By Ox Drover
My own personal opinion is that most humans, as a species, have a component that comprises “spirituality.” Evidence from some of the earlier cultures of our species when our ancestors were still living in caves indicate that these people had some idea that there were unseen gods or spirits in the heavens or in their worlds.
I think for many of us our spirituality is also part of our healing path and helps us to set a moral compass to follow in our actions and thoughts. Most of the sacred writings of several belief systems I have read all indicate that kindness to others, charity, and doing good to your fellow man is primary to following that belief. Though history and ancient evidence also indicate that some belief systems at least in the ancient past induced their followers to sacrifice their children by burning them before the altar of the idol, or offering blood sacrifices of captured enemies to the deity, those seem to be in the minority of belief systems.
Unfortunately, today there are many psychopaths who take advantage of what I believe is human nature to believe in something “higher than yourself” and to seek some one or some way to “contact” that “higher power.”
Tony Alamo presented himself as one of these “prophets of god” starting, along with his wife, Susan, preaching to the downtrodden in California, but eventually recruiting these people who fell under their spell, to work for them in profit making enterprises.
Alamo and his wife Susan came to Arkansas where they made the local news when after a losing bout with cancer, Susan’s body was kept above ground for months, with Alamo claiming that he was going to raise her from the dead. Even after he failed in the task of raising Susan from the dead, those disciples under his emotional and spiritual control did not desert him en mass.
Alamo’s many illegal antics attracted the ire of the IRS and he was convicted of tax fraud and spent about four years of a six-year sentence in federal prison. Though there was a great deal of information coming from those who had left Alamo’s discipleship that his “church” was sanctioning polygamy and underage sex with young women and girls as young as nine, Alamo, subsequently managed to stay un-indicted for these alleged crimes until recently when he was arrested while fleeing from authorities.
The judge ruled that he would not be allowed bail and six minors were removed into foster care from his compound and from his followers. Alamo was The Barely Legal Empire of Tony Alamo by Maria Luisa Tucker, May 13, 2008.
I am relieved that this man is finally behind bars, apparently forever.
Thanks, Oxy. Just what I meant.
Hi. The name of the program is THS investigates cults religion, and mind control. It airs again on 9/30 on “E!” The womans name is Karen Rudidoux. I am still not clear on the particulars, but will watch the show. Hope everybodys having a beautiful day.
Hey Kim, I sure didn’t mean to suggest YOU were spreading
incorrect information. I’m sorry. I was actually thinking the
documentary might be responsible for it, having noticed
in various media the surprising departure from breast feeding
that so many young mothers have taken.
I agree with you both, Kim and Drover, that the point
is really in the brainwashing and manipulation by the sociopath
and the then larger group who’ve been brainwashed by him,
perpetuating the damage, perhaps for generations.
In the case of social, religious and political hegemony, for millenia.
I’m friends with a delightful woman, kind, generous, seemingly very bright and intelligent. But she has this
blind
spot; her devotion to her faith. Faith in and of itself is an
amazing and beautiful thing, but it can leave us vulnerable to
the machinations of a sociopath. Her pastor, as is common, uses his pulpit to express
political opinions but also to ‘teach’ his congregation. The misinformation and manipulation of facts might not necessarily be coming from the pastor himself, but could be the result of long term hegemony.
In this way, false ideas, even outright lies, are spread among
the congregation and my friend, delightful woman that she is,
then spreads these falsehoods to her children and in conversations with her friends.
Frequently, my only response
can be a gaping mouth expressing shock that such idiocy
could be spoken aloud. How can I tell her what is true?
Because then I would seem to be discrediting her pastor….
and attempting to discredit her ‘faith’.
The legacy of the sociopath is so far reaching. I do not
think her pastor is an S, he’s probably only repeating what
he was taught, by a man repeating what he was taught, etc.
And now she will repeat it, and so will her daughters.
Thanks, Oxy,
I hadn’t even HEARD of Tony Alamo – not that I’m in the business of ferreting out freaks…but, apparently he has still got followers, all claiming he is a righteous person…and coming in here, SHOUTING in defence of him; UNBELIEVABLE!!!! Find a different outlet; volunteer to work for free on his appeals – but this IS NOT their forum, it is OURS. Specifically, it is OURS for the purposes of communicating about Psychopaths, Narcissists and Sociopaths – in the “collective.” We are NOT “about being taken over by” *harruummmmph!* “limited intelligences” that cannot think or analyze Tony Alamo’s ACTIONS for what they REALLY are….! EVIL.
