Kinja reply list

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redeye77Stassa Edwards
3/01/15 12:57pm
Until all Christians publicly condemn this sort of thing, I will continue to believe all Christians are pedophiles. It's only fair.
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  bob_dredeye77
  3/01/15 2:06pm
  Oh, but any "Christian" who does anything bad isn't really a Christian, don't you know? So there's no need to condemn them. Of course, the same rule doesn't apply to anyone else, however.
  
  (I just recently saw some website that took that idea to an extreme and claimed that ostensible Christians doing really bad things were actually Satanists. He meant that literally - organized Devil worshippers who infiltrated various churches and other organizations in large numbers, performing Satanic sacrifices and whatnot on the sly. He just couldn't wrap his head around the idea that there might be bad Christians out there.)
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  PumpkinSpiesbob_d
  3/01/15 3:01pm
  Well yeah. I've been called an "agent of Satan" because I'm an atheist. Even though I don't... believe in Satan. But hey, that's their logic. I thought about getting "agent of Satan" on a t shirt.
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Queen of BithyniaStassa Edwards
3/01/15 12:25pm
Reminder: all new religious movements are just schemes for old men to rape 13-year-old girls.
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  emoyenoQueen of Bithynia
  3/01/15 12:46pm
  or boys
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  Vulcan Has No MoonQueen of Bithynia
  3/01/15 12:58pm
  So are all the old religious movements.
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GELLA - LLAPStassa Edwards
3/01/15 12:31pm
i am glad he is arrested, 30 years is not enough

question: what parents in their right mind would send their kid into a cult?
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  goddessoftransitoryGELLA - LLAP
  3/01/15 1:29pm
  The parents are in the cult too—a lot of these kids got indoctrinated at a very young age and so many probably didn't even realize how deeply wrong and exploitative it was. As for the parents, who can say? Some of them probably grew up in abusive homes, some had a deep anxiety about their lives that the cult/togetherness atmosphere helped soothe, some just didn't have much smarts on any level. Guys like this sniff out vulnerability, they don't start saying "hey, send over that virgin daughter of yours" until you're in so deep it feels like you won't exist without the group.
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StreetlightsPeopleStassa Edwards
3/01/15 1:37pm
I just saw a show on this case last week. They interviewed one of the girls, who was raped by Barnard from the time she was 12 until she was 21 and escaped. When she was 14, Barnard sat her parents down and was like, "So...I think I'm going to need to have sex with your daughter to purge her of her sins." (He was already having sex with her). The parents gave him permission! Apparently, the girl's mother and several of her sisters still live on the compound.

Also incredible about this case. After Barnard started raping their wives, the guys of the Fellowship went to the police. All in all, I think 5 men came forward with allegations along with 2 girls who had been victims. The DA declined to prosecute, telling the police that they needed to go interview Barnard (who was living in Washington State) and get him to explain himself. This, of course, tipped him off and he was able to escape to Brazil.
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  My dear, sweet brother Numsie!StreetlightsPeople
  3/01/15 1:51pm
  Well gee. You can hump all of our children as much as you want... But don't you dare touch my grown wife! That's where we draw the line, bucko.
  
  The parents need to be locked somewhere for a while till they get some sense into their empty heads.
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  StreetlightsPeopleMy dear, sweet brother Numsie!
  3/01/15 2:05pm
  Oh, yeah, those parents should be in jail. I don't care how brainwashed you are. You take your daughter out of school to give her to a weird cult leader, then consent to allow her to be raped, you get charged with child endangerment or solicitation of a minor or transporting a child over state lines for the purposes of pimping them out to some gross cult leader.
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MurphysMeowStassa Edwards
3/01/15 12:26pm
I first heard of Barnard months ago when he was featured on CNN and was (obviously) still at large. The CNN piece (hosted by John Walsh) featured a brave woman who was raped repeatedly by Barnard over a number of years; somehow, she had found the courage to leave the group and alert authorities. Appallingly, her parents are still in the cult, and remain part of Barnard's group of 100-150 loyal U.S. followers (per FBI statistics).

I am sooo glad they got this fucker.
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  Mr.Noir, Liberal Hippie KingMurphysMeow
  3/01/15 1:10pm
  Yeeeeah. I don't even have anything pithy to say. Fuck this guy. Fuck that cult. Let him rot in prison.
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  kareemaMurphysMeow
  3/01/15 3:55pm
  I hope her parents get ebola. I do NOT say this at the drop of a hat, but THIS. WAS. YOUR. CHILD. AND. YOU. SACRIFICED. HER. FOR. YOUR. OWN. FEEL-GOODNESS.
  
