An Experiment with Online Video: Tirekicking Religions Part 3
Posted by Kushana Torumekia at 4/21/2008 3:44 PM 
Categories: Videos, Church Shopping, Irene Spencer, Contemporary Religions, YouTube, Coast to Coast AM
Categories: Videos, Church Shopping, Irene Spencer, Contemporary Religions, YouTube, Coast to Coast AM
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I was listening to last night's Coast to Coast AM interview with Irene Spencer, a member of a polygamous sect. What most interested me was the hindsight she had on her own experience and the common patterns in the callers who criticized her: either they tried to say she'd never been a 'real' or 'good' member of the sect, so her account was invalid; or nitpicking small errors of chronology to put her entire account in doubt. (I cannot add a direct link to the interview, but she was promoting her autobiography <a href="http://www.powells.com/partner/31957/s?isbn=978-1599951584">Shattered Dreams: My Life as a Polygamist's Wife</a>.))It reminded me again of the point that any religion or idealistic group can become manipulative or overbearing. Although this video is a bit goofy, it does illustrate the traits of a religion that has become too interested in money or power:
www.youtube.com/v/mnNSe5XYp6E&rel=0
Idealistic groups and religions are excellent at directing interest, funds, and dedicated effort towards doing good (feeling the hungry, building schools and hospitals, addressing social ills, funding art, achieving spiritual goals whose efficacy are difficult to measure by social sciences criteria) and such efforts often need an organization to see them through. However any religion, either trusted and established or newly-founded, can become distracted by the prospect of attention and wealth — if more than a few things in that video seem familiar then research the group you are in (or joining) using sources outside the group (including the accounts of former members.) (Look less for claims that the group will spiritually doom you and more for signs of abuse or mismanagement: the history of religions which claim that all others are spiritually worthless is lengthy and somewhat dull.)
-Kushana
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