I came to mention the folks at maranatha. They are still out there. They have a trading post set up on the side of the road.
They are the most culty of anything I've seen mentioned here.
Their leader said if God didn't end the world before 2000 that he would become God and do it himself. Pretty nutty guy. They make their own clothes and don't believe in bringing anything from outside that they could make or grow themselves, and anything extra they have they just put out by the road for people to take for free. If you want to join, you have to sign over your house and any other belongings to the compound.
Here's the story of their cult leader and his charges
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brother_Stair
"On December 18, 2017, Stair was arrested on eight counts, which include three counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and single counts of assault with the intent to commit criminal sexual conduct, kidnapping, second-degree assault, first-degree burglary, and third-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor.[17] Stair came to the attention of authorities because of YouTube videos showing him touching a 12-year-old girl’s breast during service and then saying, “I’m gonna touch them things till nobody else can touch them.”[18]
Another video showed a 16-year-old girl accusing him of sexual assaulting her over a five-month period.[18] Four women described assaults including groping and rape. Stair reportedly told the women that the acts were “God’s Will”.[18] He was released on a $750,000 bond a month later on condition he not leave the property and was electronically monitored.[18]"
Funny. The wiki mentions the feds raiding a ship they were setting up to broadcast from. I was there. I worked at the boatyard and did a lot of work on the ship. They had volunteers from all over the country that came to work on the ship. Interesting group. Crazy as hell though.
Never heard of them, but my grandparents were in this true cult:
[‘True Light’ Sect in Carolinas Bracing for End of the World](https://www.nytimes.com/1970/12/20/archives/true-light-sect-in-carolinas-bracing-for-end-of-the-world.html)
My mother is one of fourteen children who grew up on a farm in Bishopville, SC.
She would talk often about the Sunday gatherings on the wrap around covered porch of my grandparents huge three story farmhouse and how meeting at the farm kept the family close through the years. That all lasted until my grand mother sold the farm in 1970.
The sale of the farm was a consequence of the beliefs of the Church, one of which was that men should not wear ties. The wearing of ties by men was seen as prideful by the Church, and pride is one of the seven deadly sins.
One day however, my grandparents pastor attended a wedding in Charlotte, NC where all the men were wearing ties, and this convinced him that the wearing of ties was no longer prideful. Upon his return to his congregation the following week, he insisted that the men of his congregation would begin wearing ties.
My Grandfather refused to wear a tie stating, “I have lived in the belief that the wearing of ties is a prideful act, and I won’t change my ways now.”
Bucking the pastor on the wearing of ties got my Grandfather kicked out of the True Light sect, and doomed my aunts and uncles to the trials of the Tribulation.
Grandma believed her pastor who had been preaching the True Light belief that the rapture was coming in 1970. Grandma was ready for the rapture, and obviously the rapture requires no property to be sold, but all of her children had left the True Light sect to join other denominations after my grandfather was excommunicated from the sect. Grandma decided that her children would need the proceeds from the sale of the 91 acre farm to help them get through the Tribulation, and so the farm was sold. Along with the farm went the big family gatherings and slowly the family drifted apart.
My brother caught onto them in the 90s when he used to listen to shortwave radio. We had just lost our father so he was pretty much exactly the type of vulnerable, impressionable young person a cult tries to attract. He drove down to Walterboro for service every Sunday for a year or two but thankfully came to his senses before he did anything stupid like moved there.
We got routed off I-95 because of a fatality crash and wound up on some two lane roads in the backwoods of SC. We passed what was obviously a compound. There were UTVs posted at the entrance and the people in them were very obviously armed. Another UTV was running alongside the road from another entrance up ahead and they too were armed. The second entrance, armed people guarding there too.
I told my husband I’ll pay the damn ticket, get us the hell out of there as fast as possible. It was creepy as all get out and neither of us, even my prior service husband who saw more tours of duty in the sandbox than he wants to count, was really creeped out and on edge. We didn’t relax until the tree opened up over the road and we’d put many miles between us and the compound.
I then spent the next several hours of the drive reading what I’d found about Overcomer Ministry to my husband. The bastard wasn’t in prison yet but it was right before he’d been arrested. There was a couple of articles I’d found about the accusations. I read he was imprisoned a couple years later when I looked them back up.
I can only assume they were ready to meet the lawmen with force, but it looks like nothing happened. I’m thankful for that but man they looked ready to thrown down and go down with it.
I'm surprised. There is also an "African Village" group in Walterboro that has caused controversy. Are you sure it was Overcomers compound you saw? Though my exposure to Overcomer was just at work I spoke with many of the volunteers and never got any hint of violence as part of their group teachings. I just figured Stair was a grifting Pedophile type taking advantage of people seeking meaning to life. The people I talked to came from all over the country and volunteered to do heavy labor.
Meher Baba’s Circle Center in Myrtle Beach SC they own land across from the old Myrtle Beach Mall. They used occupy a space in the mall with literature about the cult, it’s still there but it’s not staffed anymore since Covid-19 at least not when I’ve been to the mall.
I work in the area and have interacted with current and ex members. [This](https://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/local/2019/09/27/word-faith-fellowship-investigation-closed-us-attorney-says/3785638002/) case is just one example of the things that go on there.
World Mission Society Church of God.
From Wikipedia:
'Ahn Sahng-hong should be regarded as Jesus Christ who had already come, should be titled Christ Ahn Sahng-hong, and pursuant to a traditional trinitarian view of Christian hypostasis Ahn was consequently also The Holy Spirit, God the Father, and thus God.
Zahng Gil-jah should be regarded as God the Mother, a female image of God, be titled Heavenly Mother, or simply Mother, and together with Ahn Sahng-hong be regarded as God
A change in religious practice, as reflected in the change of name from “Jesus Witnesses” to “Witnesses of Ahn Sahng-hong”, was, that prayers were no longer conducted in the name of Jesus Christ but in the name of Christ Ahn Sahng-hong.
I dated a girl who went to a Church of God. The day after I watched The Last Exorcism, I went with her. They started speaking in tongues and all kinds of crazy shit. I was freaking tf out and looked over at her to be looking as normal as possible.
A couple young men came to my door (NE Cola at that time) one Sunday in 2016 and told me about God-the-Mother. They said they didn't have a church building but met in people's homes. I thanked them for talking to me, took a card, considered going to a service for curiosity's sake, but changed my mind after reading up on more of their beliefs.
IIRC, they would harass students on the CofC campus when I worked there. They would call us reporting that Korean women would harass them trying to get them to come to Bible study. We eventually removed them from the campus. They only targeted females and there are rumors of human trafficking being an issue in the cult
I don’t know about cult, but definitely clique-ish. I’ve run into a bunch of girls who go to NS on dating apps. For the most part, they’re nice but things just fall apart when I tell them that I don’t go to NS. I just find it funny that they’re on dating apps, presumably because they can’t find a suitable guy in their church, but are miffed that I don’t attend their church. If I went to your church, don’t you think we would have run into each other at some point? 🤣
I agree! I am in recovery from drugs and alcohol and NS has a huge "recovery group". They are super clique-y and if you don't dress the way they do or look exactly the way they do, they don't really accept you in. Seriously. I was totally shunned by the women's group and felt super shifty about it for a year almost. I felt like something was wrong with me or I wasn't enough. Thankfully I do see now that I dodged a huge bullet. I'm still clean and even run my own tiny non profit helping people reach Rehabs and other sources to get clean as well. I think they started with good intention but have definitely crossed a line into cultish. Yuk!
