Feet of Clay—Confessions of the Cult Sisters
Feet of Clay – Confessions of the Cult Sisters – What's it like to live in a Christian cult commune? How the hell do smart people get brainwashed into crazy beliefs and behaviors? Tracey & Sharon share their parallel journeys into and out of Last Days Ministries, led by Christian music super-star Keith Green (and later his wife Melody Green). Plus they interview others who also got out of high-control groups and toxic churches. Arranged marriages? Purity culture virgins? Religious trauma? Submission of women and misogyny? Child abuse? Sexual assault? Power hungry patriarchy? Heinous homophobia? Christian nationalism and politics? Yep, we touch on it all. Hear stories of escaping evangelicalism, surviving spiritual manipulation, deconstructing fundamentalism and so much more! Former cult sisters, now turned Exvangelical, tell all with humor and healing, compassion and comedy. Bi-weekly.
Feet of Clay—Confessions of the Cult Sisters
004 - Just the Facts (Last Days Ministries and Keith Green)
Want a little CONTEXT for all the CRAZY?!?!? Tracey & Sharon summarize the Who, What, Where, and When... but NOT the Why. (Yeah, right.)
Here's a quick reference list to some of the stuff:
***Last Days Ministries (LDM) - Non-profit religious organization founded by Keith Green in 1977; began in Southern California, relocated to East Texas in 1979.
***Intensive Christian Training School (ICT) - 10 week course and recruiting program on-site at LDM
***Youth With A Mission (YWAM) - Non-profit religious organization founded by Loren Cunningham in 1960
***Keith Green (1953 - 1982) - Best-selling Christian musician, preacher, author, founder of LDM; killed in private plane crash in 1982.
***Melody Green (1946 - ) - Widow of Keith Green, author of book "No Compromise." Married Andrew Seivright in 1999, later divorced. Continues to run LDM as an online ministry / business.
***Wayne & Kathleen Dillard - Leadership couple who met and married (1980) at LDM; Wayne was an elder with Keith and Martin; worked with Melody through 1991; Wayne died in 2010
***Martin & Sharon Bennett - Leadership couple who met and married (1981) at LDM; Martin was an elder with Keith and Wayne; Martin & Sharon were kicked out of LDM in early 1987 by Melody and YWAM council; divorced in 2005.
***Lindsay & Tracey Reed - Couple who met and married (1986) at LDM; became Directors of ICT; left LDM in 1987; divorced in 2006.
Link to 60 minute video "Keith Green Documentary: Your Love Broke Through"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nLRCIzNI5c&t=29s
Link to 10 minute video "LDM Information, Services & Product Promotionals" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CuPVBCpors
NOTE: Sharon's use of the term "jewfro" was repeating how Keith had referred to his own hair.
"Feet of Clay - Confessions of the Cult Sisters" is a new podcast hosted by Sharon Madere (Bennett) and Tracey Phalen (Reed), who both worked alongside Keith and Melody Green at Last Days Ministries (LDM). As one-time key leaders in the organization, they go on record about the spiritually traumatic and often damaging influences of the Greens and the multitude of materials (many of which are still available today) published through LDM, including 'The Last Days Newsletter'. Sharon and Tracey each joined LDM as teenagers, where they met and married their respective spouses during those cult-commune years. Both couples independently left LDM in 1987 and moved hundreds of miles apart. They continued in their hard-held beliefs for over ten additional years, yet ultimately divorced in the early 2000s. In this podcast Tracey and Sharon come together to talk about their parallel journeys out of the cult mindset, the long process of unpacking indoctrination and spiritual trauma, and their separate but often co-mingled road to healing and humor. Come join them on the journey!
https://www.instagram.com/feetofclay.cultsisters
https://feetofclayconfessionsofthecultsisters.buzzsprout.com
We love acronyms -- and we aren't afraid to use them! Here are some common ones that we might forget to explain:
LDM - Last Days Ministries (organization)
ICT - Intensive Christian Training School (at LDM)
YWAM - Youth With A Mission (organization)
CCM - Contemporary Christian Music
