Big Revelations 3: So You’re In a Cult. Whatever!—By PJ
XU2 Candy A , watercolor manipulation based on this painting by Kelly Eddington, 2018. Based on a reference photo by Joe Ahorro.
Big Revelations 1: So You’re In A Cult. Whatever!
PJ DeGenaro
I promised myself that my Big Revelations would be short, so please bear with me. I have already deleted so many words!
Here’s something that kept me hooked for a few sessions of Netflix and No Chill:
Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey is an uneven but addictive four-episode docuseries about the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and its president, convicted sex-offender and full-time annelid impersonator Warren Jeffs.
Disavowed by the modern Mormon Church, the FLDS operates in extreme isolation. It requires its men to marry multiple women and father as many children as possible in order to maintain their status in “the priesthood.” (Pronounced in weird FLDS accent as “the priest-ut.”)
Obviously not a great situation for the women—or girls, technically, as most are married off while still minors—but this is where “keep sweet, pray and obey” comes into play. Because the women and girls who have remained in the sect still look upon Warren Jeffs as their prophet and their only direct line to heaven.
The series made me think, as I often do, about powerful men. Not powerful in the sense of a decent elected official trying to hold his constituency together against lousy odds, but an altogether different type. I’ve made an incomplete list of attributes. I’m sure they’ll make you think of someone, because guys like this are everywhere:
Charismatic, even if in a train wreck kind of way
Compulsive liar
Inveterate con artist
Attracted to extremely young people; acquires ever-younger partners
Has inner circle that knows all about the con but remains loyal
Has outer circle of true believers who won’t see they’re being conned and exploited
And while no one I admire demonstrates any of these attributes, sometimes I worry.
In 2015, I brought my friend Annie* to a U2 show. She wasn’t really a fan. She was super annoyed about having to obey the GA line nazis organizers outside Madison Square Garden. While she stood there fuming, someone cruising 8th Avenue rolled his window down and sang the “oh-OH-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh” call from “The Miracle of Joey Ramone,” and without missing a beat, every single person in line sang the “oh-oh-OH-oh-oh-oh-oh” response. Annie turned to me and said, “You people are in a cult!”
She was of course indoctrinated by the time “Streets” happened.
But I do worry. That instantaneous reaction was in a way its own kind of “pray and obey.” It just shows how susceptible we all can be to anything that makes us feel like part of a team.
Someone once asked me if I’d take a bullet for Bono, and I said no, because I had a child to raise. But that child is 21 now and has the skills to get by without me, so maybe I would? And that is a ridiculous and horrible thing to even think about.
Okay, we’re a cult.
You can watch Keep Sweet: Pray and Obey on Netflix, if you’re so inclined.
*pseudonym