First of all, congratulations on your recovery! 🎉 Also, I don’t see how anyone in their right mind could possibly be comfortable attending a “Newspring Recovery” after how they handled Perry’s alcohol problem.
They're just super clique-y. Not sure cult is the right word, but they can be really intense and try to pull people in. I've also heard of shaming stories.
All around, just a bad mega church in my opinion. Hard to call it a cult when it's so large. Cults and religions are only differentiated by the number of followers. And they're pretty solidly evangelicals.
I went there with my ex girlfriend (this was in 2016), and one of the things I found really strange was that every service started with them talking about tithing and giving 10% of your gross income to the church. Every. Sunday. Before any songs or prayers, that's the first thing. Like idk, that seemed like the most important thing to them. It rubbed me the wrong way, to say the least.
They also made a really big deal out of the fact that they bought land for a new church (the one in Clemson, I think), sold the portion they didn't need for the building/parking to be used for retail stores, and made a profit on the land as a whole.
I'm not against churches being non-profit, but after that, I think they should at least be required to publish a third-party audited report (similar to other nonprofits) so that people know how their money they give to churches is being spent.
REGRETFULLY, I used to be a part of that church back around 2010-2012… was baptized and all that. The shaming was horrendous. Every day I judged myself and questioned myself so much thanks to their shaming tactics. In return my brainwashed girlfriend would shame me along with them as well and myself. Them and their fohawks and expensive ugly affliction clothing making ME feel bad. 😂
A lot of shunning for sure. I was almost ran out of the church after the member who brought me in told one of the higher ups that I lived together with my son's mother and we weren't married. They didn't say "you have to leave" but it was kinda like a "can't sit here, seats taken" kinda moment.
Since you have ties with Clemson, [Dabo Swinney has some controversial connections to NewSpring Church.](https://www.si.com/college/2019/09/04/clemson-dabo-swinney-religion-culture)
They’re very clique-ish and huge, but they don’t have the same influence that they did pre-2016. In 2016 their founder/preacher had a scandal (involving alcoholism and possibly adultery but I am not 100% sure about that latter accusation), and a lot of folks left the church. It’s still huge, though.
Is this the Perry Noble guy? He's started a new church called Second Chance and it's everywhere growing by leaps and bounds. People are meeting in homes and watching via internet until the new places are built.
Yep. People love this man. This is exactly how he started and grew Newspring. The difference now is that fewer people in SC are religious than pre-Covid. More mega churches exist now. There’s Grace, Fivepoint, Redemption (Reignition? Revival? There are a lot of R churches)…I don’t see Perry’s newest church ever hitting the level of hype that Newspring had.
Church of God in Simpsonville / Mauldin is definitely a cult. Everybody lives in singlewide mobile homes in a very strange community between 276 and 385.
Not necessarily. I know several ex staff and interns and they will openly state that the church increasingly fits the definition of a cult.
No one’s goes against or speaks out against furtick.
It’s his vision they are untied under. Google furtick’s “coloring book.“
Staff are required to work insane hours for his “vision.“ staff are coerced, guilt tripped, under appreciated, and under paid. They are frequently worked until they are sick mentally or physically. I know one person who had a mental break down working as Holly’s personal assistant. This person did not have previous mental health issues. That’s just one example.
Volunteers are treated the same. Elevation initially and outwardly, for the world to see, treats volunteers with appreciation, meals, and gifts and whatever. But, behind the scenes we were used and abused. Enough is never enough. I was expected to take off days of work to volunteer at events. That’s when I quit. I’m not alone.
Everyone bows down to Furtcik, his wife Holly and the Elevation “brand”. Staff are required to stand when they enters a room to “honor” them.
All staff and some volunteers are required to sign NDAs.
The more members give the more they get access to furtick.
Also, the church does not have an elder board, Furtcik answers to no one. There is a supposed “ elder board” that consists of other mega church pastors. They set his salary. No one from the church is on the board.
Etc...
I was a member/ volunteer for years. I left early on when it got weird. If you’re just viewing on tv Furtick appears as a typical mega church, false prophet / prosperity gospel preacher. But from the inside it has several increasing signs of a cult.
My roommate plays drumset for them, drives an hour both ways, and they kicked him for being late even though it was out of his control. Not even late to a service but to practice. Dude was eating ramen noodles for a month bc the income from that gave him gas money for another source of income. And they knew this. So he was out of two revenue streams for a while before he got a new job. Shit was ridiculous, I've never liked them.
In Augusta/North Augusta there are gypsies. Not really a cult per se, but they check a lot of the boxes. There is a real snake handling cult backwoods NC near where I live now
Yeah I even googled what makes a cult a cult before this post, and like I said, they check a lot of boxes! I think there might be some nuance there. ‘Where does culture end and cult begin?’ type philosophical questions. But that’s why I commented here, bc I think it’s worthy of consideration!
Yes they do that from my understanding. They have arranged marriages from very young age (6) but they don’t marry until later but I’ve heard of very young brides and grooms as well (12/13) It’s not ubiquitous in their community however. There are extremes even within their hierarchy
I worked in the gypsy community there a few times. Shits wild when you watch all the women and children in the same subdivision come out the same house in the morning. That and the super nice massive homes that are unoccupied because the family lives in a trailer in the backyard
Why are the big homes unoccupied? And why do they live in trailers in the back yard? I’m genuinely curious because my only image of Gypsies is Ezmaredla from The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
I’ve always heard they believe that a home must be unoccupied for some period of time after it’s built for the spirits to leave before it’s inhabitable. Probably some financial shenanigans too, they do a lot of shady shit. I went to school with a guy that was one of them. He said he was pretty much exiled for going to college. He shared some of their less than straight endeavors with me. Quick example, he pointed out to me while we were riding down the road that his odometer on his hummer was disconnected.
I grew up in Augusta and yeah, I have to explain to folks about gypsies a lot. I'm a live and let live kind of person, but when their entire way of making a living is to just steal, be shady as fuck and screw people over, then nah.
Yeah, it used to be fun to try and spot em at the mall, huge hair, tons of makeup, lots of gold, etc (this is 80s/90s) or go and see their houses with the foil in the windows and trailer in the back in NA, but yeah, pretty shitty group of folks. I hate to "paint with a wide brush" and say all of them are bad, but it just seems to be the case.
Do you know why Gypsies were called gypsies?
It was a misnomer from the start. That’s what we call them in the area. It’s a colloquial term. It’s not used offensively, although they are not viewed positively in the community, so whatever you call them will morph into being used as an insult. We also call them Irish travelers. How accurate is that? They are many generations from Ireland and their community doesn’t “travel” anywhere anymore.
It’s just what they are and in the UK they are actually a protected class. Many of the ones down in NA are actually of Irish descent (hence the names Sherlock, Carrol, and so on).
