All posts tagged "Religiouscults"

SEATTLE — When Kristi Coulter sat down to write a book about working at Amazon, she kept hearing a voice in her head. "You were terrible at your job, and you're not good at this," the voice said, which also told her that her memoir, published last month under the title "Exit Interview: The Life and Death of My Ambitious Career," would be a failure. This was the Voice of Amazon, Coulter said. "Amazon is not a place where you really get told you're doing a good job." It's a place, as she describes it, where no feedback is good feedback, "where you never feel like you're really nailing it," and w......

“American Cults: Cabals, Corruption, and Charismatic Leaders” by Jim Willis; Visible Ink Press (368 pages, $54.95) ——— What’s the difference between a cult and a church? Often, it depends on where you stand. To the believers inside, their religion provides guidance and security. To the suspicious outside, that creed often looks like a legally sanctioned way to steal. And the truth? That’s something Jim Willis tries to uncover in “American Cults: Cabals, Corruption, and Charismatic Leaders.” And he begins by pointing out that religious zealotry is as American as apple pie. “Children are taught ......

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — An Independence man sentenced Friday for breaching the Capitol on Jan. 6 blamed Trump, right-wing media and other elected officials — including Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley — for spreading the “Big Lie” that led to his actions. In a court document filed prior to the sentencing, defense attorney Ronna Holloman-Hughes said Devin Kiel Rossman was duped by Trump and others into believing that Democrats rigged the 2020 presidential election. “Before January 6, 2021, Mr. Rossman held a good faith belief the 2000 presidential election was in the process of being stolen by Joe Biden De......

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper chairs the Democratic Governors Association and has been making the rounds promoting campaigns of Democratic candidates for governor. On Wednesday, he was interviewed by Pluribus News, a national legislative news site, and talked about what’s at stake for voters this election year. He called former President Donald Trump’s Republican followers “a cult” and said the majority of the Republican Party supported “an autocracy.” “I know that we’ve been pulled apart and that we are diametrically opposed and often closed-minded about these kinds of issu......

“Tarzan: The Epic Adventures” actor Joe Lara was killed in a plane crash that left his wife and five others dead in Tennessee over the weekend. The 58-year-old was with his wife, church founder Gwen Shamblin Lara, when the plane crashed into Percy Priest Lake outside of Nashville, Rutherford County Fire & Rescue said. Joe Lara first portrayed the titular adventurer in 1989′s “Tarzan in Manhattan,” a made-for-TV movie in which the character travels from Africa to New York City. He took on the role again in the “Tarzan: The Epic Adventures” series, which aired for one season beginning in 1996 an......

PHILADELPHIA — Omar Sabir explained his decision to his wife quietly, out of earshot of their six children, who were all under the age of 12. He needed to start spending nights at a hotel. Just in case. The Nov. 3 presidential election was just days away. A year earlier, the bearded, broad-shouldered Sabir had won a campaign to serve as one of Philadelphia’s three city commissioners, an unglamorous position dedicated to the behind-the-scenes machinery of elections — voter registration drives, staffing polling stations, verifying election results. Sabir, 41, sought the job because he worried ab......