In this episode, Kacey interviews author and speaker Raylynn Van Oort about her memoir, From Shit to Sunshine, which recounts how childhood experiences with a controlling stepfather primed her for manipulation by a charismatic preacher-politician who claimed to speak for God and eventually claimed to be God.
After meeting him at McDonald’s, she became his unpaid campaign manager/executive director, was isolated from family, coerced into surrendering money and using credit cards in members’ names, and endured coercive control, public humiliation, beatings, and forced “med runs” to obtain drugs and alcohol during a period he called “atonement.”
She was ultimately arrested for writing bad checks for the group, spent 13 months jail-hopping, and found her first physical safety behind bars, though mental freedom came years later; in 2010 she named it a cult, sought specialised therapy after appearing on Dr. Phil, and spent five years in intensive recovery. She now promotes hope through speaking and book events, calls herself a “hope hooker,” and the book is available in print and audio narrated by her.
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