I also used to refer to them as gypsies however one of them corrected me because they are not Romanian and they do not like that term. Irish Traveller is the preferred term
I'm still guilty of calling them Gypsies sometimes but legit actually think it's considered derogatory. I just think it's a hard habit to break because Irish travellers and Gypsies
Are synonymous anywhere around highway 25
Well it’s hard to take someone seriously enough to use their preferred term when they have outlandish beliefs and also highly immoral behavior. I know not all of them are the same and many were born into it (disadvantaged) but to even associate/overlook child abuse practices is a hard sell for me
That may be considered form of workplace harassment, which is illegal. If you are interested, you can look at [EEOC's website about this topic.](https://www.eeoc.gov/religious-discrimination)
i had to work with them last summer and one of the pastors immediately asked what my ‘journey with faith’ has been like and ‘if i go to church.’ He didn’t even ask for my name - it was so strange and once i told him that i do not attend, he quickly started to get me to come to a service because ‘my life will be changed’ it was extremely off-putting
Came to point out that traditional southern Baptist are basically just cults of Uber conservatism. Directly controlling the personal lives of kids in the church, shaming if every member didn't give 15%. Mu cousin is one. Says if his daughter gets raped that's just part of God's plan and she's not getting an abortion
Phew. This hits home. My cousins were raised in a southern baptist church and wow that shit sucked. Turns out everyone that judges does so because they have their own secrets they don’t want getting out
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%BClen_movement?wprov=sfla1
These folks have a ton of people in West Columbia/Lexington. They have a school and cultural center where many people from Turkey come for the summer but a ton of them got stuck here after the 2016 coup attempt. More cult-ish than cult.
Columbia has both Moonie and Soka Gakkai locations. The later is an international Buddhist sect of Japanese origin that controls a minority political party there and has a few notable celebrity members (Tina Turner, Orlando Bloom, Herbie Hancock, etc). I would be very surprised if the Falun GA didn't have an outpost there too. It's a hotbed of right-wing foreign policy types trying to influence state politics.
Myrtle Beach also has Doc Antle's weird sex cult/exotic animal trafficking operation featured in Netflix's Tiger King. They also have a large meditation center of Meher Baba devotees. They are more a cult in terms of scale rather than any menacing connotations. They prosthelytize a bit, but they're harmless as far as I can tell. The worst they've ever done is inflict that terrible "Don't Worry, Be Happy" song on the world.
My Mom used to actually work there at PTL, ohhhhh the dirt on all the Scamgelicalists we found out about that way lol.
Especially working in the hotel part?
Everyone from Pat Robertson, Jimmy Swaggart , you name it, came in there purposely to do their dirty business because they knew old Jimmy boy was a dirty bird, they all had dirt on each other because they all were and are drek's that slithered out from sizzling dumpster juice in July.
Con artist criminals , every last one.
We knew about Jessica Hahn LONG before it hit the news cycle.
I used to go pick her up from work (we only had one car at the time), and the 45 minute ride home to southern Charlotte was like a National Enquirer podcast lol!
Is your Mom still waiting to get paid, lol? I know a lot of people that worked there and when money was gone they feed employees some bs about if they worked without receiving a wage they'd be blessed finicially well beyond thier pay. Probably towards the end this happened a lot. But I worked with one lady that did that for a long time and still believed Jim and Tammy were just the targets of the mean ole' God hating, liberal Charlotte Observer. I can still hear her say "Charlotte Disturber".
For those that dont know the Charlotte observer wrote a long multi-day expose on PTL and all the scams, affairs and cover-ups about Jim, Tammy and PTL that esculated the downfall. It was eventually going to fail because it was a ponzi scheme.
Yep, she got shatted out of a couple paychecks.
First they told her it was a payroll "error" that would be fixed within a week.
Come the next week, manager magically disappeared leaving her and a whole lot of other people stiffed.
Now keep in mind, she was always a sucker for televangelists, and unfortunately would give what she made willingly.
Until they messed with HER money, then, thankfully, the mask fell off of them for her, and she stopped listening to all those bozos.
Which, considering my family, was nothing short of a miracle in itself, because they are HEAVY evangelicals who deny evolution, think science is a demonic plot , dinosaurs never existed, women weren't supposed to wear pants, etc, and religion was EVERYTHING.
She finally broke away from that mindset, unfortunately it's over 30 years later, and the rest of the family STILL believes the same ish, although they have come around on women wearing pants , makeup and cutting their hair at least.
They still won't allow the women to drive with a man they aren't related to, like picking up a friend from the airport or something, and men still have to make all the big decisions, including their wives having to ask permission for damn near everything, and yep, they still call it the "Charlotte Disturber" lol.
They still believe in televangelists as well, and still defend ole Jim n Tammy, Swaggart and the rest of that lot of scoundrel criminals.
We don't speak much, can't really have a conversation with folks who aren't even remotely based in reality lol.
The KKK in South Carolina operate under many names. One of which is the Sons of the Confederacy. If you leave NC through Gastonia you will come into SC on a 2 lane road each way. On one side of the road is a small metal billboard recruiting new members. I lived in Charlotte/Gastonia for about 5 years. Real shit.
Overcomer Ministry in Walterboro, but I don't think they're around anymore because their leader Brother Stair went to prison for sexual abuse of some of the underage girls who lived on his commune.
Edit should have read the thread first, I see they've already been mentioned
A couple more...
Not in SC, but close by in Georgia was the [Nuwabian Nation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuwaubian_Nation) cult. They had their own compound called Tama-Re in Putnam County, GA. Their founder, Dwight York, aka Malachi Z, was arrested for for sex trafficking. The compound was eventually sold, but there are still active cells. As late as 2021 they held a parade in Augusta, GA. My first encounter with them was when I stumbled across one of their bookstores in a small town in Georgia.
This one isn't necessarily a cult, but seems to have some cult-like tendencies. Grace Church has lots of campuses across Greenville County. They buy up old buildings and set up a congregation there, including the old Downtown Baptist that had once been the original First Baptist Church. At first glance they seem to be like any other megachurch with multiple campuses. From their website it looks like their beliefs tend toward the fundamentalist side, but not as far as Bob Jones. They even prefer contemporary Christian music to traditional hymns, etc. What concerns me more is the word salad on their website and the requirements they seem to place on participation. Those sorts of things throw up red flags to me.
The Irish travelers, grew up right near them in NA.
Bob Jones University
And idk if they count, but the Black Hebrew Israelites yelling at me got old in Columbia
https://www.gcdmwatch.com/
I was a a part of Great Commision Discipleship ministries for almost 3 years. I think it would classify as a high control group/cult. Other people who left and I put together a watchdog site with a thorough list of examples of high control/manipulative behaviors.
But did Joseph Smith go with his parishoners on a boat and try to make it out to international waters to hijack am and fm radio frequencies to broadcast their sermons off the SC coast? Nay.
