James E Larue

A Day in the Life of a Cult Member, Vol. I James E Larue

This series of volumes is not a fictional story of life in a cult, nor is it the recollections of a cult member written years after his exit from the cult, now having greater insight into the methods of manipulation he was subject to. Instead, they are notes from the heat of the moment, written while I was totally immersed in the environment of the cult known as the Church of Bible Understanding (COBU), not knowing if I would ever leave it or even if I should leave it. These volumes also reflect my growing awareness of what was wrong with the cult, after having been in it for many years and accepting what I was taught, both willingly out of a sincere desire to serve God, and unwillingly, being overcome by the tactics of the leader of the cult and overpowered and held in chains by the centripetal forces of living in an isolated, hermetically-sealed communal religious society. As such, these pages record my life and the events during my last 15 months in COBU. First, there is my own story, the direct impact of the forces I was subjected to in the cult. My writings display the whole range of thinking that any cult member might have, as he moved from being a true believer to questioning the cult, until finally leaving it. A second important feature of these journals is the depiction of the everyday life and goings-on in the cult, including what the other members of the group were doing and what they said to one another. The third area covered by the journals are my observations and growing awareness of how we were manipulated and controlled by COBU's leader, Stewart Traill.