Cults

Last year, my man and I started watching the Leah Remini series about Scientology. Since then, we've had several conversations about religion and cults. Mostly, they've been along the lines of - what the hell is wrong with you!?!?!?!? I don't get it. AT ALL. I'm not saying I'm a particularly strong person. As a matter of fact, sometimes I'm kind of gullible. Maybe I have a small authority issue. Or, maybe I just grew up in an era where it was trendy to question everything, so I do. I don't know. Regardless, I would question the teachings of a cult. I questioned the teachings of my church! Oh yeah...anyway...we watched the series. It was really fascinating. L. Ron Hubbard was a NUT!!! I can't even believe anyone would fall for that shit. Ewww. 

Last week, as I passed a coworker in the hall, she said, OH!, Cynthia, come see my tree! So I did :-) In her work space she has a 3 foot flocked tree adorned with peacocks. It's so pretty. I like those colors together. So I said that I didn't know she was peacock fan. She looked at me and with a straight face said, I'm not. But peacocks have about as much to do with the birth of Christ as a fat little man in a red suit so I figured what the hell! I laughed right out loud! That was pretty funny. So we started talking about religion, in general. She happens to be a very spiritual woman, I knew that. But then she told me something that completely floored me! At one time in her life, she was a member of the People's Temple...you know, Jim Jones and Guyana and drinking the kool aide!?!?!?!?!? She got out a couple years before they went to Guyana though. Whoa! She was pretty straight forward about it so I said, why?! Because I was really interested. Her answer made some sense to me. She said that she was a freshman in college and felt like her life was in kind of a disarray and they sort of said, we can full-fill you and all you have to do is follow the rules. So she thought, hey, I can do that. And everything will be better and my life will be easier and all I have to do is follow the rules. Yep, that sounds good to me! Wow. She barely lasted a year as a cult member and then she went, huh? And snuck out in the middle of the night and went home. Dang. Good for her but again, wow!