  Crap.
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benjaminalloverStassa Edwards
3/01/15 12:21pm
General rule: if the only reason someone can come up with for doing something is "because it is God's will" then what they are doing is wrong.
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  twheelsbenjaminallover
  3/01/15 12:28pm
  I like that rule, but it's really hard to debate it. Unfortunately, faith requires no logic.
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  benjaminallovertwheels
  3/01/15 12:32pm
  Debate? Nah, I just say my rule and walk away and leave them to stand there in their wrongness.
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RubySububiStassa Edwards
3/01/15 12:45pm
This is a part of the human psyche that I won't understand even if I live to be two hundred years old. What is it that convinces presumably sane people to believe the shit peddled by the likes of Barnard? Every time some asshole convinces people to follow him far from home, give him all of their possessions, and then permit the SOB to have sex with their children, it turns out that there are people in the cult who seem perfectly ordinary and reasonably intelligent.

Unless you're either in the military or a kid enjoying playground games, "Follow The Leader" has to be the stupidest con game ever invented.
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  albatross_YRubySububi
  3/01/15 1:11pm
  Life is scary, death is scary, the world is scary, the future is scary and unknown, shit doesn't make sense. Here comes someone who knows just how to talk to a certain kind of person, who says things that make all the scary things seem smaller, that makes the world seem to make sense, who is comforting and charismatic, and who tells the sweet, sweet lie that death is not really going to happen to you and your loved ones — so long as you all do just what he says.
  
  He builds on a much earlier framework for making shit make sense, one that that majority of Americans has been primed to accept since birth, piggybacking on an ingrained need to believe an follow. He reads his audience perfectly, and knows just what they want to be told. He is a predator, here to prey on a flock, but in such a way that most of his victims will count themselves blessed because of it, and hang around for more — and they will even threaten and silence members of the flock that don't like what he is doing to them.
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  RubySububialbatross_Y
  3/02/15 9:05am
  I'm an agnostic/atheist with a live-and-let-live worldview, and I think this is one of the reasons why religion per se doesn't bother me, but a belief in prophecy does. I know that the relationship between the two is complicated — most major religions have a tradition of honoring and following people who were considered prophets — but when people are willing to believe that any random weirdling who spouts a certain kind of rhetoric must have a unique direct line to a deity, everything escalates to a whole new level of freakishness.
  
  Best analogy I can think of: Following an established religion and belonging to a local congregation is kind of like watching local news on TV. It may not always be accurate, but it can be helpful to the individual and the community. Entering into a spiritual hookup with a guy like Barnard is like watching Fox News; if someone yells about it loudly enough, it must be true.
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CultureCannibalStassa Edwards
3/01/15 12:19pm
Oh, he looks like a totally well-adjusted dude who you would *absolutely* want to be left in charge of your young daughters.

Totally.
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  bob_dCultureCannibal
  3/01/15 2:14pm
  But that's his post-arrest photo. Previously, he looked like this:
  
  I mean, he was literally Jesus. How could you not trust him?
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  SamBargebob_d
  3/01/15 3:04pm
  Actually, that Jesus picture is worse. I'm going to go tell my daughter how lucky she is that we're atheists.
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DuchessCrazyLindaStassa Edwards
3/01/15 12:17pm
Paradisiacal

Wow, that AP former English major is really flexing their muscles!

Edited to add: However, this story is super heartbreaking and fucked up. I hope that guy is imprisoned for the rest of his life.
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  GoingBursarDuchessCrazyLinda
  3/01/15 1:07pm
  Came here to say both of these points.
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Newburner123456Stassa Edwards
3/01/15 3:48pm
Great Gawker article about this guy from a former cult member.

http://gawker.com/the-more-you-c...
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  skymall-reduxNewburner123456
  3/01/15 4:06pm
  
  Victor's rise to power was gradual and methodical, starting at those group picnics and continuing long-distance even before he moved to Rush City. That's the thing about cults, and about predators. There's a slow but constant grooming. You don't really realize how drastically things have changed, so it feels normal.
  
  Holy shit. I just read the article. So creepy, so predatory, so manipulative. Ugh.
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