What If Communion Passes the Turing Test?

Some megachurch pastors are clearing more than $250,000 a year before the tax-free housing allowance kicks in. Meanwhile, the children's director makes a fraction of that, the administrative assistant barely cracks $42,000, and the intern may be working fifty hours a week for nothing while raising money for the privilege of being there. I worked in a megachurch where the pastor's salary was published and everyone could know it. So let's kill the excuse that transparency is impossible. Other churches choose secrecy, protect top salaries with insider boards and compensation studies, and preach sacrifice to everyone below them. This is the megachurch pay ladder, from the man onstage to the people paying to serve for free. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Join an unfiltered spiritual community. Not ChurchNot Church is $3/month on Patreon, with no pressure to give more, and it is free if you cannot swing the $3. It is conversation-based online gatherings, not a live-streamed Sunday service.The reports from this episodeGuidepost report on the SBC Executive Committee (full PDF)The SBC releases its previously secret list of accused abusersPennsylvania Grand Jury ReportMassachusetts AG report: Fall River, Springfield, and Worcester dioceses (September 30, 2026)IICSA religious organisations investigation report (PDF)IICSA conclusionsThe DARVO researchJennifer Freyd's DARVO explainerHarsey, Zurbriggen and Freyd (2017), DARVO and victim self-blame (PDF)Institutional Betrayal Questionnaire, Freyd labIf you need helpGRACE, Godly Response to Abuse in the Christian EnvironmentNational Sexual Assault Hotline: 1-800-656-4673Suicide and Crisis Lifeline: call or text 988 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Stella McCormick was raised in what she calls a single family cult: a homeschooled, high control evangelical household where her mother controlled what the children were allowed to feel, learn, and know. In her memoir, Deliver Us From Mother: Faith, Fear and the Family Cult That Broke Me, she names that system and tells the story of getting out.Stella talks with Jeremy about finding Steven Hassan's BITE model and checking off behavior, information, thought, and emotion control one by one, about the nightly spanking circles justified by James Dobson and To Train Up a Child, and about how the control followed her all the way to Army boot camp. Now a U.S. Army sexual assault victim advocate and Navy reservist whose doctoral research focuses on juvenile re-offending, she also talks about therapy, going no contact with her parents, and what recovery looks like on the other side.Content note: this episode discusses sexual violence and family violence. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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