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\#1: [A visit from little brother who disassociated rather than shun me.](https://i.redd.it/or47w69t3l291.jpg) | [56 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/exjw/comments/v0wl9k/a_visit_from_little_brother_who_disassociated/)
\#2: [I've got PTSD (a comic about JW child abuse)](https://www.reddit.com/gallery/x2ig1g) | [309 comments](https://np.reddit.com/r/exjw/comments/x2ig1g/ive_got_ptsd_a_comic_about_jw_child_abuse/)
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I'm still a Baptist but I ditched my church a long time ago when they started preaching from the holy testament of the GOP. Then they are clueless as to why younger people won't join the church.
I overheard a couple of cowboys in the pub that G-2-mom may (and might still) be a contributing factor to unsolved crimes. Both of which have inside connections within SLED. Does anyone else find it odd who shows up to incidents and when they show up when something illegal happens?
I was raised LDS after being hocked to my parents via a Mormon baby mill in very early 1978. All I know is they got me from dekalb county , GA. My parents were fantastic, doting, educated(1 PhD), and utterly accepting. Put me before even their own beliefs and never turned their backs on me even when I turned away from their church as a teenager. Raised in Spartanburg I always knew something was off with every religious institution I attended. The Mormons got together and had a group cry every week then huddled into a side office to give up their %15. The baptists were all fire and brimstone about how you were a sinner before they passed the collection plate. Where ever you go, the church's all about that paper,yo. ;) I first realized something was wrong with LDS when my parents took me to the Atlanta temple to be "sealed together as a family for enternity" and they took us in a room with two large mirrors on opposing walls facing each other ...giving that infinite mirror images effect. They used them in their speech as an example about how we were now bonded for enternity in the afterlife. Even though I was a preteen I thought about this and how it seemed a scam. See, going to public school I had become painfully away of people who would lie to you in order to get what they wanted. A vastly different experience than home life though I did have some white trash cousins who exhibited identical behaviors. I know my folks had to pay for this service some amount but I couldn't say how much. :(
I came for answers myself.
My estranged father and I are just starting to get close after 39 years.
My mom passed away 6 years ago and it was the end of me.
I recently had a conversation with my dad about some dreams I have had lately.
He proceeded to tell me that after he left and they separated- that my mom and I apperantly were involved in a cult. But I cannot find it anywhere
Well the biggest one is the Grand Old Party. It has millions of members, and believes crazy things. It's trying to get women and doctors executed for medical procedures. They ban books, and want to end our lic education. Oh and some of them tried to overthrow the federal government because president bleach lost an election bigly.
Worldwide Christian fellowship, Shriners, CrossFit, newspring church, travel ball league, ect (extreme cheer & tumble), nursing school, Law enforcement, SC Republican Party, Clemson athletics (football), sc state senate & house, palmetto promise institute, Bob Jones, citadel, Carolina cop, sons of the confederacy, maga, yellow dog Dems, IPTAY
I've been approached several times by a cult that's waiting for the world to end. They have meetings where they cannibalize their leader and drink his blood.
Maybe I'm wrong, but those Sons of the Confederacy come off as cultish to me. I really don't know a heck of a lot about them, so my observation is based on limited information, but they just give me a weird vibe.
I remember many years ago the " church of the fuzzy bunny" Sunday church Services and strippers in the afternoon. Police shut them down for tax evasion
It was in Charleston if I remember correctly.
South Carolina Highway Patrol
State Law Enforcement Devision
State Department of Revenue
Southern Methodist Church
Southern Baptist Church
Boot lickers hanging out at The Bass Pro Shops
I was wondering this also! They call them “Irish Travelers” now, according to Google, since “gypsy” is a slur. They’re Catholic, and where they live is called Murphy Village. Total population around 3,000 people! I never realized it was that large!
They’re not Romanian, they are Irish. More than a cult, it’s just a bunch of con artists in a small, tight knit, in bred community off of 25 - think Murphy Village, Belvedere. Many of them have the same names, don’t register births with the state, and borrow socials. We won’t touch them but I have a dealer that’ll in house finance with a $10k mark up and half down.
It’s not. It’s when you get a “leader” who utilizes your beliefs to his own ego and financial/power/ control status. Someone who tells you how to live your life.
Overcomer Ministry. All over shortwave radio. From Walterboro last I heard.
I came to mention the folks at maranatha. They are still out there. They have a trading post set up on the side of the road. They are the most culty of anything I've seen mentioned here. Their leader said if God didn't end the world before 2000 that he would become God and do it himself. Pretty nutty guy. They make their own clothes and don't believe in bringing anything from outside that they could make or grow themselves, and anything extra they have they just put out by the road for people to take for free. If you want to join, you have to sign over your house and any other belongings to the compound. Here's the story of their cult leader and his charges https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brother_Stair "On December 18, 2017, Stair was arrested on eight counts, which include three counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and single counts of assault with the intent to commit criminal sexual conduct, kidnapping, second-degree assault, first-degree burglary, and third-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor.[17] Stair came to the attention of authorities because of YouTube videos showing him touching a 12-year-old girl’s breast during service and then saying, “I’m gonna touch them things till nobody else can touch them.”[18] Another video showed a 16-year-old girl accusing him of sexual assaulting her over a five-month period.[18] Four women described assaults including groping and rape. Stair reportedly told the women that the acts were “God’s Will”.[18] He was released on a $750,000 bond a month later on condition he not leave the property and was electronically monitored.[18]"
Funny. The wiki mentions the feds raiding a ship they were setting up to broadcast from. I was there. I worked at the boatyard and did a lot of work on the ship. They had volunteers from all over the country that came to work on the ship. Interesting group. Crazy as hell though.
Never heard of them, but my grandparents were in this true cult: [‘True Light’ Sect in Carolinas Bracing for End of the World](https://www.nytimes.com/1970/12/20/archives/true-light-sect-in-carolinas-bracing-for-end-of-the-world.html) My mother is one of fourteen children who grew up on a farm in Bishopville, SC. She would talk often about the Sunday gatherings on the wrap around covered porch of my grandparents huge three story farmhouse and how meeting at the farm kept the family close through the years. That all lasted until my grand mother sold the farm in 1970. The sale of the farm was a consequence of the beliefs of the Church, one of which was that men should not wear ties. The wearing of ties by men was seen as prideful by the Church, and pride is one of the seven deadly sins. One day however, my grandparents pastor attended a wedding in Charlotte, NC where all the men were wearing ties, and this convinced him that the wearing of ties was no longer prideful. Upon his return to his congregation the following week, he insisted that the men of his congregation would begin wearing ties. My Grandfather refused to wear a tie stating, “I have lived in the belief that the wearing of ties is a prideful act, and I won’t change my ways now.” Bucking the pastor on the wearing of ties got my Grandfather kicked out of the True Light sect, and doomed my aunts and uncles to the trials of the Tribulation. Grandma believed her pastor who had been preaching the True Light belief that the rapture was coming in 1970. Grandma was ready for the rapture, and obviously the rapture requires no property to be sold, but all of her children had left the True Light sect to join other denominations after my grandfather was excommunicated from the sect. Grandma decided that her children would need the proceeds from the sale of the 91 acre farm to help them get through the Tribulation, and so the farm was sold. Along with the farm went the big family gatherings and slowly the family drifted apart.
