The Cult Next Door

The pod is a place for the more personal stories of individuals who have lived through high control religion. I laugh along… sometimes I cry along. Makes a person feel less alone in having made it through similar experiences.

I was listening to episode 62, and was deeply disturbed and disgusted to hear the guest use such blatant orientalist, Islamophobic, and xenophobic language starting at the 00:29:02 mark. Through tears, she says “this is not saudi arabia, this isn’t some war-torn country where we have suicidal bombers. This is in Joplin, Missouri.” What does she mean by all of that? What is the listener supposed to infer? I would like to know. This same assumption of muslim being synonymous with war is whats rid americans of any responsibility they have for the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, Kuwait, Syria, Libya, Sudan, and of course Palestine. What made it worse was the zero pushback from any of you. I wish you were all educated enough to understand that two things could be true: her experience was horrible, and the language she used to relate it was horrible. If only you could see the full extent of the brainwashing youve endured.

The amount of times I have said this comment out loud in the 43 episodes I have listened to…several EVERY SINGLE EPISODE!!! Every play of the beginning recordings of “the marriage chamber” starts it off. The show is really amazingly well done, not salacious, but compassionate and with empathy, and sprinkled in laughter throughout! Love it and love these classy people who are brave enough to share their past, present, and hopefully the future.

I have loved and told so many people about this podcast because it felt powerful and raw and needed. Until ep 62 with Taylor. It’s ok that the hosts and some guests are not Christian. It is ok for their belief to be a belief in nothing. However to dog others and talk about how you can’t be Christian and believe in the Bible. They talk about how they are smarter than others because they use critical thinking to disprove beliefs and others don’t. I don’t care if you believe in God, Jesus, Buddha or nothing at all but talking down about everyone in a faith system is not ok. Heck even talking down about people still in a cult isn’t ok. This episode was gross and I unfollowed everywhere and will never recommend it again. I got a few new cult podcasts I can recommend where the hosts and guests aren’t bigoted.