C4’s The End of the World Cult: some thoughts

It was a good documentary, though at times I really wished Keith Allen would storm onto the scene and do a ‘Westboro’ on those loons. The interviewer was professional and kept it clean, precise and analytical, but what I really craved was a good old tear up. Allen screaming into ‘Michael’s’ face: FOOL! FOOL! FOOL! over and over until his cuckolded son throws him out for being a devil. Allen would turn round and say: “here mate, how do you feel about the fact you’ve just discovered your dad is knocking off yer missus?”

Have that.

Oh, here’s a linky by the way, in case you’re not too sure what I’m on about:

http://www.channel4.com/video/the-end-of-the-world-cult/series-1/episode-1/cult-following_p_1.html

I liked the documentary, not just because it’s about weird people and fucked up religion (is there any other kind?) which fascinates me – but also because it reminds me of my own experiences growing up attending a triumvirate of Baptist and Evangelical churches. Or, the axis of bollocks as I fondly remember them. In all fairness, there is actually very little discernible difference between what they peddled to the congregations back then in my heady suburban youth, and what cult gatherings like the one in the documentary use to break people down mentally.

It’s all about power, fear, control…all centred around the psychological phenomenon known as the Ego. In the End of the World Cult, it was clearly all about the ego of ‘Michael’. His followers became so subsumed into his world, they were mere bodily extensions to him. Little wonder then, that it was not that much of a leap of faith to agree it was God’s will and a good idea to line up and get ragged by a smirking 66 year old toe rag with a penchant for sticking his willy in his daughter in law.

For me, the classic scene was when the son found out. He sat there flummoxed, and when his old boy told the camera all about it, with a good ol’ smile on his face, his poor old son was in the next room with his head against the wall. In a sort of ‘I don’t believe this is happening to me’ pose. Still carried on ‘believing’ though. Dick head.

And of course, let’s not forget the prize quote (the one used in all the endless ads promoting the documentary) from the odd looking girl with the tash and the face that looks like it needs a damn good scrub:

‘Yes I’ve been brainwashed (smug and over enthused) Michael has washed my brain of all my corrupt thoughts.’

Well done. But first, what corrupt thoughts? I wish someone asked her exactly what they were. And Secondly, who has time to constantly indulge in daily bouts of corrupt thoughts? Maybe, if she GOT A JOB or went to fucking school, she’d be a little too busy to wind up swinging from a bench, lolling around thinking: “Gee, I’m bored. Tum-tee-tum…ooh, know what? I wish I had a great big dildo so I could ram it up my snatch and have a good ol’ frig off. I’ll think of Michael and hopefully all those images of muscly black men will disappear.”

What a crock of shit. Part of me thinks the US constitution is partly to blame for so radically supporting religio-extremism and so called ‘freedom of thought / opinion’. Not many folks can get more pro-freedom than I, though I would question quite how the law was able to keep at such a distance considering the boundless evidence of minors being held against parents will, not to mention being provided with plentiful old-man-cock. You could see it in Wayne Bent’s eyes…You can’t pin shit on me, I’ve got my ass covered and my lawyers will use the law to protect me. So fuck you.

The cult is a spin off of these people – Seventh Day Adventists:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seventh-day_Adventist_Church

But like I say, in my view, cults and churches of any hue are like Pepsi and Coke, (or if you’re Peter Hitchens, Labour and Tory). They are all, fundamentally, based on the same bedrock of crap. The same weirdness, irrationality, fear, paranoia, misunderstanding and ignorance. The same lies they told me at church are not far removed from the insanity uttered by the people in the above documentary. This talk of love, a ‘relationship’ with God, etc that church people come out with. It’s absolute tat. It’s meaningless. And it’s nauseating because these smug people can’t see how selfish their lives are. (See Immanuel Kant for a philosophical and intellectual explanation on what it is to be a moral actor). For the religious, it’s not about you, or me, or anyone. It’s about that religious individual and how he or she is best serving their interests in earning a special place in the elite ’saved’ class of people. They work for their treasures, not to do good, but to sort themselves out.

If God is about a fraction of the stuff I have learned he is about from the dozens of churches I have visited over the years, then you know what?

I don’t want to know.

And as for cult followers. You need to get into your mini-bus, drive into town (and when I say town, I don’t mean a one-horse shit hole with a diner and a garage that can only fix pick-ups, I mean a proper town) and do the following:

• Get a hair cut that doesn’t make you look like you’re wearing a toupee.
• Buy some proper clothes, which means charity shops and church-friend hand-me-downs are not allowed.
• Buy some deodorant (sorry to presume, but I can imagine from the documentaries I’ve seen of you people that you pong. Of B.O. “But God doesn’t care how I smell.” I don’t give a shit. He might not, I do, and it’s a sin. So buy some Lynx.
• WASH! For heaven’s sake, your skin, your complexion! Do you want to look more inbred and red-neck than you already do? Sort it out.
• Brush your teeth. Yellow teeth are insulting to our Lord, did no-one tell you?

And above all:

• Don’t grin or maniacally smile at people like you’re an extra in a Hitchcock movie. It’s weird. Very weird.

I mean, let’s put it this way people. If you want to see the End of the World out…at least try and do it in style.

UPDATE:

An excellent response from one of our contributors ‘athinkingman’, who has his own very good blog.

Here is the link to his own article on the documentary and the cult in question. You will notice the enormous number of responses this thread has received. Nice post, and I like this man’s views on the matter. Enjoy:

http://athinkingman.wordpress.com/2007/12/13/god-and-the-virgins/