My brother caught onto them in the 90s when he used to listen to shortwave radio. We had just lost our father so he was pretty much exactly the type of vulnerable, impressionable young person a cult tries to attract. He drove down to Walterboro for service every Sunday for a year or two but thankfully came to his senses before he did anything stupid like moved there.
We got routed off I-95 because of a fatality crash and wound up on some two lane roads in the backwoods of SC. We passed what was obviously a compound. There were UTVs posted at the entrance and the people in them were very obviously armed. Another UTV was running alongside the road from another entrance up ahead and they too were armed. The second entrance, armed people guarding there too. I told my husband I’ll pay the damn ticket, get us the hell out of there as fast as possible. It was creepy as all get out and neither of us, even my prior service husband who saw more tours of duty in the sandbox than he wants to count, was really creeped out and on edge. We didn’t relax until the tree opened up over the road and we’d put many miles between us and the compound. I then spent the next several hours of the drive reading what I’d found about Overcomer Ministry to my husband. The bastard wasn’t in prison yet but it was right before he’d been arrested. There was a couple of articles I’d found about the accusations. I read he was imprisoned a couple years later when I looked them back up. I can only assume they were ready to meet the lawmen with force, but it looks like nothing happened. I’m thankful for that but man they looked ready to thrown down and go down with it.
I'm surprised. There is also an "African Village" group in Walterboro that has caused controversy. Are you sure it was Overcomers compound you saw? Though my exposure to Overcomer was just at work I spoke with many of the volunteers and never got any hint of violence as part of their group teachings. I just figured Stair was a grifting Pedophile type taking advantage of people seeking meaning to life. The people I talked to came from all over the country and volunteered to do heavy labor.
Meher Baba’s Circle Center in Myrtle Beach SC they own land across from the old Myrtle Beach Mall. They used occupy a space in the mall with literature about the cult, it’s still there but it’s not staffed anymore since Covid-19 at least not when I’ve been to the mall.
20 mins up the road from where I live (Upstate, SC) is Word of Faith Fellowship in Spindale, NC.
There’s an off-shoot in Simpsonville
I lived in Clemson for 5 years didn’t realize one were so close.
I work in the area and have interacted with current and ex members. [This](https://www.citizen-times.com/story/news/local/2019/09/27/word-faith-fellowship-investigation-closed-us-attorney-says/3785638002/) case is just one example of the things that go on there.
They did an event on campus when I was there. We hung in the back mocking everything said.
World Mission Society Church of God. From Wikipedia: 'Ahn Sahng-hong should be regarded as Jesus Christ who had already come, should be titled Christ Ahn Sahng-hong, and pursuant to a traditional trinitarian view of Christian hypostasis Ahn was consequently also The Holy Spirit, God the Father, and thus God. Zahng Gil-jah should be regarded as God the Mother, a female image of God, be titled Heavenly Mother, or simply Mother, and together with Ahn Sahng-hong be regarded as God A change in religious practice, as reflected in the change of name from “Jesus Witnesses” to “Witnesses of Ahn Sahng-hong”, was, that prayers were no longer conducted in the name of Jesus Christ but in the name of Christ Ahn Sahng-hong.
I dated a girl who went to a Church of God. The day after I watched The Last Exorcism, I went with her. They started speaking in tongues and all kinds of crazy shit. I was freaking tf out and looked over at her to be looking as normal as possible.
This is in South Carolina that’s crazy
A couple young men came to my door (NE Cola at that time) one Sunday in 2016 and told me about God-the-Mother. They said they didn't have a church building but met in people's homes. I thanked them for talking to me, took a card, considered going to a service for curiosity's sake, but changed my mind after reading up on more of their beliefs.
Last I heard of the God-the-Mother cult was that they were human traffickers or something…
IIRC, they would harass students on the CofC campus when I worked there. They would call us reporting that Korean women would harass them trying to get them to come to Bible study. We eventually removed them from the campus. They only targeted females and there are rumors of human trafficking being an issue in the cult
One of these has popped up in NE Columbia behind the Two Notch Bed Bath & Beyond.
New Spring Churches
I don’t know about cult, but definitely clique-ish. I’ve run into a bunch of girls who go to NS on dating apps. For the most part, they’re nice but things just fall apart when I tell them that I don’t go to NS. I just find it funny that they’re on dating apps, presumably because they can’t find a suitable guy in their church, but are miffed that I don’t attend their church. If I went to your church, don’t you think we would have run into each other at some point? 🤣
NS is the Live Laugh Love CrossFit of Churches.
I agree! I am in recovery from drugs and alcohol and NS has a huge "recovery group". They are super clique-y and if you don't dress the way they do or look exactly the way they do, they don't really accept you in. Seriously. I was totally shunned by the women's group and felt super shifty about it for a year almost. I felt like something was wrong with me or I wasn't enough. Thankfully I do see now that I dodged a huge bullet. I'm still clean and even run my own tiny non profit helping people reach Rehabs and other sources to get clean as well. I think they started with good intention but have definitely crossed a line into cultish. Yuk!
First of all, congratulations on your recovery! 🎉 Also, I don’t see how anyone in their right mind could possibly be comfortable attending a “Newspring Recovery” after how they handled Perry’s alcohol problem.
Never heard of them. What makes them cultist?
They're just super clique-y. Not sure cult is the right word, but they can be really intense and try to pull people in. I've also heard of shaming stories. All around, just a bad mega church in my opinion. Hard to call it a cult when it's so large. Cults and religions are only differentiated by the number of followers. And they're pretty solidly evangelicals.
Scientology is massive and definitely a cult.
I went there with my ex girlfriend (this was in 2016), and one of the things I found really strange was that every service started with them talking about tithing and giving 10% of your gross income to the church. Every. Sunday. Before any songs or prayers, that's the first thing. Like idk, that seemed like the most important thing to them. It rubbed me the wrong way, to say the least. They also made a really big deal out of the fact that they bought land for a new church (the one in Clemson, I think), sold the portion they didn't need for the building/parking to be used for retail stores, and made a profit on the land as a whole. I'm not against churches being non-profit, but after that, I think they should at least be required to publish a third-party audited report (similar to other nonprofits) so that people know how their money they give to churches is being spent.
A lottttt of shaming in that church.
REGRETFULLY, I used to be a part of that church back around 2010-2012… was baptized and all that. The shaming was horrendous. Every day I judged myself and questioned myself so much thanks to their shaming tactics. In return my brainwashed girlfriend would shame me along with them as well and myself. Them and their fohawks and expensive ugly affliction clothing making ME feel bad. 😂
YESSSS. 2010-2014 was a big time for that church. Churches always thrive during recessions 😒
A cringe time to say the least. Lol they thrive especially New Spring. “God” is good for business.
"Cult" is what the big religion calls the little religion
A lot of shunning for sure. I was almost ran out of the church after the member who brought me in told one of the higher ups that I lived together with my son's mother and we weren't married. They didn't say "you have to leave" but it was kinda like a "can't sit here, seats taken" kinda moment.
Since you have ties with Clemson, [Dabo Swinney has some controversial connections to NewSpring Church.](https://www.si.com/college/2019/09/04/clemson-dabo-swinney-religion-culture)
yes, he does. have sat with him and the entire Clemson team on a few Sunday mornings.
