how do you help former members? Here are some suggestions:

1. Encourage them to get information to help them understand what appened to them in the group, and to help them recover from it (sources of information listed in the Resources at end).
2. Understand that you will need to earn their trust—they have had their trust violated so badly by a group that looked good.
3. At times they may be triggered by words that were “loaded” in the group: the use of some scriptures that the group twisted and emphasized, even some hymns that were sung in the group; dynamics—normal things that are used in healthy churches—can be a source of a trigger to them. Just understand, and make it okay if they need to leave the current setting should this happen.
4. Understand that they may not want to share their story—they need to build healthy personal boundaries. Respect their boundaries. The groups build unhealthy boundaries between members and the “outside” world, tear down their healthy boundaries, and encourage them to bare their souls and confess all to other group members and leaders. It takes time to reestablish their healthy boundaries after they have left.
5. When they need to talk, listen to them. They need a voice, on their own time.
6. Encourage them to ask questions, and let them know that it’s okay to disagree.
7. They need respect and love as they struggle through their recovery issues.

WHAT ARE THE RECOVERY ISSUES FACING FORMER MEMBERS?

1.    Identity Crisis

• Who am I now? For those born/raised in high-demand groups, who am I?
• What do I believe?

2.    Feelings of being disconnected; a sense of purposelessness

3.    Grief

• For the people I left behind
• Loss of a cause
• Loss of “belonging”
• Loss of what I had to give up in order to join group
• Loss of innocence
• Loss of career goals; finances; belongings
• Missing the “buzz”; looking for it elsewhere
• Anger

4.  Boundary issues

• Rebuilding healthy boundaries—creating a safe place to heal
• Learning it’s okay not to divulge everything to everyone
• Learning how the group tore down the boundaries between other group members/leaders and me
• Learning how the group built up unhealthy boundaries between the outside world and me
• Trust issues
• Testing the waters, building up a relationship before I trust someone—developing healthy boundaries

5.    “Magical thinking” of cultic group, spiritualizing everything

6.    Varying symptoms of post traumatic stress

• Panic attacks
• Floating/triggers
• Nightmares
•  Sleep disorders
• Inability to make decisions
• Inability to concentrate
• Fears not grounded in reality—fear the group was “right” when they told me something bad would happen to me if I left
• Hypervigilance

7. Difficulty with relationships and authority figures

8. Underemployment

RESOURCES

International Cultic Studies Association: http://www.icsahome.com/

reFOCUS: http://www.refocus.org  (many articles on recovery)

Recovery workshops: http://www.icsahome.com/

Books: Take Back Your Life by Janja Lalich and Madeleine Tobias, Bay Tree 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Carol Giambalvo is a cofounder of reFOCUS, a national support network for former cult members.  She is on ICSA’s Board of Directors, is Director of ICSA’s recovery programs, and is responsible for its Project Outreach. She is author ofExit Counseling: A Family Intervention, co-editor of The Boston Movement: Critical Perspectives on the International Churches of Christ, and co-author of “Ethical Standards for Thought Reform Consultants.” She received ICSA’s 2008 Margaret T. Singer Award.