Kieran Bennett

In my previous post about Ronald Weinland’s book 2008 - God’s Final Witness, I asked “what is the scam?”.

I foolishly assumed that if Weinland was following in the footsteps of L Ron Hubbard, (”I’d like to start a religion. That’s where the money is!”), the book would include more overt calls to action. Things like “goto to this website, join my church, send a letter to this address for more information”.

Oh no, Weinland is more subtle. The book, free and without overt calls to action, sets up his credibility when he tours in search of recruits for his cult. And it’s a cult in the best money making tradition. I’ve found a couple of interesting blogs exposing it, and a number of ex-cult blogs dealing with the older cult Weinland has split from.

Weinland Watch

Weinland Watch is extensive. I recommend this page compiled for first time visitors. There are links to material on everything. The author of Weinland watch details Ronald Weinland’s involvement with a previous cult, the World wide church of god, and how his 2008 - God’s Final Witness is largely plagiarised from that cults materials. Weinland Watch extensively debunks Weinland’s delusional claims, although I sincerely doubt that is necessary. But the real evidence of Weinland’s cultishness is this exchange with a prospective Weinland cult member.

This exchange between a prospective member and two evangelists of the church reveals that “tithing is a prerequisite for baptism”. This, coupled with off-the-record accounts of Weinland’s and his elders’ luxurious lifestyles (while other off-the-record accounts speak of members growing ever more financially destitute) confirm that this may indeed be the case.

Ex Cult Members Blogs

Like all ex cult movements, beware that some people have not recovered from their indoctrination properly or try to rationalise it, defending the beliefs whilst opposing the “cults”. For example the Church of Scientology has it’s Free Zone.

Anyway, other ex-cult members blogs include (with links to interesting posts):

• Shadows of the Churches of God - “Is Ron an Honest Prophet“
• Post WCG Life and Theology - about page
• Amstrong Survivor - A former member of the cult Weinland is basically copy catting.
• Non-Beliving Former Members of the Church of God - a blog for people who’ve come out of the cult and rejected religious delusions all together. Iron Wolf is his personal blog, this post (and the extensive discussion) offers an interesting perspective on Weinland’s claims, it’s from the perspective of someone who escape the cult Weinland is ripping off/was first in.

Apologetics?

There appear to be people who take Weinland seriously.

• Is it Really the End

- probably more ambivalent than truly apologetic, but this blogger does appear to take this cult leader’s claims seriously. Check out this post summarising Weinland’s predictions. (Weinland Watch also has a handy summary of the predictions to date.

Updates: I need to polish this post up more later. Stay tuned for more links and better grammer.

1. 6 laws to crack down on the Scientology cult
2. Who are the No To Pope Coalition?
3. Kieran was tagged in a stupid meme!
4. Anti-Scientology Blog Carnival
5. Book Review: 2008 - God’s Final Witness

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