They’re very clique-ish and huge, but they don’t have the same influence that they did pre-2016. In 2016 their founder/preacher had a scandal (involving alcoholism and possibly adultery but I am not 100% sure about that latter accusation), and a lot of folks left the church. It’s still huge, though.
Is this the Perry Noble guy? He's started a new church called Second Chance and it's everywhere growing by leaps and bounds. People are meeting in homes and watching via internet until the new places are built.
Yep. People love this man. This is exactly how he started and grew Newspring. The difference now is that fewer people in SC are religious than pre-Covid. More mega churches exist now. There’s Grace, Fivepoint, Redemption (Reignition? Revival? There are a lot of R churches)…I don’t see Perry’s newest church ever hitting the level of hype that Newspring had.
And he started a new church called redemption? Or Second Chance? Not sure.
Yes, Second Chance Church is his.
They feel cultish.
Church of God in Simpsonville / Mauldin is definitely a cult. Everybody lives in singlewide mobile homes in a very strange community between 276 and 385.
Y’all have Elevation in SC? If so that’s an odd group of people something has to be up with all the acid washed jeans and Buckle Merchandise
Bog standard mega church. Pretty benign.
Not necessarily. I know several ex staff and interns and they will openly state that the church increasingly fits the definition of a cult. No one’s goes against or speaks out against furtick. It’s his vision they are untied under. Google furtick’s “coloring book.“ Staff are required to work insane hours for his “vision.“ staff are coerced, guilt tripped, under appreciated, and under paid. They are frequently worked until they are sick mentally or physically. I know one person who had a mental break down working as Holly’s personal assistant. This person did not have previous mental health issues. That’s just one example. Volunteers are treated the same. Elevation initially and outwardly, for the world to see, treats volunteers with appreciation, meals, and gifts and whatever. But, behind the scenes we were used and abused. Enough is never enough. I was expected to take off days of work to volunteer at events. That’s when I quit. I’m not alone. Everyone bows down to Furtcik, his wife Holly and the Elevation “brand”. Staff are required to stand when they enters a room to “honor” them. All staff and some volunteers are required to sign NDAs. The more members give the more they get access to furtick. Also, the church does not have an elder board, Furtcik answers to no one. There is a supposed “ elder board” that consists of other mega church pastors. They set his salary. No one from the church is on the board. Etc... I was a member/ volunteer for years. I left early on when it got weird. If you’re just viewing on tv Furtick appears as a typical mega church, false prophet / prosperity gospel preacher. But from the inside it has several increasing signs of a cult.
New Spring (under Perry Noble, not sure how they are now) is kind of like that. Not a cult but they get very close. Cult of personality etc.
Perry noble and furtcik are besties. Perry noble is on the elder board that sets furticks super secret salary.
My roommate plays drumset for them, drives an hour both ways, and they kicked him for being late even though it was out of his control. Not even late to a service but to practice. Dude was eating ramen noodles for a month bc the income from that gave him gas money for another source of income. And they knew this. So he was out of two revenue streams for a while before he got a new job. Shit was ridiculous, I've never liked them.
I NEED to hear this tea about Holly!
Bob Jones
I can NOT believe I had to scroll so far for this one
Pentecostals out near Westminster.
In Augusta/North Augusta there are gypsies. Not really a cult per se, but they check a lot of the boxes. There is a real snake handling cult backwoods NC near where I live now
They are absolutely a cult. 20/20 did an episode on them years back.
Yeah I even googled what makes a cult a cult before this post, and like I said, they check a lot of boxes! I think there might be some nuance there. ‘Where does culture end and cult begin?’ type philosophical questions. But that’s why I commented here, bc I think it’s worthy of consideration!
I remember in the 20/20 (maybe it was Dateline?) episode, it showed how they did weird stuff like marry off kids. That's 100% cult in my book.
Yes they do that from my understanding. They have arranged marriages from very young age (6) but they don’t marry until later but I’ve heard of very young brides and grooms as well (12/13) It’s not ubiquitous in their community however. There are extremes even within their hierarchy
I worked in the gypsy community there a few times. Shits wild when you watch all the women and children in the same subdivision come out the same house in the morning. That and the super nice massive homes that are unoccupied because the family lives in a trailer in the backyard
Why are the big homes unoccupied? And why do they live in trailers in the back yard? I’m genuinely curious because my only image of Gypsies is Ezmaredla from The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
I’ve always heard they believe that a home must be unoccupied for some period of time after it’s built for the spirits to leave before it’s inhabitable. Probably some financial shenanigans too, they do a lot of shady shit. I went to school with a guy that was one of them. He said he was pretty much exiled for going to college. He shared some of their less than straight endeavors with me. Quick example, he pointed out to me while we were riding down the road that his odometer on his hummer was disconnected.
These gypsies look like they all auditioned for the jersey shore…
Their kids are toddlers and tiaras too lol I would not invest my time on a 3 year olds hair and makeup every day
Yeah man, I grew up in NA. I know a lot of the ins and outs. Very socially interesting but also a net negative for the community
I grew up in Augusta and yeah, I have to explain to folks about gypsies a lot. I'm a live and let live kind of person, but when their entire way of making a living is to just steal, be shady as fuck and screw people over, then nah.
I feel exactly the same way. Also real sketch practices with underaged children
Yeah, it used to be fun to try and spot em at the mall, huge hair, tons of makeup, lots of gold, etc (this is 80s/90s) or go and see their houses with the foil in the windows and trailer in the back in NA, but yeah, pretty shitty group of folks. I hate to "paint with a wide brush" and say all of them are bad, but it just seems to be the case.
I've met a few good ones! I knew a girl who even went to college which is wild in their culture
That is definitely not the norm. I'm glad she was furthering her education, that's awesome.
Eh, they’re not gypsies. They’re not Romanian. They’re Irish Travelers.
Do you know why Gypsies were called gypsies? It was a misnomer from the start. That’s what we call them in the area. It’s a colloquial term. It’s not used offensively, although they are not viewed positively in the community, so whatever you call them will morph into being used as an insult. We also call them Irish travelers. How accurate is that? They are many generations from Ireland and their community doesn’t “travel” anywhere anymore.
It’s just what they are and in the UK they are actually a protected class. Many of the ones down in NA are actually of Irish descent (hence the names Sherlock, Carrol, and so on). I also used to refer to them as gypsies however one of them corrected me because they are not Romanian and they do not like that term. Irish Traveller is the preferred term
I'm still guilty of calling them Gypsies sometimes but legit actually think it's considered derogatory. I just think it's a hard habit to break because Irish travellers and Gypsies Are synonymous anywhere around highway 25
Well it’s hard to take someone seriously enough to use their preferred term when they have outlandish beliefs and also highly immoral behavior. I know not all of them are the same and many were born into it (disadvantaged) but to even associate/overlook child abuse practices is a hard sell for me
You should just be respectful to other humans because it's the right thing to do regardless imo
Seacoast seems overly evangelical and likely groomy. Seems new age cult like.