HMMMPH *crosses arms across chest* disbelief at the “Screamers” here ostensibly supporting him.
When I analyzed Christ’s raising Lazarus from the dead, He didn’t say “Now, you all pray, and he’ll come back to life,” did He??
NO! It didn’t take 6 months; he didn’t withhold Lazarus’ body from his family for 16 YEARS ( ? ) gruss gott!
He calmly and quietly, in HIS OWN grief, took care of the business at hand.
He went into where Lazarus lay, and without ANY fanfare, or trumpetting, or TALK, He just raised him from the dead.
SO, based upon that analysis, my opinion of so-called “prophets of God” (AND I DON’T CARE WHO THEY ARE, nor what religion they espouse…!!! PERIOD!), if they cry out for money, if they CAN’T perform the miracle they SHOUTED so long and loudly about, THEY ARE FALSE Prophets, to my way of viewing them.
Apologies for being SOOOOOOO DOGMATIC, but ANYone can SAY anyTHING; it is “BY their fruits, ye shall know them.”
Hey, all good posts and thinking for yourselves! Most of us are looking for the answers to life. I believe the mistake is made in following the man instead of following God. If you want to deceive someone do you totally deny the truth? No…we know this….from experience….you twist it. It does far more harm because you have an element of truth to it…which gives it power. *shudder*
My two cents. 🙂
a real wife:)xx
“but ANYone can SAY anyTHING; it is “BY their fruits, ye shall know them.”
sociopath recogintion 101!!:)xxxx
Dear HSW,
Oh, I agree totally. these FAKERS are FALSE PROPHETS, but Jesus said that there would be FALSE PROPHETS come in His name, and this is one of them, a particularly NASTY ONE I think. Some are after money, come control and fame and power and some like this freak, ALL of the above plus access to little girls for sex, and their parents are so duped they fail to protect them.
Jennifer, cults EVOLVE, and your take on this may be right, and it is teh EARLY stages of a cult. I have SEEN cults start out as good people, then some S gets in as pastor and a CULT of following one man (and it is NOT Jesus) start to spread as this “Pastor” starts to interpret “God’s word” to fit his own desires—like alamo was marrying these girls to save them from becoming whores at age 9! Yea! Right, so self sacrificing for him to do so. NOT!!!
I hope they don’t release him when he gets old, sick and cancer etc. like they did that guy that bombed the plane in Scotland. Apparently the release as discussed on NPR (national public radio) yesterday was to keep England’s trade partner ship with Libia intact and the guy got a HERO’S WELCOME when he returned! (which he was supposed to NOT get, but a low key trip home to die.) Well, you can’t trust a psychopath no matte rwhat they promisxe, so now Scotland and England have egg on their political faces for pretending to be “compassionate” when it was all about TRADE. And we should be suprised????? I am sorry, to me compassion is about the victims’ families, not the murderer x 200+—okay, okay, will get off my SOAP BOX! LOL
Thanks, Jen. I got a little defensive there, but I feel better now. I think we’re on the same page.
I think all this prversity in religion, and the truly evil things that are done is the reason why “Jesus wept.”
But while dying on the cross He said,”Forgive them father for they know not what they do.” Any thoughts on that? Do they know what they do? Should they be forgiven?
Kim, that is an impossible question.
My P knows exactly what he is doing. and he wants to perpetrate it. He wants more evil to exist. He once said to me, “I’m tired of your God-like ways”
and he told me that he had gone to the neighbors house and told them I was a saint. A year later I asked the neighbors, “did doug actually tell you I’m a saint?”
“No,” said the neighbor, “he didn’t say THAT.”
Now I know what he did say, he said that I THINK I’m a saint. Why? because I like helping people – especially him and he despises that in me. Weird huh?
skylar: same comment my X P made about me! He called me the ‘morals nazi’ because I found out about his cheating ways.
They want women like us so they don’t get back what they dish out and then when we find out their games they hate us. The only women my husband respects is the ones that can dish the dirt right back into his life.