Religious Deception

Cults prey on the very attributes that make us human: our desire to belong, to find a deeper meaning in life, to live everyday with divine purpose. Their existence creates a sense that any one of us, at any time, could step off the cliff’s edge and fall into that daunting abyss of manipulation and unhinged dedication to a misplaced cause. Perhaps it’s this mindset that keeps us so utterly obsessed and desperate to learn more, or it’s that the stories are so bizarre and unsettling that we are simply in awe of the mechanics that make these infamous groups tick.

In September 2010, at the beginning of the academic year at Sarah Lawrence College, a sophomore named Talia Ray asked her roommates if her father could stay with them for a while. No one objected. Her father, Larry Ray, was just released from prison, having spent three years behind bars after a conviction during a bitter custody dispute.

"One man in a thousand, Solomon says, will stick more close than a brother...But the thousandth man will stand by your side, to the gallows' feet and after." Rudyard Kipling Who is your "thousandth man?" The friend with who you can share your heart and soul? The one who knows your triumphs, your loves, your weakness, your fears? What if they betray you? Someone is trying to destroy Collin Farrell by tormenting her with reminders of the past. They are planting letters in the house—while she's home—threatening her and her children. The same someone has let loose lies and rumors that can ...

In A Thousand Lives, the New York Times best-selling memoirist Julia Scheeres traces the fates of five individuals who followed Jim Jones to South America as they struggled to first build their paradise, and then survive it. Each went for different reasons - some were drawn to Jones for his progressive attitudes towards racial equality, others were dazzled by his claims to be a faith healer. But once in Guyana, Jones' drug addiction, mental decay, and sexual depredations quickly eroded the idealistic community.

Two decades after the publication of The Black Book of Communism, nearly everyone is or at least should be aware of the immense evil produced by that devilish ideology first hatched when Karl Marx penned his Communist Manifesto two centuries ago. Far too many people, however, separate Marx the man from the evils wrought by the oppressive ideology and theory that bears his name.

I’ve been through hell to get to this place. To wear the perfect white dress and stand beside Royce Hale, the liar I tried desperately not to fall in love with and failed. Or maybe I’m still trapped in hell because the devil is here, too. He lurks at my side, plotting terrible ways to make me his. It’s win at all costs in this family, and I know now just how far the Hales will go to get what they want. But you can’t survive in a house full of lies without learning the art of deception, and once I become a Hale, I’ll show them exactly what I’ve mastered.

Many have heard of NXIVM and its creator, Keith Raniere, the unassuming Albany man now prosecuted for ensnaring tens of thousands of people in the US, Mexico, Canada, and elsewhere to do his bidding and pay millions of dollars to participate in his self-improvement methodology. But where did Keith Raniere begin? Enter Toni Natalie, Keith's Patient Zero, the first one indoctrinated into Raniere's methodology and the first one to escape.

The "unputdownable" (Dave Eggers, National Book award finalist) story of the most infamous American con man you've never heard of: James Strang, self-proclaimed divine king of earth, heaven, and an island in Lake Michigan, "perfect for fans of The Devil in the White City" (Kirkus).

In 1979, a fiery preacher named Jane Whaley attracted a small group of followers with a promise that she could turn their lives around. In the years since, Whaley’s following has expanded to include thousands of congregants across three continents. Based on hundreds of interviews, secretly recorded conversations, and thousands of pages of documents, Pulitzer Prize winner Mitch Weiss and Holbrook Mohr’s Broken Faith is a terrifying portrait life inside the Word of Faith Fellowship, and the harrowing account of one family who escaped after two decades.

Hiding is no longer acceptable…she needed answers…but answers alone might not be enough…and they could prove deadly…there were no more secrets…they could be deadly too… Mick Johnson might be dead but his killer is unknown and the clues leading to them are non-existent. Completely non-existent…which according to Jackson never ever happens…then he finds one but how does he tell Simon…But Elijah Sullivan, the father she adored all her life left clues…she just has to unravel them even as she comes to terms with her feelings about Harper…and his for her. It’s the middle ...

The Duke of Portsmouth offers an impecunious half-French relative a job as his young son's nanny. What he quickly discovers is that he wants her, badly. What he discovers far more slowly is that she isn't at all what she seems. Evangeline de Beauchamps is in way over her head. She has far more to cope with than a nineteen-year-old virgin should ever have. To top it all off, she must play an experienced widow with a man who knows women as well as he knows his horses, or so he thinks.

Less than a year after the horrific Masonville High shooting, Owen is determined to uncover why the Creepers have converged on his land and the school—a necessary step in his mission to drive evil forces out of his town. A supernatural visitor tests Owen’s ability to discern between truth and lies as the community is rocked by abductions and disappearances. While the town comes together to find those who are missing, Owen must fight to discover what is real and what is part of a strategy to distract him from his true purpose.

Just as the title implies, this book reveals how you have been deceived on a MASSIVE scale that scripture actually prophesied (Rev 12:9, 20:7-8), we have researched the numerous " prophetic understandings" being widely taught, and they are wrong. This, seven years later, when I began learning, still astonishes me. That is the mythbusting aspect of the book or 1st argument presented, the 2nd argument is the replacement offered. So, even if you disagree with the replacement, that is only the second argument and you are still freed from the myth!

The Animorphs have managed to contact the Andalite home world, but the battle is far from over. Visser Two has arrived on Earth, and he's not happy about the state of things. He decides the best way to take over Earth is to have the humans destroy each other, exhausting their weapons in the process. He's going to start World War III.

After searching for her sister for two long years, Kate Gallagher is devastated when she's called to the morgue to identify Chrissy's body, the runaway teen the victim of a brutal attack. Guilt and grief send Kate into a tailspin. She failed Chrissy once...she won't do it again. Even if finding her sister's killer means following a lethal bounty hunter into the heart of darkness, placing both their lives in danger.

It was an unfair decision - to be forced to choose between her home and her heart…When one of her sisters is attacked by Harry Devers, the lecherous son of Mannerling's present owner, Abigail Beverley puts her obsession with reclaiming the mansion on hold. It is then that Abigail meets the dashing and extremely eligible Lord Burfield, fresh back from the army and in full-time pursuit of a bride. She must be quick to grab his attention lest he be snapped up by Prudence Makepeace.

The Baldwins were a strong Christian family living in Plano, Texas. When their 17-year-old daughter, Mackenzie, met Aadam in a random-match online chat room, she fell for his good looks, his charm, and his respectful conversation. He told her he lived in New York, and they began an online friendship. But over the course of a few months, Aadam revealed that he actually lived in Kosovo and had only pretended to live in New York so Mackenzie would keep chatting with him.

Actress and playwright Tina Alexis Allen's audacious memoir unravels her privileged suburban Catholic upbringing that was shaped by her formidable father - a man whose strict religious devotion and dedication to his large family hid his true nature. When Tina was 18 her father accidently discovered the truth about her sexuality. Instead of dragging her to the family priest and lecturing her with tearful sermons about sin and damnation, her father shocked her with his honest response. The two became trusted confidants in a relationship that eventually spiraled out of control.

From one of Italy’s most renowned historians of religion, an exciting new portrait of one of Christianity’s most complex - and most misunderstood - figures: Mary Magdalene.

There is a new self-awareness taking place as people are starting to find their spiritual identities. As exciting as this sounds, and it really is wonderful, there are many pitfalls and cul-de-sacs along the 'New Age' path to be very wary of. This spiritual awakening is something that the 'powers that shouldn't be' have been aware of for many years, and the architects of the current system we live under know that if we figure this out then we are a lot more than just worker bees for the system than it threatens their own power.