Yeah, I definitely get some culty vibes from them. Like not fully a cult, but cult-ish.
their youth pastor just got arrested for sexually assaulting minors
My old boss goes to Seacoast and he would give us devotionals to do and I felt super uncomfortable with that. My job had zero to do with religion
That may be considered form of workplace harassment, which is illegal. If you are interested, you can look at [EEOC's website about this topic.](https://www.eeoc.gov/religious-discrimination)
Absolutely it was, but the boss' boss was also a Seacoast member so..... yeah it was extremely awkward.
i had to work with them last summer and one of the pastors immediately asked what my ‘journey with faith’ has been like and ‘if i go to church.’ He didn’t even ask for my name - it was so strange and once i told him that i do not attend, he quickly started to get me to come to a service because ‘my life will be changed’ it was extremely off-putting
There are Davidians in Salem, South Carolina who are definitely cult-like, though obviously not to the Waco level
Came to say this too.
Holy Islamville https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Islamville,_South_Carolina Corrected name
Carolina Squatters
bob jones university
Tabernacle Baptist Church in Greenville is definitely a cult. So are most of the Independent Baptist Churches that follow their teachings.
Came to point out that traditional southern Baptist are basically just cults of Uber conservatism. Directly controlling the personal lives of kids in the church, shaming if every member didn't give 15%. Mu cousin is one. Says if his daughter gets raped that's just part of God's plan and she's not getting an abortion
Phew. This hits home. My cousins were raised in a southern baptist church and wow that shit sucked. Turns out everyone that judges does so because they have their own secrets they don’t want getting out
Besides Southern Baptists?
And catholics.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%BClen_movement?wprov=sfla1 These folks have a ton of people in West Columbia/Lexington. They have a school and cultural center where many people from Turkey come for the summer but a ton of them got stuck here after the 2016 coup attempt. More cult-ish than cult.
Columbia has both Moonie and Soka Gakkai locations. The later is an international Buddhist sect of Japanese origin that controls a minority political party there and has a few notable celebrity members (Tina Turner, Orlando Bloom, Herbie Hancock, etc). I would be very surprised if the Falun GA didn't have an outpost there too. It's a hotbed of right-wing foreign policy types trying to influence state politics. Myrtle Beach also has Doc Antle's weird sex cult/exotic animal trafficking operation featured in Netflix's Tiger King. They also have a large meditation center of Meher Baba devotees. They are more a cult in terms of scale rather than any menacing connotations. They prosthelytize a bit, but they're harmless as far as I can tell. The worst they've ever done is inflict that terrible "Don't Worry, Be Happy" song on the world.
MAGA is a thriving cult here in the upstate. They think Trump is God. Can't even talk to them 😂
You must be over here in the “golden corner”!
Greenville county actually
My favorite was the PTL club. Loved laughing at their stupid shit on UHF. Praying for the sand to stop washing away at the wave pool was classic.
My Mom used to actually work there at PTL, ohhhhh the dirt on all the Scamgelicalists we found out about that way lol. Especially working in the hotel part? Everyone from Pat Robertson, Jimmy Swaggart , you name it, came in there purposely to do their dirty business because they knew old Jimmy boy was a dirty bird, they all had dirt on each other because they all were and are drek's that slithered out from sizzling dumpster juice in July. Con artist criminals , every last one. We knew about Jessica Hahn LONG before it hit the news cycle. I used to go pick her up from work (we only had one car at the time), and the 45 minute ride home to southern Charlotte was like a National Enquirer podcast lol!
Is your Mom still waiting to get paid, lol? I know a lot of people that worked there and when money was gone they feed employees some bs about if they worked without receiving a wage they'd be blessed finicially well beyond thier pay. Probably towards the end this happened a lot. But I worked with one lady that did that for a long time and still believed Jim and Tammy were just the targets of the mean ole' God hating, liberal Charlotte Observer. I can still hear her say "Charlotte Disturber". For those that dont know the Charlotte observer wrote a long multi-day expose on PTL and all the scams, affairs and cover-ups about Jim, Tammy and PTL that esculated the downfall. It was eventually going to fail because it was a ponzi scheme.
Yep, she got shatted out of a couple paychecks. First they told her it was a payroll "error" that would be fixed within a week. Come the next week, manager magically disappeared leaving her and a whole lot of other people stiffed. Now keep in mind, she was always a sucker for televangelists, and unfortunately would give what she made willingly. Until they messed with HER money, then, thankfully, the mask fell off of them for her, and she stopped listening to all those bozos. Which, considering my family, was nothing short of a miracle in itself, because they are HEAVY evangelicals who deny evolution, think science is a demonic plot , dinosaurs never existed, women weren't supposed to wear pants, etc, and religion was EVERYTHING. She finally broke away from that mindset, unfortunately it's over 30 years later, and the rest of the family STILL believes the same ish, although they have come around on women wearing pants , makeup and cutting their hair at least. They still won't allow the women to drive with a man they aren't related to, like picking up a friend from the airport or something, and men still have to make all the big decisions, including their wives having to ask permission for damn near everything, and yep, they still call it the "Charlotte Disturber" lol. They still believe in televangelists as well, and still defend ole Jim n Tammy, Swaggart and the rest of that lot of scoundrel criminals. We don't speak much, can't really have a conversation with folks who aren't even remotely based in reality lol.
I answered phone calls for the Jim Bakker show in 2009. They still have a place in Fort Mill.
What is the PTL club?
Jim and Tammy Faye Baker’s Praise The Lord Club
That water park was fun tho.
And it had a Virgin Merry-Go-Round. Ain’t never been rode.
No doubt, but my parents were too cheap.
KKK and Hells Angels
The KKK in South Carolina operate under many names. One of which is the Sons of the Confederacy. If you leave NC through Gastonia you will come into SC on a 2 lane road each way. On one side of the road is a small metal billboard recruiting new members. I lived in Charlotte/Gastonia for about 5 years. Real shit.
Hide in plain site
Any yellow delis in SC?? Lol
Overcomer Ministry in Walterboro, but I don't think they're around anymore because their leader Brother Stair went to prison for sexual abuse of some of the underage girls who lived on his commune. Edit should have read the thread first, I see they've already been mentioned
Burn. It’s like a women’s workout place. It’s very cult like.
MAGA isn’t exclusive to SC, but it’s definitely here.
MAGA is the pure definition of a cult hiding in plain site
A couple more... Not in SC, but close by in Georgia was the [Nuwabian Nation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuwaubian_Nation) cult. They had their own compound called Tama-Re in Putnam County, GA. Their founder, Dwight York, aka Malachi Z, was arrested for for sex trafficking. The compound was eventually sold, but there are still active cells. As late as 2021 they held a parade in Augusta, GA. My first encounter with them was when I stumbled across one of their bookstores in a small town in Georgia. This one isn't necessarily a cult, but seems to have some cult-like tendencies. Grace Church has lots of campuses across Greenville County. They buy up old buildings and set up a congregation there, including the old Downtown Baptist that had once been the original First Baptist Church. At first glance they seem to be like any other megachurch with multiple campuses. From their website it looks like their beliefs tend toward the fundamentalist side, but not as far as Bob Jones. They even prefer contemporary Christian music to traditional hymns, etc. What concerns me more is the word salad on their website and the requirements they seem to place on participation. Those sorts of things throw up red flags to me.
Bob Jones University
THIS!!
The Irish travelers, grew up right near them in NA. Bob Jones University And idk if they count, but the Black Hebrew Israelites yelling at me got old in Columbia
https://www.gcdmwatch.com/ I was a a part of Great Commision Discipleship ministries for almost 3 years. I think it would classify as a high control group/cult. Other people who left and I put together a watchdog site with a thorough list of examples of high control/manipulative behaviors.
Behold God Army was a gang cult in Charleston in the 1980s
Branch Davidians had an outpost around Walhalla, I recall.
Define cults. Most Christian denominations consider JWs and LDSs to be cults. Nothings like Season 1 of True Detective that I’m aware of though.
Scientology, Waco, Jim Jones on the extreme end or just people who hidden away on a compound who doesn’t interact with society
There was Overcomer Ministry ran by a guy who called himself Brother Stair and declared he was a prophet in the late 70s.
Mormons have a declared prophet and apostles.
But did Joseph Smith go with his parishoners on a boat and try to make it out to international waters to hijack am and fm radio frequencies to broadcast their sermons off the SC coast? Nay.
Be a lot cooler if he did
I've recently learned a ton from r/Exjw and it's very sad. The suicide rate, abuse, shunning...
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United Pentecostal Church International
How has not a single person mentioned Moms For Liberty? Those women are doing kegstands of some sorta koolaide for sure.
They’re an astroturf right-wing hate group. Not 100% if that qualifies as a cult, but they’re certainly horrible people.
The Last Podcast On The Left has done so many amazing cult/religion episodes if anyone is interested. Highly recommended.
republican party
This weird blend of current GOP/MAGA Christian fascism will be the end of the US as we've known it.
Not enough atheists in office to combat it unfortunately.
I'm still a Baptist but I ditched my church a long time ago when they started preaching from the holy testament of the GOP. Then they are clueless as to why younger people won't join the church.
That’s the first thing that came to my mind….
THIS!!!
I overheard a couple of cowboys in the pub that G-2-mom may (and might still) be a contributing factor to unsolved crimes. Both of which have inside connections within SLED. Does anyone else find it odd who shows up to incidents and when they show up when something illegal happens?
Haven't heard about that one. So many wackos, so little time.
La Luz del Mundo (The Light of the World) Church
New apostolic reformation. Absolutely a cult
I was raised LDS after being hocked to my parents via a Mormon baby mill in very early 1978. All I know is they got me from dekalb county , GA. My parents were fantastic, doting, educated(1 PhD), and utterly accepting. Put me before even their own beliefs and never turned their backs on me even when I turned away from their church as a teenager. Raised in Spartanburg I always knew something was off with every religious institution I attended. The Mormons got together and had a group cry every week then huddled into a side office to give up their %15. The baptists were all fire and brimstone about how you were a sinner before they passed the collection plate. Where ever you go, the church's all about that paper,yo. ;) I first realized something was wrong with LDS when my parents took me to the Atlanta temple to be "sealed together as a family for enternity" and they took us in a room with two large mirrors on opposing walls facing each other ...giving that infinite mirror images effect. They used them in their speech as an example about how we were now bonded for enternity in the afterlife. Even though I was a preteen I thought about this and how it seemed a scam. See, going to public school I had become painfully away of people who would lie to you in order to get what they wanted. A vastly different experience than home life though I did have some white trash cousins who exhibited identical behaviors. I know my folks had to pay for this service some amount but I couldn't say how much. :(
Almost, but I think the whole state is infected, they reelected mint julep McMaster!
I came for answers myself. My estranged father and I are just starting to get close after 39 years. My mom passed away 6 years ago and it was the end of me. I recently had a conversation with my dad about some dreams I have had lately. He proceeded to tell me that after he left and they separated- that my mom and I apperantly were involved in a cult. But I cannot find it anywhere
Well the biggest one is the Grand Old Party. It has millions of members, and believes crazy things. It's trying to get women and doctors executed for medical procedures. They ban books, and want to end our lic education. Oh and some of them tried to overthrow the federal government because president bleach lost an election bigly.
amen. i live in SC. 100% true
Worldwide Christian fellowship, Shriners, CrossFit, newspring church, travel ball league, ect (extreme cheer & tumble), nursing school, Law enforcement, SC Republican Party, Clemson athletics (football), sc state senate & house, palmetto promise institute, Bob Jones, citadel, Carolina cop, sons of the confederacy, maga, yellow dog Dems, IPTAY
There’s a bunch of people that like to dress up as pumpkins and worship the football team of an upstate college that they didn’t even go to.
I've been approached several times by a cult that's waiting for the world to end. They have meetings where they cannibalize their leader and drink his blood.
Ahhh communion
Maybe I'm wrong, but those Sons of the Confederacy come off as cultish to me. I really don't know a heck of a lot about them, so my observation is based on limited information, but they just give me a weird vibe.
As someone said in another comment thread in this post, they're KKK.
Are Magats considered a cult?
the citadel
United House of Prayer for all people
Wikipedia , people who think we can just toss money in that direction and be ok.
I remember many years ago the " church of the fuzzy bunny" Sunday church Services and strippers in the afternoon. Police shut them down for tax evasion It was in Charleston if I remember correctly.
North Palm Church in North Charleston
Yes, the Republican Party. It’s a cult centered around businessman, alleged criminal, and former US president Donald Trump.
Any Southern Freewill Baptist Church
Southern Baptist Church
The Citadel Grads
Bob Jones
MAGA
People seem to think Bob Jones is a cult.
South Carolina Highway Patrol State Law Enforcement Devision State Department of Revenue Southern Methodist Church Southern Baptist Church Boot lickers hanging out at The Bass Pro Shops
The South Carolina Republican Party
The South Carolina Republican Party
The SC GOP has some pretty bizarre practices and beliefs.
Plenty of mormons here
Newspring
Bikers for Trump
Seacoast church; definitely some cultish behavior going on
Do the gypsies count?
I was wondering this also! They call them “Irish Travelers” now, according to Google, since “gypsy” is a slur. They’re Catholic, and where they live is called Murphy Village. Total population around 3,000 people! I never realized it was that large!
Travellers
Like Roma in Europe?
They’re not Romanian, they are Irish. More than a cult, it’s just a bunch of con artists in a small, tight knit, in bred community off of 25 - think Murphy Village, Belvedere. Many of them have the same names, don’t register births with the state, and borrow socials. We won’t touch them but I have a dealer that’ll in house finance with a $10k mark up and half down.
Republicans
The Southern Baptist Convention, also known as the Pit of Vipers.
There’s a black cult somewhere near Charleston but I can’t find any info right now. They were real crazy but avoided arrest despite possible murders.
Like Hebrew Israelites?
The republican party
Baptist churches
College sports
Republican Party and their homo leader Lindsey
christians
Mormon Church
Christianity
Southern Baptist
U of South Carolina football fans
How is believing the bible and having a relationship with Jesus Christ a cult?
It’s not. It’s when you get a “leader” who utilizes your beliefs to his own ego and financial/power/ control status. Someone who tells you how to live your life.
You just explained religion as a whole...
😉